A Love Letter to Shrill
I’ve been a huge fan of Shrill since it first aired in 2019. When I first watched it I was immediately overjoyed and inspired by all the funny women that made up the cast: Aidy Bryant as Annie, Lolly Adefope as Fran, Patti Harrison as Ruthie, and Jo Firestone as Maureen. It felt so nice to have another show where the women drove the narrative forward, (i.e. Broad City and Insecure). Not only did the women of Shrill get to tell their stories from their points of view, but they were allowed to be as goofy and horny as they wanted to be. Two traits that for a long time only men were allowed to possess on screen (see Man-Child trope).
These women were allowed to be sexy on their own terms, be full-out goofs, and disagree with each other without tearing each other down. Even though the show is about women (and some pea-brained people will try to pigeonhole it as a “girly show”), anyone could watch it and laugh. It's just a genuinely funny, thoughtful, relatable, and well-written show. Shrill is a series by women about women, for everyone. So here's to another show where women are portrayed as multidimensional people (gasp!). As a culture we’re still catching up to the plethora of male-driven shows with three-dimensional characters that have existed for years… but let’s not go there. Let’s instead raise a glass to Shrill, what a ride it’s been.
In honor of the final season of Shrill, I thought I’d take a look back at some of my favorite episodes and character arcs.
“WAHAM”
Let’s start with “WAHAM” from season 2 or “Women are having a moment.” Aside from Vanessa Bayer’s brilliant performance as a money-hungry “Lady Boss” doing the most to exploit corporate feminism for her own personal gain, everything about this episode is pure gold. This was really the first time I’d ever seen a TV show dive into how “empowerment” and “self-care” are packaged to women and the twisted way women’s insecurities are preyed on by big companies. The episode was written by Sudi Green (SNL writer who just recently made her exit) and directed by Natasha Lyonne. This episode managed to strike a nerve and make me laugh at the same time, in large part because of the hypocrisy of big companies and “boss bitches” making us feel insecure about our bodies, our hair, our skin, etc, just to make a quick buck but claiming it’s all “in the name of feminism” is laughable.
At the same time, it’s something every woman knows about but kind of shrugs off because, what are we gonna do about it? And if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all fallen victim to it more than once and we want to be excited about being feminists. Aidy and Sudi managed to pinpoint the itch to stand up to corporate feminism but feeling a bit helpless to stand up to women like Vanessa Bayer’s character. Justine Kylie, who’s “The youngest female CEO of a Fortune 500 Company,” through Annie’s experience at WAHAM.
Annie’s super excited to go to the WAHAM convention at the top of the episode, so much so that she says she “can’t stop burping.” When she meets Justine she’s starstruck. But once Annie asks Justine about the expensive ticket prices and how low-income women are supposed to be able to attend, Justine gives a very corporate answer about there being sponsorships for those women and then is quickly ushered away as her assistant hands off a bag of dried apricots. When Annie asks to meet with one of the low-income women Justine’s assistant says, “Oh it’s such a shame, she couldn’t make it because she couldn’t get off work,” and he zips away.
From Hulu’s Shrill.
There’s a lot more behind the hot-pink, probably imported, velvet, hot pink curtain than meets the eye at conventions like this that claim to “help women”. In this simple exchange, Sudi and Aidy say everything that needs to be said about how two-dimensional this take on feminism is.
Aidy sat down with Vulture back in February of 2020 to talk about this commercialized, phony version of feminism and how an article on the Goop festival by Lindy West (author of the book Shrill, which the show is based on) sparked the idea for the episode.
“Lindy wrote a fantastic article about Goop and that, in some ways, was where we started. But Goop is not the only one. Everywhere you turn, this is such a thing. I think for a lot of young women, you feel very conflicted about it and it feels like a very surface-level approach to women’s issues. Wear pink! Be loud! Go off, queen! That’s not reality, you know?”
However, Annie also encounters a woman who’s attended WAHAM religiously and credits the convention for some of her closest friendships and support for her stationery business. Between these two sides of WAHAM, she ends up writing an article Gabe berates her for being boring but then comes to a more nuanced conclusion. While WAHAM is pretty exploitative on a surface level and this whole notion of women screaming in pink that they’re powerful can be harmful, it is genuinely empowering to the women who’ve never really gotten to express their identity as powerful women before.
The way Shrill approached this topic in a way that wasn’t black and white pointed out an issue that plagues feminism to this day, that feminists are only one thing or the other, which Sudi, Aidy, and Lindy show first-hand that there’s a lot more to feminists than pink pussy hats.
The Leading Ladies
Patti Harrison and Jo Firestone have some of the funniest lines in the show. Sometimes the supporting cast gets pushed aside and aren’t really defined characters, but from the start, you know exactly who Ruthie and Maureen are. Even if they’re barely in an episode, they dominate whatever scenes they’re in.
Ruthie’s charmingly terrifying demeanor, sinister yet hilarious quips, and over-reactions to the smallest, Seinfeldian things, never fail to make me laugh. She truly asserts herself in any given situation.
Like this line from “Article” (season 1) when Ruthie opens a scene by yelling at Andy :
From Hulu’s Shrill.
Annie’s just walked into The Thorn and Ruthie is already threatening someone. She’s scary and I worship her for it. Ruthie has an amazing talent for twisting even the most wholesome things into something either overtly sexual or Hereditary levels of creepy. She’s sort of like if April Ludgate and Kelly Kapoor had a baby. But I think this line from Annie perfectly sums up Ruthie’s character: “Wow you can really take anything nice and make it truly vile.” To which Ruthie replies cheerfully, “Thank you!”
Maureen on the other hand is constantly sharing depressing anecdotes to her co-workers at The Thorn, who she also desperately wants to be friends with (Annie in particular). She once changed her avatar to a picture of Bradley Cooper in American Sniper so her trolls would stop bullying her for being a female gamer. *Female gamers, take notes. I know it’s a joke, but I think it could actually work.*
From Hulu’s Shrill.
So she’s been through some pretty sad and weird stuff in her life and the more you learn about her, you just want to give her a hug.
In all seriousness, there is so much power in both Jo Firestone and Patti Harrison getting to be as sexual, sad, and terrifying as they want to be. These are the type of characters men have always been allowed to play and women are finally just now getting to.
***Warning! If you haven’t seen the last season, scroll over this next paragraph or otherwise, you’re about to board a train full speed ahead to Spoiler Town, Population= You****
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If there’s one episode where the women of Shrill really shine it’s “Retreat,” which just might be one of my favorite episodes of television. Period.
Firstly because I loved getting to see these women hang out on a “horny girls night.” Secondly, because we get to see Ruthie and Maureen out on the town with Fran and Annie, which we haven’t really gotten in past episodes.
Ruthie, Annie, and Maureen all start talking about their relationships. Maureen explains Reggie (from distro, played by Connor O’ Malley, a.k.a. Aidy’s real-life husband) proposed to her, but she turned him down because he’s her O.D.D. Otherwise known as On-Demand Dick. Maureen then comes to the conclusion that having crushes is a lot more fun than having a boyfriend, which is basically the entire premise for this episode.
From Hulu’s Shrill.
Like other shows with female protagonists (the aforementioned Broad City and Insecure) boyfriends don’t really help them progress as characters, in fact, a lot of the time boyfriends hold them back, i.e. Annie’s ex- Ryan. It’s the women in their lives that see them through all of their trials and tribulations.
In so many movies and TV shows, the male protagonists NEED the right girl in their lives to set them on the straight and narrow, but these women don’t need anybody but themselves. Which is exactly the sentiment Ruthie has when she suggests they go out later to celebrate being, “hot, single, and bitches.”
Despite the fact that the only guys at the bar are “wearing hats from the wars they fought in” and that this spot came highly recommended from Maureen’s grandma, they do their best to flaunt their hotness, helping Annie take a hot pic to send to her crush, Nick. When Nick texts back, all of them help Annie compose a flirty text (including the two random boys). As Annie leaves to meet up with him, they all lovingly chant “sex whore.”
From Hulu’s Shrill.
This scene was everything to me because the two boys were just kind of there. Their only role was to support the women. Their willingness to go along with what was happening and reinforce Maureen, Fran, and Ruthie’s suggestions of what Annie should text not only makes for great comedy but elevates the jokes the women are making. Like Ruthie’s idea to send in all caps, “Help help help, my pussy has not been smashed today.” The way the boys laugh at Maureen’s tater teeth, agree with all of Fran’s suggestions and cheer on Annie when she gets a text from Nick, funneling tater tots (her way to cure her drunkenness) made me so happy.
These are the scenes we’ve been missing out on all those times the male characters tell the jokes and we let the women sit there as the girlfriends, sisters, moms, or side chicks. Everything hilarious about this episode was said or done by one of the female characters. The men were just there to move the plot along.
It’s been Shrill’s thing to give the women of the show the funniest lines from the very start, but that’s never been more clear than in this episode. Even in the final scene where we find out Maureen took home one of the tater tot boys and we see him lying in bed, ass up. He’s super still and she’s scared that it finally happened-- “pussy so good he died,” until he starts moving and she screams until the credits roll.
Another thing we see a lot with male protagonists, is them sleeping around with some hot woman with no defining character traits other than being sexy to signal his charm or in some cases, his immaturity. But either way, it’s meant to make him look “cool.”
It’s so refreshing to see this trope play out in reverse, but in my opinion, a way more authentic version of it. The men the women of Shrill hook up with aren’t completely stripped of their personalities and they’re not objectified either, they’re just kind of there for the moment. Whether Annie or Maureen or Ruthie hook up with some guy or not they’re still going to be themselves.
Fran and Annie’s Friendship
I loved everything about how we got to see Fran and Annie uplift each other even when they didn’t see eye to eye. They never said or did anything to the other with ill intentions. They just genuinely wanted the best for the other person, and it reminded me so much of my relationships with my best friends.
Getting to see this representation of female friendship just felt like a warm hug. It’s not that often we see female friends transition from college life to real world adult stuff like moving in with your significant other or the way serious romantic relationships affect friendships on screen. To paint such a genuine and healthy relationship between two women is so important for young women who see themselves and their support system of women through them. The evolution of their friendship, in my opinion, has always been the heart of the show.
In a lot of ways, Annie and Fran’s characters align with the “Woman Child trope,” given that they are endlessly eager to chase their dreams above all else and tend to value their friendship over their romantic relationships. Their bond is so strong and for the longest time they have been each other’s number one person, but towards the end of the series we see how that just isn’t realistic anymore. In the second to last episode of the series, “Beach,” Annie and Fran are forced to confront their newfound adulthood and what that means for their friendship.
***Warning! We’re now approaching another stop at Spoiler Station***
In the episode, “Beach,” we finally get to see the origins of their friendship as suitemates in the same college dorm, while simultaneously seeing them bond over their first romantic experiences. I thought this was such a smart and profound way of connecting their evolution of who they are as grown women in serious relationships.
As an aside, if you’ve seen the episode (which I’m guessing you have if you’re reading this, otherwise oopsie, guess you’re hanging out in Spoiler Town now) I’d like to address how much Annie’s friend Lauren sucks. And on behalf of all Lauren’s I would like to say that we don’t all suck that bad, I promise!
But Lauren’s shittiness became just another thing for Fran and Annie to bond over, so I guess in a way, we should all be thankful for the “Lauren’s” we’ve experienced in our lives because they only bring us closer to the people who also recognize their sucky-ness.
As the episode progresses we see Annie have sex for the first time just to “get it over with”, with a theater stagehand named George, and Fran owning her sexuality when she kisses Dia, which is also the first time she’s kissed a woman. Meanwhile, in the present-day Em asks Fran to move in together and Annie acknowledges that her relationship with Will is her first healthy relationship. We see Annie and Fran talk about feeling grown-up at the start of the episode in the present day and at the end Fran breaks the news to Annie that Em and her are moving in together. This acts as a bookend to the period in their lives where Fran and Annie are each other’s number one person.
They’re both openly supportive of each other’s relationships because they’ve both grown as individuals. While Annie feels a little unsettled and sad about Fran moving out at first, she warms up to the idea and is excited for her, because she too is in a happy healthy committed relationship. This mutual acceptance of each other’s significant others isn’t something we see a lot with the Woman Child trope, because entering into a steady romantic relationship oftentimes isn’t really the goal. But in the case of Shrill, both Annie and Fran’s relationships with their S.O.’s mark a new chapter in their individual self-acceptance.
What I loved about the way writers of Shrill wrote Annie and Fran’s romantic lives was the way each of their partners at the time reflected where they were at in their personal journey of self-acceptance. Despite who they were with, Fran and Annie were each other’s constant, but now that they’ve found someone to accept them, they need to make space for that person. Like Fran says in the final episode, “Move”:
“Maybe if we want to let them in, it’s you and me who have to change” - Fran to Annie
They talk about how they’ve always been each other’s first calls and how scary that changing is to them. They even pop champagne and call their friendship, “The greatest love story of all time.”
From Hulu’s Shrill.
*Excuse me while my eyes water*
This was the first time I’d ever really seen two best friends realize that while they once were each other’s number one person, they need to let their significant other fill that spot. It doesn’t mean their friendship is over, it’s just evolved. This scene and the last two episodes of Shrill were really impactful to me, because they managed to tap into a really subtle yet integral shift in young women’s lives and what it means to maintain friendships in adulthood.
Without realizing it, growing up we value our female friendships so much that they become one of the most important relationships we have, as we they should be, but it can be difficult to navigate letting your significant other in, in the same way you’ve let your best friends in. Because after all, whoever your partner is, ends up becoming your best friend ++. In other words, your best friend is an iPhone 7, your partner is an iPhone 7S, (there ya go, a metaphor for all you crazy Apple fanatics out there).
So thank you Shrill for being a beautiful showcase of what it looks like when you give funny women the space to be funny and portray women for who they actually are: just human beings like everyone else, who’da thunk. Thank you for the laughs and for letting us watch Annie and Fran’s friendship evolve. I’m so grateful to have shows like Shrill because they portray what it’s like to be a young woman: feeling insecure constantly whether it’s about your career, your body, your romantic life, or both at the same time, and embracing the way friendships change as you grow up. As a young woman, I have no clue what I’m doing. It’s comforting and empowering to see women with who I can identify embrace the awkwardness, shittiness, and beauty of dealing with everything as it comes.
