19 of TV's Most Inspirational Female Friendships

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend follows Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) as she moves to the other side of the country to be closer to her ex-boyfriend, but the first season is much more about her relationship with her newfound friend, Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin), than their shared preoccupation with Rebecca's love life. The friendship is even more remarkable because of the age difference between the two women, a dynamic that the show expertly teases out, culminating with a fight over Rebecca's fears of disappointing Paula and Paula's fears of Rebecca not needing her anymore. When the two women finally make up, it is spot on: both gush their apologies, rush to take the blame, and then start complimenting each other. If that's not an accurate portrayal of modern womanhood, I don't know what is.

I could espouse the merits of Broad City all the livelong day. The singularity of its brilliance mainly comes from the chemistry between the show's two female leads, Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) and Ilana (Ilana Glazer). As they galavant around New York City and find hilarity in the random struggles of being a twenty-something, we see ourselves and our friends in them. It aired its final season this year, but Broad City remained familiar, relatable, and above all, honest, until the very end.

Marvel's Jessica Jones takes a dark, supernatural premise and turns it into a triumph of female strength and love. Both Jessica (Krysten Ritter) and her adopted-sister-slash-BFF Trish (Rachael Taylor) have suffered abuse and estrangement, but over the course of the show's three seasons, they increasingly allow themselves to rely on one another and end up fighting side-by-side to the bitter end. They are strong and they are dysfunctional, but mainly they're two great friends who understand each other better than anyone else in their universe does. Oh, and when they do resort to talking about boys, it's mostly about how to kill them.

One of the more refreshing narratives of female friendships is found in ABC's series The Bold Type. The show follows the lives of three friends — Sutton (Meghann Fahy), Kat (Aisha Dee), and Jane (Katie Stevens) — as they navigate their ways through all the ups and downs of being career-driven women dealing with real-life issues. They openly discuss an array of topics, including occupation, love, race, sexuality, and activism. This one passes the Bechdel test with flying colors.

Orange Is the New Black has been busting through stereotypes from the moment it first premiered in 2013. One surefire way to prioritize female representation on your show is to set it in a women's prison, and God knows these women have bigger concerns than boy problems. The sheer variety of female relationships on this show is eye-opening, but the interactions themselves are a testament to the complexity of women's bonds. Whether they are confiding their hopes in each other over laundry or stabbing each other in the back (both literally and figuratively), the inmates at Litchfield represent both the intense loyalty and the malevolence that women are capable of. And beyond that, they show just how necessary and how special the ties between women can be.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt defies generational and class divides with its three main female characters: Kimmy (Ellie Kemper), Lillian (Carol Kane), and Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski). Kimmy may be a 16-year-old at heart, but that doesn't stop her from coming to the constant aid of socialite Jacqueline. And Lillian might've dated Robert Durst, but she is still able to sit Kimmy down and give her some much-needed dating and life advice. None of them have their lives together and they all face radically different problems, but they share enough universalities and enough genuine affection that we don't question why they seek each other out (unlike some shows . . . ahem, Girls).

These ladies do not get nearly enough love. Aside from Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) being one of the greatest characters to have graced our screens each week, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is responsible for some serious under-the-radar gender subversion. Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) is as emotionally closed off and fond of violence as any male action hero, and the women are as (if not more) confident than the men when it comes to pursuing positions of authority. In fact, the male characters have a stronger tendency to talk about their romantic lives, while the women bond by breaking things and getting drunk together. They have each other's backs, and they do it while fighting crime rather than gossiping over brunch. Gina is largely absent from the series now, and we miss her more than ever.

Yes, Jane (Gina Rodriguez) and Xiomara (Andrea Navedo) are mother and daughter, but that hardly confines the sort of intimacy that they share. Xo is only 16 when she has Jane, and most of the time, Jane is the more responsible of the two. Communication, wisdom, and advice are a two-way street with them, and they have no problem calling each other out on their bullshIt — which, honestly, is one of the best things a friend can do for you. The three Villanueva women (including Alba, played by Ivonne Coll) are the heart of this compelling comedy, but they take turns being its moral center . . . not unlike most good friend groups in real life.

Game of Thrones gets a lot of criticism for how it treats women, but the world of the show is pretty brutal for everyone involved. Women are at least allowed to be as murderous and ambitious as the men, and some truly stand out as exemplary characters for their loyalty and commitment to each other in such a vicious world. Brienne of Tarth is at the very top of that list, and her undying allegiance to her friend Lady Catelyn Stark felt like one of the only glimmers of hope in an otherwise bleak sixth season. When Brienne finally unites with Sansa and the two pledge their loyalty to each other, it felt like a victory for women everywhere. Or at least, everywhere in the Seven Kingdoms. The fact they were allowed to keep that bond until the series finale is just perfection.

In season one, the relationship between two of the main female characters, Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and Tahani (Jameela Jamil), starts off a bit rocky. It seems as though the show is going to fall into the stale trope of having women be condescending and passive aggressive toward each other and end up fighting over a man. But when tempers flare between the two as they argue over who should be the recipient of their shared love interest's affection, Eleanor puts a stop to it, saying they're not going to be "those women who fight over a guy and find any excuse to rip each other apart." Preach.

A few seasons later, Eleanor and Tahani are great friends who often ask each other for advice and encourage each other. Not to mention, they're intelligent, strong-willed women who know how to assert themselves and be the ones to save the day. I'm tempted to include Janet (D'Arcy Carden) in the mix, but the whole "I'm not a woman, I'm a source of information" thing makes that a little tricky. But just for the record, Janet is also a powerful butt-kicking character who has Eleanor and Tahani's backs.

OK yes, the iconic friendship of Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge originally seemed like more of a rivalry for the affection of Archie Andrews, but devoted Archie fans will tell you that there's a lot more to the duo than their mutual attraction to a certain redhead once led us all to believe. Now in Riverdale, we see the ladies at their full potential; young, genuinely caring for each other, and willing to face all sorts of drama to keep that friendship solid. There may be hood-wearing villains, small-town politics, and boys who try to trip them up, but they're not going to let that ruin a friendship that's been around for more than 70 years.

If you look up ride-or-die in the dictionary, there must be a photo of Shameless duo Veronica and Fiona. The two have a level of commitment to one another that married couples wish they could achieve. Through the chaos that always seems to the follow one or the other, the two have a friendship that is more akin to sisterhood. Whether it's Fiona's penchant for dating trash men or Veronica's copious motherhood woes, the two are always there to support one another. Sometimes that means just being a shoulder to cry on and other times that means supplying stolen hospital drugs. It's all in the name of friendship.

Insecure's introduction of the black female experience on the TV scene was sorely needed on multiple levels. One of the highlights of the HBO series is its depiction of friendship between black women. Issa, Molly, Kelli and Tiffany are four very distinct women who each have different relationships with one another. Though they're longtime friends, their lives are all on different paths and that plays into how they interact with one another. Their interactions are so authentic and relatable — from Kelli teasing Issa for being too broke to move out on her own, to Molly and Issa lamenting their trash love lives. The love between them all is obvious, even when they're at each others' throats, and that sisterhood is the foundation of the series. After all, how would we deal with seeing Molly or Issa make another painfully terrible mistake if we didn't know that at least one thing they had going for them was each other?

Fox's STAR has a lot going on at one time. There's singing, dancing, murder, betrayal, social activism, etc. But at the heart of the drama is the story of three young women and their shared hunger to make something of themselves. Star, Alexandra, and Simone are brought together by desperation but they stay together because of their bond. The trio fight like cats and dogs and sometimes it's hard to see how they fit together. But their shared dream keeps them coming back time and time again. None of them quite understand each other or what they've each been through, but they've grown to legitimately care for one another. At the end of the day, their differences are what makes them work as well as they do and it'll be what helps propel them to the top as a trio.

Grace and Frankie has given us the funniest pair of women to be friends in a long time. Grace and Frankie are wild, wise, and everything we should want to be at any age. The beginning of their friendship was unorthodox, but the bond they formed from it is unreal. Most people have difficulty imagining making friends after college, let alone during their 'twilight years,' but Grace and Frankie prove that when it's the right person, friendship has no deadline. You can meet your fated partner-in-crime well into your 70s.

There are many reasons why Netflix's GLOW is a treasure trove for female representation. It's a show about a group of women becoming amateur wrestlers during the 80s by the same creative genius that helms Orange Is the New Black, so there's no doubt its a treat. With a genuinely diverse cast, GLOW gives us complex relationships between women who would generally not interact with one another at all. Women from all walks of life who have committed to this singular job for different reasons. The bonds they form with one another are varied in their intensity but fascinating to watch. Whether it's best friends being torn apart by betrayal or the former soap opera actress bonding with the working single mother, GLOW shows how quickly strangers can become a family under the right circumstances.

The best part about the friendship between Angela, Katie, and Doris is that anyone can relate to it. The trio of mothers from American Housewife are funny, unapologetic, and hilariously realistic. Whether they're lamenting about the PTA, their significant others, or how terrible their kids are, we all know mothers who would love a friend or two to share that with. Angela, Katie, and Doris are each others' sanctuary from motherhood, and though that may sound wrong, everyone needs a break every now and then. The three understand one another and are ready to provide support in any way possible, even if it means dating the most hated woman in the neighborhood to get access to her event space.

We all know that Grey's Anatomy gave us the female friendship to last all female friendships. Christina Yang and Meredith Grey are so iconic that they turned 'person' into the highest level of friendship. But they weren't the only friendship that Grey's turned us onto. Though the series has definitely taken us through some insane times, one thing that remains the foundation of the show is the strength of the relationships that form between each character. Old school Grey's watchers will never forget how ferociously Christina fought for Izzie's life after they learned she had cancer, or how closely Callie and Addison bonded over both having slept with Mark. Callie and Christina were possibly the best roommates ever, even moreso than Meredith, Maggie, and Amelia later became. When Arizona locked herself away from the world with her leg prosthetic, Bailey was the only person who could get her back into the hospital and on her feet again. Honestly, if it weren't for the amazing relationships we get to see on Grey's, no one would be able to believe anyone would keep working there.

Netflix's latest series is like The Breakfast Club for shoplifters, but the premise ends up going far deeper than that thanks to its phenomenal three leads: Elodie (Brianna Hildebrand), Moe (Kiana Madeira), and Tabitha (Quintessa Swindell). Though they all come from vastly different backgrounds and would otherwise never cross paths, the three form a common bond over their shared criminal activity, resulting in a deep, heartfelt friendship.