Pop Culture Roundup, Special Edition: Female TV Crimefighters of the Day, First 15!

by Karen A. Romanko

A few months back I created a Facebook group called Mystery TV--British and American Series. I occasionally select a “Female TV Crimefighter of the Day” from my books Television's Female Spies and Crimefighters (McFarland,  2016) or Women of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television (McFarland, 2019), posting excerpts about the character to the group. Here’s the first roundup of the characters, and, in true PCR fashion, they span the decades from Agent 99 and Cathy Gale in the 60s through Joan Watson and Agent Carter in the new millennium. These ladies are feisty and impatient, so let’s not keep them waiting!

July 14: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Adela Bradley of The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (1998–2000, 5 episodes, UK). Diana Rigg portrays Adela Bradley, an amateur sleuth in the Miss Marple mold, if Miss Marple wore stunning Jazz Age couture and had a hunky chauffeur (Neil Dudgeon) as a confidant. Available on Amazon BritBox and DVD.

July 15: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Teresa Lisbon of The Mentalist (2008-2015, 151 episodes, USA). Robin Tunney stars as Teresa Lisbon, a California Bureau of Investigation lead agent, who must supervise a trouble-making former con man named Patrick Jane (Simon Baker). Agent Lisbon isn’t much of a girly girl—when she tries on a pink bridesmaid’s gown in “Strawberries and Cream: Part 1” (2011), she is so agitated by the experience that Jane says she looks like “an angry little princess.” (My kind of woman!) Available on DVD, Amazon Prime with subscription, and others.

July 16: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Sue Thomas of Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye (2002–2005, 56 episodes, Canada/USA). Based on a true story, this inspiring series stars Deanne Bray as title character Sue Thomas, a deaf woman whose lip-reading ability lands her on an FBI surveillance team. Levi (Jesse), a hearing ear dog, is indispensable to Sue, alerting her when there is something she needs to hear. Also stars pre-Murdoch Yannick Bisson. Available for free on Tubi and others by subscription.

July 19: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Cinnamon Carter of Mission: Impossible (1966–1973, 171 episodes, USA). Barbara Bain portrays Cinnamon Carter, an elite operative with the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). Cinnamon, a former top model, is adept at role-playing, posing as a psychic, photographer, or lost princess, to help the team with its elaborate deceptions, which thwart assassinations or bring down governments. Available on Paramount+, others for a fee.

July 20: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Jane Marple of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (1984-1992, 12 episodes, UK/USA). Joan Hickson stars as Jane Marple, an octogenarian who enjoys knitting and gardening. Sounds harmless enough, but Marple’s cool-blue eyes take in EVERYTHING, and she not only hears, but listens, allowing her to combine observation with intellect to solve mysteries where the authorities can’t. Available on Amazon Britbox and DVD.

July 22: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Jane Tennison of Prime Suspect (1991-2006, 15 episodes, UK/USA). Helen Mirren stars as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, a woman placed in charge of her first major murder investigation, much to the consternation of her all-male squad. This dark, but groundbreaking series won multiple awards over its lifetime, including a Peabody Award and an Emmy for Mirren. Available on Hulu, BritBox, and Acorn (according to the Reelgood app).

July 24: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Jaime Sommers of The Bionic Woman (1976-1978, 58 episodes, USA). Lindsay Wagner stars as Jaime Sommers, a former tennis star who suffers critical injuries during a skydiving accident and is saved by the addition of some computerized body parts. Jaime becomes a schoolteacher by day, but moonlights as an operative for the Office of Scientific Investigations, using her exceptional abilities, such as massive strength and lightning speed, for the cause of good around the world. Available for free on the NBC app (according to Reelgood).

July 30: Female TV crimefighter of the day! Agent 99 of Get Smart (1965–1970). Barbara Feldon portrays Agent 99, a stylish operative for CONTROL, who makes her bumbling partner, Maxwell Smart (Don Adams), look good, not only with her willowy beauty, but also with her competence and “smarts.” “Nine,” as I like to call her, is also the cover model for my book Television’s Female Spies and Crimefighters (McFarland, 2016), and I couldn’t have asked for a better character to represent the subject. I also love her mod looks, and even owned a medallion like the one she is wearing on the cover. Here’s to you, 99!

July 31: Female TV crimefighter of the day! Allison DuBois of Medium (2005-2011, 130 episodes, USA). Patricia Arquette stars as Allison DuBois, a clairvoyant who uses her psychic gifts to help the Phoenix District Attorney’s Office prosecute cases and solve murders. Arquette’s Allison is tenacious and strong, yet vulnerable and sympathetic, demonstrating that seeing dead people is a tough way to make a living. Available on Hulu and Paramount+ via subscription, others for a fee.

August 9: Female TV crimefighter of the day! Joan Watson of Elementary (2012–2019, 154 episodes, USA). Lucy Liu stars as Dr. Joan Watson, initially a “sober companion” for Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), but eventually his crime-solving partner and friend. Watson is every bit the famous detective’s match in intellect and analytical skills in this reimagining of Conan Doyle‘s classic characters. Available on Hulu and Paramount+, others for a fee.

September 20: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Jane Rizzoli of Rizzoli & Isles (2010-2016, 105 episodes, USA). Angie Harmon stars as Jane Rizzoli, a beautiful, but tough homicide detective for the Boston Police Department. Although “beautiful, but tough” is a female detective cliché, Harmon breathes real life into Jane Rizzoli, who never falls into caricature. Rizzoli works with Dr. Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander), the Commonwealth’s Chief Medical Examiner, and the women have a friendship of opposites, with Jane’s wisecracking impatience played, often comically, against Maura’s pedantic sincerity. But their complementary worldviews are needed to close cases, and they do, for seven seasons, against the backdrop of beautifully filmed Boston (my hometown). Streaming on HBO Max, others for a fee. Also on Lifetime.

September 23: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Peggy Carter of Agent Carter (2015–2016, 18 episodes, USA). Hayley Atwell portrays Peggy Carter, an agent with the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) in 1946. She returns after World War II to an office full of men who underestimate her investigative abilities and treat her like an unqualified assistant. It’s the men, however, who are out of their depth, since under their noses Peggy is on a clandestine crusade to clear the name of Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), a Howard Hughes–esque inventor and weapons-maker accused of treason. While Agent Carter’s television stay was short, the series is unforgettable both for its beautiful 40s aesthetic and its skill at portraying strong, smart women without forgetting the limitations they faced during the pre-feminist era. Streaming on Disney+, others for a fee.

October 1: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Cathy Gale of The Avengers (1961-1969, 161 episodes, UK). Dr. Gale, an anthropologist, finds herself in the unlikely role of amateur operative when she assists secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) on a case in “Mr. Teddy Bear” (1962). As portrayed by Honor Blackman, Cathy is smart, independent, assertive, and adept at hand-to-hand combat, whether attired in street clothes or her signature black leather suit and boots. Gale blazes a trail that other female spies and detectives will soon follow, including her successor on The Avengers, Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), and American P. I. Honey West (Anne Francis).

October 10: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Dee Dee McCall of Hunter (1984–1991, 153 episodes, USA). Sgt. Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer), a homicide detective, works with partner Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) to rid Los Angeles of its worst riffraff. Nicknamed the “brass cupcake,” beautiful Dee Dee is one tough cookie (brass cupcake, some kind of hard-to-bite baked good), unafraid to tackle a perp by jumping off the hood of a car and unflinching when a hulking good ol’ boy harasses her. This series is on the broad side, with an inordinate number of chases which end with the launch of a flaming car into the sky, but Kramer has moments of real feeling as a cop whose husband was on the job and killed in the line of duty. Available on Tubi, Peacock, and others.

October 19: Female TV Crimefighter of the Day! Precious Ramotswe of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (2008-2009, 7 episodes, UK/USA). Jill Scott stars as Precious Ramotswe, who opens Botswana’s only female-owned detective agency after selling off her inherited cows. Precious proceeds to hire crackerjack secretary Grace Makutsi (Anika Noni Rose) as her assistant, and together they sip red-bush tea while empowering their female clients through the solution of cases big and small. Streaming on HBO Max. Some episodes or parts thereof available for free on YouTube.

Please share your comments below or connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by subscribing to this blog via Subscribe.

Last, but not least, please check out my books about women and television from McFarland Publishers, available in trade paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon:

Television's Female Spies and Crimefighters and Women of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
 On sale now!