HALLIE EPHRON: Sometimes, as bossy as I can be, even I feel invisible. It’s the silver lining of the combined whammy of being older and female. Yes, you survived. Congratulations. Now we’ll tune you out.
I know this because, I confess, I’ve done it myself to “older” women.
Which is why the latest trend television murder mystery series is remarkable: older characters, most of them women, are having their moment as crime solvers.
Of course Agatha Christie started it all with Miss Marple, a character with no back story, no agility with firearms (or agility period), who remains for the most part seated in the drawing room (or working in her garden, or staying in a hotel, or riding on a cruise…) for most of her narratives.
Today we’re witnessing a plethora of older female sleuths. Elizabeth (Helen Mirren will play her) in “The Thursday Murder Club.” Judith Potts (played by Samantha Bond) on “The Marlow Murder Club.” Susan Ryland (played by Lesley Manville) on “Magpie Murders.” Madeleine/Mattie (played by Kathy Bates) on “Matlock.” Elsbeth Tascioni (played by Carrie Preston) on “Elsbeth.” And of course that great old broad who’s been solving crimes for years, Vera Stanhope (played by Brenda Blethyn).
(Also recommending, working against gender stereotype: Ted Danson as elderly Charles who's recently retired and trying to figure out what to do with himself on “A Man on the Inside.” So far so good, but I've only watched Episode 1 and I'm hoping the show doesn't caricature the elderly ladies in the retirement home where he's investigating a theft.)
These old broads don’t just sit around the drawing room or the hotel lobby, ruminating and clutching their pearls. They swim naked in the river. Speak their minds. Have notable wardrobes. Are underestimated by most of the rubes around her, with the usual exception of a young female police officer still earning her stripes.
So what do you think is going on here? Is this because older ladies are the demographic who are actually WATCHING television these days. (We’re certainly the ones who actually *buy* the books that are being adapted.)
Or are older-ladies finally getting the respect they deserve?
