Fall 2010 TV | Moxie Women Taking Charge of Messed-up World

Was the American flop of S&TC2 a sign of a new womanly mindset? The WSJ writes ‘no shopping sprees’ will distract us in the CW network debut “Nikita” about a rogue assassin, played by Maggie Q.

In the coming weeks NBC will premiere “Chase” about U.S. Marshal Annie Frost and “Undercovers” about a husband-and-wife spy team. In July USA introduced “Covert Affairs” about a 28-year-old CIA trainee who speaks six languages.

Fashion Tale Magazine captured the essence of this new attitude in its June 2009 editorial Little Girl Blue, starring Sophie Vlaming photographed by Carl Bengtsson and styled by Ursula Wangander. Photos via Fashionising.com

We’re not clear if American women have evolved recently, or the networks are just doing their homework in tough times. There’s no doubt that younger women who grew up with video games, and also those women who always loved Angelina Jolie and Madonna want TV alternatives to “Gossip Girls”. The audience for “Desperate Housewives” fell from almost 24 milliion in 2004 to 12.5 milliion in May, 2010.

Network execs say that today’s women express a different view of female role models, preferring toned, athletic women to waifs in evening gowns; absinthe to Cosmos, and a disenchantment with whimpy men.

Jane Buckingham, president of Trendera, the market research and trend forecasting firm, says that women feel they must take charge of a messed-up world.

Here’s to the alpha girls. We’ll be watching — to see if they actually align themselves with National Rifle Association values or turn gun-toting guys into bad specimens of civic DNA. Anne