Great Shows With Desirable Black Women

This is a followup to my previous posts, Great TV shows starring Black women and List of shows starring Black women. There are a lot of great shows out there and there are some new ones starting next year so I'm excited!

1) I have to of course start with Scandal again, my favorite guilty pleasure every Thursday...mmm Scandal...That show gives me the vapors! Each episode doesn't always have a romantic scene between Olivia Pope and the President but when it happens...well you will hear numerous OMGs from me and I will either be holding my mouth shut or clutching my chest. The show is THE BEST THING EVER for me. The amazing thing is that now Kerry Washington is 'the Black Actress of the moment' on television and she is a feminine and elegant Bl
ack woman! She is on all the magazine covers and people are looking at her and desiring her. When she poses for photos she is a lady and always wearing feminine clothing. I am so happy for her and happy for Shonda Rhimes for creating this amazing show!

2) People who love Science Fiction should really give Eureka a try! The show has wrapped after five seasons but it was really enjoyable, funny, and cute. Sally Richardson Whitfield is the lead female on the show and she is GORGEOUS! She was pursued by three different men on the show and these men wanted to marry her. She also had some nice wardrobe pieces. Also, in the last two seasons there was another Black female character played by Tembi Locke. Including male actors and children there were 5, yes 5 Black characters on the show towards the end!

3) Suits is such a great lawyer show! I just love the dialogue and the office politics. The reason I started watching the show was to see EBW Gina Torres shine! She is drop dead gorgeous, in charge, and well dressed on the show. Unfortunately she hasn't had any romantic relationships on the show really so I hope this is remedied. However Meghan Markle is also on the show and she is the love interest! So this show actually has 1.5 Black women :) This show will show you how to wear a pencil skirt.

4) Franklin and Bash is a funny and entertaining show with lots of eye candy! Incredibly again this show has 2 Black actresses! EBW Garcelle Beauvais stars as a lawyer and Dana Davis works as Franklin and Bash's private investigator. I need to see the women in more romantic scenes though please!

5) Castle is a great detective drama that actually has 2 Black actresses! They are not the leads but they are part of the cast. Penny Johnson stars as the police chief and she is hard as nails like every police chief on television. You will remember her is as the evil President's wife on 24. Also Tamala Jones stars as the medical examiner and she does have a romantic pairing for a while. She is very cute :)

6) I just got into watching Revenge after seeing images of it on Tumblr. Well Ashley Madekwe is a member of the cast and she is an attractive and desirable woman. The first season was CRAZY and I loved it! This season is a bit more soap opera-ish but still great. I LOVE all the amazing dresses everyone wears on the show! They are all highly feminine women. Also, for all those people who love to bash the adultery in Scandal...Madeline Stowe is the lead villian and she is also an adulterer as is almost everyone else.

7) I really like the show Nikita! I really liked the original show that aired in the 90s too. This version is different but just as exciting and filled with sexy spies. In the first season Tiffany Hines is a pretty mean girl unfortunately but she's there. In the second season Lyndie Greenwood is a very feminine computer expert who is romantically linked to Birkhoff, the original computer expert (who fantasizes about her). She has an adorable wardrobe ;)

8) At first I didn't like Warehouse 13 but it grew on me. This is a science fiction sort of show where the agents have to collect items that have special powers. Genelle Williams is a member of the cast but she doesn't do much...but she's there with awesome natural hair lol. Also CCH Pounder has a recurring role so the show employs 2 Black actresses!

9) Fringe is another great science fiction show that I believe is in it's last season. Jasika Nicole stars as adorable Astrid also with amazing hair I love to watch! I didn't like this show at first either because it seemed so technical and I had to pay such close attention to understand what was happening. But after a while I got used to the dialogue and got into the story. It's the kind of show, like Lost (same creators), where you really have to see every episode and pay attention to everything so you can understand what's happening. Unfortunately there were no romantic relationships for Astrid :(

10) The Secret Circle was a great show about teenaged witches starring adorable Jessica Parker Kennedy. I enjoyed it but it was cancelled after one season. I hear she is on a show called Teen Wolf with another Black actress, Bianca Lawson.

11) I am hesitant to mention The Vampire Diaries because I HATE THIS SHOW but I guess other people like it. I just watched it for the good looking guys but it stars Kat Graham as a witch. She did have a romantic paring but she doesn't get enough of it to satisfy me. I hate how she keeps getting hurt helping her selfish and dangerous vampire friends.

So that is A LOT of shows staring Black women. I don't play the 'she's biracial, too light, or she's not Black enough game' so comments about that will probably be deleted. After doing this post it's pretty amazing to see that there are shows that actually employ two Black actresses usually without any Black males in the cast to pair with them. So it's like when they cast for a minority role they are giving them to the women on these shows. Plus, on almost all of the shows where the Black woman has a romantic interest that relationship is interracial. Maybe this is because they filled their 'quota' for minority roles on the show. Or maybe it is because they are no longer trying to make sure Black people are only paired with other Black people so they just pair up their cast members regardless of race. I actually think that is progress because they are allowing Black actresses to play roles that don't focus on race that a woman of any race could play. I also notice that none of these shows actually focus on race at all which is amazing (and maybe why they don't care about interracial relationships). A lot of these shows are the ones you would see on the Sci Fi Channel so if you are not into these types of shows then you are missing out on all of these great actresses.

Embed from Getty Images

Shonda Rhimes is really making things happen!

List of Shows Starring Black Women

As a follow-up from my last post below is a list of television shows that have a Black actress as one of the main characters. This is based on shows I have watched, some current shows, and some starring actresses I am familiar with so it won't be a complete list. I won't include some shows I think are awful representations of Black women (e.g., Martin). For me it's great if the actress is the main character but it's not that important to me as long as she is a main character. I guess I'm satisfied even if the story isn't focused around her. I'm also satisfied if the rest of the cast is non-Black... I guess because of living in Canada I am so accustomed there being very few Black people in my classes or at work that it doesn't seem strange to me or like something is missing :) But if you insist on only watching shows made by Black people, starring Black women of a certain skin tone, who meet criteria a, b, c, and d then you are severely limiting the list, your opportunities to enjoy this entertainment, and maybe making yourself miserable for no reason.

Due to the fabulous nature of the internet you can probably watch all of these shows if you want! Many young people actually get most of their entertainment from the internet and I rarely watch my actual television. So now when I turn on the TV and there are no Black women at a given time it doesn't even phase me. If there is a past show starring a Black woman then you can probably watch it and enjoy it (just like reading old books instead of recent ones) and there are many people who enjoy classic television. There are also probably many shows that have been cancelled after maybe one or two seasons or unpopular shows that you can watch if you missed them the first time. So if you need to see Black women on television right now then I suggest turning to the internet, not relying only on current shows, and watching any one of these shows especially since the older shows may actually have better role models (e.g., Claire Huxtable).

Think about your current needs rather than the career difficulties of Black actresses and how bad you feel for them (because finding work is a problem in many fields for many Black women, it is not your problem to solve, and you probably have no intention to devote time to solving their problem anyway so why bother getting worked up about it). Plus don't forget about the international shows! I'm not sure how to get a hold of shows from the Caribbean or Africa but if they're good then they are fair game too.  I suppose I'm making myself happy using the resources available to me and it has really been effective :) This doesn't even include the numerous movies, including international films that you can watch instead of shows!

I mean this is a long list of shows and it will take A LOT of time to watch them. Maybe we shouldn't be spending so much time watching television anyway? What about reading something? If you are letting your health go down the drain, not getting an education, wasting your time with dysfunctional relationships, living from check to check, then the colour of someone on TV is the least of your concerns! Turn it off sometimes and focus on what is really important for a person's well-being. Many people I know are so busy that they barely even watch TV so they wouldn't even be affected by the lack of diversity. If you watch too much television because you are depressed because your life is horrible, again it is not the TV that is making your life horrible and there are other thinks that you must focus on. Here's the list:

Comedies
Current:
Castle (Penny Johnson, Tamala Jones)
Community
Glee
The Game (not endorsing the most recent seasons)

Past:
Cosby Show
Cosby
A Different World
Head of the Class (Robin Givens and another actress)
In Living Color
Living Single
Girlfriends
Everybody Hates Chris
Sister Sister
227
Clueless
Boy Meets World
Half and Half
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Saved by the Bell
Moesha
The Parkers
Reno 911 (Niecy Nash)
Rock
Hanging with Mr. Cooper (Holly Robinson Pete and Dawn Robinson)
Ugly Betty (Vanessa Williams)
Breaker High (Persia White)
Steve Harvey Show (Wendy Raquel Robinson)
Student Bodies
The Parent Hood
Family Matters

 Fantasy/Science Fiction
Current:
Vampire Diaries (Katerina Graham)*
Eureka (Sally Richardson)*
Warehouse 13
Merlin*
Being Human*
True Blood (Rutina Wesley and others)*
Fringe

Past:
Battlestar Galactica*
Flash Forward (Gabrielle Union)*
Star Trek*
Dead Like Me (Jasmine Guy)
The 4400 (Megalyn Echikunwoke, GREAT SHOW)*
Misfits*
Firefly (Gina Torres)*
*=Interracial relationships...I noticed this and found it really interesting.


Dramas
Current:
Rookie Blue (see previous post)
Scandal (Kerry Washington)
Suits (Gina Torres)
Grey's Anatomy (see previous post)
Private Practice (Audra McDonald)
Law and Order SVU (Michelle Hurd early on and later Tamara Tunie)
Law and Order UK
Person of Interest (Taraji P. Henson)
Hawthorne (Jada Pinkett-Smith)
Parenthood (Joy Bryant)
Gossip Girl (Tika Sumpter...haven't seen the show so I don't know how often she is on)
Southland (Regina King)
Touch (Gugu Mbatha-Raw)
CSI Miami (Khandi Alexander)
Degrassi
Boss (Saana Lathan)

Past:
Missing (Gloria Ruben and later Vivica Fox)
Raising The Bar (Gloria Ruben)
ER (Michael Michelle, Gloria Ruben, CCH Pounder, Angela Bassett and others as different points)
Undercovers
Soul Food
Ally McBeal (Lisa Nicole Carlson)
Boston Public
I'll Fly Away
Law and Order (S. Epatha Merkeron)
Models Inc. (Michael Michelle)
Desperate Housewives (Vanessa Williams)
#1 Ladies Detective Agency (Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose)
Nip Tuck (Sanaa Lathan but not sure how long she was on it or how big the role)
Baywatch (Tracy Bigham)
Without a Trace (Marianne Jean-Baptiste)
Cold Case (Tracie Thoms)
Degrassi Junior High
Felicity (Tangi Miller)
The Deep End (Nicole Ari Parker)
24 (Penny Johnson)

P.S. It wasn't that difficult to make this list and besides The Game it doesn't even include BET shows (because I haven't had it for years). I just thought of shows that I have watched in the past, commercials I remembered, or that shows I've heard of. I also Googled "list of Black actresses" to remind myself of shows. I actually knew the names and recognized most of the actresses on the lists but this is because I paid attention to their names on shows, noticed their names when mentioned in the media, and I used to read Black celebrity gossip blogs and magazines. But non-Black people may not be doing this which is why we should not feel disappointed if they can't name many Black actresses or when they don't appear on "Most beautiful women" lists created by the votes of mostly non-Black men.

Don't assume their lack of knowledge or that list means ALL men find EVERY SINGLE Black woman to be unattractive! Instead I attribute most of it to the fact that these celebrities are not as popular due to the mainstream media and their lack of roles. Please do not confuse popularity with attractiveness! When looking at Most Beautiful lists like Maxim's I can think of so many more attractive women who could be on the list, but since they are not popular right now, they did not come to the voters' minds. To further this example, I could name maybe 3 singers/bands that people under 18 listen to because I don't watch the music channel for that demographic or listen to their stations but that doesn't mean there are no good bands for young people...I just don't know of them. I couldn't name more than 10 athletes either and I wouldn't know their teams because I don't pay attention to sports but that doesn't mean there are no athletes right? Please stop looking for evidence that you are "less than" because that is of absolutely no use to you!