The Literate Kitty

Whether police procedurals are strictly your “thing”, you need to check out Scott & Bailey (on Amazon), if seeing women depicted as smart, flawed, and entirely human, is . The British show centers around two detectives working on a Manchester police division’s murder squad: middle-aged Detective Constable Janet Scott (Lesley Sharp, in a splendid performance) and her younger partner, Detective Constable Rachel Bailey (the absolutely-spot-on Suranne Jones)—who, when the show begins, have been partners for about a year. Over the course of five seasons (33 episodes, in all), Janet and Rachel (along with the rest of the squad) solve a lot of cases… but just as importantly, we get to watch the ups and downs in their friendship, other relationships, family lives, and their careers. To say that Rachel is the “crazy” one (into casual sex, messed-up family, aptitude for flying off the handle) and Janet the “proper” one (married for a quarter-century, cautious, in the habit of th