Our appetite for the anti-hero has always been an abiding feature of the cultural landscape. Think of Tony Soprano. Walter White. Even Joaquin Phoenix’s The Joker. All characters that we root for, despite the fact that their behaviour is often morally dubious at best, and downright sociopathic at worst.
The unlikable female character onscreen, meanwhile, is still viewed with an aura of revelation. The trend of finally allowing women to join the boys club of bad behaviour has led to the modern canon of “anti-heroines”, from Killing Eve’s Villanelle, to Promising Young Woman’s Cassie to Russian Doll’s Nadia to Fleabag.
