* This article contains spoilers.
If you spent the entire weekend binge-watching Shrill season 2, then you’re not alone. The show is based on Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, the book by Lindy West, and it feels like a warm hug and an ice-water wake-up call all in one – with the first season not getting the attention it deserved (imo), season 2 is having a Fleabag-esque revival.
Annie Easton (Aidy Bryant), left Season 1 running away from her troll whom she confronted IRL, with him yelling “you better run, you fat b*tch!” as she fled. Season 2 opens in the vein it’s set to continue, with Annie releasing a primal scream at Ryan’s house (her now-boyfriend): “I’m a f*cking bitch, and I LOVE IT!”. Where season 1 was all about Annie finding her voice, and demanding better from the people around her, season 2 is about embracing this new voice, and learning to understand the messiness of life. Shrill is challenging how we portray fatness with the newest series: Annie is so used to rejection because of her size, that she accepts her mum tracking what she eats, Ryan making her sneak through the back door because he’s embarrassed to be with her, and her boss ignoring her. At the end of season 1, she’s learning that her weight doesn’t make her unworthy of love or respect, and by the end of season 2, she’s dumped Ryan, got recognition from her boss’s boss, and reconnected with her mother.
But, it’s not Annie who steals the show – it’s Ruthie and Fran. Ruthie, played by Patti Harrison, is hilariously malevolent – she works as the office PA, and made me choke with laughter. From declaring that “scaring people makes me horny,” to telling Ryan he should “you should stay down here and die” – she’s a healthy reminder that the way we stereotype trans women isn’t okay. The actor, Patti Harrison is trans in real life, but we only find out that Ruthie is in season 2 – because, being trans, is the least exciting thing about Ruthie (in the same way Annie’s fatness is part of her identity, but not the entirety of it). There’s a scene in season 2 where Ruthie tells (her coworker) Amadi off when he assumes that, because she’s trans, she has a bad relationship with her family – this conversation helps shed light on trauma-porn. Society shouldn’t need to feel empathy or sorry for trans women, in order for them to be valid – yes they deserve our allyship and understanding of specific traumas cis people can’t relate to, but they also deserve to been seen with a more multifaceted view.
Harrison told Vanity Fair that “ this character is not an asshole because they’re trans – they’re just an asshole that happened to be trans. It’s not because her family abandoned her. It’s really, like, she loves money, and her family’s boring.”
Fran, played by British comic and actor Lolly Adefope, makes us warm to Annie (as her character is often jarring and self-centreed). This season, Lolly gets her heartbroken, and decides to spend some time dating herself – there’s an iconic karaoke moment, where she sings ‘Shallow’ after just devouring a burrito, which will make you fall even harder for Fran. This is what makes us love Shrill so much – it portrays women in a real, smart, funny and vulnerable way – Fran, isn’t typecast as the typical quirky BBF – she’s a complex and developed character. Any of the women in this show could be the lead and focus, which is what makes it so great. We’re all the leading women of our lives.
