In the words of perpetual queen Leslie Knope–“it’s only the best day of the year!” And we are here to celebrate it with some of our favorite female friendships on screen right now. Women supporting women is everything we love and stand by. It’s everything we want to see in any film or TV show we’re watching. It’s everything we want to read about it. Women leaning on each other, women caring about each other, and women fighting for each other is something that always deserves to be celebrated, and something we’ll scream about yearly. Grab your drink of choice then reach out to your best girls and scream about your favorite fictional friendships with them. It’s time well spent, we promise.
Flynn and Julie Molina
Julie and the Phantoms
At its core, Julie and The Phantoms is a series about friendships. It’s a series about loss and grief, and it’s a series finding the people who’ll know you better than you know yourself. Flynn and Julie know each other so well, there is no one without the other. There are often a lot of female friendships on TV that could cater to younger audiences, but nothing has been like what we’ve seen with Julie and Flynn because no two characters have had to experience what they do. Losing a parent is hard, and having to watch your best friend lose a parent and not know what to do about it is also something that we don’t talk about. How do you comfort that person? How do you stand beside them and help them through the darkness they’re facing. You listen. It’s that simple; the steadfast loyalty between Julie and Flynn—the understanding that the other will always be there speaks so much louder than anything else. There’s a reason Flynn has poems written about her because no one has stood by Julie’s side the way Flynn has, and no one has believed in Julie the way Flynn always will. To watch these two go through life together, be there for one another and support one another has been one of the main reasons why the series is so special. And to know that this is just the beginning is a gift on its own.
Eloise Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington
Bridgerton
Bridgerton may be based on deliciously perfect romance novels, but the friendships and platonic relationships bring to the surface something just as beautiful and heartwarming. And at the top of the list are the two best girls who could not be more different if they tried except where their loyalty is concerned. Eloise Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington are each other’s home. In the first season, we get a small glimpse into their friendship followed by a pretty big argument, but what that tells us is that more than anything, they will always find their way back. They will defend each other, love each other, and care for each other through everything. They will bicker and they will embrace their differences, but they will always guard the other’s heart above their own. There is no one (yet) who loves Penelope as much as Eloise does—someone who see as her as so much more than she lets on and someone who will be by her side to the end of time. They both have sisters, but what they have with each other cannot be compared. They are sisters at heart and each other’s anchors in trying times. For even when they argue, even when they have fought, they know that when they need the other, they always have someone to run home to.
Keeley Jones and Rebecca Welton
Ted Lasso
So much of the relationships on Ted Lasso work so well because they’re with people who may not be the likeliest of companions. But it’s also a show where the women are so unbelievably good to each other, it’s the perfect example of how friendships should be. Rebecca and Keeley both have ample room for growth (Rebecca especially), but from the very first moment they meet, there’s a transparency between the women that’s severely lacking on screen. They care so fervently about the other’s happiness it’s gorgeous to say the least. They understand that there is so much more to both women than others see, and they want the best for each other—really and truly without any ulterior motives. They’d be there for each other to ensure that they will achieve whatever it is that they need to and as two people often surrounded by men, they are each other’s strengths in more than one way. They’ll call each other when need be, and so much of Keeley doing this worked perfectly for Rebecca’s character because no one could have made the kind of influence that she could. This is a friendship where the women put each other first, and a friendship where the loyalty is bound to continuously be part of the reason they continue growing and thriving.
Amy Santiago and Rosa Diaz
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Amy and Rosa could not be more different from one another if they tried. And they didn’t always get off on the right foot, but what the women have found in each other is someone who cares fiercely for the other. They have found someone in whom they know, without a doubt, there is no real judgement around. They have found someone who’d be there through the darkest of times and the best, and someone who’d always believe in them—someone who’d always support. They’re the unlikeliest of friends but perhaps that’s why it works so well because there’s a balance in this friendship that we don’t often see with women on TV and especially in procedurals. There’s always something missing, but with Rosa and Amy, they’d do the very things that presumably disturbs them the most (such as helping deliver a baby) just because that’s how much the other means to them.
Claudia, Dawn, Kristy, Mary-Anne, and Stacey
The Baby-Sitters Club
I loved The Baby-Sitters Club series growing up and I loved the movies, but this new reboot might even be better than the originals and I say that with the utmost gratitude and love for just how much this show has already accomplished in its first season. Claudia, Dawn, Kristy, Mary-Anne, and Stacey are messy, they’re imperfect, and they’re all so very different. And that’s part of what makes their friendship so gorgeous because when they come together, there is nothing but growth. Even when they are arguing, even when they don’t agree with one another, and even while there are issues they don’t understand and can’t handle on their own, their loyalty to one another is unmatched. There are dreams and goals they each want to reach and the others are there to remind of the fact that they can, they should, and they’re deserving. They’re even there to remind each other when they’re being unfair or out of line and that’s not something we see often in shows like this without some ridiculous examples of cattiness.
Clare, Erin, Michelle, Orla
Derry Girls
Derry Girls might have been delayed this season because of the pandemic, but we couldn’t not include them in this list as their friendship is one of the best things on TV right now. This is once again a completely unlikely group that works so well. There’s a loyalty between them that’s not found in others, and there’s an appreciation for the other and every little detail of their personality that isn’t found anywhere else. (Even when at times, they could not for the life of them possibly understand how the other’s brain functions the way that it does. This includes James of course–he’s an honorary Derry girl after all.) And they’re perfectly ridiculous in all the right ways making us all want to be Derry Girls, too.
Lady Danbury and Violet Bridgerton
Bridgerton
This is the one friendship we are so fortunate the series is paying closer attention to because there’s just something perfectly glorious about the meddling mamas. Lady Danbury and Violet Bridgerton are so different from each other, but there’s a level of respect between them that no two people in the ton carry. There’s a sense of loyalty between the two where they know, that no two people will ever be more honest with one another or deserving of their respect. It’s almost indescribable how perfectly right this friendship is. They could not be more suited to be in-laws at this point, and they could not be more suited to be the closest person the other has outside of family. Neither of them really has anyone else close in age they could connect to in the way they could with each other, and we would give anything to get more of this friendship.
Monica Rambeau and Wanda Maximoff
WandaVision
There isn’t a friendship here in the same way as all the others in this category, but we are hoping that if we put it in the universe, it’ll make its way canonically onto our screens. WandaVision is a complicated little delight and Wanda Maximoff is a complex woman with a lot of layers. And the way Monica consistently defended her through S.W.O.R.D. interrogations and the fervency in which she believes Wanda wanted to keep her safe, that she isn’t a villain is the very type of thing we always search for in our fictional friendships. Do women believe in each other? Do they defend each other? Do they uplift each other? It’s the way in which they easily hit it off and the way in which Monica, as Geraldine was there for her through her labor. They may have been under Wanda’s spell in a lot of ways and this universe she has created, but there’s something deep under the layers that could be so beautiful to explore. These two, we need more, and we’re hoping it’ll be given to us soon.
Maddie Townsend, Dana Sue Sullivan, and Helen Decatur
Sweet Magnolias
Referring to themselves as “Sweet Magnolias”, this trio consists of life-long friends that live the small-town life in Serenity, North Carolina. While all three women face their own individual drama and struggles, the foundation of the series is their ability to lean on each other due to their strong friendship. Throughout the series, all three women try to balance their lives–they juggle kids, their careers, and romance, but never alone. They’re never too busy to support one another, if it’s pursuing one’s dreams or helping a friend after a health scare. Maddie Townsend, Dana Sue Sullivan, and Helen Decatur are all in different directions in life–there’s plenty of family drama, restaurant drama, and legal drama, but when these three get together for margarita night, you’ll be wishing you’re there with them, drink in hand, as they hang out and talk as good old friends would do.
Who are some of your favorite female friendships that didn’t make it onto this list? Is there something with excellent lady friendships we’re sleeping on? Let us know in the comments below!