Female Showrunners and Characters in Fiction Series in the North American Television Industry: Sharp Objects (Marti Noxon, HBO: 2018) and Killing Eve (Phoebe Waller-Bridge, BBC America: 2018- )

This article studies the role of the female showrunner and the female characters in North American TV industry. To do so, qualitative methodology has been used to conduct a bibliographic review on the history of feminism in television media. Then, this research focuses on two projects: Sharp Objects (2018), miniseries developed by Marti Noxon and distributed by HBO; and Killing Eve (2018- ), TV fiction developed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and broadcasted on BBC America. These audiovisual products are analysed to better understand their production context, their characteristics, and their interpretation and criticism. The findings obtained show a male tradition which dominates the television media, both the production process and the content of the TV series. However, nowadays we can see tendency to increase the female showrunners, which promotes the inclusion of complex and realistic female characters in TV series, responding to the demands of feminist movements in the contemporary era.