More women are behaving badly on TV, and they're not all 'Real Housewives'
Prime-time television drama queens are playing as bad and as dirty as the men do. The latest additions to the wicked women's club are Teresa on USA's Queen of the South and Smurf on TNT's Animal Kingdom. Paste BN rates some of television's current ice queens.
Teresa Mendoza (Alice Braga), Queen of the South, USA (Thursdays, 10 ET/PT)
Teresa makes her way to Texas from the streets of Mexico, where she was a low-level salesperson for a drug dealer. She falls in love with the godson of a cartel leader; her new life is dangerous and her drug-running boyfriend prepares her in case he is killed. He sets up a safe house, puts aside some money with a valuable notebook and teaches her how to handle a gun, to her delight.
Brazen behavior: Viewers have yet to see how bad Teresa can be because so far, she's only trying to save herself. She's walked away from a car crash, leaving behind a seriously injured cartel leader; swallowed balloons filled with drugs under threat of death; and shot a man as he sexually assaulted her.
Scary godmother scale: 2 out of four
Janine "Smurf" Cody (Ellen Barkin), Animal Kingdom, TNT (Tuesdays, 9 ET/PT)
The matriarch of a drug-dealing Southern California family, Smurf kicked her addict daughter out of the house years ago (she later died of an overdose) and took in her teen grandson. Smurf doesn't like it when the boys pursue secret side jobs, and tells them that if they cross her, she will cut them off from the family, and the family business.
Brazen behavior: She tricks her sons with a text alert that she's been arrested, so they take all their money to a safe house for further instructions. She shows up and collects the cash they've been hiding. Nobody lies to Mama Smurf.
Scary godmother scale: 2 out of four
Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson), Empire, Fox (returning Sept. 21)
This is one tough Cookie, fresh out of prison. Remember the scene in an early episode where she attacks her son, Hakeem, with a broom? As for her rise to power at Empire Records, nobody could have orchestrated that better than Cookie.
Brazen behavior: Cookie shows up at a family dinner wearing barely-there lingerie under a lavish fur coat thinking that she and ex-husband Lucious might be getting back together. But she shows him and everyone at the table, including her grown sons, what Lucious is passing up as she walks out the door.
Scary godmother scale: 1.5 out of four
Claire Underwood (Robin Wright), House of Cards, Netflix
Claire Underwood, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and wife of President Francis Underwood, is an ice queen's role model. She'll throw her husband under the bus if he fails to take her seriously. In Season 4, she leaked a damaging photo of Frank's father posing with a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Brazen behavior: Just before the photo scandal, Claire returns to Texas to ask her mother (Ellen Burstyn) for millions in cash to add to her campaign coffers. When her request is denied, Claire threatens to sell her mother's home to get it. "You wouldn't dare," her mother says. "But I will," the First Lady responds.
Scary godmother scale: 2.5 out of four
Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), Game of Thrones, HBO
In the June 26 sixth-season finale, Cersei became a full-on heartless villain, killing a few hundred people and taking the Iron Throne for herself.
Brazen behavior: Cersei was on trial for various crimes at the end of the season, but everyone who showed up for her trial was doomed. As she blew them up with candles and wildfire, she watched, drinking wine and smiling.
Scary godmother scale: 4 out of four