Remember when TV-show protagonists were likable do-gooders? It makes you wonder why television executives took so long to understand that people enjoy watching characters wear a grey hat. We've had morally conflicted characters since the advent of the printing press.
Even though audiences have begun to gravitate to anti-heroes, they're still taking time to accept the complexities of their female equivalent. Take the wives of famous television anti-heroes, for example. Most Breaking Bad fans hate Skyler despite the character being infinitely less reprehensible than her husband, Heisenberg. Audiences' aversion towards morally complex women in television reflects deep-seated sexism that we, as a culture, are hopefully evolving out of. In the video linked above, the YouTube channel The Take gives their perspective of how influential and vital the wives of television anti-heroes are to the medium.
