Good Girls Revolt is a 2016 Prime Video show based on the book 'The Good Girls Revolt' which is Based on a True Story.Set in 1969/70, times in America are a-changing – but not at News of the Week, where men are reporters and women are researchers. A group of women, led by Patti Robinson, a free spirit who wants to be a reporter, and Cindy Reston, unhappily married, who dreams of being a novelist but only has been allowed by her husband to stay at the magazine for a year before they start a family.
In the first episode, a new researcher, Nora Ephron, is hired and does things her own way, rewriting her reporter’s article and wanting credit for it, which gets her fired. This inspires Patti and Cindy, and some of the other girls, to think of new possibilities – equal pay, getting to write, getting bylines.
They eventually get a lawyer and plan to file a complaint with the EEOC, but gaining the support of a majority of their fellow researchers is difficult. Wick and Finn, the editors who struggle to work together to give the magazine a new direction, their reporters, who take them for granted, and researcher Jane, who is determined to play by the rules and get to write that way – all of them need to be carefully handled and kept in the dark in order for no one to get fired before the complaint is filed. However, Patti and Cindy won’t be kept down, even as the relationships in their lives deteriorate, they are caught in love triangles, and their campaign takes several hits along the way.
'Good Girls Revolt' contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Cindy hits the bottle pretty hard, at first when she’s stressed, by the end of the season she has a little bottle of liquor with her when she goes on travels and takes a swig when she’s happy.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Jane, Cindy, and Patti. However, while Cindy is by no means stupid, she’s not the designated smart one. Patti is definitely a Fiery Redhead, but Jane is anything but a Dumb Blonde.
- Descent into Addiction: Cindy seems to be doing is, drinking more, and more often, as the show goes on.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Sam to Jane, a low-key yearning version. She’s not very interested, and he eventually sleeps with Naomi.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Patti considers her sister’s marriage this as she’s only eighteen and wants to get married before her husband leaves for Vietnam.
- Freudian Trio: Patti is the id, pursuing her cause without thinking too much about it, Jane is the superego, who when she joins the others immediately brings up their lack of research, and Cindy is the ego who reconciles the two and tries to keep the team together.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted with Angie, who has an abortion that all the girls at the office donate towards and isn’t portrayed negatively at all. At the same time, we find out that Cindy’s also had abortions in the past.
- Happily Married: Eleanor and her husband are very cute and obviously happy together and excited to have a child.
- Housewife: Most of the researchers are expected by those around them to become this once they get married. Cindy’s husband especially wants her to stay home and raise a family, and Bea asks Jane why she’s still at News of the Week and not married yet.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Cindy grabs a glass in Ned’s office when he makes clear to her that he’s not interested in a serious relationship after she’s told her husband she’s been having an affair.
- Intoxication Ensues: At New Year’s at the Chelsea, when Patti and some of the researchers get high.
- Lady Drunk: Bea, who likes her bourbon (and her martinis).
- Marital Rape License: Patti asks Cindy whether she feels she has to have sex with Lenny. Cindy just shrugs and says he’s her husband.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: There are no women in power at the magazine, except Bea who’s the publisher, and she inherited News of the Week from her father.
- Office Romance: Common between reporters and researchers: Patti and Doug, Cindy and Ned, Sam and Naomi (well – office once night stand in that case).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Patti is never called Patricia, and her name is only seen once, in the tenth episode, on a list of signatures.
- The Power of Friendship: All the girls contribute money to help Angie pay for her abortion.
- Quick Nip: When Cindy comes back from Washington in the tenth episode, she smiles in the taxi and takes a nip from a little bottle of liquor she has in her handbag.
- Quitting to Get Married: The researchers at News of the Week are expected to do this, if not to get married, then at least when they start a family.
- Seemingly-Wholesome '50s Girl: Cindy is a Seemingly Wholesome Sixties (Later Seventies) Girl who dresses cutely, is married, shy and sweet. She’s also an alcoholic and cheating on her husband, all the while being one of the main actors in the women’s plan to file their complaint.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Jane. She’s always proper and calm outwardly, and accepts her bosses’ decisions, but she isn’t afraid to get serious when things reach a certain point.
- Sleeping with the Boss: Eleanor brings this up at a meeting, asking the researchers who’s slept with their boss, and then asking who’s slept with a man they weren’t sure was their boss or not (i.e. their reporter). There’s also something going on between Patti and Finn, though we’ve only seen them kiss.
- Technical Virgin: The girls have a discussion about virginity, with Cindy and Patti asking Jane, who’s saving herself for marriage, whether she does ‘other stuff’. Cindy states that she was a virgin when she got married, but that she 'did other stuff' before anyway.
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Cindy enjoys making clothes herself, and says the same about Bea, though it doesn’t appear to be the case when Bea actually shows up at the magazine.
- That Came Out Wrong: Gabe tells Denise (the only prominent black researcher) that he’s gathered that she’s ‘a chocolate person’. He quickly amends it to “or that you – like – chocolates…”
- Unkempt Beauty: In contrast with the other women on the show whose hair is usually either done up, curled or bobbed, Patti wears her long hair down.
- Vapor Wear: Patti goes noticeably braless quite often, specifically under her red jumper in the very first episode.
- Virgin in a White Dress: Jane wants to be this. When she’s drunk with Patti, she shouts that she won’t get married in a white dress – letting Patti know that she slept with her neighbour. Cindy also mentions that she was a virgin when she got married.
- Watch It Stoned: Patti watches the news stoned to feel a part of it (her boss asks her why being at News of the Week doesn’t make her feel part of the news). She also suggests this to him regarding music and even gives him a joint to try out. Towards the end of the first season, Gregory and Jane discuss paintings at an exhibition and he wonders whether he’d enjoy them more if he were on LSD.
- Wham Line: “I, uh, I never had any problems after.” Cindy's had abortions in the past. All throughout the first season there have been more and more hints that she doesn't want / feel ready for a child, but this radically alters the perception of her character, showing how proactive and goal-oriented she really is and has been for a while.
