Spoiler Warning: Apple TV's Roar

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s groundbreaking tragicomedy, Fleabag, raises a pertinent point at one juncture. At a feminist lecture, the Fleabag (played by Waller Bridge’s character) remarks to her sister Claire (Sian Clifford) how they are bad feminists for wanting the so-called perfect bodies in exchange for five years of their lives. There is no right way to be a feminist. And being a woman does not really come with a guidebook on how to be one in the perfect way. This sentiment echoes throughout the anthology series Roar, currently streaming on Apple TV+.

Created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, the duo who also created the terribly underrated (and cancelled too soon by Netflix) Glow, Roar is based on the 2018 short story collection of the same name by Cecelia Ahern (of PS I Love You fame). Even though, like any anthology, the episodes vary in terms of quality, Roar is nevertheless an important entry into the pop culture feminist oeuvre. From homicidal incels in basements to emotionally abusive ducks, Roar relies on the absurd to talk about what it means to be a woman in a world where we still have to fight for our basic rights.

How Roar Deals With the Daily Horrors of Living as a Woman

Alison Brie in Roar
Apple TV+

In many ways, the fable-like stories of Roar can be viewed as a feminist spin on Black Mirror and Twilight Zone. The only exception is that the dystopian horror elements of Roar do not exist in some far-off future, but in the modern-day world, and that is what makes most of these stories so compelling. "The Woman Who Was Kept on a Shelf" and "The Woman Who Solved Her Own Murder" are the top contenders for the most clever storytelling in the series.

Issa Rae’s Wanda refuses to be complicit in her own erasure by the end of "The Woman Who Disappeared" (directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples). But her story also gives us a glimpse into the joys of getting to celebrate your successes in a world that forever has us filled with self-doubt or chasing the next high. As Wanda dances a little jig by the pool or walks back inside the party celebrating her work, she reclaims her power and happiness. She claims a stake in a world where she can easily let powerful white men sidetrack her.

Cynthia Erivo’s Ambia fights a triple battle in "The Woman Who Found Bite Marks on Her Skin" (directed by Rashida Jones). She is a Black woman and a new mother, trying to maintain her top spot in corporate America. As the toll of motherhood and womanhood starts taking literal bites out of Ambia’s very personhood, it is a sisterhood to lean on that finally comes to her rescue. When we see Ambia bleeding profusely at the operating table, complaining, only to be dismissed till her husband speaks up on her behalf, the story subtly takes a knock at the medical system that often falters in giving credibility to Black women’s pain.

roar woman who woke up with bite marks
Apple TV+

"The Woman Who Was Kept on a Shelf" (directed by So Yong Kim) perhaps has the most intricate visuals and storytelling. Betty Gilpin’s Amelia is raised by a mother who has internalised misogyny to such an extent that her repeated mantra to her daughter becomes a reinforcement of physical beauty over intellectual capability in a woman. As Amelia waltzes into the life of a man of considerable affluence (Harry, played by Daniel Dae Kim), she thinks life would be a fairytale romance. Instead, taking “trophy wife/girlfriend” to brand-new heights, he puts her on a shelf to display her to all and sundry, to gawk at her whenever he pleases.

Over time, as Amelia loses her sheen as the shiny new toy, Harry loses interest. He strips her of all agency on top of dolling out generous amounts of emotional neglect and financial abuse. But Amelia learns to walk out eventually. She breaks the shelf built by Harry and instead builds her own, which, in an odd way, becomes a metaphor for taking the oppressor’s tools and rebuilding a whole new mantle.

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"The Woman Who Solved Her Own Murder" (directed by Anya Adams) stars Alison Brie, Hugh Dancy, Christopher Lowell, Ego Nwodim, and Jillian Bell in a rather poignant parody of shows like True Detective. Brie plays Rebecca Moss, a murder victim who gets stuck on Earth as a ghost and solves her own murder, as the two male detectives follow every sexist trope in the book and do a horribly bang-up job.

"The Woman Who Was Fed By a Duck" (directed by Liz Flahive) has a rather cheesy and mawkish start which soon becomes the most twisted story of the lot. Starring Merritt Wever and Justin Kirk, "The Woman Who Was Fed By a Duck" is not meant to be funny despite the amusing title of the episode. The duck is merely a metaphor for virtue signaling. Faux woke men who will turn to abuse in a matter of seconds when they realise they cannot control you the way they want.

Where the Series Falls Short

roar atv meera stal
Apple TV+

Despite having Nicole Kidman and an intriguing premise, "The Woman Who Ate Photographs" (directed by Kim Gehrig) does not deliver. This is the tale of a woman who is on the verge of losing her mother and clings to her memories of youth by devouring photographs and reliving them. But there is no more depth to this story. Similarly, "The Woman Who Returned Her Husband” (directed by Quyen Tran), starring the iconic Meera Syal of The Kumars at No. 42, takes a rather heavy-handed approach to its core topic.

However, ‘The Girl Who Loved Horses’ (also directed by So Yong Kim) starring Alfred Molina, Kara Hayward, and Fivel Stewart is the definite odd one out in this series. The name may be a pun on the horse girl meme, but there is nothing funny, absurd, or even dark and twisty about this one. A colourblind cast in a Western setup may be the only thing innovative about "The Girl Who Loved Horses."

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Despite the hits and misses, a possible second season might actually deliver better and have the scope for more inclusive stories (especially involving more LGBTQ characters) of what it means to be a woman in the modern world.