Female friendships are important in real life. My Life Is Murder continues to remind us of that with Alexa and Madison’s relationship.
When My Life Is Murder began, Alexa didn’t really want Madison around. Sure, Madison is a tech genius and does things that Alexa needs to help dive into the worlds of the suspects. That didn’t mean Alexa wanted Madison around her all the time.
When she moved to New Zealand from Australia, Alexa thought that she had left everyone in Australia behind. That wasn’t the case. Madison followed and needed somewhere to stay. It allowed for the full development of this friendship to happen.
Women need other women to support them
Women supporting women is essential in a patriarchal society. The problem is there are a lot of “pick me girls,” who will do whatever they can to gain a man’s approval. It doesn’t matter if the man’s approval bears no weight on anything or doesn’t serve the woman. They’re the sort of people I call “mean girls who peaked in high school.” They don’t care about who they knock down to get to what they think is the top—only to find that others will do the exact same to them.
When you have women supporting women, there’s more of a power dynamic. These women will empower others to achieve their own dreams and goals. The competition is more of a healthy one, but in most cases, the women find a way to boost each other up. This gives women more confidence to show that they really are skilled at what they do.
Alexa and Madison have that. Alexa is more skilled at being a private detective, and she is who Madison wants to be. While Alexa didn’t really want to become a mentor to someone, she ended up taking on that role. And there’s be a beautiful friendship that’s come from it. The two have each other’s backs. They both gained skills from each other.
My Life Is Murder includes the age dynamic as well
What’s also important is showing that female friendships don’t mean that the women have to be the same age. There is an age difference between Alexa and Madison. Yet, the two get along so well, and they use their age difference to their advantage.
Madison is more tech savvy than Alexa. Alexa has the wisdom to understand following the gut and clues. They need each other, and this partnership wouldn’t work if they were the same age. Age down Alexa and you lose the wisdom and life experience. Age up Madison and you lose some of the quirkiness and the ability to connect with some of the younger suspects to figure out if they’re the murderer or not.
It also leads to some fun banter between the two characters. We need this to show their playful side to see just how great their friendship has become.
It’s one of the reasons I want to see My Life Is Murder continue. I adore seeing more of Lucy Lawless on my screen, but I also want to see more of this empowering female friendship. It helps to change the real world to minimize the pick mes.