Banshee ended a truly special four year run tonight, and the TV world’s a bit less exciting without another season of this twisted, violent, sentimental, brutal, romantic, tragic, hilarious, vicious, thoughtful masterpiece to look forward to. I could have thrown another fifty adjectives into that sentence and still been right. Banshee was all those things, even in the face of contradiction. Especially in the face of contradiction. It was the greatest mindless action show on television. It was the most subtle, thoughtful, character driven meditation on television. It was The Ballad of Sheriff Punch. It was Identity. It was whatever it wanted to be, and it was excellent.

And now it’s over. I wrote about it two weeks ago, meant to write about it more since, and will doubtless write more about it in the weeks to come. There’s much to say not only about the show as a whole, the final season, and the beautifully damaged and bizarre citizenry of that strange little town, but for tonight I’m just going to ride the emotional buzz of saying goodbye, and spit out bullet points about the finale as they come to me.

It’s no secret that film noir is my favorite genre, and it’s similarly no secret that it’s an extremely male dominated one. Part of that is a function of the times- it was cooler to be sexist in the 40s and 50s when most noir came out*- but mostly it’s got more to do with the fact that most writers in the genre are male, and most writers write what they know (being male). There are exceptions to both those points, though not enough to either.

If you’ve read my last few books, it’s pretty obvious that I think noir works just fine- if not better- with female protagonists. So, lacking a better idea for a deeper/more inspired article today, I did what all internet hacks do when they’re out of ideas: I made a list of some of the great noir leading ladies who do exist. Enjoy.