Here is the good news, though: Once the women of News of the Week decide they don't want to be held back by being "good" anymore, things finally start to get interesting. Watching the leading trio negotiate what it means to let go of the kind of life they thought they would have, for both better and worse, drives our investment in them as viewers. By the midpoint of GGR, I found myself actively cheering, and aching, for these women, not to mention other characters around whom other narratives —softer, more devastating ones — develop.

A secretary who has four children starts drinking a toxic mixture when she becomes pregnant and knows she can't afford another kid; the women around her rally, pooling their meager dollars to help her obtain an illegal abortion. (Roe v. Wade, as a reminder, wasn't passed until 1973.) A Vietnam vet struggling to find work is losing his grip on life; a woman whose husband is away at war is on the brink of losing her apartment because she cannot resign the lease paperwork for herself. It is these sorts of stories, maybe even more so than the ones that GGR puts front and center, that really make you realize what was at stake for women, for young people, for veterans, for Black people, for minorities at the time. These detours (alongside the sexy side plots, and the mounting legal case against a magazine that won't let women write) is where GGR really finds traction. Even having finished the first season, the moments that stick out to me are the small injustices, the little awakenings.

One in particular surrounds a key character defying her father's wishes, pouring her heart out to him about her dreams and who she wants to be. She has to decide if being his good girl is worth giving up her sense of self-worth. The moments between her confession and her father's response are some of the best in the series. Suddenly, you become keenly aware of what's hanging in the balance — of what women give up when they decide they no longer care about being seen as "good." I will never forget the first time I chose to disappoint my dad in a way I knew I couldn't make up for. Watching GGR, that memory surfaced. It's still not an easy one to turn over in my mind.

But it's also not something I would take back, because it brought me to my life. Eventually, being a good girl mattered less than being an independent woman. In the end, that mattered more than anything. Good Girls Revolt is a reminder of that, too.