Where mean girls rule

Then of course there is Selina Meyer, the vice-president played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Veep, who has all seven Capitol vices, including sloth and a bit of gluttony.

It’s not hard to understand why so many series are based in the nation’s capital. In a post-9/11 age, it’s convenient to set tales of conspiracy and global evildoing in Senate cloakrooms and ballrooms.

But most of all, everybody hates politicians, so much so that contempt for them trumps even the most ingrained taboos about the portrayal of women on network television. Nobody expects a virtuous heroine in Congress or the White House.

Feminism hasn’t won every battle, but it did at least teach media executives to worry about charges of sexism or misogyny. On most network dramas, it is almost unthinkable to portray lead female characters as selfish, craven or incompetent, especially when they are serving the public good as detectives, firefighters and doctors. Heroines on series like NCIS: Los Angeles or The Blacklist are strikingly the same: strong, beautiful, dedicated and boring. Even shows with more complex heroines, like Alicia (Julianna Margulies), the governor’s mate-turned-lawyer in The Good Wife, don’t veer far from the norm. That’s what makes Girls so distinctive: Lena Dunham’s shallow slackers are not nice or noble.

The more glaring exception is Washington, where there is apparently nothing sexist or old school about painting women as venal, self-serving and manipulative.

Scandal is a nighttime soap, and while the plot lines have grown ever more absurd, what doesn’t get old is the bad behaviour of its lead women. Olivia is ostensibly the heroine, and she is sleeping with the president as well as his old friend and top-secret intelligence enforcer.

It’s not just elected officials who are pilloried; female government servants of all kinds are suspect. The joke of Parks and Recreation is that its heroine, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), is a public servant who is actually dedicated and idealistic.

Selina (Veep), now running for president, is told she has to explain her position on abortion, and one aide suggests she give her perspective as a woman. “No, no, no,” Selina hisses, horrified. “I can’t identify myself as a woman. People can’t know that. Men hate that, and women who hate women hate that — which I believe is most women.”

Television is so drawn to Washington villainesses in part because it is still dangerous in real life to attack female politicians. This makes it all the more tempting to create fictional versions who are as conniving in public office as their male counterparts. On television, Washington is the one place where it’s safe to say that women are as bad as the men.