TV girl gangs: Big Little Lies, Sex and the City, and more

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Let's hear it for the girls

TV-squads — Jennifer Clasen/HBO; NBCU Photo Bank; Paul Schiraldi/Netflix

Whether soulmate-hunting or demon-slaying, from L.A. to New York to prison to paradise, the small screen has given us some of the coolest lady cliques in entertainment history. Here are 20 we’d like to hang with.

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Big Little Lies’ Monterey Five

Big-Little-Lies2 — Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz in 'Big Little Lies'. Jennifer Clasen/HBO

Whether jogging beachside in solidarity, exchanging passive-aggressive digs over the phone from the neutral-toned comfort of their California-cool mansions, or committing actual murder in full Audrey Hepburn cosplay, this quintet is the big little best.

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The Golden Girls

We’d like to thank each one of them for being a friend.

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The ladies of Sex and the City

Shopping: 4 Sex and the City Trends That You Can Still Rock Today — Everett Collection

This fabulous NYC quartet not only popularized cosmopolitans and launched Magnolia Bakery into the stratosphere, they also practically invented the internet personality quiz. So… which one are you?

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The Girls girls

Girls Season 1 — Lena Dunham wants to revive 'Girls'. Mark Seliger/Courtesy of HBO

They might be the voices of their generation. Or, at least, some voices. Of a generation.

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The women of Orange Is the New Black

We plead guilty to unabashedly adoring this crew of inmates and the high drama and black (orange?) humor they bring to Litchfield Penitentiary.

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Charlie's Angels

Charlie’s trio of crime-fighting seraphim has gone through many incarnations over the decades — including a movie reboot in 2019 — but began as heavenly icons of the small screen.

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The Pretty Little Liars

Grab Cut Insert Cut F:PHOTOMediaFactory ActionsRequests DropBox34368#ABC Family119808_D_0545_ful.jpg — ABC FAMILY/ANDREW ECCLES

Can you keep a secret?

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GLOW’s Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling

GLOW_201_Unit_00585R — Erica Parise/Netflix

The only thing we want more than the friendship of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling is their ferocity. And their makeup tips.

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Girlfriends

At once a hilarious sitcom and a heartfelt celebration of black womanhood, this show gave us girlfriends for life.

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The girls of The Game

Grab Cut Insert Cut F:PHOTOMediaFactory ActionsRequests DropBox21033#The CWTG101_7304R.jpg — Scott Humbert/The CW

This Girlfriends spin-off took the action to San Diego but kept the commitment to sisterhood.

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The Desperate Housewives

Don’t let the manicured lawns and picture-perfect houses fool you — Wisteria Lane is no picnic, and these women are no angels.

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Buffy’s Potential Slayers

After six seasons of existential loneliness for Buffy, who alone wielded the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, forces of darkness, etc., a little bit of magic (thanks, Willow!) empowered a whole sisterhood of Chosen Ones. Into this generation, a whole squad of Slayers is born.

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The girls of The Bold Type

AISHA DEE, KATIE STEVENS, MEGHANN FAHY — Justin Coit/Freeform

Who’s up for some gossip in the fashion closet?

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Game of Thrones’ Sand Snakes

Why would anyone want to sit around watching blond aristocrats murder each other in King’s Landing when they could hang in Dorne, where nobody cares about the legitimacy of your parentage and everyone knows how to operate dangerous weapons, it seems, from birth?

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Army Wives

F:PHOTOMediaFactory ActionsRequests DropBox42868#GettyTCDARWI_EC092_H.jpg — Jim Bridges/Lifetime /Courtesy Everett Collection

These are girls worth fighting for.

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Mistresses

We said girl gangs, okay? Not saint squads.

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The women of The L Word

THE L WORD, (back row, l to r): Katherine Moennig, Janina Gavankar, Rachel Shelley, Laurel Holloman, — Everett Collection

A full decade after The L Word’s six-season run came to an end, a sequel series for the L.A.-set drama premiered in 2019 for more love, lust, laughter, longing, lesbians.

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The Charmed Ones

What an enchanting group.

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The girls of The Facts of Life

There’s nobody we’d rather learn them with.

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The Real Housewives of everywhere

The Real Housewives of New York City - Season 11 — Bravo

There have been quite a few reality TV girl gangs, but none so indelible as the various casts of Bravo’s megafranchise (including the RHONY stars, pictured). Money can’t buy you a crew like this.