I've heard a lot of people doing the, "Why do I tend to like female characters less?" thing, and I don't think it's all fannish sexism. I mean I've seen some sexism; it's usually becoming hyper-critical of a powerful woman while completely excusing the violent bastard male character. But a lot of TV writers haven't learned what The Avengers discovered back when they introduced Honor Blackman; writing a female character basically the same way you write a male one can be a good thing.

A lot of the time, writers divide the characters into people and women. The former gets defined by their self (their cause, their job, their environment, their beliefs), the latter by their gender (their romance and child-rearing, her female biology). And women who aren't being written as people don't appeal.

I confess, I haven't seen Alex Drake yet, being American, so I can't say how she's written. Judging by Annie, they'll likely straddle the line just enough to bother me.