Why you need to watch 'The Bold Type'

As "The Bold Type" opens, Jane, Kat and Sutton run down the subway stairs, each wearing expensive-looking cocktail dresses and heels and each too angry to talk or to even look at each other. When the subway comes, they grab hands, not saying a word. Later in the episode, we find out what they are doing as the train rumbles by. The three women let out a yell that is the only appropriate response to the anger they are feeling.

On the surface, "The Bold Type" appears to be aimed at women in their 20s and 30s. The age of the three protagonists and the way social media is woven into the show make it scream millennial. But if you dismiss it because you don’t fit into the demographic — which I don’t — you’re missing a show that speaks to so much more than millennial problems.

What the three women who work for the fictional Scarlet magazine experience are modern struggles. Kat’s relationship with her Iranian girlfriend Adena is put into jeopardy when Adena is detained at the airport. Jane and Sutton’s discussion over gun ownership rights is more civil and well thought out than anything that happens in Congress. Doxxers target Kat over some of her social media work for Scarlet.

At the same time, they also deal with the universal challenges of being newly adult, working in their dream job that may not be a dream and trying to find love. Money struggles are a huge part of the show, something that is conveniently forgotten in so many depictions of young people living in New York, one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. The women learn what it’s like to fire someone and what it’s like to be fired. They make big mistakes at work, and they have big triumphs.

Since it’s based around a fashion magazine, it’s a gorgeous show but funny on top of it. There are discussions in the fashion closet, surrounded by designer clothes and shoes, and the characters aren’t afraid to laugh at their misfortunes and call each other out when necessary. It’s a friendship we should all aspire to attain and, at the very least, appreciate when we see it on television.

Season 3 of "The Bold Type" returns to Freeform on April 9.