Really getting under the skin of a fully realized female character has long remained a challenge in television, but in recent years, the brilliant-yet-troubled heroine has been taking a back seat to someone more authentically human, whose personal struggle is no longer peppered in through lazy shorthand ciphers that check the “complex character” box.

This year’s deep dives into the female psyche, as in HBO’s “I May Destroy You” and “Mare of Easttown” and Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit,” tackle sexual assault, substance abuse and grief in all its paradoxes.

Why this is becoming a trend rather than just a passing fad, at least according to “Mare of Easttown” creator Brad Ingelsby, is because “viewers demand more now. So, if something isn’t complex or honest, they’re going to switch the channel.”

In his television debut, Ingelsby’s approach was to shape the titular character (played by...