TV antiheroines given their due, to a certain point

at night — when Jane has no help. She leaves her daughter alone to retreat to her backyard studio to write; when she returns a few hours later, the girl is gone.

The ABC series is a having-it-all horror story with a perfect alignment of circumstances to paint Jane as an imperfect mother.

What’s interesting, though, is that viewers aren’t pushed to like Jane. Her concern for her daughter is barely greater than her anger at the ex-husband she assumes is responsible for the abduction and her fear that police will uncover her drug use.

In the British miniseries “Liar,” starting Sept. 27 on SundanceTV, Joanne Froggatt (“Downton Abbey”) plays a teacher who goes on a date with a widowed doctor (Ioan Gruffudd), then accuses him of drugging and raping her.

Writer-producer brothers Harry and Jack Williams (“The Missing”) hit many familiar beats in this story: Laura’s alcohol intake on the night in question, her jangled emotions and defensiveness afterward and a previous incident that casts doubt on her.

Perhaps no female TV protagonist is more troubled, though, than Robin Griffin, the Australian police detective played by Elisabeth Moss in “Top of the Lake: China Girl,” now in its second season on SundanceTV.

While probing the murders of Asian prostitutes, Robin faces institutional sexism and indifference that exacerbate the depression she suffers as a result of a rape as a teenager.

She’s also saddled with mother-guilt, having given up the child born after the rape. In classic femalenoir fashion, her personal demons both hinder her investigation and give her the empathy and insight needed to pursue it.