While a show about three devoted, loving moms who are driven to a life of crime might be compelling, it’s not exactly a common TV recipe — especially when on-screen portrayals of moms have traditionally been very black and white. A woman might be a loving mother with perfect morals, a failure because she could never reach “ideal” motherhood, or a cold, hardened criminal that you’d never picture as a mom. But it’s much less common to see an on-screen mom inhabit the space in between, especially when she turns to crime for sympathetic reasons. Bans told The Lily that she drew courage from Rhimes’ own casting decisions when coming up with the story:

What I always loved about Shonda when she would be asked questions about casting or diversity or women, she would always say, “Listen, I write the way I see the world. I write the way I experience life.”

But Rhimes’ influence on “Good Girls” didn’t end once Bans came up with her protagonists. The show has a knack for getting viewers hooked, largely thanks to its juicy, high stakes twists — yet another lesson that Bans learned at Shondaland, where Rhimes “never shy[ed] away from telling the boldest, most controversial stories” and constantly pitched “unexpected and surprising” ideas (via Variety). And sure, Beth is no Olivia Pope or Annalise Keating, but it’s hard to deny that she and the other ladies in “Good Girls” are constantly facing the same type of tense drama that have made Shondaland shows so iconic.