To date, every season of the series has continued to receive positive reviews from television critics, including those writing for Vanity Fair, Vox, Variety, and The Atlantic.

[6][7][8][9] The series centers on a trio of millennial women—Jane Sloan (Katie Stevens), Kat Edison (Aisha Dee), and Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy)—living in New York City.

[17] The third season sees Jane entering a new relationship with a fellow writer named Ryan (Dan Jeannotte) and collaborating with Jacqueline on a story regarding the abuse of models at the hands of a prominent photographer.

Kat, in a career shift, becomes inspired to run for city council, supported by her campaign manager Tia (Alexis Floyd), with whom she also becomes romantically involved.

[18][19][20] The fourth season sees Jane achieving great professional success: she is listed as a Forbes 30 under 30 writers to watch, gets her own vertical and writes some of her best work.

Sutton, appears to be living her dream: she is promoted to stylist and, after spending most of the season in a long-distance relationship with Richard, she gets married and is expecting her first baby.

[21] The fifth and final season showcases Jane attempting to navigate being a manager for the first time and all the challenges that it entails, including her feelings for her coworker Scott.

[22] An untitled series inspired by the life of former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles was under development by NBC, Universal Television, The District, and Hearst Magazines in September 2015.

At the same time, it was announced that Amanda Lasher would assume the role of showrunner after series creator Watson had "creative differences" with the network.

[100][101] In May 2019, the series was renewed for a fourth season at the 2019 Freeform upfront presentation; it was subsequently announced that Wendy Straker Hauser would be replacing Lasher as showrunner.

[23] On March 30, 2017, it was announced that Nikohl Boosheri was cast to recur on the series as Adena El-Amin, a photographer who develops a complicated romantic relationship with Kat.

Lee plays Ben, a potential love interest for Jane, while Murphy portrays Cleo, a new board member at Safford Publishing.

The website's consensus reads, "Smart, hip, and exuberantly performed, The Bold Type sharply blends its soapy plotting with workplace drama that feels very of-the-moment.

[133] Caroline Framke of Vox commended the characterization of the three lead characters, highlighting that they are "struggling with more down-to-earth, complex issues than the genre that inspired them ever made room to take on,"[7] while Sonia Saraiya of Variety opines that the relationship between the trio "is neither saccharine nor unbelievable.

"[8] Writing for Vulture, Matt Zoller Seitz praised The Bold Type's ability to balance its visuals and narrative standpoint, namely the series' "young, gorgeous, impeccably dressed core cast," its "Carrie Bradshaw daydream-vision of what it means to be a New York journalist," and how the series "respects journalism as work, in a way that more outwardly 'serious' narratives about the profession sometimes don't.

"[16] Conversely, in a column on The New Republic, Rachel Syme criticized the unrealistic nature of the show, asserting that the series "needs to depict the difficult, ugly side of this business, as well as the cocktail parties and the blow-outs.

The website's consensus reads, "The Bold Type presents an aspirational yet refreshingly realistic portrait of young women's careers, friendships and love lives in a big city.

"[9] In a mixed review for Forbes, Linda Maleh questioned the trajectory of the series due to the story's tendency to regress and concluded that when it "makes these big leaps forward and then takes them back, it diminishes its power."