HBO Max’sMinxis a delightfully risqué comedy, all sunshine tones and lots (truly, lots) of penises. It follows the early publication ofMinx, an erotica magazine for women where the nude centerfolds are a hook for feminist reporting. Creator Joyce Prigger, played with can-do sparkle byOlivia Lovibond, wants women to really and truly read it for the articles. Her publisher Doug Renetti, the magnetically good-humoredJake Johnson, doesn’t care whether they read or ogle, as long as they buy it.
Joyce is a staunch and buttoned-up second-wave feminist; Doug, the ambitious owner of Bottom Dollar Publications, is very literally buttoned down. They’re joined in Bottom Dollar’s studios by Shelly (Lennon Parham), Joyce’s free-thinking sister who is nevertheless living a more traditional life; Bambi (Jessica Lowe), a centerfold star longing to learn more about the business side; Richie (Oscar Montoya), a makeup artist-turned-photographer; and Tina (Idara Victor), Doug’s longtime no-nonsense lieutenant and on-again, off-again romance.
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the HBO Max series, Minx.
When we first meet Joyce, she’s refining and shopping her dream magazine:The Matriarchy Awakens, which tackles issues like birth control and marital rape. When she meets Doug at a magazine pitch convention, he’s taken with Joyce’s determination and the women on his staff are taken with her magazine. He convinces Joyce to join him at Bottom Dollar alongside porn magazines likeMilky MomsandFeet Feet Feet— and to include naked men alongside her naked truths.
Throughout the season, Doug and Joyce wrestle over control. As Joyce learns flexibility and teamwork, she also begins to come into her own creatively, turning a catcalling experience into the inspiration for the first centerfold by setting the nude model at a very not-safe-for-work job site. Her team also blossoms, as Bambi’s insights help make the messages more palatable, Richie’s artistic eye refines Joyce’s vision, and Shelly’s perspective as a housewife with her own barely concealed frustrations — and a less strict ideology than Joyce’s — influences the content.
RELATED:‘Minx’: Jake Johnson & Ophelia Lovibond on the Fun of Their Characters' Dynamic and How Satisfied Fans Will Be by the End
After a rocky start including low sales and a wee mob-related delivery hiccup, Doug builds buzz around the magazine via an all-press-is-good-press strategy. It lands Joyce on a shock jock’s radio show, where she reveals Shelly’s sexual dissatisfaction at home. But Joyce barely has time to notice her transgression.Minxis now selling out all over the country, fueled by controversy from both sides of the political spectrum, and Joyce is invited onThe Dick Cavett Show.
Joyce is a natural on camera, sparring good-naturedly with Dick (Erin Gann) and making her case forMinxpersuasively, when two things go catastrophically wrong on camera. First, she is blindsided by her hero Victoria Hartnett (Hope Davis) being invited to the interview, where she trashesMinxand uses Doug’s words from the green room to prove her point. And then Doug himself joins the interview and, enjoying the limelight, reveals that he’s secured football player Billy Brunson (Austin Nichols) as the next centerfold — without consulting Joyce. She is blindsided by Doug’s betrayal and Victoria’s criticism, and she quitsMinx, questioning her ideals but not her own worth. And this low point is where the final two episodes find our formerly merry crew.
Joyce remains in New York with her friend Maggie (Gillian Jacobs). Between a visit to Maggie’s magazine office, full of women, plants, and cozy afghans, and a dinner party with her sophisticated friends, Joyce feels at home. But when the conversation turns toMinx, Maggie’s friends are dismissive of the magazine’s aims, and worse, of the women who work with her. Joyce has come a long way from the prim, judgmental woman from the season premiere, and assures the patronizing guests that those women are like those at the table. “They’re nothing like us,” Maggie says with what she must think is reassurance. Joyce excuses herself to get ice, and her errand turns into a spontaneous night of flirting, dancing, and hickies from a handsome stranger. Back at the apartment, Maggie can’t understand why Joyce won’t salvage her reputation with apologies to her offended social circle, but Joyce will not rejoin a club that would keep out her friends and stifle her newfound freedom.
Back in L.A., Doug is trying to rally the team to get the third issue out without Joyce. When he shares that Billy Brunson wants to be photographed with topless women for the upcoming Christmas-themed shoot, Brandi demonstrates her own burgeoning power. She points out that the women would literally be ornaments, and she leaves. Without Joyce’s vision and Brandi’s coordination, Doug is sweating the small stuff, the big stuff, and the hard stuff: Billy Brunson is an objectifying, bulldozing jerk with an erection he refuses to bring to 80%, so Doug can legally publish the pictures. Richie follows Bambi’s example and walks off, so Doug adds photographer to his increasingly unmanageable list of duties. Even Tina can’t move him to abandon the awful spread. “They’ll move magazines,” Doug repeats, without conviction.
Meanwhile, Joyce’s revelation about Shelly’s love life has opened a rift between the sisters and complicated her marriage. Even a series of bodice-ripping fantasies — including a priest and a pope duking it out for her affection — can’t bring Shelly satisfaction. A smash cut to reality shows us what she’s trying to escape: her husband Lenny (Rich Sommer) trying and failing to get her off. “Did it happen?” he hopefully asks his silent, stock-still wife. It…did not. Shelly confides her marriage woes to Bambi, who feels like she’s outgrown Bottom Dollar. Bambi’s got an idea:sShe brings Shelly to her house, loans her lingerie, and styles a boudoir shoot to help her light a flame with Lenny. But Shelly’s fire doesn’t ignite for Lenny: she kisses a delighted Bambi, and they make out on the divan.
The season’s endgame is set off by a very different type of sexual expression.The always welcomeAllison Tolmanarrives as Wanda, a diligent and disrespected housewife whose boorish husband is none other than Willy (Eric Edelstein), the shock jock who interviewed Joyce. After he demands that Wanda cater to his cravings for spicy food and sex, she obliges by chopping up jalapeños and then giving him a hand job, burning his penis and kicking off the events that will bring the season to a close.
Joyce arrives back in L.A. and is summoned to Bottom Dollar’s lawyer Myron (David Paymer) along with Doug. Myron breaks the news that Willy is suing them both for putting ideas into his now-estranged wife’s head and hands. While Willy calls on a prototypical men’s rights group to protest Bottom Dollar, Doug just sees the dollar signs in the free publicity. But the lawsuit has revealed something that will make cashing in harder: Joyce is part-owner ofMinx. She leverages her proprietary rights to bring Richie and Bambi over to her side and together they try to force Doug’s hand to stop the publication of the Brunson issue. Richie took some persuading, but Bambi just needed the opening half-line of Joyce’s pitch before agreeing — and hustling the group away from her house, where Shelly is hiding in Bambi’s robe.
After trying to guilt and woo his former teammates back into the Bottom Dollar fold (even playing the “I rescued you from the Manson family ranch” card with Bambi), Doug visits Wanda to get her to tell her story inMinx, but Joyce arrives moments later to undercut him. As they squabble, Wanda asserts herself and the value of whatMinxhas done for her. The article on marital rape did very much inspire her: it got her thinking about the sexual dynamics of her marriage and many others, and gave her the space to reject “being told what to do and who to be in my own home.” She will tell her own story.
But Willy isn’t making it easy. He urges men everywhere to sueMinxand send him the bill. He also hosts Councilwoman Bridget Westbury (Amy Landecker), who wants to outlaw the production of pornography in the San Fernando Valley. The protests they whip up outside Bottom Dollar escalate, and become rowdier. “A peaceful protest of white men. Famously calm and reasonable people,” Tina deadpans as the chants grow louder.
After Bambi’s stirring speech to the rioters about howMinxhelped her find her voice, she announces her retirement from nude modeling and everything gets worse (“They think you brainwashed me,” she explains). The core group barricades themselves inside the creative office while the rioters breach and trash the studio. The police won’t come on the councilwoman’s orders, and the fighting inside the locked office turns almost as messy as the destruction on the other side of the door.
To keep busy, they go through mailbags and discover how muchMinxmeans to people like Wanda all across the country. “Your magazine made me feel good about wanting what I want,” one reads. Another is from a gay teenage boy wanting an internship. Another is a wedding invitation. They’re so moved by the love letters to their work that they don’t notice the Joyce effigy until it’s already burning. It’s the final straw — Doug decides to call his Russian enforcers (though, true to form, Tina already has), and they manhandle the protestors out of the building.
We get a montage of events from the next day: Tina, so stalwartly by Doug’s side until now, looks at a stack of business school acceptances from across the country. Bambi reads a letter from Shelly, who is trying again with Lenny — while wearing the bracelet Bambi gave her. And Doug reads more fan mail, absorbing whatMinxhas done for its readers that no stunt centerfold could ever provide.
Wanting to make amends, Doug waits for Joyce at her apartment. “What you made, it means something to people and I didn’t know what to do with that,” he says. “And so I turned it into something pretty ugly and I got pretty ugly along the way too.” He wants to runMinxas full partners. But that’s not enough for Joyce, who isn’t sure she wants to give away any more of her power, and who trusts in herself and her team enough to start a new thing on her own. But Doug knows the power ofMinxand what Joyce is capable of. He doesn’t want to doMinxwithout Joyce, so he releases it to her. “I can’t wait to see what you do,” he says by way of a goodbye. Joyce takes a deep breath and smiles, standing confidently on her own two feet. The matriarchy may not have awoken, but Joyce has.
And this is whereMinx’s first season leaves us. The season followed a journey that mirrors the magazine’s goals: It hooked us with the promise of a kooky workplace comedy and outrageous nudity, but morphed into a story about women who learn the value of their power and voice — and how both are made better by really hearing the input and experience of others. The fate ofMinxthe magazine is ultimately secondary to the journey of its editor and its fun-loving misfits who discover their own potential.
Season 2 has not yet been confirmed, so if the show ends here, it’s on a note of possibility, growth, and the unapologetic ability to want what you want. But if the show does continue, there are many tantalizing questions left answered. Will Tina leave L.A. after a decade as Doug’s second-in-command and their recently rekindled romance to pursue her education? Will Shelly and Bambi find their way to each other, or was this just a fling? What’s next forMinxwithout Bottom Dollar behind it? Will Joyce be able to continue growing as a leader and a person now that her dream is coming true? And how will the show continue to find its voice alongside Joyce, Tina, Bambi, and the Wandas of the world?
