Loveday Writing

Doug and Joyce find out they’re being sued after Joyce goes to see Doug about the centrefold with Billy. Doug thinks she’s visited to apologise but she tells him that isn’t going to happen, and that the centrefold betrays everything they’ve been building together, however he points out that she doesn’t get a say as she quit.

Both Doug and his lawyer, Myron, believe that Willy is suing them as part of a publicity stunt, which is proven right by Willy talking about his case on his radio show, despite his own lawyer advising against it, and inciting a men’s rights group, Men Energised Now (M.E.N.) to protest at the Bottom Dollar office.

Meanwhile, Joyce talks to Richie about the situation where it’s revealed Joyce owns a part of Minx, something she wasn’t aware of until she and Doug spoke with Myron. Richie tells her not to go to war with Doug as she’s only seen his ‘nice side’, giving an example of Doug bringing down a paper vendor who double charged him, but she encourages him to fight with her as she knows he cares about the magazine as much as she does. He reluctantly agrees and they go to Bambi’s house, and they convince her straight away. She quickly leaves without shoes and it’s revealed that Shelly is still at their house from their hook up the night before.

When Joyce, Bambi and Richie arrive at the Bottom Dollar office, they find Norman (a man that constantly sends them hate mail) protesting with two other M.E.N. members, although they are civil to Doug. Joyce, Bambi and Richie march into Doug’s office and give him a cease and desist letter to halt production of Minx’s third issue until ownership of the magazine is fully resolved.

Later, Doug confronts Richie and Bambi on their betrayal and the fact that he has always looked after them, however Richie calls him out on undervaluing them and tells him to make an unrefusable offer if he wants their support. Doug then asks Tina if she got the address he asked for, with Joyce watching on. The address is revealed to be Wanda’s, where he tries to convince her to tell her story to Minx only for Joyce to show up.

Doug and Joyce argue in front of Wanda as Doug tries to convince her to tell her story, whilst Joyce tries to convince her out of telling her story to him. However, Wanda admits that the article inspired her. She admits that Willy doesn’t force her in the way that Joyce’s article described, but she was tired of being told what to do and who to be in her own home, and she is not going to tell her story to either of them.

The M.E.N. protests escalates with Councilwoman Westbury going on Willy and Franco’s show and informing them (as well as their listeners) that she is proposing a resolution to ban the production of pornographic material. Willy and Franco also tell their listeners that they will be providing resources to men who can’t file lawsuits of their own, much to Myron’s chagrin. Myron tells them that multiple lawsuits have been filed and more are on the way. Doug gives him the dirt Tina found on the Councilwoman in an earlier episode, but Myron rips it up as it’s illegal to blackmail a government employee and he could be disbarred for knowing about it. Myron suggests that they fold Minx as this will make the lawsuits go away, the news cycle will move on, and Joyce can use the notoriety to start a new publication, telling them that not all partnerships are meant to last.

The protests escalate further after Tina sends Bambi out to talk to them, and although this works at first, they end up getting angrier when she tells them she is going to retire from nude modelling, as they believe Minx has brainwashed her, and they end up storming the office. This forces the team to hide in the layout room, where Richie declines Doug’s offer to be his art director to give him a taste of his own medicine. The police aren’t coming due to Councilwoman Westbury telling them to take their time, which means they have to wait it out.

In the meantime, Bambi starts reading the fan mail from the mailbags, happy to read that people love Minx. This leads to the rest of the team reading some other letters, which include one from a 16-year-old boy who’s in the closet and looking for an internship, a reader who sent them an invitation to their wedding, and another from a reader who named her baby after Joyce. When the protestors start a bonfire in the office with an effigy of Joyce, Doug tells Tina to call the Russians to intervene, which they do, having the protestors evacuated from the building by force.

After the protestors have been evacuated from the building by the Russians, we see Doug sitting in his office reading the fan mail with a smile on his face, Tina reading an acceptance letter from the University of Chicago for the fall 1973 semester (with other, multiple acceptance letters from other colleges on her desk), Bambi coming home to find Shelly has left, and Shelly giving Lenny the photos Bambi took of her whilst still wearing a good luck bracelet Bambi gave her.

The episode and season ends with Doug waiting for Joyce at her apartment, where he reveals that Wendy Mah wrote a scathing piece about Minx for Betsy (the magazine Joyce’s most likely estranged old friend, Maggie, works at). Doug admits that Minx means something to people and he didn’t know what to do with it, so he made it ugly and became ugly himself in the process. He tells her they can fix the situation and become partners again. However, Joyce politely turns him down as she needs to do something for herself and by herself, she doesn’t want to give her power away anymore to him or any other man in the industry, and is thinking of becoming a publisher herself. Doug tells her that Minx is hers if she does start her own publishing company as he doesn’t want to make it without her, and she thanks him.

Overall, this finale did its job by bringing the Doug-Joyce conflict to a close and creating multiple possible story arcs for the next season, including but not limited to: a Shelly-Lenny-Bambi love triangle, Tina leaving to go to college and what that could mean for her and Doug’s relationship, and Joyce starting her own publishing company.

In terms of the season as a whole, the first four episodes started strong with a fast pace, with the momentum being lost a little in episodes five and six, only for it to come back in episode seven, but to slow down again in episodes eight and nine to provide for character development. I felt that Minx causing legal problems and Doug ultimately standing his ground, as well as making up with Joyce but not necessarily getting back together work-wise, was a good way to end the season.

I’ve enjoyed reviewing the first season of Minx and I’m very much looking forward to reviewing the second season when it’s eventually released.

Stray Observations:

Episode title – You happened to me is what Joyce tells Doug when he asks what happened to the woman who was offended by the mob delivering her magazine, a callback to an earlier episode.

-Doug has a pet bird.

-Bambi’s real name is Luann Pryzbylko and she’s from Reseda (by way of Kuala Lumpur).

-Bambi auditioned for Cleopatra.

-Richie grew up in a military family.

-Tina’s last name is Lewis.

Best liners and interactions:

• “A woman is sexually assaulted every 20 seconds in this country and one man gets a boo-boo on his wiener and it’s the end of the fucking world!” “Joyce, was that your first swear?” “Yeah, could you tell? How was it?” “It was great.” (Joyce-Richie going back and forth as they watch a small M.E.N. protest at the Bottom Dollar office from Joyce’s car)
• “What are you tailing me now, Joyce?” “No, I just followed the smell of manipulation.” (Doug-Joyce on Joyce finding Doug at Wanda Wilkerson’s house)
• “Are you two an item?” “Ew, God no.” (Wanda-Joyce on whether Joyce and Doug are together)
• “Stinky Pete, they let you out early!” (Bambi to Stinky Pete as she talks to the M.E.N. protestors outside the Bottom Dollar office)
• “Who knew virgins could be so mean!” (Bambi on the protestors getting into the office)
• “No, it’s not a game Doug. It’s just a small taste of what it’s like to be pushed around by a bully. But thank you for your master class in negotiation.” (Richie to Doug when he turns down Doug’s job offer, which Richie initiated by telling Doug to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse to stay at Bottom Dollar)