Loveday Writing

The pilot fires on all cylinders with viewers being introduced to Joyce by a daydream that she has of herself winning a Pulitzer Prize, with her victory speech focusing on how Gloria Steinem is her inspiration, only for her to brought back down to reality when a construction worker loudly catcalls her. Joyce as a character is summed up perfectly when she tells the worker that times have changed and he should introduce himself with a handshake and a name. He does so, only to make another sexually explicit comment at her. Joyce leaves, making her way to the South California Magazine Pitch Festival.

When she gets to the Festival, she meets Doug, who tries to make small talk with her as she is trying to listen to one of the organisers providing instructions on how to pitch to publishers. When Joyce tells him about her magazine, The Matriarchy Awakens, Doug is immediately interested and tells her to pitch to him, giving her his business card. To her horror, he is a pornography publisher.

Joyce spends the day unsuccessfully pitching her magazine to various publishers and when the Festival ends, Doug tries to give her constructive feedback, only for Joyce to rebuff him in frustration, jokingly suggesting to him that he be original with his own publications by publishing nude men. She ends up accidentally dropping a copy of her magazine as she leaves and Doug takes it.

Later in the pilot, Doug shows up at Joyce’s work and tells her that he and his centrefold models loved The Matriarchy Awakens and as his male readers are writing to him about how women are changing due to the women’s liberation movement, he wants to publish a magazine that women would like, and hers is the perfect one, albeit with changes, which includes a nude, male centrefold.

Joyce later meets Doug’s staff, which includes his long-time secretary and occasional lover, Tina, regular centrefold model, Bambi, and make-up artist and photographer, Richie. Over time, as they try to put the first issue together, Joyce and Doug constantly clash, culminating in Joyce rejecting Doug’s money. When Cosmopolitan magazine scoops them by publishing the first male centrefold, something that Doug predicted, Joyce goes to see Doug to make amends.  

The pilot ends with Joyce using her catcalling experience at the beginning of the episode as a centrefold idea – having the female centrefold models in business suits catcalling their male centrefold model, who is posing as a construction worker.

The season goes on to explore Minx’s initial launch, its rapid success and the start of its downfall. The second episode focuses on the difficulty Joyce and Doug have in finding appropriate advertisers, the third episode has Minx deal with its first real-world obstacle with the arrival of a new, conservative councilwoman. The fourth episode focuses on Minx’s first press conference and Bottom Dollar Publications’ financial woes, although it ends with the first issue finally hitting the newsstands.

After the first issue is launched, the team have to deal with the mob refusing to make deliveries, finding ways to increase sales, and protests over its content from different interest groups. After the protests generate news coverage and in turn, publicity, Minx finally experiences popularity and success, however it’s not long before the tide turns against them, especially by men and men’s rights groups, who eventually end up storming Bottom Dollar’s offices. Doug manages to get rid of the protestors and the first season ends with Joyce and Doug making amends, although Joyce doesn’t return to Bottom Dollar, Tina receiving multiple college acceptance letters hinting at her possible departure from Bottom Dollar, and Shelly and Bambi hooking up but not getting together.

I appreciated the season-long thread of Joyce’s feminist and creative beliefs constantly being challenged: from her disbelief at Doug’s centrefold models reading and loving The Matriarchy Awakens and Doug calling her out by telling her that the models aren’t stupid, to Joyce’s surprise at Doug’s large suburban home, to Joyce realising in the third episode after blowing up at Bambi, Richie and Shelly that she needs to be open to constructive criticism on her writing, to Joyce’s choice to hook up with their first centrefold model, her discovery of how the mob wives wear the pants in their respective marriages, and her lashing out at college students who ambush her with criticism about the first issue.

I wrote in my review of the finale that the first four episodes of the season 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 unintentionally causing legal problems and Doug 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 first season.

HBO Max renewed Minx for a second season on 5 May 2022, only to cancel it on 12 December 2022, as the production of the second season was concluding and despite the cancellation, production did conclude six days later. On 12 January 2023, it was announced that the series was rescued by Starz, an American cable and satellite TV network, owned by Lions Gate Entertainment.

I’m looking forward to watching and reviewing the second season of Minx when it’s eventually released.

Behind the Reviews – Edition #39 will be released next week and will focus on Summer Love.