‘Minx’ Season 2 Loses a Bit of Its Mojo
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During a star-studded promotional screening of “Deep Throat,” Joan Didion shares a prescient observation. She doesn’t want to — at least, not in that moment. All she wants is to enjoy the lavish party put on to promote Minx magazine. Check that: All she really wants is to be left in peace to use the restroom, but Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond), the editor-in-chief of Minx, can’t contain her giddy inquiries long enough for the acclaimed journalist to relieve her bladder. Joyce wants Joan to write for the magazine; something about “Deep Throat” and what it reflects about the shifting ‘70s culture, if not society at large. Joan isn’t all that interested, and instead encourages Joyce to pen the piece herself — but not before offering her reluctant, rushed assessment of the landmark porno being screened in the adjacent auditorium. “I don’t think it was their intent,” Joan says, after Joyce’s relatively subdued sister Shelly (Lennon Parham) mentions the film is quite funny. “But regardless, they’ve stumbled onto something.”
So much of “Minx” Season 2 lives within this short scene in a tiny bathroom. For one, Ellen Rapoport’s comedy (now on Starz) misses too many opportunities for, well, comedy. Despite the awkward set-up, Joan’s scene isn’t all that funny, and there’s a consistent lack of the rowdy chuckles that helped “Minx’s” first season fly by. Season 2 also can’t stop name-dropping semi-random historical somebodies. Warren Beatty is at the screening, along with Didion, and everyone from Annie Leibovitz to Linda Ronstadt is scattered throughout the eight new episodes — like celebrity cameos played by celebrity impersonators. (It’s not like they can cast and de-age dozens of real-life stars.) These famous yet unfamiliar figures pop in and out of the story so often, they start to feel like props, a response further emphasized by the scattered character development and sputtering narrative momentum of a story about the perils of mainstream success by people who set out to upend conventions.
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So much of what Joyce does this season isn’t what she intends to do, yet she stumbles forward into greater fame nonetheless — which could work, if it didn’t feel like “Minx” was similarly unfocused in how thoroughly it chooses to explore pertinent ideas (and playful laughs).
In its clever, highly enjoyable first season, the sex-positive sitcom asks if it’s possible to preserve feminist ideals while working within a patriarchal system. Embodying that give-and-take is a classic odd couple: Joyce, a second-wave feminist with a degree from Vassar whose only naked fantasy involves leaving a Hollywood party to read a book in her bathtub, and her publisher, Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson), who’s made his living — a living he loves — by hocking sleazy porn across the San Fernando Valley. She dreams of winning a Pulitzer Prize, he dreams of living like Prince Phillip (just the untold riches, not the snooty royal stuff). Together, they form a winning team, but whether their combined success is equally shared remains in doubt.
It’s fitting then that Season 2 begins with Doug dreaming. “It’s not a sex dream,” he tells his girlfriend and right-hand woman, Tina (Idara Victor), but she wishes it was. Having let Joyce take Minx and seek out a more like-minded publisher, Doug is scrambling. He can’t get another idea of Minx’s merit off the ground, and he can’t stop thinking (or dreaming) about the road not taken. Joyce, meanwhile, keeps meeting with corporate executives who flatter her, promise her riches, and feign enthusiasm for her feminist message, but are these men better suited for Minx, or are they just wearing better suits than Doug?
Soon enough, the platonic partners find their way back to each other, and Minx continues its steady rise through the cultural ranks. Season 2 is filled with big wins, many of which come with conspicuous ease. Richie (Oscar Montoya) and Bambi (Jessica Lowe), both of whom left Doug’s Bottom Dollar Publications for a chance to work at Minx with Joyce, are saddled with haphazard arcs that prove far too similar to other characters. Richie and Joyce mirror each other, mainly in how they cope with newfound fame, yet even when the series recognizes their shared trajectories, it takes too long to say much about those commonalities and contrasts. Bambi and Tina, on the other hand, skew too close to one another without any acknowledgement, which leaves each fan favorite wandering through a majority of the season, looking to be put to better use.
Shelly, a standout from the freshman run, is the only character who continues her hot streak sans caveats. Across Season 2, she’s consistently engaging and sees significant growth. Lennon Parham remains top-notch, doling out raucous punchlines and tossed-off quips with charming potency, all while Shelly takes steady, credible steps toward personal and professional fulfillment. Best of all, her development always feels fresh — even the moments you anticipate feel honest instead of predictable, which isn’t always the case elsewhere.
While hovering around topics like toxic female rivalries and exclusionary feminism, Season 2 either neglects to engage fully in these issues or waits too long to do so. Such choices lend the season an emptiness that could be filled with stronger comedic set-ups or pure character development, but instead just lingers, like a slowly deflating balloon. There are highlights here and there — like the second episode’s “Deep Throat” premiere and after-party, or a trip to Vegas in Episode 5 — but Joyce and Doug are separated far too often, much to the show’s detriment. “Minx’s” most successful commentary feels like a conscious meta infusion that’s less unique to this particular erotic escapade but still pertinent to its production.
Rather than emphasize how their personalities separate them, Season 2 posits Doug as a capitalist and Joyce as the artist. She’s being sucked into the trappings of financial success, whether it’s getting starstruck by famous friends or sliding into the kind of carefree lifestyle wealth allows, and he’s trying to engage with his own interests, be it new magazine ideas (about science and “Joggin’”) or in his personal life. (He’s fully committed to Tina, even as she’s leaning harder into her career.) Doug is largely blind to how Joyce’s public profile as a revolutionary voice could run counter to her thriving business in a male-dominated industry, but she’s not and neither is “Minx.” Like “The Bear” before it, Season 2 studies characters whose desire for change runs counter to the means in which they wish to create it. Can art in its purest form exist within a capitalist society?
It’s no surprise that “Minx” would get hung up here. After being renewed and canceled at what was then HBO Max, the series found a second home at Starz, which will host the eight new episodes. Since production was nearly completed prior to cancellation, it’s not like Rapoport was writing her scripts amid the chaotic network shuffling. But like Joyce, she’s still a writer, trying to tell a bold story about women while working within a patriarchal system. The parallels are there whether they’re intentional or not, only this particular struggle isn’t as unique as the story it’s telling. Regardless of intent, there’s something more to be found here. “Minx” just hasn’t done it yet.
Grade: C+
“Minx” Season 2 premieres Friday, July 21 at midnight on the Starz app and at 9 p.m. ET on Starz. New episodes will be released weekly.
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