Breathe Easy: 'Minx' Has Been Picked Up
Breathe Easy: Minx Has Been Picked Up
After David Zaslav slashed the raunchy comedy from HBO Max, Starz saved the day.
By Adrienne Westenfeld Published: Jan 12, 2023
Breathe easy, friends: Minx is back. Thanks to Starz, the raunchy comedy starring Jake Johnson and Ophelia Loviband isn't getting canceled after all. Earlier this year, Minx was available to watch on HBO Max—then the streamer nixed the show in a round of budget cuts. The series was reportedly nearing the end of production on Season Two when they received the news. The shocking news came on the heels of similar shake-ups following Discovery's acquisition of WarnerMedia. To fulfill cost-cutting promises to shareholders, CEO David Zaslav and his team have axed Batgirl and Wonder Woman 3, while also removing dozens of original series from HBO Max's streaming service.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Starz scooped Minx up soon after it was removed from the platform. Jeffrey Hirsch, the president and CEO of Starz, announced the acquisition. "We have always felt this show would be a perfect fit for our brand with our dedication to narratives by, about and for women," he said. "Starz is proud to be the new home for this incredible show that has drawn well-deserved critical acclaim. We're excited to welcome Ellen and the talented Minx team to the network and can't wait to bring its passionate fans the second season."
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Here's a primer on the show: Minx is set in Los Angeles circa the 1970s. Its lead characters are Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson), a wheeler-dealer publisher of erotic magazines, and Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond), an ambitious editor unsuccessfully shopping around a radical women's liberation magazine. In the decade's rising tide of liberated women, Doug sees a lucrative untapped market, and in Joyce, he finds a reluctant business partner. Together, they create Minx, the first erotic magazine for the female gaze; in its glossy pages, progressive articles about birth control and wages for housework are sandwiched between vibrator advertisements and splashy centerfolds of naked firemen. It's never quite smooth sailing for Doug and Joyce, whose disagreements about morality and magazine-making provide the engine of the show, but their growing partnership could fuel many seasons of television.
In an interview with Esquire, Johnson expressed his hopes that his character could become "something iconic and exciting," saying, "I hope Doug has a really great run." He's gunning for five or more seasons of Minx, so if the streaming gods are kind, rest assured that the show's leading man is on board.
Rapoport is ready for a lot more Minx, too, telling SlashFilm that she'd love to see the series run all the way into the 1980s. "I think what happened was so interesting, how the whole country took a real conservative shift with Reagan being elected president and how the feminist movement really splintered in two with the pro-pornography and the anti-porn feminists," Raporport said. "I'd also love for them to go corporate and move to New York, sell Minx to a big conglomerate. See Doug in that position. I think it could go all the way there. So what is it, '72? So, I don't know. [I'd like to make] 12 seasons."
Minx | Official Trailer | HBO Max
What Will Minx Season Two Be About?
Season One leaves all of our favorite characters at a crossroads, meaning that Season Two will have no shortage of stories to tell. Where Season One concludes, the once-thriving bond between Doug and Joyce is now sundered, thanks to betrayals and broken trust. A series of lawsuits have left Doug's Bottom Dollar Publications in serious financial distress, with a lawyer advising that the most prudent move would be to fold Minx once and for all. Joyce walks away entirely, while Doug promotes Tina to managing editor and seeks to hire a new editor-in-chief. But ultimately, Doug begs Joyce to come back, saying that he wants to fix Minx together, as partners. "I'm not sure I'm interested in giving away my power anymore," Joyce replies, to which Doug says, "Minx is yours. I don't want to do it without you, so take it." It seems as if Season Two will see Joyce making Minx on her own, though it won't be a walk in the park; as Doug has pointed out many times, Joyce is an editor, not a publisher. The look of ambivalence on Joyce's face before the finale cuts to black suggests that things aren't over between her and Doug.
Secondary characters are in transition, too; we see Tina sorting through business school acceptance letters from the likes of Wharton and Harvard, suggesting that she may not be staying with Bottom Dollar much longer. Meanwhile, the burgeoning romance between Bambi and Shelly appears to be over, with Shelly back in her husband's arms by the end of the season finale. Bambi's life is changing in more ways than one, as she and Richie are on the outs with Doug, and their future at Bottom Dollar is uncertain. Can Doug pull together his crackerjack team, or are the glory days of Bottom Dollar truly over? If we had to guess, we'd bet that Season Two will be about Doug's efforts to win back his staff.
Luckily, the creative team has a plan. As executive producer Paul Feig told Collider, "When you set up a show and you go in and pitch it, you have to be able to pitch up to Season Three and Season Four. Not in great detail, but to go, 'Here's where this show is going.' So, yeah, we definitely know where it's going. I can't tell you, but it's good. It's a very long-term story that will surprise you, along the way. Ellen is so brilliant, she's got it all mapped out."
Adrienne Westenfeld
Books and Fiction Editor
Adrienne Westenfeld is the Books and Fiction Editor at Esquire, where she oversees books coverage, edits fiction, and curates the Esquire Book Club.
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