You know, Jake Johnson was my favorite actor from New Girl, so I pay a particular amount of attention to his career. Imagine my surprise when I learned he was to co-lead this series, Minx, about the first magazine to appeal to women’s issues but also featuring nude men.
Let me tell you what though, it was a pleasant surprise. Johnson plays Doug Renetti, the owner of Bottom Dollar publishing, who specializes in porno magazines. We meet him through Joyce Priggar, who is trying to sell her feminist magazine during a pitch festival. With absolutely no prospects she accepts Doug’s offer but is put off when he presents showing nude men in the magazine. Joyce is a bit of a prude, although she fully supports things that people like Gloria Steinem were championing back then. After some serious convincing, Joyce reluctantly accepts Doug’s idea and thus the titular Minx magazine is born.
Of course, no part of making a magazine back in the 70s seems easy, but the making of Minx was exponentially harder because of the time period. People just weren’t accepting of women’s sexuality being talked about so openly. Plus, in between the naked photo spreads, there were a vast number of articles on important topics such as birth control. I did enjoy one episode where it shows that even though Joyce is taking big swings for women’s liberation, there are always going to be more extreme and knowledgeable people around. But at least Joyce is trying something to get the message out there.
Some of the roadblocks the magazine met were having writers and advertisers pull out, a mob backing them, stores refusing to sell the magazine at all, and people being too embarrassed to buy it. I loved the grassroots approach the oddball team took to championing this magazine. I know in real life, this fictional magazine is supposed to somewhat parallel the story of the first Playgirl magazine, and I sure hope it wasn’t this hard for them to find success. By the end of the season though, Joyce decides she doesn’t want to have to change her vision to Doug’s, so she takes control of Minx and we’re left of somewhat of a cliffhanger.
Overall, this show was a fun watch. All of the supporting characters made up for some of Joyce’s more unpleasant moments, but I appreciate that Joyce stands up for what she believes in. I think her experience at Bottom Dollar even opened her eyes up on things she was pretty prudish about. If you’ve got the time, give this first season a watch. It already got picked up for a second!