Binge-r #281: Minx + Life & Beth
Full Frontal: Jake Johnson (Doug) and Ophelia Lovibond (Joyce) in Minx
MINX S1
Streaming Service: Stan
Availability: All 10 episodes now streaming
Minx is a good-natured period comedy that slips in sharp ideas about the history of feminism and sexual freedom that keep making the leap from 1971 to 2022 with sly ease. “Why is she so angry?” a bunch of wealthy male magazine publishers ask when they’re presented with The Matriarchy Awakens, a prototype for a serious feminist magazine pitched by editing neophyte Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond). The only print merchant who takes note is the one she can’t abide: soft-core pornographer Doug (Jake Johnson), a smart businessman who wants female readers. His pitch is that Joyce’s articles need to come with some visual satisfaction – a nude male centrefold and other erotic eye candy. “You got to hide the medicine,” Doug tells Joyce, and that’s just when Ellen Rapoport’s show does: it is goofy and stacked with ripe period details, not to mention a cavalcade of male appendages for the modelling auditions, but there’s a feisty intent behind the fun.
Once Joyce decides to join Doug at Bottom Dollar Publications, Minx is a freewheeling workplace comedy. They’re making it up as they go along and Joyce has to leave her typewriter to mix with her new colleagues, whether it’s nude model Bambi (Jessica Lowe), who is galvanised by the ideas Joyce’s reading list introduces to her, or Doug’s straight talking Black secretary, Tina (Idara Victor). The twist to the narrative is that Joyce’s idea of liberation is heavy on theory and issues, but shy of personal practicalities. The Vassar-educated activist, who dreams of Gloria Steinem’s approval, is prudish about sex and her own body, and is unaware of her economic privilege. “Do people enjoy your company,” Doug asks. “Not really,” admits Joyce. Lovibond and Johnson have great comic chemistry, built on contrasting personalities, and it’s what the show does with Joyce that will determine whether it's good start leads to something great.
Logging Out: Michael Cera (John) and Amy Schumer (Beth) in Life & Beth
LIFE & BETH (Disney+, all 10 episodes now streaming): For her return to headline performances after her movie career soured, Amy Schumer all but puts up a sign saying ‘Serious Artist’. The acerbic comic wrote and directed episodes of this partly autobiographical comic-drama, in which she stars as Beth, a Manhattan wine saleswoman who goes home to Long Island to get a grip on her failing life after suffering a personal loss. There are childhood flashbacks – the young Beth, Violet Young, is exceptional – a jazz score, and a meandering, bittersweet narrative as grief, self-doubt, and reappraisal come to bear. It’s Schumer as TV auteur, and the half-hour episodes accommodate the tone, which has a deadpan take on flinty family conversations as Beth finds her bearings. It’s amusing as opposed to funny, favouring droll circumstances over punchlines, but it finds a strong foil for Beth in John (Michael Cera – no longer weedy!), a farmhand whose lack of affectation serves the story well. That duo makes Schumer’s show worth persevering with.
>> New Seasons: Take note! The third season of Atlanta, one of the finest series of the last 10 years, starts today on SBS on Demand [season one review here], while Netflix’s saucy Regency-era romantic romp Bridgerton returns for season two [season one review here].
>> Old Show/New Streaming Service: Tom Hardy’s lurid period drama Taboo, where the Mad Max star plays a mysterious exile who upends 1814 London, has moved to Netflix [season one review here].
>> Last Issue: Click here to catch up on Apple TV+’s bonfire of the vanities business saga WeCrashed and SBS on Demand’s coruscating British drama The Responder.
>> E-mail Sign-up: Want BINGE-R sent to your inbox? Click here.
>> The Complete BINGE-R Archive: 375 series reviewed here, 163 movies reviewed here, and 44 lists compiled here.
