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TV TATTLE

Minx is most reminiscent of 30 Rock

  • "For all its sexy hijinks (which are definitely fun), Minx is a back-to-basics workplace sitcom at its heart," says Victoria Edel. "The show I thought of the most while watching season one wasn't other R-rated fare, but rather NBC's hit sitcom 30 Rock, which ran from 2006 to 2013. There's Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond), the feminist with an idea for a magazine that will appeal to the hearts and minds of women around the country. She's our Liz Lemon — a white woman with good intentions and feminist ideals who messes up more often than not and has her own baggage around sexuality that she really needs to unpack. She also has a crappy ex-boyfriend (Michael Angarano as Glenn) who she's incapable of getting out of her life for good. Unlike Liz, Joyce is a bit more open to experiences outside herself, but her narrow-mindedness still often leaves her with egg on her face. Then there's Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson), the magazine publisher who gives Joyce a chance, but not without transforming her original magazine idea into something quite different. Doug is the business guy. Sometimes he's misogynistic, but he and Joyce have a real connection. He's our Jack Donaghy, selling porn instead of microwaves and sketch comedy. The magazine's transformation mimics the way 30 Rock's fictional 'The Girlie Show' was turned into 'TGS' by Jack in the show's very first episode."

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    • Minx and Pam & Tommy are subverting the "dumb blonde" stereotype: "Films and TV have long poked and tweaked the dumb blonde archetype for laughs, from Three’s Company to Legally Blonde, but we’re moving into fresh territory with portrayals of sex positive women who refuse to allow their looks to put them in a box," says Mark Peikert. "On Minx, porn model Bambi may initially seem like all she knows how to do is take off her clothes, but in Jessica Lowe’s show-stealing performance, she’s the most self-actualized woman at the feminist magazine at the center of the HBO Max standout."
    • Lennon Parham says Minx marked a number of firsts in her career: Not only is she “not used to being in my skivvies, as it were,” she explains, but as a comedic actress, “all of the makeouts I’ve ever done have been comedic in nature. Like, a bunch of insane tongue.” 
    • Parham on working with an intimacy coordinator and a horse wrangler on the same set: "We were on a stage that was surrounded by these black drapes, and they flooded it with this fog," she says. "They had to keep it really cold for the fog and the horse. There were all these moving set pieces, like the confessional, that disappeared behind me. There were also like a hundred candles lit. There were so many moving pieces. It was really the first scene of the whole series that was really my thing, so that felt good. It was really fun, but then I would come home and feed my kids, you know?"
    • Ophelia Lovibond wonders why the conversation surrounding Minx has focused on male nudity: "I understand there has been a lot of conversation about the male nudity that is in Minx, but I, myself, find that in and of itself interesting that it has provoked so much conversation because why?" she says. "Why is it so remarkable to see a naked male body compared to females? Because we’re not used to seeing them? Why are we not used to seeing them? The fact that it’s provoked so much conversation almost makes the point."
    • Jessica Lowe is used to playing characters in the vein of the Bottom Dollar model and centerfold manager, but Minx was different: “I think I tend to get cast as a well-meaning dum-dum, and I always blame it on my little baby voice,” Lowe explains. “But I feel like Bambi is so nuanced. She’s come from a hard background that’s almost mysterious, and seeing her in the beginning to now, feeling that maybe some of her power can rely outside of her sexuality and her ability to be flirty and attract people — that’s been fascinating to watch.”
    • How does Jake Johnson feel about his newfound style god status?: "I think it’s really funny. People are talking about my fits in this but the last thing I think about is how I look as a character,” he says, adding: “I don't care about clothes. I don't like the skinny pants look on men. And I don't like the baggy shorts and then yoga pants and then plus-size shirts. I don't like men in overly-tight stuff that don't have the body for it—and I don't have the body for it.”
    • Minx creator Ellen Rapoport was banned because she kept sending porn through her email: “I got banned!,” Rapoport tells Variety. “None of my emails were going through to WarnerMedia for weeks — and then we found out I was placed on some sort of do-not-accept-emails-from list by their IT department because of all the pornography.” Rapaport also discusses the season finale and her plans in case the show is renewed for Season 2. “You’ll have to ask my corporate overlords,” Rapoport says when asked about Minx's future.

    TOPICS: Minx, HBO Max, Ellen Rapoport, Jake Johnson, Jessica Lowe, Lennon Parham, Ophelia Lovibond