Minx season 1 episode 3 review: Joyce and Doug face a new opponent

Note: This post contains spoilers for Minx season 1 episode 3 "Norman Mailer, Samantha Shortcake"

Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond) has overcome her initial reluctance to embrace the unique feminist magazine opportunity that Doug (Jake Johnson) and Bottom Dollar Publications offered, but she is back to bristling against this setting in "Norman Mailer, Samantha Shortcake." An unannounced police raid throws the office into slight chaos when they take all the material required to publish the already existing titles, plus a new thorn in Doug’s side hampers his ability to get their property back. 

In the raid, Minx is the only publication that managed to keep hold of its photographs (thanks to some quick thinking by Richie) and this places new pressure on its creator. Doug gives Joyce 24 hours to get the magazine ready for its maiden issue, which would be fine if she hadn’t given the cops her final boards.

It also doesn’t help that news of the raid has spread and all of the Minx contributors want their work pulled from the issue. Alternate articles are required with very little time to edit. Luckily Joyce has kept every essay she has written and were rejected from other publications. 

The first two episodes of Minx have established how rigid Joyce is when it comes to her writing style, but the reaction from Richie (Oscar Montoya), Bambi (Jessica Lowe) and Shelly (Lennon Parham) to the alternate pieces speak volumes about how inaccessible her style is.

"It’s like the articles don’t want to be read," says Bambi about how unwelcoming and lifeless the essays are. In some respects, Minx is simply re-establishing some of the major character beats, but after Joyce took some steps forward there is an element of going backward in her initial response to these very valid critiques. 

Shelly is doing her younger sister a favor not only dropping off the boxes of essays, but also sticking around to help select the new material. This is a big deal considering her other commitments. It isn’t like she can simply drop everything as she does have dinner to cook and a wayward 13-year-old son who has been kicked out of summer school for setting his friends’ fart on fire, which sends him to the hospital. 

The Bottom Dollar office is a potentially precarious environment to bring Tommy (Jaeden Bettencourt), but don't worry, the lingerie-clad models dressed up as angels and devils help him make a get well soon card for his friend and nothing more. It is a wholesome activity and a funny reveal when Shelly storms in imagining the worst.

Creator Ellen Rapoport keeps sidestepping cliches of the bored housewife with Shelly. It also helps Parham is incredibly charming in this role and she steals every scene she is in. The difference between sisters is stark and Shelly’s ability to turn Joyce’s unwieldy and unwelcoming headlines into attention-grabbing missives is a fun juxtaposition. Thankfully, Doug doesn’t let Shelly’s talent slip away, giving her a permanent job offer. 

Joyce struggles to see see beyond her own ideas, however, and outright rejects the excellent efforts of Richie, Bambi and Shelly. Rather than swinging from heavy-hitting articles straight into the centerfold, they think a transition is needed. Bambi’s "Match the Man to the Member" picture game is a fun suggestion and visual — the Minx art department hit it out of the box again. It isn’t until later that Joyce can see beyond her own rigid mindset when faced with a woman who is even more stuck in her ways. 

Bridget Westbury (Amy Landecker) is the first councilwoman in all of Southern California, but she has more in common with Phyllis Schlafly’s thinking than Joyce’s idea of Women’s Liberation. She is the reason why the police raided the Bottom Dollar offices and her plan is to put the "Dirty Dozen" purveyors of adult entertainment she has identified (whether retail, movies or magazines) out of business. 

Most of the Bottom Dollar employees are experienced when it comes to getting targeted by the cops — this is the nineteenth raid "and counting," Doug notes. Typically he pays a contribution to the council person’s charity of their choice to expedite the time it takes to get back the materials seized, but Councilwoman Westbury does not play by these rules.

"Are you aware that in the Valley there are more pornographers than pediatricians," the councilwoman asks Doug. She is intent on changing this ratio and refuses Doug’s donation and the flowers he brings. Not everyone is easily charmed by Doug’s unbuttoned shirts and cheeky demeanor. It also doesn’t help that Doug has swiped a bag of Scout sashes from Bridget’s office in a bid to get some petty revenge for the property he is missing. 

We see Doug arrange to have some heavies scare Bridget, but he later decides against whatever blackmail material Tina (Idara Victor) has dug up with outside assistance. Don’t think this is the last we are going to see of whatever was in that folder, as the councilwoman is sure to continue to threaten Bottom Dollar's ability to make their product. Bridget probably won't take kindly to her sash badge being changed from Troop 17 into Troop 69. 

Joyce attempts to speak woman to woman when she returns the missing sashes in time for the photograph the troop is taking, but it's apparent Bridget does not subscribe to Joyce’s way of thinking. First, she comments about trying to ban The Catcher in the Rye from schools and then she gets her young impressionable girls to tell Joyce why ratifying the Equal Rights Act (ERA) is actually bad for women. 

This horrifying display culminates in the girls finding the penis matching game Bambi made and Joyce argues that it's "silly and fun." She returns to the office to get back to the task at hand because this vision of the future is terrifying to her. The magazine they have thrown together at the last minutes is the "best version" and compromise continues to be the Minx victor.