Ophelia Lovibond's Joyce with her hands in her pockets in MinxImage via HBO Max
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Shawn Van Horn
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Shawn Van Horn is a Senior Author for Collider. He's watched way too many slasher movies over the decades, which makes him an aficionado on all things Halloween and Friday the 13th. Don't ask him to choose between Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees because he can't do it. He grew up in the 90s, when Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and TGIF were his life, and still watches them religiously to this day. Larry David is his spirit animal. His love for entertainment spreads to the written word as well. He has written two novels and is neck deep in the querying trenches. He is also a short story maker upper and poet with a dozen publishing credits to his name. He lives in small town Ohio, where he likes to watch professional wrestling and movies.
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In the late '90s, HBO changed from being a home for movies and became one of the biggest and best networks for original TV series. It's where shows like The Sopranos, True Blood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Game of Thrones, and more took off, giving audiences something different on a channel where, unlike network TV, more could be done. Rather than being restrained by certain rules, series on HBO pushed boundaries in regard to violence, sex, nudity, and coarse language, giving them a more authentic feel. Not every HBO show has been a hit, but even many of the smaller ones are worth watching. This is the case with Minx, which only got two seasons, but every episode is now available for free on Tubi.
What Is HBO Max's 'Minx' About?
Minx was created by Ellen Rapoport, a former lawyer who decided to go all in on her passion for script writing. After working on TV pilots, she wrote the 2020 Netflix film Desperado and was a writer for the Paramount+ adaptation of the popular kid-friendly character Clifford the Big Red Dog. After working on a family film, Rapport's next project was the exact opposite in every way, because Minx would deal with the world of nude magazines.
Minx stars Ophelia Lovibond as Joyce Prigger, a thirty-something feminist in the 1970s from California who wants to create the first erotic magazine where women are the audience and nude men are the subjects. To make this happen, she must work with a sleazy adult magazine publisher named Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson). Ellen Rapoport not only created the series, but wrote many of the first season episodes, delivering a half-hour series that was filled with drama, but is more comedy and biting social commentary than anything dark and dreary.
Critics were very kind to Minx, with it scoring a very impressive 98% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer in the first season, including an A- review from Collider. If you wanted something a little edgy and titillating, Minx had that, with plenty of male and female nudity abound, but it was the relationship between Joyce Prigger and Doug Renetti that made it work with the often used "odd couple" trope. Joyce wants to change how women are seen, and Doug, who is thankfully not over-the-top with his sleazy character, is willing to help because he thinks a new direction can boost lagging readership. Best of all, there's no impending romance wrapped around it. These two people are too different to ever be a couple, but that doesn't mean that their constant opposition can't lead to respect and getting things done.
Starz Picked Up 'Minx' After It Was Cancelled by HBO Max
Ophelia Lovibond as Joyce walking on a film set in Minx Season 2.Image via Starz
Minx is more than a two-person show though. Like the best of them, it excels because of its charming supporting cast, like Shelly (Lennon Parham), Joyce's sister, who is able to give her advice on how to market to married women with kids like her. There's Richie (Oscar Montoya), the photographer with a lot of his own ideas, new firefighter model Shane (Taylor Zakhar Perez), who Joyce finds herself liking more than she wants to, and the hilarious Bambi (Jessica Lowe), the nude model who is so much smarter and driven than anyone thinks she is.
As a series that celebrates sex through a nuanced feminist lens, rather than being ashamed of it, Minx, with Paul Feig on board as an executive producer, should have been a success, despite the tough road it took to get it on air. In a 2022 interview with Collider, Ellen Rapoport joked, "It was not an easy sell... The male nudity was the problem. And then, once we found our home at HBO Max, they were very much on board with our vision for the show and our penises."
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Posts By Jake Hodges Nov 7, 2025Sadly, Minx was not a ratings hit, and even though it was initially renewed for a second season on HBO Max and Elizabeth Perkins was cast, by the end of 2022, that changed, with HBO dropping Minx. Thankfully, Starz stepped in to pick it up in January 2023, giving fans eight more episodes (instead of the first season's 10) in the summer.
'Minx' Was Cancelled Again After Its Season 2 on Starz
Idara Victor as Tina, Elizabeth Perkins as Constance, Jake Johnson as Doug, Ophelia Lovibond as Joyce, Jessica Lowe as Bambi, and Oscar Montoya as RichieImage via Starz
The second season of Minx was nearly as critically acclaimed as the first, with an 89% approval from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a B+ review from Collider. Although it still had plenty of laughs, Minx took itself a little more seriously the second time around, and it was helped by such a talented veteran as Perkins, who came in as Constance Papadapolous, a rich widow looking to invest her wealth, but also her opinion and influence in the Minx magazine. This means not only more drama and more at stake for Joyce and Doug, but everyone they work with as well. The only issues this creates is that Minx tries to do too much with too little time in a trimmed season. That leads to some clunky pacing, but Minx never sells itself out, and always stays with the characters, rather than simply going for the easy strategy of more nudity and raunchiness.
There was enough potential there to keep Minx going, but with Starz being a much smaller network than HBO, the writing was always on the wall. In January 2024, Minx was cancelled for a second time. This was especially frustrating, not only because Minx was so good, but because it wasn't done, with many plotlines revolving around Joyce and Doug (and a shocking one about Doug and Constance) left unfinished. Although this is the case for so many failed TV shows, perhaps it was for the best. The consensus among many viewers was that Season 2 wasn't as good as the first. Still, it still deserved one more to resolve what it was saying.
Minx didn't get to go out the way it wanted, which only further proves the entire message of the series. It was always about trying to build something out of nothing, persisting when you're told what you're passionate about is impossible, and fighting through opposing forces standing in your way. Minx the magazine went through that, as did Minx the series. The message didn't get to have its final say, but if you missed it the first time around, check it out on Tubi, where the message lives on, incomplete, but louder than ever in today's society.
Minx
Like Follow Followed TV-MA Comedy Drama Release Date 2022 - 2023-00-00 Network Starz, HBO Max Showrunner Ellen Rapoport Directors Rachel Lee Goldenberg, Max Winkler, Pete Chatmon, Shiri Appleby, Carrie Brownstein, Jake Schreier, Craig Johnson, Natalia Leite, Stella Meghie Writers Annabel Oakes, Joel Church-Cooper, Chris Garcia, Kimberly Walker, Jess Lamour, Sarah LaBrieCast
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Ophelia Lovibond
Joyce
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Jake Johnson
Doug
"Minx" is a vibrant comedy-drama that centers on Joyce, an ambitious feminist who aims to revolutionize women's media in the 1970s. She reluctantly teams up with Doug, a shrewd publisher, to launch an erotic magazine targeting a female audience. As they work together, they face various obstacles including cultural pushback, personal conflicts, and the complexities of running a provocative publication.
Genres Comedy, Drama Creator(s) Ellen Rapoport Powered by
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Minx
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Ophelia Lovibond
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