Norman Mailer, Samantha Shortcake
Episode 3 of Minx begins with Doug showing Tina around an office. Only, it’s under construction and they’re soon forced to flee. Back at Bottom Dollar, Joyce shows up but finds police swarming outside. The place has been raided and that’s obviously not good news. Everyone is pretty calm about it inside though. These shakedowns are the ugly part of this industry, and with a new councilwoman at City Hall, Doug and the gang are probably going to get more scrutiny in the future. This has never stopped Doug and the gang from releasing an issue before, but with negative film reels and Joyce’s mini-reels at hand, her issue is pushed up a month. Unfortunately, this also has the adverse effect of losing all the contributors who were going to submit articles for the magazine, given the raid. “You’ll figure it out,” Doug shrugs, pointing out that Joyce should hustle and use her magic touch to make it work. Councilwoman Bridget Westbury is the new lady in town, and naturally Doug shows up with a bouquet of flowers to try and sway her. Westbury refuses to accept it though and points out that she’s doing her job. Doug realizes this is a big problem, as Tina too shares his sentiments. She decides to try and play the long game, finding out who’s pulling her strings and build the company so they’re “so big that she can’t f**k with them.” While Tina gets hustling, Joyce finds her words criticized by those inside the office. The words cut deep, and it’s not helped by a swathe of rejection letters thrown her way after. Feeling bad, Shelly, Richie and Bambi get to work jazzing up Joyce’s articles, coming up with fun and interesting ways to get readers on their side. Joyce is having none of it though, believing the magazine should be put together by real editors and real writers. She’s clearly under a lot of stress and unfortunately the trio take off, hurt by Joyce’s words. After a failed attempt at swaying Westbury, Joyce heads back to see her writers, apologizing for her words and encouraging them to jump in and run with their ideas after all. Doug is happy with the magazine spread and loves the new headlines (the ones Shelly wrote). Joyce realizes how instrumental Shelly is to the success of Minx and suggests she show up and help. As the episode closes out, Tina manages to do her due diligence and hands over a list of incriminating secrets she’s gathered on Westbury. However, Doug decides to stay straight and not run with this – at least not yet anyway.
The Episode Review
So it seems we have our antagonist for the season ahead! Councilwoman Westbury looks to be a worthy adversary for Minx and their exploits, as we see Joyce start to compromise on her creative vision. Of course, resilience is a really important skill to have as a leader but when you have a team, you also need to compromise and that’s something Joyce is slowly starting to understand. The whole episode does wonders for her character, even deciding to bring Shelly along for the ride as they prepare themselves for the next chapter in this wild ride. This has been a bit of a sleeper hit for HBO so far but it’s solid enough to feel like one of those shows that will grow in popularity through word of mouth. This is definitely one of the better comedies on TV right now and there’s plenty more drama to come I’m sure over the episodes ahead.
