'Hunting Wives' showrunner defends raunchy hit as viewers go bonkers: 'Unapologetic'
'The Hunting Wives' is now streaming on Netflix, and the steamy murder mystery is causing viewers on TikTok to proclaim, 'This show is INSANE!'
'I just started watching Hunting Wives, and all I can tell you is, do not have any children in the room,' another TikTok video declared.
Advertisement
'It's so fun, and juicy and sexy. Everyone is behaving so badly,' showrunner Rebecca Cutter exclusively told The Post. 'I wanted to do an exploration of women behaving badly, unapologetic sexual conquest running rampant, and just something fun.'
8 Rebecca Cutter at the 'Hightown' panel on February 9, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Getty Images for SCAD
8 Malin Akerman and Brittany Snow in 'The Hunting Wives.'
Netflix
Advertisement
Based on a 2021 novel of the same name, 'The Hunting Wives' follows Sophie (Brittany Snow), a Massachusetts woman who relocates to Texas thanks to her husband's job. Soon, she becomes entangled in the web of her new friend Margo Banks (Malin Akerman), the Queen Bee leader of the local community.
Margo presides over a clique of moms and socialites who like shooting guns and dancing with men half their age. She also has affairs with men and women alike.
The show is filled with steamy scenes, including some sparks flying between Margo and Sophie.
8 Sophie (Brittany Snow) and Margo (Malin Akerman) share a kiss on 'The Hunting Wives.'
Netflix
Advertisement
8 Joyce Glenn, Brittany Snow, Katie Lowes, and Alexandria DeBerry on 'The Hunting Wives.'
Netflix
Notably, Margo, who drops trou the most on the show, isn't a twenty-something – Akerman is 47.
'It was important to find an actress, not necessarily that was willing to do nudity per se, but that really felt comfortable with the sexuality and owning that power that she has,' Cutter explained.
'The first actress that we looked for was the Margo Banks character, because it felt like if we didn't nail that, then the whole thing falls apart.'
Advertisement
Cutter said that the '27 Dresses' actress was a fit, because, 'Obviously Sophie gets sucked into that. So that was really important to find an actress that really believed in herself that she was that sexually powerful….Malin brought that.'
8 Malin Akerman and Dermot Mulroney on 'The Hunting Wives.'
Netflix
8 Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman on 'The Hunting Wives.'
Netflix
'The Hunting Wives' falls into the subgenre of shows where moms and wives behave badly – other shows in that category include 'Good Girls,' 'Big Little Lies' and 'Desperate Housewives.'
'I think there's a fantasy of freedom or power that maybe we don't feel so much as middle-aged women,' Cutter told The Post.
'I just think TV has evolved. The first anti-heroes were all men,' she explained. 'Now, there can be more female anti-heroes and I certainly think Margot Banks falls into that category.'
Many of Margo's sex scenes are with Brad (George Farrier), the inappropriately young son of one of her friends.
Regarding showing steamy scenes between older women and younger men, Cutter said, 'It's rare. I also think it's real. I have single friends [who are] women of a certain age…young men always are interested in them….that is a very real thing. And so, I think that that's cool to show.'
Advertisement
8 Jamie Ray Newman, Malin Akerman, Brittany Snow, and Katie Lowes in 'The Hunting Wives.'
Netflix
8 Katie Lowes, Brittany Snow, and Malin Akerman in 'The Hunting Wives.'
Netflix
The show also dives into some Red State / Blue State culture clash territory, as Sophie is an East Coast liberal and Margo's husband, Jed (Dermot Mulroney), throws fundraisers for the NRA.
'I thought, let's just dive into the fish, out of water or why not?' Cutter said.
Advertisement
'I wanted to be honest about the culture…you start to see like, 'oh, okay, both sides behave badly.' No one side has a lock on like morality or immorality.'
Cutter explained that she doesn't see politics as 'mattering to the story that much,' but, 'really it was just to serve the fish out of water element of it. Sophie feels an outsider, and Margo's her way in.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
23 minutes ago
- New York Post
Ex NJ teacher roasted after claiming she was traumatized by Sydney Sweeney ad
She used Sydney's rump for a trauma dump. An ex New Jersey teacher-turned-lifestyle influencer is getting roasted online for turning Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad into a therapy session, with a post claiming she feels unattractive because of her skin color — and a repost of it, calling her a 'professional victim,' went viral. 'For me, I can't help but think about the 13-year-old brown girl who gets all of her denim at American Eagle, who already struggles to see her beauty and worth in a world that continues to value white, Eurocentric beauty standards,' said Payal Desai of Medford in an Instagram video on Tuesday. Her clip was reposted on X on Wednesday by media personality Colin Rugg — with the caption, 'The professional victims are relentless' — and it's already racked up 10.6 million views and masses of criticism. 'If your self worth crumbles at the sight of Sydney Sweeney in jeans, I've got news for you: The problem isn't whiteness. It's you,' one X user wrote. 'The American Eagle ad triggered your childhood trauma? Because Sydney Sweeney is blonde and beautiful?' someone else asked. 'Girl, that's not oppression, that's insecurity, and you need to handle that in therapy, not social media. I'm a mixed Latina, and I think she looks absolutely stunning.' 'This was probably just a grift by her to get everyone to tell her she is pretty,' Rugg, who has 1.8 million X followers, added. Desai called the 'Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans' ad campaign 'especially off-putting.' Desai, 39, whose parents are from India, grew up in Allentown, PA, according to NJ Advance Media. In her reactionary post, which garnered 284,000 views on her Instagram page, @payalforstyle and over 88,000 on her TikTok handle, she spoke about her difficulty finding herself pretty in her 'predominantly white community.' 'I really wasn't gonna weigh in on this, but here we go. It is so difficult to grow up as a person of color, specifically a woman, and view yourself as beautiful in any sense of the word growing up in this country,' she began in the video to her 441,000 followers. 'I remember growing up in a predominantly white community wishing myself out of this body, out of this culture. Take my name if it meant that I could wake up blonde-haired and blue-eyed, never having to explain who I am or worry about being accepted. That is why this American Eagle ad with Sydney Sweeney is especially off-putting.' This is not the first time Desai, a former eighth grade teacher who left her job to pursue full-time content creating, has gone viral. In 2023, Desai amassed millions of views for her series on TikTok dubbed 'No Dusty Sons,' where she teaches her two young boys lessons that will one day benefit their future partners. Desai has disabled comments on her now-infamous Instagram post.
Buzz Feed
an hour ago
- Buzz Feed
What Kyla Pratt And Her Daughter Look Like Now
This is the phenomenal Kyla Pratt, and she's a mommy. No, she's a mom. She has a daughter, a human child, and she's seriously a spitting image of her parents. Kyla and her longtime boyfriend, tattoo artist Danny Kirkpatrick, have been together since 2008, and share two daughters, Liyah, born in 2013, and Lyric, born in 2010. Before her adventures in motherhood, Kyla had the late '90s/early 2000s on lock, reprising her role in sequels to 1998's Dr. Doolittle, starring in One on One, and voicing Penny Proud in The Proud Family. Kyla's currently reprising her role as Penny in the revival series, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder on Disney+. But, even with those most impressive acting credits, Kyla's most groundbreaking role is co-starring in her daughter Lyric's TikTok because why do they look so alike, and why do I feel ancient now? Back in 2023, Kyla and Lyric made their TikTok debut together for the first time, and everyone was stunned by their identical appearance. Now, Lyric has posted new videos with her mom, and people are even more flabbergasted at how much they look like each other. In a TikTok shared on Aug. 1, Lyric and Kyla were joined by internet personality and actor Charles Brockman III to recreate an iconic moment from the very first episode of The Proud Family, "Bring It On." People are rightfully losing it over the similarities. One person even joked that Lyric "literally looks like Penny" from The Proud Family. Another said that she "could play penny proud in a live action" version of the animated series. And like most millennials who grew up with Kyla, this person said, "this just healed something in me," and I get it. Lyric really looks JUST LIKE her mother! And, of course, she looks like her daddy, too! Look at those adorable smiles.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Corporate America is not falling for the left's outrage over Sydney Sweeney's ‘good jeans' ad
The left is trying its best to stir up a furor over the recent Sydney Sweeney jeans (or is it genes) TV commercial to ignite a backlash similar to the Dylan Mulvaney-Bud Light debacle. Sorry progressives, it ain't happening. Yes, there's lots of chirping from lefty columnists, purple-haired TikTok influencers, late-night hosts who are still employed, and assorted wokesters after American Eagle had the audacity to feature the attractive blond, blue-eyed actress expressing her sartorial flair in a pair of tight-fitting blue jeans. Advertisement 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color . . . my jeans are blue,' the 'Euphoria' star says. The ad ends with a voice-over: 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.' Blond women? Blue-eyed? Good genes (I mean jeans)? Oh, the horror! That's if you are listening to the leftist commentariat that still hasn't piped down weeks after the spot first appeared. The lefties are freaking because they think the jeans company is looking to bring back the bad old days, pre-George Floyd of course, when white blond oppressors ruled over American culture. Advertisement It's all very Hitler-like to the progressive numbskull class, but not to just about every other segment of American society. Most Americans of all colors and genders either don't care, or they know good genes and jeans when they see it. I know this based on lots of reporting on the mind virus known wokeness — the progressive orthodoxy that embraces everything from cultural Marxism, DEI and, of course, the oppressor-oppressed theology. We are a diverse country, and that's good. The wokesters take it to a level that excludes rather than includes. Good-looking white people, particularly if their hair is that evil shade known as blond, are nowhere near the intersectional matrix they demand for hiring or image making in their version of America. Advertisement That's why Sydney Sweeney, known more for her cleavage than her politics, has become a touchstone in our culture wars, and here's why the attacks won't work: Wokeness was once big in the business world, but notice my use of the past tense. Corporate America listened to these kooks for many reasons, including their own progressive management leanings, with disastrous results. They learned the hard way that most Americans of all races hate being proselytized with political dogma, particularly of the left-wing variety that pushes the limits of identity and gender politics beyond cultural norms. I chronicled this spectacle with a healthy dose of schadenfreude in my book 'Go Woke Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America.' Just a few short years ago, DEI was the norm; so was radical environmentalism pushed by asset managers through something called ESG investing. It was difficult finding a straight man or woman — God forbid a blond — who survived the Madison Avenue woke censor machine. Budweiser thought its customers were ready for a commercial featuring a half-naked trans woman in a bubble bath. Disney decided it could sell more kids programming featuring same-sex kissing scenes. Money managers like BlackRock thought they could increase returns by advocating environmentalism and de facto racial quotas on their portfolio companies. Advertisement All of the above resulted in some of the biggest brand-destroying disasters in modern business history. Marketing is a lot like politics. It's a business of addition, not subtraction. You build customers just like you attract voters, through messaging that unites rather than divides — or customers flee. There are exceptions, of course. Niche brands like Ben & Jerry's ice cream attempt and succeed at targeting the tree-hugger demo. Try this stuff on a mass audience and you will get the beatdown of the century. The predictable customer revolt impacted the businesses of Budweiser, Disney and BlackRock in such a measurable way that shareholders revolted, too, forcing some of the most progressive CEOs in the world to course-correct. That's why the Sydney Sweeney uproar will go nowhere with the people who matter most: Most American consumers, and American Eagle shareholders. Unless you're stretching it like Silly Putty, there's nothing inherently political about a pretty blond (dare I say 'All American'-looking) woman in jeans and pointing out the health of her genes to sell stuff. Zero. Zilch. Otherwise, Pamela Anderson would have been a poster child for Aryan Nations instead of the 'Baywatch' babe most American men and many women adored, and still do. Shares of American Eagle are up since the Sydney Sweeney ad ran, despite the backlash. NYU Marketing Professor Eitan Muller points out the obvious, telling Fox Business's Teuta Dedvukaj that the commercial 'attracts attention, drives Google searches, and boosts the brand. Yes, she does have great genes — and it rings authentic. That's what you want from an ad.' My bet: You will be seeing a lot more of Sydney Sweeney. Most men will be rejoicing, many women will buy the company's jeans. Management will be rewarded with higher sales and a stock price that matches. The attacks will ultimately fail for the same reason Mulvaney's tenure as a spokeswoman for Bud Light was so short-lived. Recall: The nation's Number 1-selling beer dropped to Number 3 and never recovered. Sydney Sweeney has both good jeans and genes and there's nothing the wokesters can do to change that reality.
