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Time Magazine
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
'The Hunting Wives' Is a Bonkers, Bisexual Culture-War Soap
If the word wife is in the title, expect suds. This is a cardinal rule of television, established by Desperate Housewives, cemented by the Real Housewives, and perpetuated by the many scripted and unscripted series those ravenously consumed foremothers begat: The Good Wife, Sister Wives, Basketball Wives, Mob Wives, The Ex-Wife, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. But really, wife titles have been shorthand for scandalous fun since the 14th century, when Chaucer made 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' the raunchiest of his Canterbury Tales. As the backstory of its eponymous five-time widow suggests, the ur-wife is a character with carnal experience, sexually empowered and financially secure but also subject to a man's rule. Hence the steam—and the scheming. You'd think 600-plus years and successive waves of feminism would have put paid to this archetype… and yet, though sexual candor predominates, the patriarchy persists. And so the diabolical minds behind summer TV have managed to dream up what might be the wildest, silliest, and soapiest wife show ever made—which, I know, is saying a lot. Adapted from May Cobb's novel, Netflix's The Hunting Wives has it all: kidnapped teens, age-gap affairs, buried secrets, crooked clergy, swinging politicians, shadowy stalkers, ravenous bisexuals, substances galore, a murder. And that's just in the three episodes provided for review. It's also about the Trump-era culture wars. Even if you cringe a bit at its crassness (as I did), you kind of have to admire it (as I also do) for always doing the most. Wife-show junkies, meet your new addiction. The Hunting Wives begins with a pretty basic soap opera premise: Sophie O'Neil (Brittany Snow) has just moved from Boston—sorry, Cambridge, where the show keeps reminding us Harvard is—to small-town Texas for her husband Graham's (Evan Jonigkeit) new job. A former political PR pro and generic East Coast Liberal, Sophie is now the full-time mom to a young son (Emmett Moss). So you can guess how she feels when she finds herself at a rollicking NRA fundraiser on the vast estate of Graham's new employer, the super-rich oilman and aspiring Republican governor Jed Banks (a smug Dermot Mulroney). There she encounters Jed's beguiling wife, Margo (Malin Akerman), who initiates Sophie into her circle of glamorous, snarky, hard-drinking, gun-toting, red-voting wives. Fish out of water, meet queen bee. But there's a twist to this upstart-vs.-diva plot. Sophie first lays eyes on Margo in one of the mansion's bathrooms, which Margo is scouring for a maxi pad. When her guest doesn't have one either, Margo strips down, shoves some paper towels in her lacy underwear, and asks Sophie (who's dressed in long-sleeved black number a dismayed Graham labeled 'Soviet') to zip up her slinky green gown. Then Sophie shares her Xanax stash with Margo; they clink pills, champagne-flute style, and exchange meaningful glances. Occurring less than five minutes into the premiere, this scene gives us our first inkling that these two women might be more likely to make out with each other than to feud for supremacy within their clique—which is also to say it's our first indication that The Hunting Wives is to soap operas what Secretary is to rom-coms. Margo is the horny, imperious sun that Maple Brook, TX revolves around, and Akerman both smolders in the role and seems to be having a ton of fun with it. We learn early on that Margo and Jed have extensive extramarital sex lives. But don't call it an open marriage! As Margo explains to Sophie: 'Open marriages are for liberals. We just keep it simple. I don't sleep with other men, and when Jed and I see a girl we like, we go for it.' (Not that she always adheres to those rules. Something else she tells Sophie: 'I believe in doing whatever the f-ck I want.') One girl Margo likes more than Jed might prefer is her skeet-shooting buddy Callie (Jaime Ray Newman), who immediately senses a rival in Sophie. For her part, Sophie is bored without her job and chafing within her marriage to a man who, despite his Harvard-polished manners, can be judgmental and controlling. Both women are running away from shameful pasts. The question of whether Margo and Jed's unconventional arrangement would hurt his campaign arises early, and the way the series handles it is emblematic of The Hunting Wives' perceptive take on the new right. This constituency, Jed points out, doesn't care about the (hetero)sexual transgressions of its macho leaders: 'They don't want a Boy Scout. They want a man.' If Donald Trump can get re-elected President after being held liable for sexual abuse, who in Texas is going to blink at the consensual nonmonogamy of a Republican gubernatorial candidate? Yet Margo rightly worries about double standards around gender and sexuality that guarantee she'll face scrutiny if it comes out that she, too, is sleeping with other women. From Graham's surveillance of Sophie to the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do debauchery of Margo's friends, who regularly get wasted at honkytonk girls nights but wouldn't miss a Sunday at church, the show gets that hypocrisy is a bipartisan phenomenon. It's enough to make you forgive all the glib political references, from Marjorie Taylor Greene to 'deplorables.' Once in a while, there's even a painfully keen zinger. 'There are no clinics left to bomb—thanks to us,' one character brags. All of the above would've been more than enough to fuel a season of salacious froth, but the series' maximalism extends to more than just Margo's sex life. (Before we move off the latter topic, though, let me just say: There are two separate scenes within the first three episodes where someone stumbles upon a couple in flagrante and one of the lovers meets that person's gaze with a saucy smirk. Both involve Margo.) As is obligatory on TV these days, there is a murder mystery; early episodes are framed by flash-forwards to a blonde woman, her face obscured so it's impossible to tell which of multiple blonde characters she is, fighting for her life in the nighttime woods. The kidnapping of a teen girl months earlier lingers in the background. The local megachurch is its own whole thing, with Shondaland stalwart Katie Lowes giving a delightfully overbearing performance as Jill, a preacher's wife and Margo sidekick who's plotting to profit off of her husband's influence. Jill's teenage son Brad (George Ferrier) is just as calculating, if not nearly as savvy, pressuring his pious girlfriend Abby (Madison Wolfe) for a repeat of their prom-night hookup while pursuing other partners. The church's guitar-wielding youth minister, Pastor Pete (played by the late Paul Teal), senses friction within the relationship but has ulterior motives of his own. Abby's mother, Starr, a frumpy, low-income outcast in a sea of McMansion-dwelling trophy wives, is played by This Is Us alum Chrissy Metz, one of the show's top-billed actors. So it's curious to see her get so little screen time in the first few episodes. The Hunting Wives is too much, in ways both delectable and exhausting. Executive producer and showrunner Rebecca Cutter risks running out of steam in the back half of the season, let alone in a second. But for now, at least, its sheer exuberance keeps all the try-hard naughtiness from feeling excessively self-satisfied. (The gnawing guilt viewers of certain political persuasions might feel at reveling in lightly satirized MAGA nihilism as its real-life fallout reverberates around the globe is another story.) The Wife of Bath would surely recognize an heir in Margo—and, I think, approve.
Daily Mail
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sister Wives star Janelle Brown clears the air about her sexuality and reveals what she's looking for in a man
TLC's Sister Wives brought their 19th season to a close on Sunday with the fourth and final installment of their One-on-One special, where Janelle Brown opened up about her sexuality. Janelle, 56, was the the second to marry Kody Brown in 1993, following Meri tying the knot in 1990, and she was also the second to leave him in 2023, after Christine left in 2021. While only one of the Sister Wives remain we d to Kody - Robyn, who tied the knot in 2010 - they are all still a part of the show, though this year's "reunion" was instead a series of one-on-one interviews with Sukanya Krishnan. Janelle used part of her time to clear up speculation that she is 'asexual,' which she assured viewers is not the case. 'I promise you, I'm not asexual. Everybody has this idea just because I didn't want to have assembly line kisses with Kody or whatever, that I was asexual,' Janelle said. 'And the hormones are hell when you're single. But, you know, it's like, you just deal with it or whatever,' she added. 'I suspect that someday down the road, if there's somebody else, then that will be part of it,' she added. She added of the rumors, 'It's so wild to me that everybody has assumed. So, just trust that I am not. I am very... I'm a very sexual being. I'm a very Earth mama.' When asked if she would be part of a polygamous relationship again, Janelle added, 'I'm not gonna say no, but I just don't foresee that I'm gonna meet very many people who live plural marriage these days.' When asked if she would be open to a monogamous relationship, she said, 'Maybe, but I'm definitely not gonna be dating on those weird apps.' Host Sukanya Krishnan asked Janelle to describe the kind of man she is looking for, as she responded, 'Someone who's very solid, who knows who they are.' She added that she doesn't want someone who is, 'super flashy,' adding, 'I'm kind of done with flashy.' Janelle welcomed six children with Kody - Hunter, Madison, Logan, Gabriel, Savanah and the late Garrison, adding she has had an interesting experience watching her daughters with their husbands. 'You know, it's interesting. I watch my children, our children with their husbands, and I'm like, "Wow, that's a really different experience,"' she said. 'I suspect that someday down the road, if there's somebody else, then that will be part of it,' she added. 'They're very engaged with each other and so, I don't know, I guess I'm just like, "Huh, maybe I want something a little bit more like that,' she admitted. Krishnan said near the end of the special that it was her hope that they could get everybody on a couch together at some point. 'Yeah, maybe. I'd really like that. I actually... that could happen. That'd be very interesting,' she said.
Daily Mail
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sister Wives star Kody Brown makes shock confession about his sexual activity before first marriage to Meri
TLC's Sister Wives concluded its 19th season with the fourth part of the One-on-One reunion episodes, where Kody Brown made an interesting revelation. Host Sukanya Krishnan hosted the reunion special, engaging in one-on-one interviews with each of the family members. Krishnan asked Brown, 56, who tied the knot with his first wife Meri in 1990 at just 21 years of age, if he had any other 'sexual experiences' before marrying Meri. 'There were other options that got close. I was a little bit wild, but I wasn't. I was being Mormon naughty,' Brown stated. When asked to clarify what that meant, Brown said, 'It means I would kiss and hug, but no actual intercourse.' Host Krishnan asked, 'So that's like first base, second base, third base, and no home run,' as Kody confirmed, 'No home run.' Krishnan asked Brown, 56, who tied the knot with his first wife Meri in 1990 at just 21 years of age, if he had any other 'sexual experiences' before marrying Meri. When she made another sports analogy about his past sex life, Kody said, 'You know out of respect for my wife, I'm going to quit discussing this with you. You guys can act like it's the world's business.' While Krishnan said, 'We're just having some fun,' Kody added, 'No, we just crossed the line so it's done.' Christine Brown, who was married to Kody from 1994 to 2021, when she was the first of Kody's four wives to leave him, speculated how close he was with his sole remaining wife, Robyn, before they wed in 2010. 'We've all seen their engagement photos and I just automatically think, huh, I wonder how close they got before they were married,' Christine said. When asked if she thought Kody and Robyn had pre-marital sex, Christine said, 'And he was super comfortable in her house, even walking into her bedroom. That's a lot of speculation.' If they did engage in pre-marital sex, Christine admitted it would have been, ''just yet another lie.' 'They lied about everything, so you know how close they were. The fact that he was always over there, come on. All they did was lie…Just not to be trusted,' she added. Robyn debunked Christine's claims, adding, 'He didn't kiss me until he asked me to marry him.' Christine Brown, who was married to Kody from 1994 to 2021, when she was the first of Kody's four wives to leave him, speculated how close he was with his sole remaining wife, Robyn, before they wed in 2010. 'And it wasn't a kiss, it was a stamp. You know, his face smashed mine. That was it, you know, it wasn't anything super sexy,' Robyn admitted. 'And it wasn't a kiss, it was a stamp. You know, his face smashed mine. That was it, you know, it wasn't anything super sexy,' Robyn admitted. 'He asked me to marry him. And we're sitting in his little fun sports car 'cause he can't live without him. And I said yes. And then he grabbed my face, went bam, like kiss me, bam. It was like this is now a done deal. We are engaged,' she said. When asked is there was any 'naughtiness afterwards,' Robyn admitted, 'There were chase kisses, little church kisses. But yeah, that's it.' When asked if there was, 'more than just a kiss,' she admitted, 'Oh, no, no, no, nothing. Little church kisses. Something you can do in front of your pastor, your Bishop or something.'
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sister Wives ' Janelle Says Kody & Robyn's Courtship Wasn't Appropriate
Originally appeared on E! Online Sometimes size really does matter. At least when it comes to the length of a relationship. Because while hindsight is 20/20, Sister Wives star Janelle Brown feels that if she'd had a bit more time to date Kody Brown before their 1993 vows, she may not have become the polygamist's second wife. "If I had a year with Kody, I'm not sure I would have married him, honestly," she revealed to host Sukanya Krishnan during the final installment of the TLC series' one-on-one special June 15. "I might have seen him for a little bit more of who he was, you know what I mean? Gotten sort of off the charm ride." Instead, reasoned the 56-year-old, who shares Logan Brown, 31, , 29, Hunter Brown, 28, Gabriel Brown, 23, and , 20, and her late son Garrison with the father of 18, she was taken by the saleman's "charisma" and hung on for nearly 30 years before announcing their split in 2022. "Regardless, I don't need to go back and trash everything that was," noted Janelle. "If I were to say, 'Oh, I'm really sorry I did all that,' would I be in this great place?" More from E! Online Arie Luyendyk Jr. Reveals How Daughter Senna, 4, Convinced Him to Have Another Baby After His Vasectomy Real Housewives Executive Lauren Miller Dies During Childbirth Lauren Miller's Husband Shares Update on Their Newborn After Her Death And even if she could have logged more time with the Wyoming native, it doesn't mean she should have, considering he was already married to Meri Brown at the time. (Kody's first wife announced their breakup in 2022 while third wife Christine Brown revealed they'd split in 2021.) While dating as a married man is a necessity in polygamy, Kody and his fourth—and sole remaining—wife Robyn Brown "had a very long courtship compared to the rest of us," Janelle noted. "It is not really appropriate for a married man to have a long courtship." And yet, she continued, he and the divorcée—already mom to Dayton Brown, Aurora Brown and Breanna Brown at that point—"actually courted, I think, for almost a year." Though to hear Kody tell it, he only needed a split second to know Robyn was his forever person. Describing their inital charged interaction at church—"We locked eyes and I couldn't break away," Kody has said—the patriarch noted that he fell hard after they shared a first dance. "I'm talking to her like we've known each other our whole lives," Kody described of the moment that took place with Christine and Meri in the room. "The kind of safety combined with just the depth of connection, she's very vulnerable and I was at the time and we just, there was a depth of connection that I do not believe I have ever had." He knew pretty quickly that his feelings were more intense than the ones he'd shared with his previous three spouses. "I noticed a marked difference from the beginning," acknowledged Kody. "I had no intentions of shifting away from it." And though he calls the idea that he and Robyn only wanted each other "Internet B.S." and "crappy commentary on our family," he admitted the connection was strong. As he recalled, "I'm sitting there with my journal going, 'God, what's going on? I'm already in love. I already have three wives.'" The intensity of his early courtship with Robyn—"I fell in love hard"—is just one truth Kody has shared this season. See what else he and his wives have recently divulged on the TLC series. Meri Brown Says Kody Brown Gave Her Hope for Their MarriageKody Brown Wanted to Sell Coyote PassJanelle Brown Left Kody Brown for This ReasonKody Brown Feels He's Been "Excommunicated" from His Own FamilyRobyn Brown and Kody Brown's Marriage Was on Shaky GroundMadison Brush Isn't Speaking to Her DadKody Brown Claimed He Never Loved Meri BrownJanelle Brown Threatened Legal Action Against Kody BrownKody Brown Supposedly Divulged Private Information to His Other WivesFamily Money Paid for Robyn Brown's HouseJanelle Brown Questioned How Kody Brown Handled the Family MoneyJanelle Brown and Christine Brown Woolley See Their Kids as the Core Group of the FamilyKody Brown Thinks His Wives Leaving Hurt His Relationship With the KidsKody Brown Said His Marriage to Meri Brown Was MiserableKody Brown Didn't Agree With Meri Brown Wanting a Spiritual DivorceMany of Kody Brown's Kids Aren't Speaking to Each OtherRobyn Brown's Kids Never Felt Welcomed Into the FamilyJanelle Brown Would Do Plural Marriage Again; Kody Brown Wouldn'tKody Brown Started Distancing Himself From Janelle Brown Years AgoJanelle Brown and Christine Brown Woolley's Kids Didn't Love Going to Robyn Brown's HomeJanelle Brown Questioned Robyn Brown and Kody Brown's ParentingMykelti Padron Had a Very Close Relationship With Robyn BrownOne of Kody Brown's Kids Claimed He "Brainwashed" ThemRobyn Brown Was Struggling to Respect Kody Brown as a Parent
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Sister Wives' Gabriel Brown Drops Jaws With Stunning Weight Loss Transformation
'Sister Wives' Gabriel Brown Drops Jaws With Stunning Weight Loss Transformation originally appeared on Parade. Sister Wives star Gabriel Brown dropped jaws after unveiling his stunning weight loss transformation in new before-and-after photos. On Monday, June 9, the 23-year-old son of and took to his Instagram stories with a major personal update. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 In the post, Gabe posted two images. The top one was an old bathroom selfie of him with no shirt. In the more recent snap, however, Gabriel wore a white tank top in a weight room— while flexing his arms and showing off his noticeably more muscular physique. "-75 pounds," the TLC personality captioned his segment. Check out Gabe's jaw-dropping metamorphosis! In Season 19 of Sister Wives, Gabriel broke viewers' hearts as he recounted finding his brother, Garrison Brown, after he died by suicide at 25 in his Flagstaff, Ariz., home. Gabriel also recently announced that he joined Cameo, to the delight of fans. Meanwhile, a different Sister Wives star, Kody's first wife (and now ex) , turned heads with her impressive weight-loss progress. Sister Wives is available to stream on Max. Next: 'Sister Wives' Gabriel Brown Drops Jaws With Stunning Weight Loss Transformation first appeared on Parade on Jun 10, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
