The irresistible cocktail of rich women and murder has undergone countless variations over the years: as a broadcast soap on “Desperate Housewives”; as an upscale celebrity vehicle on “Big Little Lies”; as a fully financed trip abroad on “The White Lotus.” But “The Hunting Wives,” a series adapted by creator Rebecca Cutter (“Hightown”) from the novel of the same name, adds a new twist to this timeless formula. Originally produced for Starz, then acquired by Netflix, “The Hunting Wives” is a tale of red state-blue state culture clash, a premise that remains its most interesting element even after a dead body disrupts the proceedings. From that point on, the plot takes the reins for an addictive binge that nonetheless loses something by pivoting away from a compelling hook.
When Sophie O’Neil (Brittany Snow) and her husband, Graham (Evan Jonigkeit), relocate to Texas for Graham’s job, she’s lonely and isolated. Once a publicist and Democratic operative back in the Northeast, Sophie is now a stay-at-home parent who neither drinks nor drives due to a recent trauma. That leaves her with little in common, politically or culturally, with her new peers, a coterie of megachurch moms and MAGA types she dubs “mini-Marjorie Taylor Greenes.” There’s one exception: Margo Banks (Malin Åkerman), the wife of Graham’s new boss Jed (Dermot Mulroney). Margo’s husband may present as a cowboy-hatted, NRA-supporting good old boy, even mulling a run for governor. But Margo is more open-minded, at least when it comes to indulging her own desires. “Open marriages are for liberals,” she says. “Jed and I have an arrangement.”
“The Hunting Wives” opens, as so many shows do these days, with a flash-forward to a deadly shooting, ostensibly to pique our interest. But that shiny bait fades from front of mind as Margo draws Sophie into her social circle. Margo’s minions include Jill (Katie Lowes), a pastor’s wife and therefore queen bee of their small town, and Callie (Jaime Ray Newman), who’s married to the sheriff and even more of a rabid right-winger than he is. To its credit, “The Hunting Wives” doesn’t shy away from the implications of its characters’ ideology. These aren’t trickle-down Reaganites, and their differences with Sophie don’t stop at visual signifiers like hairdos and high heels. The titular wives are vocally antiabortion, anti-immigrant and, most of all, pro-gun — beliefs Sophie has good reason to balk at in their unabashed antagonism toward a perceived other, which may or may not include herself.
Margo’s friendships are intimate in more ways than one. Per her “arrangement” with Jed, she’s hooking up with Callie on the side, and Jill’s teenage son, Brad (George Ferrier), seems more interested in Margo than his ultra-Christian girlfriend, Abby (Madison Wolfe). (Chrissy Metz of “This Is Us” plays Abby’s mother, a role that seems too minor for an established actor until the season’s back half.) This tangled web, along with ample nudity, quickly escalates from erotic to borderline comedic. After all, “The Hunting Wives” takes place in the same milieu as “The Righteous Gemstones” and “Landman,” and its humor is only slightly less over-the-top.
Once there’s a corpse to investigate, however, “The Hunting Wives” grows less distinctive in its social commentary and more caught up in the race to the finish. Between the investigation, Jed’s run for office, Margo’s affairs and even more scandals-in-waiting, there’s too much to tie up to continue establishing a sense of place. Twist after twist keeps the story constantly in motion, at the expense of both texture and basic coherence, until the season ends on an oddly open note — less hanging over a cliff than trailing off into the ether. It’s too bad though. Plenty of shows feature a killer. Not so many blend Trump supporters with lesbian trysts.
All episodes of “The Hunting Wives” Season 1 are now streaming on Netflix.
