Issue 44  August 12 2025

Are We That Starved for Content: Is The Hunting Wives Enough?

So, I watched The Hunting Wives and I have so much to say about it and about the coverage of it, especially in our queer media.

Short plot summary: Sophie, her husband and son move from Cambridge, Mass to a small East Texas town for her husband's job. Sophie is still recovering from a tragedy of her own making. She's shocked by the MAGA-red state town where she's ended up but taken under the wing of Margo, the queen bee of the town's wealthy wives, whose many indulgences belie their conservative Christian images. It's all fun and games until a cheerleader is murdered and Sophie is the number one suspect.

So yes, there's sapphic sex. And yes, lesbian filmmaker Cheryl Dunye directed two episodes of the 8 episode series. And yes, queer women were on set to help make the sex scenes authentic (see video clip I've included below). And, finally, yes, this never pretended to be more than a cheesy, over-the-top series, originally set to broadcast on STARZ, but ended up instead on the more widely watched Netflix.

So why am I kvetching?

#1: It Scared Me Especially the first few episodes when the portrayal of the small East Texas town became a microcosm of everything that the base of this current White House resident has brought about--unfettered wealth, guns everywhere, a megachurch, and a generous helping of hypocrisy with no checks and balances. Even scarier was how easily Sophie, the quintessential blue stater, was sucked in.

#2: "Open Marriages are for Liberals:" Margo tells Sophie Sexual freedom and sexual hedonism is okay with these folks if it's hidden. Abortion is murder, unless you're in a tight spot and know the right doctor. When you're rich you can do anything, except, of course, come out and live authentically.

#3: Voiceless People of Color There's one Black member of the rich, wives group, Monae (I had to look up her character's name in IMBD because we never learn it), whose life isn't really part of the story. She's just there among the white girls and we never find out what that experience is like for her. Same with the Black teenager, Jamie, best friend of Brad, the white teenage boyfriend of the murdered cheerleader and son of the minister. Jamie has a larger role than Monae, and at one point, Margo even intimates that he could be the murderer. But it's never clear why Jamie and Brad and best friends. But it becomes clear that Jamie isn't wealthy and his silence is easily bought off by Brad's mother who dangles a college scholarship in front of him.

Then there's the awful youth minister, Pastor Pete Lightfoot. A guy with a possible Native American name who drinks a lot and does bad things.

The redeeming character is Salazar, the Chicana Deputy police officer, whose detective skills far exceed any of her coworkers'. We root for her through the entire series and she's brilliant, especially in the face of so much duplicity and bias, particularly when the higher ups are itching to pin the murder on undocumented immigrants.

#4: Class Matters If you're not born to the manor, you are worthless. That's why no one likes or believes the working class mother of the murdered cheerleader, Abby, and why Brad's mother thinks Abby is a gold digger out to trap her golden boy son.

Margo herself is from the other side of the tracks and does her best to hide and obscure her origins while using her poor, mentally ill and drug-addicted brother to execute her nefarious deeds and pays him off handsomely.

As I said before, the series is cheesy and clearly, given its popularity, addictive. Given that, it's not worth it to comment on the writing or plotting. It is what it is.

But what I want to say, in conclusion, is: why is our queer media so excited about this? Is this the best we can hope for? Is this the best we deserve? Is showing abbreviated and well constructed sapphic sex scenes enough? Are we that starved for content, especially when there's so much else that's problematic?