Happy wife, happy life.
“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.
“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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
“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.”
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.
“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.”
