Nothing embodies the conservative battle for America better than God, guns, and gays (“god, guns and gays”): God should be revered, guns should be as freely available as possible, and queer rights must be fought at every turn. With these principles, the Republican Party has decades of political success, and Texas sits at the core of the US conservative movement.
To set the series “The Hunting Wives” in this southern state is almost politically subversive. Not only because of the abundant lesbian sex and the evident hypocrisy of the various megachurch attendees, but also because the deadly consequences of flaunting gun culture are all too visible.
An East Coast Family in the Heart of Texas
But let’s start from the top. Sophie O’Neil (Brittany Snow) and her husband Graham (Evan Jonigkeit) recently moved with their young son from the liberal East Coast to the Texas town of Maple Brook — for work, but perhaps also to leave behind something unpleasant. They are now invited to a big party at Graham’s new boss Jed Banks’s (Dermot Mulroney) house, and at least Sophie is quite anxious about it, because this entire world feels very foreign to her.
But barely arrived, she meets a courteous, friendly woman who soon proves to be Jed’s wife Margo (Malin Akerman) and who immediately takes Sophie under her wing. Meanwhile Jed, at the party, announces he is considering running for governor, and Margo introduces Sophie to her circle of women, including Jill (Katie Lowes), wife of the megachurch pastor and mother of the local school sports star Brad (George Ferrier), as well as Callie (Jaime Ray Newman), the sheriff’s wife.
Prayers, Sex, and Countless Affairs
Brad, meanwhile, is also at the party, but in one of the bedrooms of the sprawling estate, where he is trying to persuade his girlfriend Abby (Madison Wolfe) to have sex with him. She resists him successfully and prays by the bed, kneeling, asking God for help in fighting sinful thoughts, while the disappointed Brad pleases himself in bed — just as Margo happens to appear in the half-open doorway.
While Abby doesn’t even notice her, Margo’s presence seems to excite Brad even more, and it soon becomes clear: She is having a secret affair with the teenage son of her good friend Jill. And not only that: she is also having an affair with the sheriff’s wife, regularly has threesomes with her husband, and shows obvious interest in Sophie, who doesn’t seem opposed to it.
The Show Also Resonates with Conservatives
In the days that follow Sophie is also introduced to the club’s favorite hobby: hunting — and with it, of course, weapons. It doesn’t take long before she herself owns a hunting rifle and — just to be safe — also a revolver for her purse, both kept carefully secret from her husband. When shortly after Abby’s girlfriend is found shot in the woods, the investigations quickly point to Sophie’s revolver as the murder weapon. While she protests her innocence in horror, the noose tightens as several people have reasons to want her out of the way as the murderer.
Direct link | Official trailer for the first season
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“The Hunting Wives” is a lot of fun and a wild mix of satire, soap opera, drama, and crime, with plenty of skin on display. The series, based on a novel, landed with audiences so well that a second season is already in production, expected to air in late 2026 or early 2027. Its success was aided by the fact that conservatives also tuned in, even though the satirical portion mainly targets them. But ultimately the liberal East Coast couple doesn’t come off much better than the others.
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Overall, there are only a few sympathetic characters in the series. Among them are the sharp police officer Salazar (Karen Rodriguez), who relentlessly investigates and ultimately uncovers the crucial clues, and Starr (Chrissy Metz), the severely overweight mother of Abby, the murder victim. Unlike the scheming, fit beauty queens around Margo, she is refreshingly down-to-earth and probably represents a bit of “normal” America — not least because of her considerable size.
Satire vs. Reality
In US media there was speculation that a central element of the story might be inspired by a real scandal that shook the Republican Party in Florida in 2023. It began with rape allegations against party chairman Christian Ziegler, who, like his wife Bridget, held vehemently anti-queer positions — at least officially. In the course of the investigations, it emerged that the two regularly had threesomes with other women, and she would send him to bars to find potentially interesting candidates for such encounters and then obtain their consent via photos. The rape allegations could not be substantiated, but Ziegler was ousted from office by the party.
“The Hunting Wives” may well be fiction and satire, but when it comes to gun-craziness and hypocrisy, the series isn’t all that far removed from reality.
