Minx

Ultimately, what worked so well the first time around for Minx is what Season 2 delivers on — but it isn't just more of the same, either. The characters continue to evolve and grow beyond the roles they inhabited back in Season 1, and the story builds on the successes and failures that are naturally wrapped up in navigating this kind of business venture.

It smartly elevates the workplace comedy genre with standout performances (Johnson and Parham are the MVPs) and comes off as an excellent ride. Now if only there was a bit more time before it reached its rushed climax.

Occasionally, it can seem a little slight, when it is taking big swings at big issues and sometimes barely skimming the ball. But nevertheless, it is a treat of a show, rich and witty and so good-looking.

The ensemble — it’s almost a workplace comedy — is well-defined, energetic, and amusing.

Through its performances and dialogue that gaily bubbles, simmering in the appropriate places, watching "Minx" is less about marveling at its period accuracy that witnessing the joy congress between well-rounded characters and a freewheeling mood.

Thankfully, Starz picked up the show and let the brilliantly socially conscious writers, period detail-oriented set and wardrobe designers, and this rollicking cast build on the first season’s promise. As Doug might put it, this was the right move, because Minx now has even more to say about the intersections, and clashes, between feminism and LGBTQ+ rights, the ability of toxically masculine shot callers to redeem themselves, and the competing demands that weigh mothers down.

Minx improves on a fun first season with an even more fun and ambitious second season, with an ensemble that’s clicking and meaty (pun intended) storylines for everyone in that ensemble.

“Minx” is here to have fun. The faux-celebrity cameos can get exhausting — did we really need impressions of Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne? — but for the series regulars, it’s a pleasure just to watch them thrive.

Season 2 can feel disjointed and compressed, as if some connective material was cut to get it to eight episodes (the first ran for 10). But it finishes strong.

Even with the change of address, “Minx” remains the fun, thought-provoking laugh riot audiences came to love last year.

While the sophomore year of “Minx” isn’t as fresh or as sexy as it was in 2022, this is still a solid comedy, full of smarts and wonderfully silly one-liners, delivered by talented people wearing great clothes in impeccable period sets. It’s worth watching, even if it isn’t — and really couldn’t be — the pleasurable pleasant surprise it was in its first season.

Minx has not entirely resolved the issues it could never quite shake in the first season, but it’s still significantly improved. Elizabeth Perkins enters as the magazine’s sugar mama, Constance Papadoplous, who gets to swan around in beehive hairdos and enormous patterned caftans, and two star players who got short shrift last time have bigger roles that now make Minx much more reliable.

If only the writing were up to the challenge. Too many important moments happen off-screen and conversations are truncated but edited to seem meaningful, which is why the show ultimately doesn’t stand up against something like “Mad Men.” But a fun, easy watch? All the way. And sometimes that’s enough.