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Entertainment November 15, 2016
While MTV’s programming has long been filled with lightweight reality TV shows like “Jersey Shore” and “Teen Mom,” the channel is set to debut something more serious with its new politically charged drama, “Sweet/Vicious.”
The series launches Tuesday night and will star Eliza Bennett (Jules) and Taylor Dearden (Ophelia), two female vigilantes who join forces to fight their college campus’ rape culture.
Basically, they’re the campus wonder women, sans capes and tights.
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Although the Viacom-owned outlet has never been shy about displaying the nation’s sexual and cultural attitudes, it’s adding a surprise element: twisted humor and violence. In what USA Today has described as a “rape revenge thriller,” audiences shouldn’t expect to see these vigilante women holding back. Jules, for one, isn’t shy with the threats. “And if you even look at a girl without consent, we’ll be back to finish the job. Got it?” she says in the video.
Though MTV fans may be a bit surprised, creator Jennifer Robinson doesn’t feel the same way. During a time when we have phrases like “Grab them by the pussy” dismissed as “locker room talk,” Robinson says to Variety, “In today’s climate, people are ready for it and I do not think the subject should be taboo.”
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Jennifer Robinson set out to make this show because she hopes to increase female representation in the entertainment industry. “I hope that we can get more stories about women, especially young women, more stories that are inclusive and more stories that celebrate diversity,” she tells Hypable. “I wish there was more out there when I was younger that made me feel less alone.” She wants to change the clichés of “the popular pretty girl who’s a bitch and the weird loner who wears the glasses.”
MTV was supportive from the start, she added. “From the beginning, [MTV] was on board with the story,” Robinson says. “If anything, they kept being like, ‘Go deeper. What else is in the story? What else can we mine out of this?’ There was never any push back and there was never any fear of controversy.”
So from fast-paced to emotionally scathing, “Sweet/Vicious” bares it all. As star Taylor Dearden explains, “We are trying to approach every subject not with kid gloves, because that’s not a way to get a good dialogue going. We are approaching it head on.”
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