A Review of The Playboy Club - "As Long as They're Still Sexy."

This Monday, the NBC series The Playboy Club debuted to mediocre ratings and even worse reviews. Critics complained about the series use of ridiculous plotlines and bad writing. Case-in-point, the first five minutes features Maureen (played by Amber Heard), the newest ‘bunny’ at the infamous Playboy Club, killing a mob boss with her stiletto after he tries to rape her. But even with its convoluted premise, The New York Times notes that The Playboy Club, along with several other shows debuting this season set in the Mad Men era, offers a setting that demonstrates to viewers the raging sexism of the time:  these series can help showcase how far along we’ve come. The narration, done by Hugh Hefner himself, even credits the club with the shifting political atmosphere: "The world was changing. And we were the ones doing it." Protestors and bra burning be damned – women earning the right to equal pay? That was all Playboy.

A scene from The Playboy Club. Photo by Matt Dinerstein (NBC).

Unfortunately, even with the opportunity to portray the strong females who pioneered social and political change, The Playboy Club hasn’t quite taken that chance up. Lingering camera shots display the bunnies’ best assets, while the script doesn’t miss the opportunity to show the girls at a party in their pajamas. But this is to be expected – after all, female objectification is the standard for Playboy. What really bothers me is that for every displayed bunny tail, the series never stops to show the strengths these women supposedly posses.  For example, when lawyer Nick Dalton says that Maureen is “smart,” the audience hasn’t really seen Maureen showcase her intelligence – the only reason we know this is because someone (and more importantly, a man) thinks she is. Kate, a fellow bunny, also mentions how “nice” Maureen is, even though she hasn’t done anything beyond flash a pretty smile.  If Maureen is supposed to be a stronger alternative to the stereotypical ‘blonde bombshell,’ she’s failing miserably – she just feels undeveloped and flat. At least we know she can do the bunny hop.

After finishing the first episode, I have to question the whether this ‘wave’ of retro-era television series is really a good thing. Sure, these shows could teach younger generations about the inequalities of 1960s America. They allow us to collectively cringe at our transgressions of the past. But when a series does nothing but adhere to traditional gender roles, without offering anything new, isn’t that just glorifying those ‘good old days?’ If Hef’s narration is any indicator, then perhaps The Playboy Club is doing just that: “It was the 1960s, and the bunnies were some of the only women in the world who could be anyone they wanted to be.” But really, this quote needs to be modified to be closer to the sad truth. Within the world of The Playboy Club, the bunnies can be anyone they want to be – as long as they’re still sexy.