This contains spoilers for the end of The Hunting Wives.
Being a husband on a streaming service’s murdery-wives show is a thankless part. The concept of a “good” husband doesn’t really exist in this space. Sorry — but if these murdering wives had good husbands, then they probably wouldn’t be murdering in the first place. There are few shows where this is more apparent than Netflix’s The Hunting Wives, a Big Little Lies–esque murder mystery based on a novel of the same name by May Cobb. There are all sorts of bad husbands in The Hunting Wives: Jed (Dermot Mulroney) is a horny oil tycoon with his eyes set on the governor’s mansion, Clint (Jason Davis) is a snobby reverend, and Jonny (Branton Box) is a crooked sheriff. In Maple Brook, Texas — a small town full of these bad husbands along with several mysterious deaths — there is one husband who takes the cake as the worst of the worst. Sophie’s (Brittany Snow) needling and useless husband Graham (Evan Jonigkeit), an architect — although it rarely comes up — may not be the most evil, or even the most conniving, but he’s the most annoying.
It’s Graham’s fault, really, that Sophie gets into her Maple Brook mess with the rootin’ shootin’ titular hunting wives. He moves her and their son Jack down to Texas so he can work on a big project for Jed. Rather than assuage his wife’s anxieties as they roll up to what winds up being a surprise NRA fundraiser, Graham sells her out by lying that they’re trying for another child. Every time Sophie tries to assert anything about herself, Graham is quick to correct the record for his career. It’s no wonder, then, that Sophie winds up transfixed by Margo (Malin Åkerman): Even at her worst, she’s far more dynamic and fun than hanging out with Graham. When the two later go to have dinner with Margo and Jed, Graham sells Sophie out once again, joking that for how smart and good of a mom she is, they still employ a cleaning lady for some reason. He laughs — this is just a part of networking for him.
To be clear, this is no knock on Jonigkeit’s performance: He lends Graham a steady snideness that lets him and Snow butt heads with perfect friction. Graham’s at his worst, however, when he’s not even in the frame. As Maple Brook reels from the murder of a local teenage girl and all evidence points to Sophie, Graham all but vanishes from her life. He doesn’t visit her in jail. He doesn’t try to defend her. He’s back home with Jack, sure, but he’s content to move on with his life like nothing happened. Did Graham ever like Sophie in the first place? When we see their flashback meet-cute in the show’s finale, he doesn’t even turn on the charm. Sophie is just looking to get out of a strange situationship with her roommate, and Graham happens to appear.
Sophie and Graham reckon with their marriage in the finale, leaving space for a fruitful conversation about the people they were in Boston compared to the people they are now. We learn that Sophie’s drinking — that led to her accidentally killing a pedestrian back in Boston — was born out of her grieving a failed pregnancy and emergency hysterectomy. Though Graham is clear that he doesn’t blame her for her hysterectomy — generous — he still can’t bring himself to support her in their new Texas life. When she tries to approach him about her affair with Margo, he flips out. “You are not always the victim,” he protests. While that may be true, Graham’s no hero either.
Graham’s loserdom is part of what makes The Hunting Wives so fun. No one can come away rooting for Sophie to wind up back at home with her peaceful heteronormative life. She might be better off with Margo, murders and all, because at least they know how to have fun together. It’ll be thrilling to see what these mistresses of murderers’ row cook up for themselves should the show get a renewal. As for Graham, we can only hope he has a good time back in Boston.
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