MTV has slowly been building itself a dramatic empire over the last few years. It might not have the viewers of a network audience like NBC or ABC, but its found a niche in shows like “The Shannara Chronicles,” “Scream,” and “Teen Wolf” -- shows that feature strong young people who are allowed to make mistakes, but craft compelling genre stories to go beyond the usual primetime soap operas. And MTV is adding to those success stories with “Sweet/Vicious,” a show that every woman in the network’s audience should tune in for.
The story
“Sweet/Vicious” follows Jules (Eliza Bennett), a sorority girl by day, vigilante by night as she sets out to right wrongs on her university campus and Ophelia (Taylor Dearden), a brilliant slacker who would rather get high than go to class.
The two cross paths when Jules is taking one of her targets to task and Ophelia happens by. Though the two women couldn’t be more different, circumstances have them working together.
It’s not a superhero show
Throwing the term “vigilante” around might make you think that there are masks and capes and lairs and everything else that goes along with it. “Sweet/Vicious” might involve some superheroics, but it’s made for real world heroes and survivors of assault, not those who get their skills from radioactive spider bites or gamma radiation. These two girls are university students juggling friendships, family, class, and everything that goes along with being a twenty-something female.
It’s timely
Jules doesn’t just target any ne'er do well on campus. She does after young men that women have accused of sexual assault. Specifically, she goes after men who multiple women have been assaulted by, but who haven’t received any punishment.
Young women on a college campus being sexually assaulted and finding no help, or not seeing justice served, is something the world has had its eyes opened to over the last year.
There’s the Brock Turner case out of Stanford University in which a young man was judged based on his academic record instead of his rape of a young woman. Then there’s Emma Sulkowicz who protested the way Columbia University handled her sexual assault case by carrying her mattress around the campus. And of course, there’s the slew of allegations against presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The point is, there’s an open dialogue about rape culture now that makes the show the starting point of a discussion instead of a way to talk around it.
It’s a comedy
Despite its sensitive subject matter, “Sweet/Vicious” is classified as a comedy, and it definitely delivers on that front. The dialogue is snappy, the leads are sarcastic, and the tone is just right.There is obviously going to be violence and there is obviously going to be big, dramatic, story points due to the nature of the story being told, but the series delivers a more true to life tone than a typical drama or a sitcom. It balances the dramatic subject with wit and heart.
You might even pick up a defense tip or two
Because the series features two university students who aren’t imbued with superhuman strength or struck by some sort of otherworldly technology, the bulk of the fight choreography is realistic.
This isn’t caped crusaders in dark alleys, and the moves taught to the cast are straight out of martial arts self defense workshops.
The stars of the series, with an assist from Tyler Posey of MTV’s “Teen Wolf” even filmed at least one TV spot demonstrating one tried and true method of getting away from an attacker:
Check out “Sweet/Vicious" when it premieres at 10PM on November 15 on MTV, right after the season six premiere of “Teen Wolf.”
