Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘The Hunting Wives’ is a murder mystery thriller series that follows the story of Sophie O’Neil, who moves to a town in East Texas to start a fresh chapter of her life. With a tragic incident in her recent past, she and her husband are trying to move on, which is why he encourages her to make new friends. This search for companionship leads her to Margo, who comes with her own baggage of secrets and lies. Things get more complicated as Sophie is increasingly drawn to Margo, while the murder of a young girl shakes up the whole town. Created by Rebecca Cutter, the eight-episode series presents a riveting story that keeps the audience guessing at every turn.
The Hunting Wives is a Fictional Story Inspired by a Real Anecdote
‘The Hunting Wives’ is an entirely fictional tale based on the 2021 novel of the same name by May Cobb. Hailing from East Texas, Cobb was familiar with the feeling of being an outsider in a town where the wealthy seem to live on a different plane. However, the idea to set a story in a town similar to hers came to her during a road trip with her mother, who still lives in East Texas. While they were driving around the country, her mother spoke of the time when she was in high school. She mentioned that there was a group of rich guys who had formed an exclusive inner circle that would spend weekends together.
These guys would meet up at a cabin belonging to one of their families and would spend a few days hunting rabbits and other animals in the wild. The idea of hunting parties like this was new and unfamiliar to her mother back then. As she talked about her initial surprise about this, Cobb thought about how this could be a good premise for a story. A group of men with guns in their hands was scary enough, but make that group a bunch of teenagers and things become even more unpredictable. The only thing that Cobb could think about was how easily things could go wrong in such a scenario, and that’s what led her to come up with a story focusing on a hunting party.
The Hunting Wives Explores Complex Female Friendships
When May Cobb started writing the novel, she decided to focus the story on a group of women rather than men. Her prime focus was to use the premise to explore the toxic nature of certain female friendships and the power dynamics that play out in such situations. The idea of a gang leader (à la Regina George) led her to concoct the character of Margo Banks. While the author had the idea for the women who would follow her, she needed an outside perspective to bring the audience into the group, which is how Sophie O’Neil came into the picture.
Instead of splitting the story into good guys and bad guys, Cobb focused on creating flawed and human characters, all of whom walk the grey area. In this context, she wanted Sophie’s whole life to unravel due to her decisions. She starts out with a family that is almost perfect. Her husband is kind and caring, and there is no reason for her to find love and affection somewhere else. Yet, as choices are put in front of her, she ends up choosing the things that lead her down a dark path. With this, Cobb wanted to highlight that perfection doesn’t necessarily bring contentment and some people are bound to wonder where their darkest desires will lead them, which is what happens with Sophie.
When it came to bringing the characters to life on the screen, the show’s creators decided to present their own take on the story, which meant making some critical changes to the plot. With Cobb’s blessing, they added new plot twists which take the show in a different direction than how the events in the book turn out. Still, they knew that nothing would work if they didn’t stick to the core of the characters as written by the author. With the actors coming on board, new nuances of the characters were explored, which allowed them to feel closer to reality, despite the fictional nature of the characters and the story.
Read More: The Hunting Wives Ending Explained: Who Killed Abby?
