At first glance, Sweet/Vicious might not be the type of show that a lot of people would bother watching. It’s on late, on MTV, it has no big stars, and it is inherently feminist, which is still a turn-off for many. Perhaps MTV knew this and so slated it on Tuesday night at 10:00, right after Teen Wolf, one of their biggest hits. Because of the time slot and because I am an avid Teen Wolf viewer myself, I’ve watched Sweet/Vicious from the beginning. I won’t lie: for the first couple episodes I only watched it because I didn’t yet feel like moving off the couch. However, as the season went on I became hooked and in the past few weeks finally decided this was a good show. But it’s not only just another good MTV show – it’s important and more need to be watching it.
The two main characters – Jules (Eliza Bennett) and Ophelia (Taylor Dearden) – take on the task of bringing justice to rapists on their college campus. They dress in all black, change their voices, learn to fight, and use these skills to jump known yet unpunished rapists, beating them down and making them promise they won’t do it again. It is a superhero show for college women, complete with two relatable, strong, and flawed female leads. It is a show that can be laugh out loud funny as much as it can be darkly serious while taking on a current, sensitive societal issue.
What makes this premise work as well as it does is the fact that Jules herself is a victim of sexual assault. While her struggle with it is mentioned in nearly all episodes, it was brought to a point in the January 10th episode, which featured flashbacks to Jules’s assault. The portrayal of her assault and the inclusion of her honest struggle with it marked an important episode of television, which up front shows a common assault scenario on college campuses. It also does a good job of showing how Jules is a survivor. She takes this heartbreaking event and turns it into fuel for her own revenge. She is not a damsel in distress who has been permanently knocked off her feet; instead, Jules uses her struggle to fuel her badassery.
This is not a common storyline on television anywhere and a show like this has not yet been seen before. It is fresh and bold and is doing a great job filling a void that very much needed to be filled. It is giving a voice to a too-large group that is often made voiceless by media and much of society today. To get to the point, Sweet/Vicious deserves to be recognized for doing what it set out to do: bring attention to the commonality of sexual assault on college campuses everywhere and the faults of the system meant to protect students. The basis of the show is rooted in the fact that very few assaults end with an arrest and guilty charge. Sweet/Vicious calls out these flaws as Jules and Ophelia take their version of a solution into their own fists. With this show MTV is taking on several college rape common factors – star students escaping punishment, victim-blaming counselors, and lack of immediate resources – and fighting back. The best part? They are fighting not only for the characters on the show, but also for victims everywhere. So next time you crave a Netflix binge, switch over to MTV instead. Sweet/Vicious deserves to be more than just the show on after Teen Wolf: it should be a phenomenon in and of itself.
If you are a victim of sexual assault, there are many ways to get help. Philadelphia University Safety & Security can be contacted 24/7 at 215-951-2999. For more extensive information go to http://www.philau.edu/counseling/sexualassault.html . The National Sexual Assault Hotline can also be reached at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
To find more information on Sweet Vicious visit the MTV website