Submission: Showtime’s 2016 Mini-Series After Fifty Shades

Submission, the erotic-thriller mini-series created by Jacky St. James and Paul Fishbein, premiered on Showtime on 12 May 2016. Ashlynn Yennie, Justin Berti, Victoria Levine, and Raylin Joy lead it. The show is a layered BDSM power-exchange fantasy for adult viewers. Ashley Pendleton has just left a bad relationship. An erotic novel called SLAVE pulls her into BDSM. The creators said they wanted to answer the way Fifty Shades of Grey sold an abusive relationship as romance, and to show imperfect people in BDSM relationships: trust, communication, and saying in bed what you want and what you do not.

Desire inside a social circle

Ashley, played by Ashlynn Yennie, is recently out of a miserable relationship when she reads SLAVE, an erotic novel by the mysterious Nolan Keats. She moves into a circle of Elliott, Dylan, Jules, and Raif. Elliott (Justin Berti) is a BDSM practitioner who works with Dylan and later brings Ashley in. Dylan Quinn (Raylin Joy), Jules’s roommate, recruits women for Elliott. Jules (Victoria Levine) offers housing and has secrets of her own. Raif (Kevin Nelson), who owns a coffee bar, and Ashley are attracted to each other. The series does not reduce BDSM to one red-room contract. Jules is having an affair with her boss Scarlet (Nika Khitrova). Scarlet’s husband Tomas (Brent Harvey) does not know at the time. Later Jules, Scarlet, and Tomas settle into a faithful arrangement among the three of them. Jealousy, curiosity, and desire knock around under a softcore-thriller shell. The ethics behind the scenes stay messy.

Who else is in it

Recurring players: Richie Calhoun as Jonathan; Sara Luvv as Maura; Valerie Baber as Kimberly; Boston Blake as Anthony; Vicki Chase as Susannah; Karla Kush as Chelsea, a member of the book club Dylan organizes; Spike Mayer as Vincent, Ashley’s ex; Melissa Schumacher as Tina. Mainstream performers and adult-industry performers share a late-night cable show from the mid-2010s.

What the creators said they were doing

In a GQ interview Jacky St. James said Fifty Shades passed off an abusive relationship as an honest picture of the BDSM lifestyle. She wanted a more nuanced portrait. Ashlynn Yennie pushed the same criticism: Fifty Shades made kink look like something reserved for people who are messed up or dark. She hoped Submission would break that false belief and show what trust and communication mean when the sex is consensual and the people can say what they want and what they refuse. The trailer dropped on 29 April 2016, two weeks before the premiere. The marketing kept the tease and also wore the labels “against abuse” and “a correction.” That is the show’s public identity.

Ratings and reviews

The first episode did a 0.01 share, about 55,000 viewers. Episode two nearly doubled, to 106,000 viewers and a 0.02 share. Week three reached a 0.03 share and 119,000 viewers. The finale landed at a 0.02 share and 116,000 viewers. The absolute numbers never matched prime-time tentpoles. For a cable erotic mini-series, the climb after a weak open meant the people who found it tended to stay through the arc. Uproxx praised the series for trying to change how late-night erotica gets watched. SheKnows said Submission was less afraid than Fifty Shades to go into the BDSM world. For viewers who already know the scene, it is still cable softcore, with consent talk that is better than Christian Grey’s contracts. It is still fantasy and still a thriller, aimed at the decade’s most famous toxic power-exchange brand.