They say you should never judge a book by its cover (or a TV show by its title for that matter), but it’s kind of hard not to be curious about what “I Love Dick” is all about. Thankfully, the new Amazon series, based on Chris Kraus’ 1997 book of the same name, makes its debut this Friday.
Kevin Bacon stars as Dick, a rough-around-the-edges artist and local celebrity in the close-knit arts community of Marfa, Texas. Chris (Kathryn Hahn), a struggling New York filmmaker, accompanies her husband Sylvere (Griffin Dunne) to Dick’s artist residency and immediately becomes obsessed with the sculpture-making cowboy. As her muse, Dick awakens an artistic fire in Chris that is sexy, electric and at times, a little awkward.
But Bacon insists that Dick is way more than an object of desire for Chris.
“One could make the assumption that the male characters are going to be looked at from a feminist view because it was an all-female writers group [on the project],” he says. “What the writers have created is a well-drawn, complex male character who, by the end of the show, moves beyond being the object to being a vulnerable, confused and complicated man.”
The 58-year-old actor also notes that some men might be “frightened” by being the subject of the female gaze.
“Sometimes men think that the foundation of feminism is anger and that’s a mistake,” he reveals. “When you look at this show, I think that what you see is a lot of love. Women are often more in touch with love than man are.”
Well if you’re looking for love, you’ve come to the right place — just not in the way you think. Chris begins giving life to her infatuation with Dick through a series of erotic letters she writes to him, which she of course, reads out loud to her husband, adding a long lost fire to their own marriage. The out-of-the-box ménage à trois may seem a little complicated at first, but once you get to know these irresistible characters, you too will love Dick.
“I Love Dick” premieres on May 12 on Amazon.
