by Austen Terry, Contributing Writer
The first two seasons of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s The Sex Lives of College Girls were pretty good — they pulled me in quickly. The show follows Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), Bela (Amrit Kaur), and Leighton (Reneé Rapp), who are roommates in an Essex College quad dorm, each from completely different backgrounds. They are now starting their sophomore year, after their freshman year left them apart from one another. Bela had found that she no longer wanted to go to Essex, as she was failing and alienated from the group of comedy friends. Kimberly and Whitney were at odds, as Kimberly had fallen for Whitney’s ex without telling her about it. Leighton was finally out, realizing she was still in love with a girl she briefly dated in Season One. And with a new season comes new characters. First we meet Kacey (Gracie Lawrence), who comes to Essex for her boyfriend, and then Taylor (Mia Rodgers), who is troublesome for Bela.
Without getting into much more detail, that’s where Season Three picks up. Chalamet, Scott, Kaur, and Rapp are extremely good together, and they quickly feel like they have always been friends. Each actress plays their character well, and the arcs the girls go through are what keep fans coming back. Rapp is the reason I heard about this show after she appeared as Regina George in 2023’s Mean Girls. I wasn’t familiar with the other actresses, but they have all made me want to see more of their work. Rodgers and Lawrence bring new perspectives to the group and you can see how they will fit right in.
This show has been a champion of the LGBTQ+ community, not only by featuring queer and trans characters, but also by casting queer actors to play them. This show also is very female-driven, and despite the title, is completely for the female gaze.
In Season Three, the girls return to Essex, and it almost immediately feels like someone else has taken control. Many streaming shows suffer from not having the same writers return through multiple seasons. Sex Lives had Vanessa Baden serving as story editor in Season One, Beth Appel and Sheridan Watson Season Two, and now Modupe Thompson in Season three. They all do a good job, but Thompson rushes through the hanging threads from Season Two, to introduce the new ones.
But Season Three does get better, and that’s thanks to the inclusion of Rodgers and Lawrence, to whom the main quad are passing on knowledge from their past experiences. These girls all face different struggles, from being in love with someone who is straight, being an alcoholic, feeling rejected by students and teachers, feeling as if they havne’t done enough, being smarter than everyone else, or having someone come along who is better than them. The show gives its own insight into most of the things which people tend to struggle with in college. I’ve been out of college a while now, but the show feels very true to life.
The Sex Lives of College Girls brings heart to an area of life where young adults need more guidance. We can all learn from these characters in many ways. I’m hoping for more seasons, as this show seems to be loved by the LGBTQ+ community, and we live in times where we desperately need more representation in the media.
Rating: High Side of Liked It
The Sex Lives of College Girls is currently streaming on Max
You can read more from Austen Terry, or follow them on Instagram and Letterboxd