by Mike Hilty, Contributing writer
My first semester of college was a culture shock for me. I was pretty straight-laced in high school, even though my friends and I would get into trouble from time to time. In that first semester, I learned a lot about myself, what I’m capable of, and most importantly, who some of my friends were. I was fortunate to live with a friend of mine from home during my freshman year. I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I had a random roommate instead.
This brings me to the cohort in The Sex Lives of College Girls. After their first semester, suitemates Bela (Amrit Kaur), Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet), Leighton (Reneé Rapp), and Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) are back to more hijinks and chaos. After the events of Season One, Season Two picks up pretty much exactly where they left off: with debauchery and bad decisions.
These first two seasons aren’t all that different, which is something I oddly appreciate. Mindy Kaling hopefully saw that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Generally, Season Two revolves around more sexual escapades, just with different people and in different situations. Most cast members are back from Season One, except for one notably absent person, which still hasn’t been explained that well.
Leighton has the strongest story here, not just personally, but also from a performance standpoint for Rapp. She’s doing some pretty amazing work, and her character flourishes. Leighton used to be my least favorite character of the group, and now she’s solidly in second place. Season One is full of discovery and trying to figure out how she is as a person. Leighton takes this and amplifies it even further, finally being comfortable with who she is. It’s a rather heartwarming story, and watching Leighton open up to people as her true self is joyous to watch.
Kimberly is still my favorite character, and she’s still up to her usual manic and weird ways. I wasn’t a huge fan of her storyline continuation from Season One, and how it was ultimately resolved. It was a rather flippant resolution to a pretty huge problem, which makes me wonder if there will be any sense of consequences at any point down the road. I also struggled a little with the end of her story in Season Two. She ends up involved with someone that puts her in direct conflict with one of her roommates. Although I do understand that conflict is inevitable with roommates, I also struggle with conflict that feels a little trivial. Overall, Chalamet (sidebar, it’s a little weird saying that last name and not meaning Timothée) has some of the funniest lines and plot points of the season.
Whitney feels like the odd person out when it comes to character development, but she also has the most organic story of the roommates. It involves her going to class and figuring out what she wants to do long-term. I appreciated this story because we don’t focus as much on actual classes in Season Two. I also like how she doesn’t spend most of the season prepping for soccer next season. There’s also less interaction with her senator mother, Evette (Sherri Shepard), and the only times they talk are filled with less conflict. It is a nice change of pace from a season ago.
I have a problem with what they do with Bela’s character this season. She is a strong character that went through a pretty bad situation in Season One. The followup to this is borderline character assassination. Unless it’s a way to showcase some PTSD from Season One, I didn’t like a lot of her story decisions, especially in the second half of the season. If they had stayed the course with her story from the first half of Season Two, she would have been just fine. Instead, they literally dismantle everything about her, and leave her in a rather perilous position going into the end of the season.
One character who gets more spotlight is Lila (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino). After starting as one-note character who is mainly there for jokes, Lila has evolved to be funny and ambitious, and has some more agency. I like what they do with Lila this season, and I hope they continue her evolution. Another character that gets a little more spotlight is Canaan (Christopher Meyer). We get some backstory that helps showcase who is he as a person, but we also see the results of what happens when you go to class. I’m hoping Canaan gets some more attention.
The Sex Lives of College Girls is a pretty basic show that I have absolutely fallen in love with. All the characters are great, and I generally enjoy most of the storylines from Season Two. I didn’t like how the season ends, because it feels like unnecessary drama, and sometimes I wish there was more to say about the experience of college for women like there was in Season One. I do like that we focus on everything on campus. No weekends at home, no spring break, no road trips to other schools. I’m excited about the prospect of Season Three, and hopefully HBO Max doesn’t just change its mind.
Score: 8/10
The Sex Lives of College Girls is currently streaming on HBO Max
You can follow Mike Hilty on Twitter, Letterboxd, and Serializd