“The Sex Lives of College Girls” Is So Much Fun
When I was getting ads on HBO’s streaming service in 2021 for The Sex Lives of College Girls, I put it on my mental not-interested list. If I’m being honest, I didn’t like the name of the show, because I was thinking, “I’m not really interested in knowing about the sex lives of college girls, I think I had enough of that when I actually went to college.” But I was wrong. The Sex Lives of College Girls is really sweet and funny, and it doesn’t solely focus on the girl’s sex lives, even though that is a huge part. The show mimics the American college experience in a realistic, lively way, bringing to light some of the best and worst aspects of the collegiate-campus bubbles that many people have been through or find themselves in.
Released in 2021 and created by Mindy Kaling and her longtime collaborator Justin Noble, the show is another in Kaling's vein of lighthearted comedy-dramas (such as Never Have I Ever, or The Mindy Project) which showcases life as a minority growing up and existing in an ethnically and racially diverse United States. Sex Lives focuses on four first-year students who have been assigned to each other as roommates. Kimberly, played by Pauline Chalamet, is a low-income student who has to work her way through school while stressing about maintaining her scholarship. Renée Rapp plays Leighton, a wealthy legacy student from New York who is closeted. Amrit Kaur plays Bela, an Indian-American student whose goal is to become a comedian, and Alyah Channelle Scott plays Whitney, a Black college soccer star whose mother is a powerful US Senator.
The show touches on issues of race, gender, diversity, class-status, and sexual orientation. It portrays the American college experience as a meeting between different types of people who grew up in different circumstances, and in this way it’s quite accurate to the American college campus. I remember feeling amazed when I realized how contrasting some of my college roommate’s life experiences were to mine, and grateful that we were able to learn from each other, realizing that although our differences were apparent, we were, underneath it all, made of the same stuff.
In The Sex Lives of College Girls, there exists parallels between Bela’s character and creator Mindy Kaling’s lived life. Kaling attended Dartmouth College, where she joined an improvisational comedy troupe, an a capella group, created a comic strip for Dartmouth’s daily newspaper, and wrote for the college’s humor magazine. It’s apparent that she had aspirations to become a comedian from an early age, and seeing Bela’s character development on the show as she faces issues of harassment and unfairness, makes the viewer realize what a climb it must have been for Kaling to reach the position she is in today, as a highly respected creator and writer.
Season 2 of Sex Lives is coming soon (November 17th!) and I couldn’t be more excited. Ultimately, I love a low-stakes kind of show, and even though Sex Lives touches on some serious topics, the show is extremely hopeful and happy in tone. In the same vein as Emily in Paris or Gilmore Girls, the things that happen in this show definitely happen in real life, but the tone of this story is still lighthearted and funny. If you, like me, put this show on your mental not-interested list, give it a try and check it out.
