Television Review: “The Sex Lives of College Girls” Pays Homage to Female Friendships
Stories about female friendships, particularly ones that feature four women, is a genre that surpasses space, time, and glasses of cosmopolitans. Take Little Women, for example. American novelist and poet Louisa May Alcott (perhaps the OG of crafting four women ensembles) used her coming-of-age tale to comment on the complexities of 19th-century women through the lives of the March sisters. Though Margaret, Josephine, Elizabeth, and Amy have distinct personalities and motivations, the one thing that holds them together is their love and admiration for one another. The first 2,000 copies of Alcott’s timeless tale sold out because young women and girls saw themselves in one, or if not all, of the siblings. And because of the book’s popularity, numerous stages, films, and even television shows had adapted the series for its loyal fanbase.
Television shows like The Golden Girls, Living Single, and Sex and the City may not be direct adaptations of Little Women. Still, they capture the spirit of Alcott’s book by covering themes, such as romantic relationships, womanhood, and personal growth. Television writer and producer Susan Harris took what Alcott started and spearheaded a sitcom about four older women living it up in Miami. While Living Single, a sitcom featuring four Black women residing in a Brooklyn brownstone, shows the beauty and diversity of Black sisterhood. And for better and worst, Sex And the City put career-driven women front and center during the golden age of anti-heroes on HBO.
In some ways, Mindy Kaling’s transition from comedian to showrunner would have never happened without the success of the previously mentioned shows. The Mindy Project and Never Have I Ever, two shows created by Kaling, cover the same female-driven storylines The Golden Girls and Living Single championed but with a modern and multicultural twist. And Kaling and co-creator Justin Noble continues to pay homage to these works with their new HBO Max comedy, The Sex Lives of College Girls. Though the sitcom does not set women-centric stories ablaze, Kaling and Noble’s humorous but nuanced approach to sex, relationships, and female friendships at a prestigious private college give the show an edge.
The Sex Lives of College Girls follows four first-year dormmates attending a fictional private higher institution in Vermont called Essex College. These college gals include Kimberly (Paulie Chalamet), a working-class scholarship kid from Arizona; Bela (Amrit Kaur), an Indian girl with dreams of joining the Catullan, the school’s comedy magazine; Leighton (Reneé Rapp), a preppy legacy student with a secret; and Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), a rising Black soccer star and daughter of a senator. Together, these young women learn to navigate sex, romance, and campus politics while maintaining their GPAs. The four young women come from different economic and ethnic backgrounds, but they realize their blossoming friendship makes college worthwhile.
Like its predecessors, The Sex Lives of College Girls celebrates the highs and lows of sisterhood from the perspective of the collegiate quartet. They gossip about boys, complain about their college professors, and provide each other advice within the first five episodes for review. Kaling and her writing team depict this when Bela complains to her roommates that the Catullan has a “women quota,” meaning they only accept a small number of women for their magazine. Without missing a beat, the girlfriends dive in with their suggestions. Kimberly advice Bela to report the issue to University Affairs – and the ACLU. Whereas Leighton tells her it is better to impress the male members of the comedy troupe than be a “histrionic feminist.” Of course, Bela chooses the wrong suggestion, and the results are hilarious, cringy, and wholly human. Yet, this scene brilliantly shows that these college students may be academically bright, but they are not necessarily ready for the real world yet. Fortunately for the young ladies, they learn navigating adulthood is more fun with friends. And is that not the most important lesson of college?
Typically, television shows about teens and young adults depict sex unrealistically. Dramas like Riverdale and both versions of Gossip Girl portray adolescents as masters of the bedroom when that is far from the truth. Notably, The Sex Lives of College Girls treats sex for what it is, which is messy, sweet, and sometimes even funny. One scene that captures this wonderfully is when Kimberly loses her virginity to high school sweetheart Max. In the scene, the two young adults have sex on a couch while “Collide” by Tom Speight plays in the background. Their coupling is romantic and a little humorous (the camera tilts up to a poster of Seth Meyers). And far from the parade of teen shows on the CW, this scene normalizes sex between young adults instead of glorifying it with handsome actors. In The Sex Lives of College Girl, everyone explores their sexuality, whether they look like KJ Apa or not.
The jokes in The Sex Lives of College Girls may not hit every time, but Kaling and her team have a knack for creating fully fleshed characters with peculiar traits, fashion sensibilities, and story arcs. Kimberly’s journey from Arizona golden child to struggling scholarship kid is fascinating because it shows the disparities between affluent and poor students on prestigious college campuses. The college freshman even gets a crash course on it when she realizes that everyone in her advanced French class volunteered at fancy nonprofits over the summer while she worked at a dog kennel. Bela may have her parent’s financial support, but she quickly learns that her race and gender make her an outsider (and target) with the Catullan. And in terms of queer representation, the writers do not use Leighton’s journey with her sexuality and identity for shock value. Unfortunately, Whitney’s storyline is the weakest out of the group. Though her growing support from her teammates is a stellar example of sisterhood, her affair with a particular faculty member feels dated.
When it comes to the four women ensemble, Little Women pioneered it, Sex and the City popularized it, and The Sex Lives of College Girls proves that there are more stories to tell within the genre. Despite some minor quibbles, Kaling’s new show is worth viewing. Not only does the sitcom pays respect to female friendships, but its take on relationships and sex feel authentic. It also helps that the leads look and sound like college students.
