Hit or Miss: HBO Max's 'The Sex Lives of College Girls'
The second season of HBO Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls premieres Nov. 17 and the latest trailer for it sees the young women of Essex College return to their campus ready to get down to (dirty) business. Season 1 of the series debuted in November of 2021 and HBO Max confirmed its second run renewal before the end of the year. The half-hour comedy sets itself apart from other romantic comedy-dramas by embracing and making light of the ugly and uncomfortable in addition to the awkward and endearing.
The series follows Pauline Chalamet (The King of Staten Island, What Doesn’t Float) as Kimberly, Amrit Kaur (Little Italy, The D Cut) as Bela, Reneé Rapp (Broadway Whodunit: Murder at Montgomery Manor) as Leighton, and Alyah Chanelle Scott (Reboot) as Whitney. The four girls are freshman roommates at a liberal arts college in Vermont. Thrown together by random selection, the roommates end up bonding through their shared pursuit of understanding romance, sexuality, and their own changing identities. Co-creators Mindy Kaling (Never Have I Ever, The Mindy Project) and Justin Noble (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Idiotsitter) helm the series as executive producers and both boast impressive credits in television and film comedy.
The show’s trailer takes viewers back to a snow-covered Essex College where Kimberly, Bela, Leighton and Whitney get ready for a ‘Winter Underland’ themed fraternity party— “this is gonna be one of the best nights of our lives!” As the booze flows, the girls enjoy ogling the shirtless boys spread throughout the inebriated crowd of partiers while “Hot in It” by Tiësto and Charlie XCX plays in the background. “I’ve never seen this many hot, shirtless men in one place,” Kaur’s Bela reflects out loud as an idea takes shape. Immediately, the trailer cuts ahead to Bela making a proposition to the group--starting a male strip club on campus.
At first, her roommates are horrified— “a strip show?” Kimberly exclaims— but Bela assures them this won’t be like any other strip show they’ve seen. “It’s a sex-positive, female-forward strip-tacular,” Bela insists as viewers are treated to a quick montage of shots featuring muscle-clad male students grinding sensually on an auditorium stage to the screaming delight of their female audience. The trailer then cuts back to the dorm room discussion where Leighton makes a bid to support Bela’s proposal by adding enthusiastically “it’s also a fundraiser for climate change.” Apparently convinced, Whitney announces “we better party while we can.”
As the trailer progresses, viewers are given repeated glimpses of a new face after the girls encounter Mitchell Slaggert (Gossip Girl, Wish Upon) as Jackson, the tall blonde beef-cake living in the girls’ residential hall. Jackson never seems to have a shirt on and the girls’ sensual admiration of his body offers a hilarious reversal of the male gaze that leaves the four leads unabashedly staring with their mouths agape whenever the Adonis strolls by.
While the show doesn’t shy away from drama-fueled conflict, it finds its humor in its slapstick, irreverent, and pop-culture infused portrayal of how people respond to that adversity. In one segment of the trailer, Kimberly discovers she needs to raise $42,000 in order to stay enrolled at school. One person suggests enlisting in the military, someone else advises getting hit by a city bus, and Bela tells her to sell pictures of her feet on the dark web.
Whitney, too, faces uncertainty in the trailer; she doesn’t know if her boyfriend wants an exclusive relationship. “Well, did you ask him if he was seeing other people?” Leighton asks. “You don’t ask guys these things,” a shocked Whitney responds, “You ask everyone else you know.”
The trailer also makes sure to give viewers a fleeting look at the spicier elements of the show… the parts its title alludes to. Bela, writing from experience, pitches a story for a school publication about how “short kings” are “unexpected sex gods.” Leighton, meanwhile, finds herself hooking up with a series of girls in an effort to “catch up” to her friends in the bedroom experience department.
Before it concludes, the trailer flashes a series of quick clips featuring everything from sloppy make out sessions at drunken parties to overly enthusiastic sorority rush chants. The last gag viewers see occurs when the girls stop by Jackson’s room to ask him to quiet down. Naturally, he’s shirtless and mounting his TV to the wall when they find him. He offers a charming apology and assures the swooning girls that “I just finished,” to which Bela responds, “you and me both.” A title card announces that The Sex Lives of College Girls returns to HBO Max on Nov. 17 and “Hot in It” fades out in the background.
Judging by the trailer, the show’s second season appears to have the makings of a hit. While season one charmed critics and earned a 97% approval rating and the ‘Certified Fresh’ designation on Rotten Tomatoes, it garnered a less impressive 75% audience score. If The Sex Lives of College Girls hopes to see its protagonists become upperclassmen, this sophomore season will be crucial in cementing audience engagement for seasons to come.
The Sex Lives of College Girls will also feature Midori Francis (Dash & Lily, Good Boys), Christopher Meyer (General Hospital, iZombie), Ilia Isorelýs Paulino (Me Time, Queenpins), Lauren Spencer (Give Me Liberty, NCIS: Los Angeles) and Renika Williams (Healing River, Intrusion) in its second season. All ten episodes of the first season are available to stream on HBO Max.
