The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 2 Review – As charming as ever, despite lackluster romances

Season 1

Season 2

 

Episode Guide

Winter is Coming -| Review Score – 4/5
Frat Problems -| Review Score – 3.5/5
The Short King -| Review Score – 3/5
Will You Be My Girlfriend? -| Review Score – 4.5/5
Taking Shots -| Review Score – 4.5/5
Doppelbanger -| Review Score – 3/5
The Essex College Food Workers Strike -| Review Score – 3/5
Pre-Frosh Weekend -| Review Score – 3/5
Sex & Basketball -| Review Score – 4/5
The Rooming Lottery -| Review Score – 3.5/5

 

Season 2 of The Sex Lives of College Girls has a chemistry problem, although I don’t at all mean between its four leads. From the beginning of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s college drama, dynamic sparks of both friendship and enmity have flown between suitemates Bela (Amrit Kaur), Leighton (Reneé Rapp), Whitney (Alya Scott), and Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet). These four actresses play off one another extraordinarily well. So why can’t the same be said of the show’s romantic relationships?

There certainly are plenty of them in this season. We pick back up at Essex where we left off in season 1, following the girls’ return from Thanksgiving Break. While Kimberly still has to find a way to pay her way through college, their new neighbor Jackson (Mitchell Slaggert) provides a pleasant distraction. Meanwhile, a whole new dating world opens up to Leighton now that she’s openly gay, Whitney discovers new interests while navigating her own relationship drama, and Bela–in competition with Eric (Mekki Leeper) and The Catullan–works on making The Foxy a successful campus magazine.

It’s a delight to return to these characters and their dramatic problems, especially due to the show’s lighter treatment of them. The new storylines are altogether less moralizing than the first season’s, and that’s definitely a good thing. Because the occasions where writers use plot lines strictly as fodder for life lessons are trite at best. Several plot points introduce touchy subjects needing nuanced treatment writers fail to deliver. From inappropriate sexual advancements to the ups-and-downs of coming out, the HBO series would rather quickly move on from these issues.

In the end, maybe that’s for the best, because the show shines its brightest in the lighthearted moments that focus on the characters’ personal growth and their chemistry with each other. I want more moments to laugh at or cheer for from the show. I want that goofy montage of Leighton giving Kimberly injections, or Lila having the time of her life at a party, or Whitney kicking ass in an advanced biochemistry class. Season 2 of The Sex Lives of College Girls delivers these and more.

For the most part, season 2 of the comedy drama takes its characters in refreshing and fun directions–except when it comes to their romantic developments. If you’ve seen season 1, you’ve been a witness to the rushed romances Whitney and Kimberly find themselves in. Unfortunately, season 2 forces more lackluster relationships on these two, without care for building any romantic tension.

It would be fine if this were strictly a sex comedy, and not a romantic comedy, as its title might suggest. And it at times is, using the suitemates’ sex lives to wax comically on subjects like STDs and monogamy. But if The Sex Lives of College Girls is going to obviously and consistently peddle romance and relationships, as it does, it should go about this the right way by giving its characters time (and the right scripts) to build chemistry. The way the show deals with relationships now is like something out of a soap opera. It’s all about the drama of the get-togethers and the breakups, not the romantic and sexual tension in the build-up. Frankly, it’s boring, and unfair to all that these actors could bring to the table.

Writers owe more to the talents of Kaur, Rapp, Scott, and Chalamet–whose chemistry with each other is so tangible, it’s no surprise viewers can hardly stand developments that threaten their beloved dynamic. After a cliffhanger that sets us up for the suitemates’ greatest challenge yet, I know I’ll be waiting eagerly and anxiously for a resolution: one I’m sure will be equally nail-biting and entertaining–as is most of this charming comedy.


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  • Verdict - 7.1/10
    7.1/10
7.1/10

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