[PREVIEW] Everyone's Having Fun In 'The Sex Lives of College Girls'

We both have a lot in common with famous comedy multi-hyphenate Mindy Kaling. We often wonder if everyone is hanging out without us, and we adore romantic comedies. Most importantly, we graduated from college over a decade ago, and some part of us can’t help but wonder: Are young women on campus these days having more fun than we did, personally? (Or would they be, you know, Covid aside.)To be fair, we have no reason to believe this niggling question was the exact inspiration for Kaling’s delightful (if sometimes a bit didactic) comedy “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” However, watching the show did make us surprisingly wistful for the world of college dating and hookups — an experience that seems much more pleasurable, sex-positive, and thrilling for the central characters than we recall it being for us in the late aughts. It’s a sweetly funny vision of undergrad life, populated by women who might not have everything figured out, but who are at least having very satisfying sex at least some of the time. Our main foursome — Bela Malhotra (Amrit Kaur), Kimberly Finkle (Pauline Chalamet), Whitney Chase (Alyah Chanelle Scott), and Leighton Murray (Renée Rapp) — are freshwomen who have been thrown together by the housing gods at Essex College, a fictional Ivy-ish school in Vermont. Bela is a gregarious aspiring comedy writer and abs enthusiast eager to climb the ranks of the legendary campus comedy mag and enjoy a sexual Rumspringa after years as a pimply nerd. Awkward Kimberly, a sheltered girl from a small town in Arizona, just wants to study hard and wow her French professor — at least until she develops a major crush on Leighton’s hot older brother Nico. WASPy Leighton is a tortured snob in Cher Horowitz-esque designer skirt suits who winds up in their suite after her two prep school besties ask not to be roomed with her; she’s also deeply in the closet, and holds everyone at arm’s length to avoid being found out. Whitney, the clean-cut daughter of a well-known progressive senator, is a rising star on the Essex women’s soccer team — oh, and she’s having a secret affair with the hot assistant coach.As these four very different women become friends and explore the college experience, they encounter many frat parties with elaborate themes, hot guys, and triumphant successes on math assessment quizzes. But it’s not all fun and naked parties. Leighton’s journey to self-acceptance is an emotionally painful one. Kimberly, who comes from a working-class background, struggles to acclimate to the socioeconomically privileged space she’s worked so hard to reach. Whitney wants to escape the burden of her mom’s high-profile, all-consuming career. And Bela finds that the path to comedy glory at Essex is littered with leering men and overt sexism. But again and again, they find supportive allies and communities to lift them up and set them on the right path. In this episode, we talk about the way “Sex Lives” portrays the sex lives of young women, how the show explores class and race, which characters we identify with, and whether the show’s cozy vision of women’s lives on campus — even in the aftermath of sexual harassment — is perfectly comforting or at times a bit too perfect to resonate. We hope you enjoy! xoShareWe’ve been watching…“Abbott Elementary”!!! It’s been a minute since I’ve been wowed by a network sitcom, but I saw a fair amount of buzz for this new single-cam mockumentary created by and starring Quinta Brunson, so I checked it out. And… wow. It’s a workplace comedy very much in the vein of “The Office” — the conceit of a documentary team following an ordinary group of workers, the incompetent and narcissistic boss, the smart but downtrodden lead, the characters always punctuating awkward moments with a glance at the camera — which happens to be a vein I really love. It’s super funny, full of heart (especially for public school teachers and kids), and is setting up a classic will-they-won’t-they for Brunson’s character and the handsome new sub, which I am prepared to ship. Also, I’ve been watching “Yellowjackets” for a future pod, which is wigging me out to the point that on Friday night I couldn’t go to sleep because I kept thinking someone had broken into our apartment and was standing behind our bedroom door. I love art. -ClaireThe final season of “The Hookup Plan,” a criminally underrated French Netflix show which centers of the romantic and professional and personal travails of three Parisian women in their early 30s. Whereas the first season focused in on the absurdity (and ultimately romance) of Elsa’s two best friends, Charlotte and Emilie, setting her up with a very sexy sex worker, Jules, season three is quieter and less bombastic in nature. The three main characters have gotten a bit older, settled into careers and relationships and are looking ahead at what the next stage of their lives might be. Elsa and Jules are desperate to have a child but are encountering fertility issues. Emilie and husband Antoine wonder if they were meant to be parents to just one child after a surprise second pregnancy. Charlotte, who has never wanted kids, starts to lose herself in a relationship and wonder what it looks like to really take care of herself. I loved this short and sweet season because it mirrored — in a lighthearted way — many of the questions my peers are currently asking ourselves, and it provides some reassurance that friendships can persist even when best friends don’t answer these questions in the same way. -EmmaWe’ve been reading…Danielle J. Lindemann’s upcoming sociological survey of American reality TV, “True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us”! We’ve always talked a lot about how “The Bachelor” both reflects us and shapes us, holds up a funhouse mirror to society and also helps perpetuate the aspects of society that it captures. But Lindemann’s book dives deep on this, examining shows from “The Real World” to “Survivor” to “Real Housewives” and drawing upon decades of scholarship on this genre and mass media generally. Much like another recent reality read, “How to Win ‘The Bachelor’” by Lizzy Pace and Chad Kultgen (whom we interviewed about their book on “Love to See It” last week), “True Story” takes a rigorous, critical look at reality TV. While “How to Win ‘The Bachelor’” focuses on deconstructing how players experience the form, “True Story” deconstructs how it represents and works in our society. Both books have been really thought-provoking and clarifying, and just a wonderful way to begin a new year of “Bachelor” coverage with renewed vigor and perspective. -ClaireI (appropriately) literarily-binged my way through “How To Win ‘The Bachelor’” before our podcast last week, and I finally finished Lauren Oyler’s wonderful “Fake Accounts,” a book I had gotten halfway through last year when it came out, loved what I read and yet just never finished. Sometimes, it’s nice to go back to the things that your brain couldn’t concentrate on for whatever reason. The latter half was just as satisfying as the first. -EmmaWe’ve been listening to…“Normal Gossip,” the new Defector podcast hosted by our bud Kelsey McKinney! Just a little something she cooked up when she wasn’t publishing a brilliant novel, cofounding a worker-owned media company, reporting, and writing scorching essays. Each episode features an anonymized but real piece of gossip from the lives of normal people. I’m not the kind of person who receives a lot of gossip, probably because I have a relatively small social network, don’t like to pry and am not charming enough to do it tactfully, and can be kind of judgmental (friends, please feel free to let me know other reasons why you don’t want to tell me gossip). This is unfortunate, because I LOVE GOSSIP. This pod fills a real hole in my life and I’m grateful. -Claire I find Claire’s recommendation rude because I was ALSO planning to recommend “Normal Gossip” this week. (JK Claire, I guess we can share this one!!!) As someone who has a completely insatiable thirst for delicious gossip, Kelsey’s new pod washes over me like a balm — a balm that I immediately want more of the minute it’s soaked in. -EmmaWe’ve been buying…Long underwear on sale from 32 Degrees. Jeans aren’t enough to keep my legs from going numb on playground trips this time of year (I used to be able to just choose to stay inside in the winter, but no more). A previous purchase from Land’s End proved to have a ridiculously thick, wide, loose waistband, but these seem to fit and have a much more normal amount of elastic. Stay warm out there, kids! -ClaireI’ve already raved about August + Monroe’s 3-in-1 Blemish Camouflage stick, which I’m about to place a refill order for, but I recently tried their Calm Cream, a beautifully-packaged, lightweight moisturizer (my boyfriend even loved using it when we were traveling), which can be easily turned into an effective tinted moisturizer when mixed with the blemish camo! I’ve been wearing it daily and it makes me feel like I don’t need to put on foundation most of the time. I also have continued my Abercrombie obsession, and have found that their seamless bodysuits, like this crewneck one and this mock turtleneck one (which is currently on sale!) are the perfect layering pieces for freezing NYC winter weather if you want to both be warm and feel chic. -EmmaShare Rich Text