Sex life season one was HOT! It gave us spice, flavour and intense orgasms! Who doesn’t love that? Season one was about our protagonist: Bille’s incredible sex life before she married her husband, Cooper. It told the story of her most intense love: Brad and her safest love: Cooper. I thought this second season would be more of the same. I was in for quite the surprise.
When I started watching season 2, I didn’t expect this piece to be about strong women and making a way in a man’s world. I thought it’d be a review of the show. Which means, a review of sex and its many effects on people but as I kept watching, it became so much more. I couldn’t not make this about women and feminism.
Episode 1
Abysmal is the word that comes to mind. The review of this episode has NOTHING to do with women but everything to do with how awful the acting, pacing, directing and hell even writing was!! I was truly excited to get started on this season because I adored season 1 but I was shocked! I started questioning if I remembered the first season properly. If I didn’t have to write this piece I probably would have stopped then and there but alas, here we are.
I couldn’t understand why I could see the actors actually ‘acting’. It’s not meant to be that way. It’s meant to be as seamless as possible. I should forget I’m watching a movie and be fully sucked into the story but that, obviously wasn’t the case at all. Billie was so dramatic and Sasha, her best friend was god-awful to watch. I could barely stand it. The audio for the episode was also wayyy off. Their voices were too loud, too “cinematic”. It was almost like it was recorded after they were done shooting the movie, then edited into it. Even if that happened, I shouldn’t be able to tell. Not in the slightest. Also, that sex scene with Sasha and her long-lost love(Kam) from 17 years ago…was that supposed to be hot? The entire thing was a huge mess! However, there was a massive switch in the second episode. Things started to come together and everything started making sense. Also, the acting got loads better. It was almost like they exchanged the actors for their doppelgangers.
Episode 2
This episode was different. This was the episode that made me realise this was a whole new show and it began when Billie stood up to her mother. Her mum, Vivian flew down to Connecticut to try to help her daughter, “save” her marriage but what she really did was blame Billie and try to shame her for her sexual appetite but Billie wouldn’t have any of it. She told her off as she should have many years ago. “My desire was never the problem in my marriage. My problem was dishonesty and the source of that dishonesty was shame. And it was shame that you taught me.”
These words were EVERYTHING to me. Growing up women are taught to cover up, close their legs, look away, don’t go out at night, don’t go anywhere alone and so much more. When we get older we’re told not to be a flirt but also to make sure not to be a prude either. We need to be alluring enough to invite a man but at the same time chaste enough to keep him. It’s disgusting. Women were made for so much more than to satisfy a man.
Because of all we’re taught, women hide their desires and are uncomfortable with how much sex they crave. They carry shame for years and many of us pass it on to our children and them to their children. It’s a cycle that never ends and we see Billie stand up to it in this episode. She calls her mother out for it and it is EVERYTHING!
Later on in the episode, we come to learn that Vivian wasn’t coming from a place of hate or disgust but of fear. She went through being shamed for her sex life and she didn’t want the same thing to happen to her daughter. She thought the best and only way to prevent that was to teach her fear as well, not acceptance.
Episode 3
Billie got a lot of heartbreaking news in this episode, all on the same day. From catching her current boyfriend Majid making out with another woman to getting called by her seven-year-old son because he caught her friend in bed with her husband who she’s separated from and currently going through a divorce with, to said husband breaking down and confessing feelings for her and begging her to get back together but when she doesn’t agree he loses his shit, screams at her and leaves her feeling terrible with tears rolling down her face. I thought this was a pretty powerful scene because Billie never wanted to leave her husband. She wasn’t satisfied but she had gotten comfortable and she was prepared to live the rest of her life that way but Cooper didn’t give her a choice. He demanded a divorce and even though he was now weak and wanted to run back to her, she had gotten to a point in her life where she knew they were not the best for each other. She missed him but it wasn’t worth it and she knew it.
On the other hand, Sasha had to learn a hard lesson in this episode. Society and social media can be very unforgiving, especially to women. After 17 years apart, she and the college love of her life finally find their way back to each other. After so many years, Sasha is finally happy with her success and a man. She never thought she could have both together but she was wrong and it gave her immense joy. Sasha’s launching a second novel after her first won New York Times best seller with a new agent who’s taking her to new levels. During her interview for an event she spearheaded, Sasha is asked questions about her new book that’s literally called Unattached and it’s basically about a woman being independent. When she’s asked what her secret is, she mentions her agent and a boyfriend. After the interview social media pounced. She’s mocked for calling herself independent when she has a man who can ‘shut her up’; it was sickening to watch. It made something we all already know strikingly clear. See a woman that claims to be independent has to be alone, the moment she gets a partner, she becomes dependent but a man? He could have a billion partners and it’s not even a question. Of course, he’s independent!!
Episode 4
I said FINALLY in this episode. MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT: Billie and Brad are not together because he’s with a model who’s pregnant for him. However, Brad runs into some trouble and Billie decides to try to be there for him. She goes over to his loft fully prepared to be there as just a friend but Brad makes a move on her and for the first time in her life, she chooses herself and properly rejects Brad. She’s not mean or rude. She’s gentle yet firm. I was very proud at that moment.
On Sasha’s side of the world, she’s trying to do damage control. Her agent is on her ass about the boyfriend that is getting her hated on social media and though Sasha tries to manage things, she’s eventually given an ultimatum. Her career or her boyfriend. She wants both so she talks to Kam(boyfriend) about keeping the relationship a secret but he won’t have it and so she chooses her job. I’m all for a woman following her dreams and choosing herself above all else. Also, Kam did once choose his job and asked her to give up her life so I was for this but I was also incredibly sad. She deserved to have it all. To get that cake and eat it too but this show was doing its best to depict real life and real life can be incredibly disappointing.
Episode 5
Sasha’s choice paid off. Her career is skyrocketing; she’s on billboards, launching foundations and basically getting everything she ever wished for. She’s quite happy but she’s alone. Sasha fills the missing space in her life with sex, sex and sex. It’s ridiculously hot to watch actually but also quite sad. Eventually, she sees Kam again and they find themselves in each other’s arms. After a steamy sex session, Kam drops another bomb. He’s leaving again.
Meanwhile, Billie has been living the best of both worlds. Her life with her kids in Connecticut and her life with her boyfriend Majid and best friend Sasha in New York. In Connecticut, she’s the mum who’s all over her kids and in New York, she’s like a single, fun woman chasing her degree and having as much fun as she can with Majid. In this episode, she’s tired of the divide and tries to bring both worlds together. She finalizes her divorce and then gets her kids to meet Majid. Things are good but not great. It’s an adjustment for everyone but it starts to look like things may just work out for everyone. Then Cooper gets into an accident.
Episode 6
One powerful, ‘you go, girl’ moment in this episode is about 17 minutes in. Sasha and Kam have a back-to-back conversation about who should move and stay. Kam tries to get Sasha to follow him out of the country again and Sasha tries to get him to stay. He made some pretty strong points for her moving and her excuses were starting to sound like exactly that- excuses but she pointed something out. “Why is it always your assumption that the woman should be the one to change course?” she asks Kam. That sat with me. Over time women have had to give up a lot for their husbands and boyfriends and Sasha was seeing that play out again in her life for the second time. Kam tries to explain that he has people counting on him but Sasha points out that so does she. She’s got a foundation and she’s up for tenure. She has people ‘counting’ on her too. So his reasons for her coming with him don’t stick. Both are important where they’re at. Someone just has to sacrifice first. No one does though…not at first.
For Billie, her world is imploding a bit. Majid tries to take Hudson, Billie’s 6-year-old son, to a game but complications come up and he has to go into his restaurant. He takes Hudson with him, one thing leads to another and Hudson almost gets burnt in the kitchen, then runs away after Majid yells at him. What Billie had been scared of started happening right in front of her. She may want the best of both worlds but it isn’t meant for everyone. It most certainly isn’t meant for Majid. Eventually, they find Hudson and Majid apologises profusely. A few days later Billie breaks up with Majid. Not because of a lack of love but because they couldn’t find a middle ground for the two of them. He didn’t want kids and he was finding it difficult being with a woman who had kids and she was a mum. It was a huge part of who she was. She did the grown-up thing and chose herself.
In between all of this, Sasha was at her book launch with Billie while thinking about the fact that in a few hours, the love of her life was going to get on a plane to Singapore and she wasn’t sure what to do about it. Sasha has a conversation with Billie and during that, she tries to convince herself that she and Kam made the right decision but her best friend; Billie, calls her bullshit. She tells her something she probably really needed to hear. “Sash, this isn’t about the logistics of work and life. This is about power. Who sacrifices for whom, and someone always has to give first.” Though Sasha tries to argue that Billie gave up her power and got into a marriage that ended horribly, Billie makes it clear that that was her choice and that she married Cooper for the wrong reasons and that’s why it didn’t work out. It was not because she gave up who she was for a man. Later Sasha gives a speech about her book and in it, she discusses how once upon a time women played a supporting role and now they have the power to choose their own life. As she speaks we can kind of see it dawn on her. Choosing Kam isn’t weak or less independent. It would be her choice. It would be the life she decides to choose for herself.
She decides to meet Kam at the airport but her grandmother who convinced her not to leave with him the first time, 17 years ago is there again. She shames Billie a bit. Talking about how she wasted so much time and how Sasha stayed the course and now she has everything she could ever possibly need. Sasha for the first time properly speaks back. She agrees that she has everything but that she is also completely alone. She thanks her grandmother for stopping her from leaving with Kam the first time because it made her who she is but she wants more now. This isn’t the life she wants for herself. She defends her decision to want to be with Kam and leaves to join him. She didn’t have to though, he was already turning back for her.
I thought the ending was rushed and a lot of things were quite convenient. I also noticed how they tried to slip in some things before they rushed certain scenes but it just didn’t quite fit. So, despite some shitty acting and some awful spacing of scenes and basically directing, I adored this season. I feel it taught the world two things.
Lesson 1
You can be a married woman with kids and still reach for all the things you want including as much sex as you desire and a doctorate degree.
Lesson 2
You can be an independent woman with a very successful career and have a partner you choose to do life with.
None of these things has to be mutually exclusive.