HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls Returns for Season 2: Episode 1 and 2 Recap
By: Lanie Brice 24
The Mindy Kaling created streaming series The Sex Lives of College Girls stole my heart over the summer when I stumbled upon the first season on HBO Max. In quick, 30 minute episodes, the show follows four roommates in their first year at the elite, and fictional, Essex College. While HBO often loves to play up shock value, nudity, and larger than life plots in their popular shows (looking at you, Euphoria), The Sex Lives of College Girls is a refreshingly down to earth, hilarious, sometimes ridiculous, honest portrayal of what it’s like to stumble through adulthood for the first time. There’s plenty of hijinks, sticky situations, and fun, but there’s also a realistic center to the show that’s almost as hard to find as stories that choose to center university students instead of foisting their lives on high school aged characters.
Take a break from studying for finals or schedule a Thanksgiving/winter break binge session to catch up on this delightful show that’s now back for season 2. As USC students, we get free access to HBO Max using our student credentials, so take advantage of it! If you’re all caught up on season 1, there’s 2 new episodes to look forward to every Thursday until December 15 to get you through the end of the semester.
Season 2 picks up right where Season 1 left off with the girls heading into the second trimester of school after Thanksgiving break. Unfortunately, break fixed none of the girls’ lingering problems, and the first two episodes show each of them on a newly determined path to get their college careers back on track from the chaos of the first trimester.
Kimberly lost her scholarship in the midst of last season’s cheating scandal, and she’s determined to find a way to scrounge up the over $100,000 she needs to finish school at Essex. She tries a number of approaches including writing captions for an Australian reality TV show where the drunken contestants speak nearly unintelligibly. When Leighton suggests she go to the financial aid office to look into a loan, she discovers that while they’ll happily give her a payment plan that will stay with her well into her sixties (which hardly feels like an exaggeration in today’s utter mess of high education costs) she’ll need someone to cosign the loan.
Across campus, Bela and Whitney are struggling with their own identity crises. With soccer season over, Whitney isn’t sure what to do with all her freetime, and Bela struggles to find a new comedy writing outlet after leaving the misogynistic comedy magazine she came to Essex to join. Whitney finds that other sports don’t necessarily suit her as well as soccer does while Bela starts her own magazine with an enthusiastic vigor but soon discovers that not everyone who wants to write for her all girl comedy magazine is… talented.
Finally, Leighton, grappling with her sense of self in her own way, decides to come out to her roommates and get back into dating after her secret relationship from before break crumbles over her hesitation to be public. While she’s determined to take a different approach to relationships this semester, she still struggles with being comfortable flirting with girls at parties and embracing the chances that come her way, even with a supportive community of friends around her. Even with taking concerted steps forward, it takes time to build up confidence, but Leighton finds growing determination over the first few episodes.
They’re brought together, though, by their common blight of being universally hated by all the fraternities on campus after Kimberly exposed Theta’s cheating ring and got the frat banned from throwing parties. Given the sparse social scene outside Frat Row in frigid Vermont, the girls have to figure out a way to get back into their good graces to save their social lives for the rest of the year. The answer Bela comes up with? Helping Theta throw a strip show/climate change fundraiser with the new “climate refugee” from Kansas as the guest of honor.
These first two episodes set up a steep hill for the girls to climb for the remaining eight episodes as they take on the winter term at Essex. The show maintains its sharp sense of humor and sarcasm and continues to center its ever endearing group of girls grappling with issues that are all too familiar to us college students. I always feel warm and fuzzy and a little less bad about being a lost, confused mess after each episode. So give The Sex Lives of College Girls a chance with your free HBO Max subscription this winter break, especially if you’re missing your best friends when they’re scattered across the country for the holidays.
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