Skip to main content

New top story from Time: Netflix’s Steamy New Drama Sex/Life Is So Bad, It’s Funny

https://ift.tt/3zZ1vVi

Have 30-somethings done something to offend the pop culture gods? Because lately, they can’t seem to stop roasting us. Last month, a rude Medium post labeling us geriatric millennials went viral enough to spark discussion on the Today show. Next month, HBO Max will unveil a reboot of Gossip Girl that casts 25-year-old Tavi Gevinson, the fashion-blog prodigy and Rookie founder turned actor, as a teacher. And to tide us over as we await that indignity, here’s Netflix with an ostensibly steamy, actually terrible drama about a suburban housewife haunted by the carefree, promiscuous life she lived a decade ago as a music-loving party girl in New York.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Inspired by BB Easton’s 44 Chapters About 4 Men, a self-published memoir whose ascent calls to mind the Fifty Shades juggernaut, Sex/Life chronicles one woman’s descent into obsession with her ex-boyfriend. When we meet Billie Connelly (Sarah Shahi, doing the best possible job under the circumstances), she lives in ritzy Greenwich, Conn. and works as the full-time mom to two young kids—a job that, thanks to preschool and domestic staff, essentially consists of lounging around her luxurious home in a nap dress, waiting for her hunky finance-guy husband Cooper (The Brave alum Mike Vogel) to come home.

Yet she’s unsatisfied, because she spends her ample free time daydreaming of her unencumbered 20s, when she ran around Manhattan flanked by her best friend Sasha (Margaret Odette from Sleeping With Other People), a fellow psychology Ph.D student at Columbia. Like Billie, Sasha was wild—and, we learn from purring voiceover narration, “all that wildness brought us downtown, almost every Saturday night, to the Ludlow Street Cafe, and one equally wild lead singer, drummer, bassist after another.”

I’ll pause while you finish howling.

SEX/LIFE (L to R) MIKE VOGEL as COOPER CONNELLY and SARAH SHAHI as BILLIE CONNELLY in episode 102 of SEX/LIFE Cr. SOPHIE GIRAUD/NETFLIX © 2021
SOPHIE GIRAUD/NETFLIXMike Vogel and Sarah Shahi in ‘Sex/Life’

Anyway! For many of those debauched years, Billie was cycling through periods of rapture and agony with a tall, black-clad, Australian-accented dreamboat named, obviously, Brad (UnREAL’s Adam Demos). In one of many violet-hued, lust-inflected flashbacks, we watch him rescue her from the clutches of a would-be rapist on the street outside some implausible hybrid of grungy Lower East Side rock dive and sweaty Midtown meat market. “Are you with the band?” she asks. “Yeah, something like that,” Brad murmurs. In fact, he’s a record producer and label owner rich enough to own a cavernous penthouse whose rooftop pool offers a breathtaking skyline view. Above all, he is a Bad Boy—brooding, mercurial, wounded, roguish, prone to shattering the hearts of even the toughest, most self-assured women. Christian Grey, but replace the flogger collection with a full set of mint-condition, original-pressing Velvet Underground records.

So, now that Brad has crept back into Billie’s fantasies—and, we learn, vice versa—does poor, hot, dependable Good Guy Cooper stand a chance? And what will Cooper do when he reads all about it in the journal she’s been keeping, without so much as password protection, on her laptop? Well, besides tear a strap off her nightgown and bend her over the kitchen island.

I should stop making fun of the series’ Skinemax-y elements, lest you get the impression that I think every drama should be The Leftovers. Particularly now that streaming has expanded the largely uncensored pay-TV universe, there’s room for all kinds of programming aimed at grown-ups—including sexy shows whose target audience is female. Everyone has their own preferred brand of trash, and no one should feel guilty for indulging in such pleasures. For some it’s dystopian YA or pulpy sci-fi; for others it’s bad-boy romance, as Easton’s subgenre is called. Each can succeed on its own terms without being, you know, deep.

SEX/LIFE (L to R) SARAH SHAHI as BILLIE CONNELLY and MARGARET ODETTE as SASHA SNOW in episode 101 of SEX/LIFE Cr. AMANDA MATLOVICH/NETFLIX © 2021
AMANDA MATLOVICH/NETFLIXSarah Shahi, left, and Margaret Odette in ‘Sex/Life’

But Sex/Life drowns itself in the shallow end, so to speak, by failing to even generate much heat. There are plenty of R-rated scenes—so many, actually, that they get repetitive. At one point, Cooper frets that he hasn’t been as adventurous in the bedroom with Billie as she was with Brad—which is funny because, as far as I could tell, her encounters are weirdly similar. And while the material doesn’t require Phoebe-Waller-Bridge-level dialogue, it shouldn’t be so awful that it takes you out of the scene. Has any real person ever rhapsodized over “game-changing sex” or, in the throes of lust, referred to a certain body part as a “joystick”? Some utterances consist almost exclusively of cliché: “This neighborhood was ground zero for our crazy nights on the town,” Billie recalls. “This is where it all happened—where I felt like my best self.” (Note to screenwriters: there is one Ground Zero in Manhattan, and it isn’t in Soho.)

As the Fifty Shades franchise demonstrated, there’s a fine line between intentionally hot and unintentionally hilarious, and Sex/Life crosses it just as often as its predecessor. There’s another kind of enjoyment to be wrung from storytelling that’s so bad, it’s funny. But it’s a shame to have to place this show in that category, because it’s the kind of project I’d rather root for. While TV’s depictions of women’s sexuality have improved since Sex and the City, it’s still rare to see a series created by a woman (Stacy Rukeyser, also of UnREAL), who recruits a mostly female writing team to flesh out a libidinous female lead and hires all female directors as well as a female intimacy coordinator to capture that character’s pleasure. We could probably use more tales about 30-something women mourning their wild youths, too; men have certainly had their say on the topic over the years. Geriatric millennials would be all over that show, I’m sure—if only it were, by any definition of the word, good.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Muni Moves You!

Muni Moves You! By Jeanne Brophy This week we are launching a campaign to welcome back Muni riders as San Francisco continues to move further into pandemic recovery. The campaign encourages transit trips to destinations throughout the city to reconnect you to the people and places that define our city and shape the communities we belong to. As many of us adopt new travel patterns for work commutes, school trips with visits to neighborhood businesses, and cultural and sporting activities, Muni offers a reliable, safe option to move about the city. The launch of the campaign coincides with steadily increasing ridership during the work week and even more increases for weekend ridership. This is good news for SF. Increased ridership will help the city wet its climate goals and reduce traffic congestion. Sustained lower transit ridership can have negative implications for the environment and traffic congestion. The campaign graphics feature the popular Muni “worm” logo originally desig...

Muni Service Changes Starting June 13

Muni Service Changes Starting June 13 By Mariana Maguire Beginning Saturday, June 13, the SFMTA will increase Muni service and frequency, add select routes into service and extend some current routes to continue to support essential trips. A key goal of these service increases is to support the community’s economic recovery by providing more connections to neighborhood commercial districts as businesses begin to reopen. We are also adding more frequent service on targeted routes to help address crowding and improve onboard physical distancing. These service changes will improve transit access through Chinatown, SoMa and the Excelsior neighborhoods, identified by the Muni’s Service Equity Strategy as neighborhoods that rely on transit service the most based on the percentage of households with low incomes, private vehicle ownership and race and ethnicity demographics. Although Muni continues to be for essential trips only, many people have no choice but to use transit to r...

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J सिद्धार्थ रॉय कपूर फिल्म्स कि अगली सीरीज़ विलियम डेलरिम्पल कि बेस्टसेलर, 'द एनार्की: पर आधारित होगी

सिद्धार्थ रॉय कपूर के प्रोडक्शन 'रॉय कपूर फिल्म्स' ने हालही में अवार्ड विनिंग इतिहासकार और लेखक विलियम डेलरिम्पल की बेस्ट सेलिंग हिस्टोरिकल बुक ‘द अनार्की: द रिलेंटलेस राइज़ ऑफ़ द ईस्ट इंडिया कंपनी' के आधिकारिक राइट्स हासिल कर इसे सीरीज़ के from टेलीविजन की खबरें | Television News in Hindi | TV Serials Update in Hindi – FilmiBeat Hindi http:/hindi.filmibeat.com/television/siddharth-roy-kapoor-next-web-series-will-be-based-on-anarchy-090499.html?utm_source=/rss/filmibeat-hindi-television-fb.xml&utm_medium=23.11.231.156&utm_campaign=client-rss

Safer and Easier Parking in Every City-Owned Facility

Safer and Easier Parking in Every City-Owned Facility By Pamela Johnson Parking at any of our 22 city-owned facilities is now easier and safer than ever. Late last month we completed the Parking Access Revenue and Control Systems (PARCS) project. This four-year effort replaced aging parking equipment with modern technology and significant operational upgrades. Customer using new PARCS kiosk at North Beach parking garage Patrons will notice enhanced lighting, new wayfinding signs, audible alarms, cameras, gate arms, and payment machines with two-way digital intercoms . Behind the scenes is an all-new parking management system and 24/7 command center, connected to every machine. Can’t find your ticket to pay for parking?  No worries! Thanks to license plate recognition technology, cameras located at every facility’s entrance capture patrons’ plate numbers as they arrive . If a customer loses her ticket, the manager is able to re-issue a ticket based on her license plate...

How Muni is Tackling the 10 Worst Delay Hot Spots Across SF

How Muni is Tackling the 10 Worst Delay Hot Spots Across SF By Cassie Halls The SFMTA has had its fair share of ribbon-cutting ceremonies  over the last two years. These celebrations draw attention to some of our biggest projects. Also attention-worthy are some of the more incremental efforts happening at the agency. One such effort led by the Muni Forward team is the Transit Delay Hot Spots Program , launched in February 2020 . Muni Forward is known for corridor projects such as the L Taraval Improvement Project , 16 th Street Improvement Project , and M Oceanview Transit and Safety Project . These efforts are increasing the already sizeable 80 miles of transit reliability upgrades since 2014. There are also other ways we’re working to slash travel times and improve reliability across the Muni network. The Transit Delay Hot Spots Program aims to tackle the 10 worst “delay hot spots” each year, where buses crawl between stops at four miles an hour or less. We’re looking cl...

Exciting Changes Coming to San Francisco Taxis!

Exciting Changes Coming to San Francisco Taxis! By Exciting Changes Coming to San Francisco Taxis!  A new way to hail a taxi is coming soon, San Francisco! Yesterday, our MTA Board of Directors approved an amendment to the pilot program to test upfront fares, which was approved back in September 2021. This amendment will now allow Taxi E-Hail app providers to dispatch trips that originate with third-party entities, which may offer upfront fares that are not based on taximeter rates. In other words, you’ll soon be able to pick up your smartphone and check the cost to your destination and book a ride via taxi with a few swipes.   Allowing taxi customers to select a flat rate advance fare is intended to improve customer service, enable customers to price shop among similar services and minimize meter anxiety that occurs when customers feel that the Taximeter rate is increasing beyond their expectation. The price flexibility is intended to increase the number of taxi trips a...

Residents Overwhelmingly Support Slow Streets

Residents Overwhelmingly Support Slow Streets By Eillie Anzilotti After over a year of Slow Streets providing safe, low-volume corridors for people to walk, bike, play and travel during the pandemic, we’re excited to share our first comprehensive evaluation of the program . The key takeaway? San Franciscans are overwhelmingly in support of Slow Streets. Slow Streets are designed to limit through traffic on certain residential streets and allow them to be used as a shared roadway for people traveling by foot and by bicycle. Since introducing Slow Streets in April 2020 in response to the Mayor’s Emergency Health Order, SFMTA has designated around 30 corridors covering 47 miles of roadway as Slow Streets. The program has evolved from a critical component of San Francisco’s pandemic response and recovery to a potential new avenue to further the city and SFMTA’s goals around climate action and sustainable transportation. As the Slow Streets program has grown, we wanted to make sure we...

New top story from Time: ‘Do Not Hold Grudges.’ Joe Biden’s Notes Reveal Talking Points About Kamala Harris

https://ift.tt/2X4natB (WILMINGTON, Del.) — Joe Biden was uncharacteristically tight-lipped on Tuesday about the final stretch of his search for a vice president. But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee seemed prepared to talk about at least one leading contender: California Sen. Kamala Harris. As he took questions from reporters on Tuesday, Biden held notes that were captured by an Associated Press photographer. Harris’ name was scrawled across the top, followed by five talking points. “Do not hold grudges.” “Campaigned with me & Jill.” “Talented.” “Great help to campaign.” “Great respect for her.” Those are all observations Biden has made about Harris before. But they take on new significance following a recent Politico report that one of Biden’s closest friends and a co-chair of his vice presidential vetting committee, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, still harbors concerns about Harris’ tough debate stage performance and that she hasn’t expressed reg...

Smarter Traffic Signals Prioritize Transit and People

Smarter Traffic Signals Prioritize Transit and People By Robert Lim Have you ever wondered how traffic signals could better balance the needs of all road users, whether driving, bicycling, walking or taking Muni? The SFMTA is rolling out its Connected Corridor Pilot this month to use transit platform and traffic signal sensor data to inform signal timing adjustments. The pilot also aims to collect information to support transit efficiency and street safety improvements.  Traffic engineers use signal timing adjustments as a tool to prioritize the flow of travel in specific directions or for different travel modes – Muni, people walking or driving – to meet the changing demands of the road network across different timepoints in a day. The Connected Corridors Pilot seeks to push the envelope of innovation by investing in advanced technologies, funded through a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) grant. These tools will better position the city to serve the potential future ne...

Cable Cars are Returning this Summer!

Cable Cars are Returning this Summer! By Restored Cable Car 8 being readied for return to service Nothing says “San Francisco” quite like our historic cable cars--and they’ll soon be gracing our streets once more. As the city intensifies its focus to supporting economic recovery, residents, regional visitors and tourists will see the return of the iconic cable cars and hear their chiming bells from Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf. Today, the SFMTA, along with Mayor London N. Breed, announced that cable cars will be gliding down the city’s picturesque hilltops this summer as downtown economic activity returns. SFMTA staff will conduct mechanical inspections of the historic vehicles and operator retraining in mid-July. By the first week of August, we will test the system by inviting passengers aboard for the duration of a “mock service" trial, riding the lines where cable cars are operating and making stops. This mock service will be irregular, not following a particular s...