Sex/Life is full of both things — Sex as well as Life

MyReview
Sex/Life
Netflix, Season 1, 8 episodes

There is an aged, gnarled elephant present since time immemorial in every marriage – called ‘adultery’. Its tantalizing lure is ever-present, instigating many a married person to lose
lose themselves in its intoxicating embrace. The Netflix show Sex/Life explores this through a sensuous housewife living the life of her dreams in a lavish mansion in the ‘burbs – yet, is this life enough for her?

The unabashedly erotic tone of Sex/Life is set from the first scene where Billie (Sarah Shahi) is fantasizing about her ex-boyfriend Brad (Adam Demos) when the visceral tug of the baby at her breast brings her back to her present – a beautiful home, two kids and an ambitious, handsome husband Cooper (Mike Vogel) who is devoted to her. Perversely, Billie is not happy. Cooper is playing the high-stakes game at work and is too tired to give her the attention she craves. Billie as a result is constantly hounded by thoughts of her past sexual encounters with Brad. His bedroom eyes and careless swag are untiringly explored by the director in frequent flashbacks to the hot encounters Billie shared with him before she realizes that he is not the person to settle down with. While it’s clear that she is his ideal mate, the demons haunting him, a rather cliched one of an absent father and an uncaring step-father, goad him to push away Billie. She finally gets married to Cooper who is stability personified and completely in love with her. Her life is now the fairy tale playbook. Till it is not.

So, is this topic worthy enough to be discussed and stretched through 8 episodes beyond the sex, of which there is plenty. It’s like the director decided to play out every sexual fantasy, stopping short of the kinky fetishes explored last in 50 Shades of Grey. From a rooftop swimming pool and the elevator to a tattoo parlour and a crowded party, it’s pretty much no-holds barred including frontal nudity. Then is it all just smut and no story? Actually, no. And the reason why I watched this series till its unexpected end.

Let me lay out (pun intended) its pros and cons. The story is hyper-focussed on the theme of the cliched bored housewife whose marriage has lost its sexual spark. While on the one hand the voyeur in you relishes her fantasies and sympathises with her unsatisfied sex drive, the logical brain tells you that it’s also a case of utter boredom. In fact, you wonder why Billie, who holds a doctorate in psychiatry, is unable to divert her mind from a clearly explosive situation she is headed into. She is wealthy enough to be able to afford childcare and get back to her abandoned job. But here’s where I empathized with her story. Our emotions sometimes overrun us. The cold, logical brain often takes a good, long vacation when it’s most needed and what’s left is the heart ruling over reason. Forbidden attraction is a given and something most have faced, whether in a marriage or an exclusive relationship. Sometimes it’s born out of insecurities and deep unhappiness and at other, a recognition that you have met your soulmate, albeit, a bit late in the day. But how you deal with it – go ahead or ignore it, are the choices you make. Sometimes you choose to go ahead and shit hits the fan.

The series explores many aspects of marriage through Billie and Cooper’s attempts to salvage their relationship through a free-for-all sex soiree they attend to a tell-all journal Billie writes about her hot encounters with Brad. Expectedly, the journal only fuels her desire for Brad who is also shown as a person who truly understands her, though Cooper is not a chauvinist. Just that he is too focused on his career and less on his wife. I empathise with Billie also because a heightened sexual drive is not a crime though our society would like us to think it is. Humans don’t love and lust only in black and white – there are so many shades of grey and all psychedelic colors in between! There are a slew of other characters like Billie’s friend Sasha (Margaret Odette) and Cooper’s colleague Francesca (Li Jun Li) all of whom play a role in inflaming or diffusing the situation Billie and Cooper find themselves in.

Why must you watch it? Frankly, for its unexpected ending. I don’t want to reveal it, but it did surprise me as the story doesn’t get neatly tied in a bow. And the creators of the series have set the scene nicely for Season 2!