Dying for Sex is a provocative, uneven exploration of mortality
Dying for Sex is a great option for those who like their dramas a little more disruptive.Quirky premises like a cancer diagnosis leading to a character’s sexual awakening might seem jarring, but the series finds its footing telling the well drawn, messy story of its two leads.
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The Power of the Leading Duo
Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate excel as friends unbound by society’s constraints. Their chemistry and performances carry the eccentric encounters through difficult subject matter. Often there is a shallow and sensationalist portrayal of these encounters, but in this case, a poignant study of the female friendship is created. It’s hard to find a television show that gets both the deep laughs and deep cries right without losing either of those. They let Molly be and do what she pleases, and be impulsive, and selfish, including, and also being the character in a show and book that shows the story of a person with an illness who is dying. The writers gave her all of that agency and freedom. The supporting cast is sometimes shallow, but that brings some entertainment value and dimensionalizes Molly’s character’s efforts to take control of her body and reverse the effects of her disease on it.
A Bold but Strained Narrative
The series excels when it gets into its protagonist’s psyche, but sometimes it gets tangled up in its own complicated web. A lot of people complain that the sex scenes interrupt the more serious and sensitive moments of the story. This is where the series differentiates from the rest – being unlikable is a sort of risk that the writers take to differentiate themselves from the rest of the rigid and formulaic television shows, but it doesn’t always play. For me, the best and worst moment of this series lie in this aesthetic inequality. A lot of people dislike how the show seems to try and hide Esmé’s illness by airbrushing and glossing over her when she is drawn. Other people think this is aesthetic is actually Ethereal and represents her peach, but this is up for the viewer to decide.
Who Should Watch and Who Should Skip
If you are tired of the same old TV shows with terminal illness cliches, then this is the show for you. It is for adults that enjoy characters with depth and appreciate some level of plot disproportion for thinking through a story that is not afraid to showcase female sexuality. If you are able to appreciate dark, uncomfortable humor, a creative mind will enjoy this series. Everything about this show is anti-tradition.
If you are someone that prefers realism and does not appreciate sexual content, then this is not the show. This series takes great effort to showcase anger and frustration like sex shows rather than romanticism. This is probably not the show for people that are easily upset by the mix of death and defiance.
