Review: Sex Lives of College Girls is Back with Season 2

Your favorite college suite mates are back at Essex, and things are definitely about to heat up!

Photo: HBO Max

HBO Max just dropped the first two episodes of Season 2 of the hit show Sex Lives of College Girls and we have a lot to talk about! The season kicks off with Bela, Leighton, Kimberly, and Whitney returning from Thanksgiving break and with a series of problems.

Due to the cheating scandal from Season 1, Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) loses her scholarship and needs to come up with a way to pay her tuition without her parents finding out. She attempts to apply for a loan with the help of Leighton but decides against it once she finds out that she will need her parents on board as cosigners. She instead decides to be a transcriber for a reality show called Sex Pradise: Australia. This seems like a good idea until she realizes it means working around the clock and trying to understand whatever the hell it is drunk sad Australians are saying.

After leaving The Catullan in Season 1, Bela (Amrit Kaur) decides to enlist the help of the other women who left The Catullan with her and form their very own all women’s comedy magazine. Unfortunately though this doesn't turn out to be the A+ idea they all thought it would be when they realize that all the women that applied are incredibly unfunny. Worried she made a mistake, Bela goes to Eric (Mekki Leeper) asking for her spot on The Catullan back, which he declines. He tells her not to give up on the magazine and to go out and find funny people.

Soccer season is over and Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is trying to figure out what to do with her free time now. Originally she planned to just sleep and party (an ideal dynamic duo for any college student) but after hearing her teammates plans to join student government and play on the school's basketball team she worries that she is being unproductive with her time. So what’s a girl to do besides try and join the school's water polo team even though she’s never played water polo before. This turns out to be a fail and she’s back to square one. Things become even rockier when she overhears Canaan (Christopher Meyer) telling his friends that she doesn’t have anything besides soccer, sending her into a spiral.

Leighton (Reneé Rapp) comes out to Bela and Whitney but struggles with coming out publicly. She flirts with a girl at a party but backs out once she notices frat guys staring at her. Worried that she blew her shot, her suite mates encourage her to DM the girl and the two end up hooking up.

Collectively, the girls are all banned from Theta and all frats after they are labeled as narcs for blowing the whistle on the stash of tests that Theta had locked away in their house. Worried that they’ll never be able to attend parties again and their social lives are done for, they come up with an idea to help save Theta’s charter and get back in the frats good graces. They come up with the idea of a charity “Magic Mike” show for climate change (ya know, typical charity event).

Aside from new problems, we are also introduced to some new characters. We have the new hot climate refugee from Kansas, Jackson (Mitchell Slaggert) who lives next door to the girls and has “performative” sex according to Kimberly. When she confronts him about this he gives her his number and tells her to just shoot him a text anytime he’s being too loud. Is this the start of a possible new fling? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. We are also introduced to Zoe (Aketra Sevillian) who works at Sips with Kimberly. Whitney notices Canaan and Zoe getting close during one of their shifts and begins to get worried. Whitney is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life besides soccer and according to everyone Zoe seems to have everything figured out, frightening Whitney.

Don’t worry though we still have all your old favorites from Season 1. Our queen Lila (Ilia Isorelys Paulino) is back and is possibly joining Bela’s comedy magazine so hopefully we see more of her this season. As previously mentioned we also have Eric. If you’re like me and sensed something brewing between Bela and Eric well guess what it’s happening. The two start casually hooking up but who knows maybe it could be more than that and the possibility of a relationship is on the horizon. Nico (Gavin Leatherwood) will not be returning for Season 2 after getting expelled for the cheating scandal. I’m personally not upset about this, I’m sure we’re bound to get another cheating frat guy on this show eventually.

Overall the first two episodes set us up with a lot to think about for the rest of the season and really cover a lot of the things girls go through in college. There is the financial aspect, trying to figure out who you are, and embracing your sexuality instead of trying to shy away from it. The Sex Lives of College Girls is back and I can’t wait to see the journey these suite mates take us on this semester.

You can stream the Sex Lives of College Girls Thursdays on HBO Max.

---

Make sure to follow MUD on Instagram for more reviews of your favorite shows.