Parents' Guide to

Sex/Life

By Angelica Guarino, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Soapy drama glamorizes emotional abuse and revenge porn.

TV Netflix Drama 2021
Sex/Life Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

age 18+

Based on 6 parent reviews

age 16+

So much promise and such disappointment

The show is entertaining, and there is very good acting and portrayal of issues that take place in any marriage. I enjoyed the first six or seven episodes. However I would caution any person who's ever been in a relationship that has been destroyed by infidelity to steer clear of this. It will be almost like a flashback of sorts. I know it may be unpopular with many people but the main character. Billie, becomes an infuriating, completely unsympathetic character who is self absorbed, reckless, incapable of being honest, manipulative, and devoid of any empathy for the people who she is supposed to care for. A married wife of a genuinely wonderful hardworking and honest man, Cooper. He loves her and is the father of her children, and by her own admission is such a wonderful man who would never hurt her and would do anything for her. Despite this, she proceeds to do everything in her power to wreck the relationship and destroy the person that Cooper is through her selfish actions and dishonesty and desire to “ have it all”. To be blunt, you lose count of the lies she tells her husband, her double standard, her games, the number of times she could have stopped it, her quitting on her marriage to focus on her fantasy, and it's almost painful to watch what she does to turn her husband into somebody he has not. And the ending of the show simply was too much. It's enough to make any person wonder about this generation and what they considered to be entitled to. Billie is NO hero. Not an icon for anything. It’s not about a woman choosing “the right guy” or “having it all”. It’s about a married woman who had a wonderful thing, great life and deciding she was entitled to “it all (the money, security and the affair, great sex, danger)” because she was having a series of bad days. And who cares if you burn down the world around you? Sorry but I wonder will they show her in season two, four years down the road when Cooper has left her, Brad, having “won”, quickly decides he neither wants or can’t handle being a Dad and being a domesticated guy? That’s what usually happened in real life. Will they show Billie in a run down NYC apartment trying to get by as a Prof and single mother of two kids who despise her? That’s reality.
2 people found this helpful.
age 18+

Waste of time, Not practical, just sex and unnecessary confusion fo all kimd.

This the worstless series i have ever watched. It certainly portrays the marriage in wrong light. The first season could be watchable untill at the end of it the producers thought of milking it even more that where it becomes senseless and stupid. There is a limit to showcase how much a person can get confused sexually in her life. The character Billy is totally confused all along the series leading his innocence husband's life to misery including her own. These series promotes taking a sacred thing like marriage for granted and one can easily and heartlessly break it. Billy should have stick to her marriage or wouldn't have done it in the first place. Is this relationships are like in the west, after seeing this i am pretty much certain about that unlike in countries like india where there could be nothing more sacred than a marriage. And even if the people think that they are some issues in the marriage then instead of break it up and rebounding to someone else they try to save it at all cost and eventually all things comes in right place and order with each other. Hence this series is worthless and not practical at all as a person cannot run forever breaking marriages.

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much swearing

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6 ):
Kids say (8 ):

This epitomizes trash TV; it's a soapy melodrama could be interpreted either as emotional or hilarious depending on the viewer's interpretation. Many have already compared Sex/Life to the 50 Shades of Grey series, which explores similar themes and also features graphic sex scenes. Sex/Life takes things a step further, though, by involving an additional main character in Billie and Brad's entanglements. Billie isn't the only one hurt by Brad's manipulation -- her husband is too. Billie's husband Cooper is an admittedly boring character, but Billie knew that when she married him. This makes her condemnation of her husband's lack of flaws particularly confusing. Billie repeatedly says that Cooper isn't doing anything wrong, but almost seems upset with him for not giving Billie a reason to be unhappy. In addition, Billie often turns to her friend Sasha to discuss the latest developments of her situation, but she absolutely refuses to make more of an effort to practice open communication in her marriage. It's possible to attribute some of Billie's unhealthy resentment to the lasting effects of a traumatic relationship with Brad, but problems arise Billie starts using her sexual fantasies about another man as a weapon.

The most disturbing part of Sex/Life isn't the graphic sex scenes or nudity so constant it's deeply uncomfortable to watch, it's the fact that nearly every character uses their sexual thoughts or actions as a tool to cause harm to others. Whether engaging in sex acts as a form of revenge or manipulation or as simple as making derogatory comments about another's sexual desires, it's astounding how much of the plot relies on characters using sex as a method of exerting power over someone else. There's an argument for saying these plotlines are so absurd that any harm they could realistically cause is worth downplaying, but there's a difference between a guilty-pleasure, escapist TV show and one that centers on sex as a shameful and hurtful act.

TV Details

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