On 18 March this year, it was reported that The Sex Lives of College Girls would not be returning to screens on Max after the ratings for its third season unexpectedly plummeted. With the first and second seasons scoring above 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, what went wrong this season?
The series follows four young women—played by Pauline Chalamet, Renée Rapp, Amrit Kaur, and Alyah Chanelle Scott—and their romantic ventures at the fictional Essex College. This series is certainly not the hard-hitting drama ITVX may be used to hosting, but it is intended as a uniquely fun and feminist watch for new college and university attendees. In their latest season, however, the general consensus among viewers was that the writing felt rushed, the critical plotlines were frequently neglected or underdeveloped, and the representation felt forced, and, quite frankly, cringe-worthy.
Many critics are blaming this shift on the departure of central character Leighton (Renée Rapp) after the first two episodes of the latest season. In order to counter this, writers introduced two new characters and, quite simply, took the traits from the departed Leighton and placed them upon the two new girls on screen. However, unlike Leighton, it became difficult to build any sort of connection to them due to their lack of screen time.
With what was left of the core three, writers seemed to be in a hurry to pair them with a permanent romantic partner and, as a result, their characterisations went awry. From Alyah Chanelle Scott’s character not pursuing her athletic career, to Amrit Kaur’s character’s coming-out story being completely brushed over by the characters and writers alike, this season really did not add much to the overall story.
Another criticism of this season came from the majority of the humour becoming a series of Gen Z buzzwords, most of which had lost their effect by the time the season was released. When attempting to deal with real issues, they were either brushed over with this same humour or simply resolved in a few scenes.
There is no real depth to this season at all. There was real potential with these characters and, sadly, this season, none of their personalities were ever developed enough to allow the audience to sympathise with any of them. Instead, screen time was filled with nonsensical plotlines that never truly came to fruition. It was a disappointing watch for a much-loved series and, sadly, that may be the end of their stories for the foreseeable future.
“Thompson Library (Vassar College)” by Noteremote is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.