‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Season 3: Can the HBO Comedy Survive Without Reneé Rapp?

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Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast. I'm Juliette Littman, delighted to be here to discuss the sex lives of College Girls Season 3, Episode 1, with my colleague, Jodi Walker.
Hi, Jodi. Hey, Juliette.
How you doing? We're back at it on The Sex Lives of College Girls Beat, two years later. It's crazy that it's been two years.
It's almost like I missed the show for a long time, and I was like, when is it coming back? And then I kind of forgot to miss it. I forgot it existed.
And then, so it was like almost a surprise when it came back. Great to be back in Essex.
I don't think it had a ton of fanfare, to be honest. There was like one trailer like two weeks before, and then it just kind of arrived.
So a little concerned about HBO Max's commitment to the television show, but we're not here to discuss that today. There are some burning topics to discuss with season three, notably around one of the stars, Renee Rapp.
So we're going to dive into that. But first, let's just talk about where we left things two years ago at the end of season two.
Jodi, what is your quick wrap-up of where we left things at the end of season two? Bella got fired from her women's magazine and was going to have to move back in with her roommates. A lot of things revolved around rooming, which I do really like because that's very college-esque.
Central drama of college, yeah. The main thing that happened at the end of last season's finale two years ago is that Kimberly kissed Kanan, who is her colleague at the coffee shop, but unfortunately is Whitney's ex-boyfriend.
Not only did she kiss him, but she did not cop to it to Whitney. She lied.
She lied and said nothing happened. And clearly coming into this premiere, at some point, Whitney found out.
And they had been planning to room together. And then Whitney backed out, decided to move into the Kappa house in the room that Leighton had given up because Leighton quit Kappa in order to focus more on the women's club, which I would say is quite evident in her wardrobe this year.
And in order to date Alicia again, not in order to, she just didn't like Kappa. And that freed up the spot for Whitney.
So now Whitney is living in the sorority house. The other girls are living together in a terrible triple, which is also a reality of college.
And yeah, anything else? What did I miss? I think we're up to date. I think that takes us to December 2022, which is when season two ended.
And then from there, I think about six months later in the summer of 2023, Renee Rapp announced that she was leaving the Sex Lies of College Girls. I believe, and Jodi, correct me if I'm wrong, Renee Rapp, of course, plays Layton, and she was Regina George in the Mean Girls musical, both on Broadway and in the screened version, also a singer.
Renee Rapp, I believe, made this announcement before discussing it with the show. So I think the creative team of the Sex Lies of College Girls And the readers of publications like The Hollywood Reporter

found out, I believe, at the same time.

So, or thereabout, the same time.

Right. Yeah.

There wasn't a lot planned.

What a moving part.

Yeah.

My biggest question heading into season three

was how will they handle the Renee wrap of it all?

And that was a big focus of episode one.

I went to IMDb. I'm just going to be honest with you.
I went to IMDb and I checked. One of my favorite websites.
I'm so glad you did. It's so useful.
She's in two episodes. So she was in this premiere and she'll be in next week's and then she's gone.
I already have a lot of questions about the show and how that gap will be filled. But I'm curious for you, I'm curious to hear from you.
Do you feel like this is a good move for Renee Rapp? Yes, I do. Why do you say that? As I believe you well know, and many, if there are listeners of many of our pop culture podcasts out there, Ringer Reality, Ringer Dish, they will know that I am a huge Renee Rapp fan.
And I am a huge Renee Rapp music fan. I am, of course, it's so, it honestly, I have a lot of empathy for Renee Rapp, who is so talented, so deeply talented that she almost doesn't know what to do.
Like her opportunities are endless. She is, I almost think objectively, like, the best part of this show.
Leighton jumped off the screen in season one. I think people loved her.
And her performance is so good. She fully embodies the role.
She's so funny. She's so natural.
And Renee, I call her 2018 Jimmy Award winner Renee R Rapp, because she won the Jimmy Awards, which are a musical theater award for high school students when she was a high school senior, was pretty much immediately drafted into Mean Girls on Broadway. So she goes from being like a high school musical theater star to an actual Broadway star to a TV semi-star.
But what she really wants to do is sing. And her most popular, most recent album, Snow Angel, is excellent.
Like, she really is... I haven't listened to it.
Oh, Juliette. I will, though.
It's so good. She's...
So, like, she's also an excellent pop star. I saw her in concert last year, honestly, right around the time that this

announcement was made. She's so good live, as you can imagine.
She's also a Broadway star. She's an incredible performer that I do think for a small contingent of people who really love this show, there is a bitterness here that she's one of the best parts about it and she's backing out, but she's such a good musician.

And I understand how it is hard to do all of this at once. And, you know, it's a 10-episode-a-season show.
Like, it's just—I love this about it, but it's a small show. You know, like, it's kind of a small impact.
It covers really niche ground. It is a show about Gen Z for millennials.
Like that's pretty specific. And so I just, I get it.
And I do ultimately think for her career, it is going to be good. Because she, it's a small, wonderful show.
Renee Rapp is a big star. I think that she needs some guidance.
I think your point that she doesn't know what to do is a really good one. I think she could be a big star, and I think she did have a really big moment around 18 months ago, and I feel like it's been squandered a little bit.
Maybe I'm not paying good enough attention because I didn't listen to her album, so this might be a me problem. But I do feel like her ascendancy feels like it's plateaued a little bit, so I would have some misgivings.
However, I watched episode one of season three of The Sex Lives of College Girls, and I'm like, yep, good idea. Because much like Renee Rapp doesn't seem to know what to do with herself, I don't think the show really knows how to move forward.
I have some real concerns based on what I saw. It seems like Renee Rapp will be leaving Essex College to attend MIT for their math offerings because...
MIT, which you may have heard, is in Boston. Leighton had to double check though.
Leighton was like, that's in Boston, right? Okay, but wait. So Juliet, since you are not a Renee Rapp music fan, do you know that she has a very popular song called I Hate Boston? No, I didn't know that.
It's so good. It's incredibly hard for me to not start singing it in this moment.
That's how much I love this song. Wow, I'm going to listen right after.
And she like made, when the album came out, she made billboards that just said I hate Boston on them. It made Boston people very mad.
The whole song is about how she hates Boston because like an ex took her there and kind of ruined the experience for her. And so now she hates Boston.
So like them doing this storyline about her girlfriend moving to Boston and then her having to move to Boston and blowing up her whole life is a nice little Easter egg. Oh, that is really fun.
I have to assume that the creative team who is led by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble who also wrote this episode were pissed because this is definitely a problem for the show. As you noted, Leighton is the most like electric character and her, at the end of season one, she has a really poignant moment with her roommate, Kimberly, where she kind of has like this crisis over being closeted, essentially, and what that means for her.
And it's definitely the most compelling part of the show. I think there's no doubt about that.
It's also, I think, an identity crisis that other people can relate to, whether you're dealing with your sexuality or not. And to lose the sass of Layton and the really relatable, the defensiveness that she also brings while also working through stuff, it's just sad.
It's a real loss for the show. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they were like, you hate Boston? Well, your character's going to Boston.
And to her credit, she plays it flawlessly. She still turns up with the performance.
It was sort of a strange experience watching the premiere because I went into it being like, how are they going to deal with this loss of, you know, it's not just the Renee rap of it all. It's an ensemble show of four main characters.
And now one of them is going to be leaving. But it's weird because when we go into the premiere, Leighton is like the most stable character.
Everyone else's life and relationships are in complete turmoil and chaos. And she's fine.
So like for a split second, I was, or almost for the whole finale until she makes this decision or starts to make this decision about transferring, I was kind of like, is she staying? Like it just almost felt like it felt so normal. I was also surprised to see her.

I thought that she was just out.

I didn't know they had gotten her to come back

for a couple episodes.

I did know because you were right

that I don't think HBO did a ton of marketing

around this premiere,

which makes me a little nervous.

But there were a ton of leaked photos

of her being on set.

And people just kept being like,

uh, that's Renee Rapp.

That's not Layton.

Because she's dressing very differently.

But I do actually think that the storyline honors that because we know that she's kind of shedding this former persona. She's quit the sorority.
She's not in her Chanel tweeds anymore. Now she's at hanging out at the women's center and wearing a windbreaker.
I did miss the Chanel tweeds. I definitely do.
Um, I also, I think that basically everyone got a bad haircut or like everyone. That's not true.
Not everyone. I think that Bella and Layton both got pretty bad haircuts.
I guess Layton's my just Renee wraps hair and you know what? She's an artist. I want to buy it.
What do I know about experimenting with your hair? But like getting an edgy haircut your sophomore year coming back from summer. So typical.
Do you think that Bella's haircut was supposed to be like an edgy, like questionable haircut or is that just like supposed to be her hair now? I think so, sort of, but they also, you know, start the premiere by basically changing all of the decisions that they made at the end of the last finale. So in the beginning, Bella is in a wig looking like her former self.
So I do also think they just wanted to differentiate between freshman year and sophomore year, Bella. I mean, Bella getting like a bad haircut is absolutely the least way she ever blows up her own life.
So for her, that's almost, that's almost a move in the right direction. Almost a good decision.
Yeah. Okay.
Channel that energy into your hair.

And if this is where we end up,

no problem at all.

That's fine.

But before I move on from the right,

Renee,

wrap up at all.

I was also surprised because her storyline,

it's clear like where it's headed,

but was not completely wrapped up in episode one.

So she will be back for episode two.

Confirmed by imdb.com.

Very useful website.

Thank you,

IMDb.

I had originally heard she'd be back for three episodes. So I think maybe she'll have a visitor episode later in the season, which I think would be fun and exciting for fans.
Yeah, I feel like also, if you're Renee Rapp's team, I think you want to broker the least acrimonious exit you can after her just announcing she's on the show, right? So giving in some way of like, okay, she'll be on three episodes seems like a kind of like gracious thing to do. So makes sense.
I also just want to note she's back with her girlfriend. She's back with Alicia.
And by that, I mean, Alicia is back on the show. She was gone for most of season two.
And that's because she was on Grey's Anatomy, which I watch. And she has just left Grey's Anatomy.
She has just had a nervous breakdown following the death of her sister in a car accident that she caused. Midori Francis, she's all over TV, but I think she just wants to be in movies.
Well, this is like the risk of casting very talented young people is that it is very likely that they will outgrow the situation that they are in and, you know, go on to kind of bigger things. That's also the risk for those young people is like, did they get big because of the good upstart thing that they, I mean, not Grey's Anatomy, it's not an upstart thing, but I do, I do feel for Midori in this show because they make Alicia like such a drag.
And even this, even though it's Renee Rapp's fault that Leighton has to leave, it is still somehow blamed on Alicia, kind of. I feel like they're so rude to her character.
Alicia is following her dreams of working in politics that she cares about, and therefore it is ruining Renee Rapp's time on the show. It's ruining Leighton's time on the show as well.
I love how Leighton is so casually good at math. Like, she didn't even know she was good at math until she got to college.
She'd never even heard of MIT before. And now she's like, well, I guess I gotta go somewhere else.
Yeah. She's like, well, I'm just taking the bus to Vermont.
Were you excited by the Fortune Femster cameo? How do you feel about her? I loved it. She is not someone that I sort of follow on a regular basis.
And so I don't know if there is something there that I would ever not like. But when she shows up and stuff, I think she is so funny.
She just has such a unique energy. And then to literally force that into a bus seat next to Prim and proper Layton, she says, oh, we're road dogs now.
Yeah. Well, what I liked about that scene is so Layton is on the bus going to UVM to take math class.
She's sitting next to Fortune Pemster. There was some geography that I've got comments on.
They were talking about being on the Eastern Vermont route, but on the bus it said Western Vermont. Okay.
Someone made a mistake, I think, but that's fine. Whatever, it's vermont uh also i think they made vermont seem coastal uh it's not it's in between new hampshire and new york so and then uh you know just something just something to keep in mind but anyway i kind of let go and let god when it comes to the geography of this show because this is not my part of the world this is my the only geography i'm i'm aware United.
This is your understanding. And so them up at a Northeast college, I'm just like, yeah, seems kind of cold, but not that cold.
You know, like I think the way that they honor the Northeastern weather is very loose. Yeah.
It definitely is true. But anyway, geography aside, one thing that was really funny was that there's a lot of empty seats on the bus,

but they had Fortune Pimpster

sitting next to Layton anyway.

And you're like,

yeah, that is like

kind of worst case scenario

for this kind of bus.

And a small moment of realism

that I enjoyed.

Yes.

It was great.

Let's talk about some of the other characters.

And I want to talk about Kimberly next, who I think is, you said it's an ensemble. Totally agree.
In an ensemble, one person always rises, right? And I think, arguably, Kimberly, if not the best performance, is, like, kind of the main character, or at least that character brings the most main character energy. Do you agree with that? Does that strike you as correct, or am I just being drawn to Pauline Chalamet? I think you're right that she sort of stands out as like the protagonist.
But I think that Whitney is sort of the every person character. She is the more relatable person.
She makes decisions that you can like understand and agree with. And that, in fact, I think has made Whitney the kind of more like her storylines have not have not always stuck out.
You know, the character has been kind of boring and I think hasn't totally honored the performance at times. Whereas Kimberly is so quirky and the way that Pauline Chalamet plays her is just so out of left field and so bizarre that I do think that that's made her rise above.
But yes, she gets the most, she gets the most typical protagonist storylines. And so like she, she generally has the most typical romantic arc storylines, I think, and that gets a lot of attention.
Right. Right.
So she comes back in season three, needing to make amends with Whitney. because she's, um, is like, I guess, kind of dating Whitney's ex-boyfriends, kind of dating, we'll come back to it.
She is awaiting Kanan's return. Just me or did Kanan get super swole? I was like, wow, he's been in the gym.
I think Kanan's been swole. I, I, I mean, he, he, he, he definitely may have gotten more swole, but I just think that Christopher Meyer is such a babe.
I love the whole coffee shop trio. I love Lila.
I mean, that whole dynamic is just perfect. So I've always thought he was a babe, but yeah, he's pretty swole.
Okay. And this is maybe, is it me or did you feel the same way moment? I had some concerns

about this season for

most of this episode. I was like, this writing

feels a little bit off to me, and then

it's supposed to be awkward between

Kimberly and Kanan when

they finally are alone and can have sex.

But I found it unbearably

awkward to the point where I was just

like, this is not like cringe comedy.

This is poor execution and maybe poor writing. What was your take on that scene? Oh, I think what you're sensing there is a complete and total cop-out.
I mean, what they have done... I'm allergic to the cop-out is what you're saying.
Yes. Yes.
Because of course, Kimberly is a very awkward person, but we have seen her bagging hotties

premiere to finale, season to season.

Like this is what she does.

She likes a man with six pack abs

and they always like her back.

Like this is her character and she's always awkward,

but there is a chemistry there.

And the chemistry between Kimberly and Kanan,

whether kind of a good idea or not, has been building for seasons. And I really thought that last season, like, yes, it is awkward, but that chemistry is there.
So then this season to just act like, oh, it's just classic Kimberly, so pure awkward. This is awkward between them.
It's just a cop-out. And I think that I can kind of understand the cop-outs on the Layton stuff.
But really, there are no storylines that they're turning around for Layton. They're turning around all of these storylines from the end of season two.
And I just think there had to be another way to do it. Or don't turn them all around.
I mean, why did they... I don't want to skip ahead, but why did they even ever say Bella was going to transfer? Like, Bella's not going to transfer.
It's a four-person ensemble. So they were already going to have to turn that around.
I think that they should have committed to the bit of Kimberly and Kanan for at least two or three episodes because it actually was not bothering me to have the Kimberly and Whitney characters apart. Me neither.
I thought the sorority stuff was really funny. And while extremely heightened, I related to a lot of it.
Being fined for not going to something, like extreme sorority behavior. And I thought that all of the small characters who we were kind of meeting within the sorority kind of popped off the screen.

I liked a lot of that.

So I almost feel like they didn't have the confidence

that they could keep them apart for a little while

and still carry the show.

And I just think they could have.

Yeah, I think that's a really good point.

Maybe they were worried that with Renee Rapp leaving,

they were going to lose the scaffolding

of the friend group altogether

if they had Whitney and Kimberly fighting.

And so maybe that's why they had to walk that back.

But it's like, what if that was the thing that brought them back together? Is Leighton transferring? We miss each other so much. It's almost more frustrating for me, for the Whitney character, to have to just forgive Kimberly and have this mean nothing.
Because she still did the bad thing. She still kissed the ex-boyfriend and didn't tell.
She's not undoing the bad thing by... I found the writing of the Kimberly thing a little bit strange because she didn't seem to feel that much remorse.
She was kind of like, ugh, why won't Whitney forgive me? She didn't feel any remorse. And she got her a caboodle for the shower, which is a thoughtful for someone in college.
But like, I agree with you. She didn't feel any remorse.
And she got her like a caboodle for the shower, which is a thoughtful gift for someone in college. But like, I agree with you.
She didn't have any remorse. I think maybe what made me so uncomfortable was Pauline Chalamet's performance.
I thought when she was with Kanan, it wasn't even like there was an ounce of chemistry. It was like two people doing a scene together.
Like they were like, perhaps in college like there was no there was no physical connection there was no comedic connection and they had two scenes together they also like meet at um sips the coffee shop which side note i can only think of swig the uh mormon hang the mormon place in in uh the western united states but like she was so wooden in all of her scenes with with whitney and canaan and really all of them. She was sort of like trying to like get the jokes out, but they didn't land.
It was honestly bizarre because I think in the past she's been way more convincing in that role. Okay.
Well, I will say some of the jokes landed for me and I don't... When they started making out and are like clearly trying to have sex for the first time and she says, how's your mom? That really made me laugh.
And I do think that's the thing, has long time been a thing about this show that was showing up a lot in this, a little bit clumsy season three premiere is that the characters are strong. Like the characters are really funny and generally well-written.
The jokes are well-written, but they just do not always honor the depth of those characters and how we have... Because when I think about like, okay, is it Pauline Chalamet? I think about when Kimberly...
When Layton came out to Kimberly in a moment of extreme vulnerability. And like, I can almost cry just thinking

about that scene.

It's great.

It's so well acted on both of their parts.

Like, I think that she is capable of, you know,

giving a varied performance.

And this, I feel like the storyline

just kind of undercuts the ability to do that.

Yeah.

And yeah, it was frustrating. It was a letdown.
I was kind of excited for Kimberly and Kanan to give it a try. The old college try, one might say.
Right, because they did the hard thing. You know, like they made the decision.
They sensed the chemistry and they went for it. So it's like, just see it through.

It's like the most frustrating result to do the hard thing and then cop out of it, I think.

Right, right.

Which, yeah, I agree with you.

I think also getting more of them like at Sips,

having to navigate their relationship,

like would have been interesting.

If just for an episode.

With Lila back there, like giving her commentary. Yes, please.
Well, I guess now we'll have to navigate the post, like, hookup phase or something. So that's, there's still that.
Lila said, I put a cot in the break room in case you guys want to smush. Lila remains a star.
There's no doubt about that. She's so great.
Let's talk more about Whitney. I agree with you that the sorority stuff resonated.
Also, I hated doing sorority events so much that when we had charity events, I had a job in college, so I had some cash. I would just pay.
I would just be like, I'm not standing on the corner asking for change, but here is the $50 that I'm supposed to raise, and I would just pay because I just could not bring myself to do any of the events. That said, I thought it was out of place of the show.
Like I don't feel like Layton would have ever been in that sorority with like exactly that way with like all the makeup and the hair that was very 2006, like totally by her being in a sorority, but those girls didn't seem cool. Kappa seemed in previous seasons kind of cool.
And I also don't think Whitney would have ended up in a sorority where she had no idea what it was about at all. Like, I was just like, did they just change the sorority altogether? I don't know why I'm making you defend the show, but I just need to like air my grievances.
So do with them what you will. No, I mean, it's making me think about like, am I watching the show critically enough? Because there are some things that I'm like, it's fine for this to not have any foundation or backing, which is like how I felt about the sorority scenes.
They just, there were certain things that they were, when that one girl with all of their faces contoured so scary, she said, it's super important for the group photo. We want to see people in an uninterrupted sea of baby blue.
That's very funny to me. And so I'm just like, sure, that's, that is, is fine.
And I think I don't, it does your right sort of, but no, but Whitney, I disagree. I think the Whitney that we know would do that.
She makes a lot of rash decisions because she doesn't know who she is. And she's been kind of floundering, looking for identity.
That's been like a bit of an uninteresting storyline to watch at times, but it does sort of add up with being like a lifetime elite athlete that that sport is your whole personality and it's dominated so much of your life and your time. She's still playing that sport, but she's like searching for identity outside of it.
And a great place to search for identity is just in a sea of baby blue. And I can, I actually can really buy her doing that.
You find yourself in a sorority. Everyone knows that.
But I can't buy her doing that in a sea of such whiteness. And that is sort of nightmarish, I think, like to look upon.
And I think her reaction to it would generally be a little more dramatic. I did love Sherry Shepard saying that after January 6th, they have a zero-tolerance policy against being charged by strawberry blondes.
I did feel that many of the... There was two political jokes in particular.
I did feel they were both written before the election and perhaps would not have been included if the cast and crew of the sex out of the college girls were anticipating a different outcome the other joke probably was about um kimberly having met or kimberly having missed out on the chance to meet kamala and doug so which i think it's true to those characters they all probably would have been excited and had the same reaction but i just don't know that would have been like put into a television show if the people who made it thought that we would be in a different place here on November 27th. Well, and it just really registers that this, within the timeline of the show, this show is taking place in September, not November.
Right. Which is also amazing.
It's only sophomore year, and here we are like five years into the sex life of the college girls. Maybe it's four.
It is crazy. It's hard to keep up with what year they are because the timeline is kind of all over the place.
Right. Like, it might be 2022 for them.
I think it probably is, right? Like, we know it's after January of 2021, so maybe it's the fall of 2021? I don't know. I mean, let's face it, the way that it's written very much from the point of view of how Mindy Kaling experienced college, it should be taking place in like 2006.
And it comes across that way, except for the iPhones. Especially, especially with the sorority girls, the way the sorority girls were addressed really reminded me of my college experience.
And I was in college from 04 to 08. And I was like, yeah, the bump hair

and doing all of that,

the contouring is much more 2024 than 2004.

Well, we talked about this, right,

with Zoe Simmons that like,

there is a youngness to this show,

but it is not a youngness for young people.

It is a youngness for us.

Like this is how we experience youth.

Yeah, it is somehow both nostalgic and current, which is, I don't know if they, I think that in season one, they were not exactly doing that intentionally. And I think they've leaned into it a bit in season two and season three.
Like we are not going for realism. Have you watched random caveat? Have you watched English teacher? No, but I plan to.
Oh, it's so good. I know you love it.
Yeah. I love it.
I'm talking about it everywhere, but they nail current high school students in a way that is so unsettling in the way that experiencing a real high school student right now is unsettling. Just to someone my age, you're kind of like, oh, you're an alien and I'm not young anymore.
I'm afraid of teenagers, like straight up. So I get it.
And this show does not do that. No, not at all.
Definitely, definitely not. I guess Whitney has a new love interest on the horizon, I guess, this hot man we saw a couple times, but she's not spoken to yet.
And I am glad that she'll have a soccer storyline because I feel like that grounds her more and she's going to be competing with a freshman for her position. So yeah, I think maybe just kind of lean into the soccer thing.
I really like her friend who's on the soccer team. She's great.
And I do, I, you know, this show may be inconsistent at times, but I really appreciate how rain or shine, they are going to give us a slow motion, shirtless, young man walking, group of young men walking scene in literally every single premiere. That's really true.
And it is how, it is how exclusively how Whitney and Kimberly, like, identify their future paramours is in a slow motion, shirtless, walking or running scene. Yeah, it's great.
Also, it's a big signal to the audience. Pay attention.
Pay attention. This guy's hot.
All right. The last gal who we got to talk about, of course, is Bella, who, when you watch the show, it's very hard to not see her as a stand-in for Mindy Kaling in many ways, which probably was more true at the beginning.
I'm sure Bella's taken on more of a life of her own. As you alluded to, Bella begins the episode by standing in a statue she thinks to be the titular Essex of Essex College, explaining how she has to transfer because of all of her errors from her freshman year.
And then someone comes up behind her from the bursar's office or whatever, and is like, actually, you can't transfer. You have a 1.7 GPA.
No one will take you. And then off into the summer we go.
What a way to start, but also like a great point. And also a 1.7 GPA as someone who was like pretty obsessed with her grades in both high school and college makes me so deeply upset that I just like, how does one continue on with a 1.7 GPA? Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's what I was just like. I actually don't know how you recover from that.
Like that's going to take all three years to recover from. Yeah.
Like good luck. Even though Bella is not doing the comedy scene anymore, she doesn't exactly seem recommitted to academics.
So I am, I am concerned for her. That's also just so much money to be spending for a 1.7 GPA.
I just, I'm kind of like, move to Chicago, girl. Go to the Second City.
Do what you love. So true.
It is so, so true. That's a great point.
Just try to get on stage there or volunteer or, you know, if you use your money that you would be using on college to sustain six months in Chicago, see how it goes. Jodi, great idea.
Should we get you on the writing staff of Sex Lives of College Girls? I would love that. Sex Lives of Chicago Girls.
That's the new name of it. That's fun.
Yeah, you know where we need to set this show? At an improv theater. Actually, that would be kind of a funny show.
It would be fun. Have you ever been to Second City? It's pretty amazing.
Yes. And I do think that, like, yes, that would be fun.
And I think that it speaks to something about Bella's character that I like. And especially, I think if you consider her a stand-in for Minnie Kaling is that it is a real loss of ego because what I like about Bella is that like, she is annoying and they lean into making her annoying.
They call her annoying. And that is a reality of college, of life, is that...
People are annoying. People are annoying.
It's so true. And they're still good.
It's like those people have lots of value. And a lot of times, funny people are annoying, and they take it too far, and they don't know when to stop.
And kind of learning how to call that is a part maybe of a funny person or a comedian's life. And I like that.
There are so many lines in this, um, when she's sort of like owning up to, to the group about what the last year has been like. I, I, I think Kimberly says, or one of them says, I'm proud of you, Bella.
It's hard to look at yourself, realize you're annoying and want to change. Yeah.
So many of the lines and the motivations that they give her are so typical. Like, she briefly considers starting a podcast and it's like, yeah, we get it.
Also, Bella, perhaps you'd be good at it. She ends up becoming the new advisor and she wears a tie to the first meeting.
I thought that was a very funny Bella moment. First of all, she's then called out by a freshman.
The sophomore versus freshman clashes, I do think, are also true to life and fun. And she's made fun of for her outfit, among other things.
And it's already off to a terrible start for her as the advisor. And I actually, that's probably my favorite storyline of the episode.
Yes. Because also, will, I keep saying this word, but because I do really think it honors Bella as the character they've built.
They have completely derailed, you know, whatever she'd been doing, but it makes perfect sense for this character who is very egotistical and very self-centered that she would be like, you know what I should do? Take on this position that's going to get me a lot of attention, but I'm going to pretend that I'm doing it for like selfless and magnanimous reasons. And that just makes perfect sense to me about Bella.
And she's about to get like her ass handed to her because it's actually very hard to be an RA or a fat, you know, it's like, it's a lot of responsibility. And she's going to have all of these freshmen just tearing her to shreds.
She says, the new, I don't know if this is going to be like a continued character, but the like cool British girl. She's from Mayfair.
She's from Mayfair. And she is also queer and she's dressed very cool.
And she says, why are you wearing a tie? And Bella said, she was like, I'm turning menswear on its head. I hear it's great in the queer community.
It's like, don't, Bella, she wishes so badly that she were gay. Like that really comes across about her and she's not.
And yeah, I know that that character is kind of hard to tolerate at times, but I do think that that is intentional. And I think a lot of the flaws of Sex Lies of College Girls comes up when you can't tell if something is intentional.
I thought this was a very intentional Bella episode, to your point. Like, everything she did kind of tracked with, like, an annoying person who's trying to get back on track.
I miss a little bit of her sex mojo. There was no—not a lot of sex this episode for Sex Lies of College Girls, you know? Maybe my standard has been changed by Rivals, where I expect some kind of big sex scene in every episode.
Full frontal nudity or nothing. Or just people going at it for, you know, right away.
But there was very little sex for the Sex Lies of College Girls, and I think we actually do need some boy chasing. That's what I kind of miss overall.
Boy and girl chasing, you know, just romance and sex chasing, I should say. I want all of them.
And I guess Whitney's already on that path. We'll see what happens with the others.
But like that was, that's a really funny part of it. And of course, like they've now had sex.
They've gotten more comfortable, I hope, in some ways. But sort of the frenzy of like looking for the next thing and like looking for the next person, I think would inject some of like what I missed from the previous seasons.
And anyway, with a premiere, you have a lot of ground to cover. You need to pick up where you left off, like start, you know, putting down the groundwork for the rest of the season.
You need to pick up where you left off, immediately eliminate all of that, which takes up a lot of time. It is true.
Undoing, it does take up time, right? It does. Yeah.
It's unfortunately like one of my least favorite sort of tropes in it or, you know, unintentional tropes in a show is to kind of redo everything in the season premiere. I think we both are kind of like, I understand why that's happening here.
I'm hopeful that they'll make it out of that alive, you know, like that this will not be, because it's not up to Renee Rapp to stay on the show, you know, like it is kind of up to them to recover from this. And I do think they can, like there are so many funny side characters and so many funny main characters.
I agree, horniness is an integral part to the show. And I want it back.

I think they also could bring in a fourth.

I think they could replace her.

Like, first of all, there's precedent.

They did it on that 2-1-0.

Also in their sophomore year of college.

Brenda out.

The wonderful Valerie in.

And so, I think there actually is potential.

Like, a funny transfer storyline or whatever.

So, I think they definitely could recover for sure. And honestly, I hope they do.
I definitely will keep watching, even though I had some misgivings. Right.
Even when I think that the show is inconsistent, I do think it's so funny. And I love watching these young women.
And I love the parties. I don't care that they're always in that basement.
It's, I mean, let's say though. Me neither.
Small college, that's believable to me. Yeah, totally believable.
I spent all of my college life in four different basements. So just rotate the basements.
I do think it is absolutely laughable that these kids at this, if we are imagining a group of 20-year- olds right now would be having a Y2K party that like indicates towards that. Everyone thought that like the world, like that the electricity was going to go out on Y2K.
It's like 20 year olds do not know that. I liked their 1999 song, which was believed by Cher, the biggest song of 1999.
Great song. I got to assume also one of the cheapest to license actually, even though it's so big.
But I did have that thought. But it's a great song.
I've come to love it more since 1999. Well, it's a great business decision then.
They went with quality and quantity. Exactly.
They made their dollars for licensing really count. How will you say goodbye personally to Renee Rapp as Layton? What will be your final act as a fan of Layton? I'll probably just stream I Hate Boston really loudly in my home because I benefit from that.
So does Renee Rapp. And I, yeah, I'm gonna miss her.
I am too. I hope she keeps acting.
I mean, I'm not as in touch with her music, but I do think she's a really funny comedian. So I hope she keeps acting.
While I just... I support her because I support all of her talents.
And I know that she's choosing music because she loves it most. She's such a good actor.
And she really is good. And she's basically said kind of like, I don't want to act.
I think personally for her, like being on sets and actually, and acting is while it comes naturally to her, the talent, it is not something that she gets a lot of great personal benefit from. It seems kind of hard for her.
So in that way, no, I don't want her to do something she doesn't like. but can you imagine just being like a stage and screen worthy actor and

choosing not to do it?

Much like on the,

another great college show.

She's saying,

I choose me.

And you know what,

Renee,

do you?

That's fine.

Um,

thank you so much to our producer,

Kai Grady for more of me and Jodi.

Check us both out on ringer dish.

We're both there.

Um,

thanks for listening and hope you enjoy

The Sucked Lies of College Girls Season 3.