Usually, when someone on a TV series is dying, they want to do things like jump out of airplanes. But in a new FX on Hulu series based on a hit podcast, the person who’s dying wants to have the sexual experience she never got to have during her adult life.
Opening Shot: A woman thinks of a sexual encounter in her 20s when she’s supposed to be listening to someone talking during a therapy session.
The Gist: Molly Kochan (Michelle Williams) can’t help but have her mind wander to sex as her husband Steve (Jay Duplass) rambles on to their therapist about how he’s always been considered a feminist. Since she was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of years prior, it seems that Steve has shifted into caretaker mode and doesn’t tend to look at her sexually anymore, even now that she’s in remission. Her libido has returned with a vengeance, but Steve thinks it’s a side effect of her medication.
During the session she gets a call from her oncologist, Dr. Pankowitz (David Rasche); apparently, the pain she was experiencing in her hip was a return of the cancer, and it’s metastasized into her bones and brain. Upon hearing the news she bolts the session, runs to the bodega across the street, buys a neon-green no-name diet soda she’s been craving, and calls her best friend Nikki Boyer (Jenny Slate).
As she sips from the two-liter bottle, she reveals the dire news to Nikki first. Nikki, who is a dependable friend but often scattered, is obviously sad for Molly. but she gets so loud with her crying that the store owner comes out to argue with her. Still, Molly loves how free she is, and she decides that she’d rather have Nikki take care of her than Steve, who can’t see past her being a patient to pity.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock and based on Nikki Boyer’s podcast of the same name, Dying For Sex reminds us a bit of shows like Survival Of The Thickest or How To Die Alone, where a fortysomething woman finds sexual and romantic liberation after changing her life. Of course, the circumstances here are bit more dire than they are in the other two shows.
Our Take: Dying For Sex is a dramedy where the drama is a whole lot more effective than the comedy. Without a doubt, the scenes where Williams is contemplating Molly’s fate, both with regards to her cancer reoccurring as well as her restrained sexual existence, she projects a powerful mixture of lament and desire. But, at least in the first two episodes, it feels like everyone is trying way too hard to make an inherently unfunny topic into something that elicits laughs.
Much of what Williams does to make things funny stems from her voiceover that represents her thoughts. In the second episode, for instance, as Dr. Pankowitz talks to her about his treatment plan, all she can think about is “dicks,” based on the pictures sent by men who match with her on a dating app. The inner-monologue conceit is hit and miss.
Duplass is funny merely because Steve a complete beta male, but it feels like his instinct for being a caretaker for the love of his life is being somewhat mocked. Sometimes he deserves it, like when he tries to tell Molly during their session that her sexual feelings aren’t what she really wants, or when he’s receiving a blowjob from Molly and all he can think of is cancer when he feels her reconstructed breast. But in many ways, it feels like the scorn he’s getting from Molly is undeserved.
Then there’s Nikki. She’s chaos personified, and there are few better at playing a chaotic people than Slate. But Nikki comes so strong out of the box, pointing and yelling, that it takes time to find some subtlety in her character, which comes as she struggles to be Molly’s caretaker.
What we think is that, in this case, after the wild setup of the first two episodes, where Molly’s situation is explained in the first and her first forays into her new sexual life are shown in the second, we’ll find what makes this show special.
Sex and Skin: Yes, there is definitely both.
Parting Shot: As Steve exits the hospital and sees Molly get in Nikki’s car. Molly looks back at him before she gets in and Nikki drives off.
Sleeper Star: Other people who will be guesting this season will be Sissy Spacek, who plays Molly’s mother Gail, and Rob Delaney.
Most Pilot-y Line: The daughter of Nikki’s boyfriend Noah (Kelvin Yu) says, “I have to study for the PSATs; I can’t deal with cancer!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite the fact that the first two episodes of Dying For Sex try too hard to lean on the funny side of Molly’s story, the elements are there for a moving story of life, death. love and desire.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
