The Best Shows to Watch After Finishing Sex/Life
Look out for even more love triangles.
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There are two stages to watching Sex/Life, a buzzy show on Netflix, which was based on a memoir. First, watch Billie (Sarah Shahi) choose between her kind husband, Cooper (Mike Vogel), and alluring ex, Brad (Adam Demos), over the course of 10 episodes. Then talk about it. The series has generated conversations over its story, the fact that its two leads are dating in real life, and its third episode (if you know, you know).
While waiting for season 2 of Sex/Life to address that cliffhanger of an ending, watch other shows as sultry and thought-provoking. Below, we gathered 10 options that share elements with Sex/Life. If your favorite part of the program was spying on another person's dating life, then Sex and the City and 2021's Run the World will be appealing—in the shows, groups of friends discuss their various romantic adventures. For watches brimming with sexual tension, look no further than The Affair and Dark Desire. And if its suburban drama you're after, then Desperate Housewives will exceed expectations as you pass the time for Billie, Cooper, and Adam's reunion.
Sex and the City
Don't you wish Billie could ask Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda for advice in a crossover episode? As someone occasionally torn between paramours, Carrie might be able to relate to Billie's struggle. Perhaps the upcoming revival can address it.
What/If?"
What/If has more in common with Sex/Life than the slash in their titles. Like Sex/Life, What/If is an unapologetically escapist and dramatic show. Renée Zellweger plays Anne, a meddlesome millionaire who interferes in a couple's relationship for reasons we won't spoil. Anne agrees to fund Lisa's (Jane Levy) science venture—if she agrees to let her husband (Blake Jenner) spend the night with her.
Dark Desire
Dark Desire is one of the steamiest Spanish-language shows on Netflix. Like Sex/Life, the Mexican series focuses on a married woman who is swept away by the adventure of a romance. Except Dario (Alejandro Speitzer), the young man Alma (Maite Perroni) falls for, may not be who he says he is. Dark Desire is a classic erotic thriller, showing lust laced with danger.
The Affair
Sex/Life is about the temptation of an affair and the potential havoc it can wreak on a person's life. For more content made in that vein, watch the fittingly titled Showtime series The Affair. Noah Solloway (Dominic West), a married father of four, and Alison Lockhart (Ruth Wilson), a waitress grieving a past loss, meet at a restaurant in Montauk, and their lives are never the same. The episodes are split between characters' perspectives, so you'll see the affair as both Noah and Alison remember it. Joshua Jackson (of Dawson's Creek and Dr. Death fame) also stars.
Younger
Younger follows another woman on the suburbia-to-New York City track. In her 20s, Liza (Sutton Foster) left publishing to raise her daughter. Now, she's 40—and pretends she's 26 in an attempt to break back into the industry. As Younger progresses toward its seventh season, it becomes less about an outrageous lie, and more about a woman living life on her terms, just like Billie in Sex/Life. Younger also features a knotty love triangle, with Liza torn between a younger tattoo artist and an executive at her publishing house.
Run the World
In Sex/Life, Billie often wonders what her life might have been like had she stayed in New York. Run the World depicts four 30-something women living in present-day Harlem. Run the World has its share of alluring leading men—but the show's real appeal is found in its genuinely warm depiction of friendship.
Desperate Housewives
There are secrets in suburbia. Desperate Housewives is an entire series centered around that idea. In season 1, the women of Wisteria Lane see their lives upended after their friend unexpectedly takes her own life. From there, dark twist follows dark twist. Expect Sex/Life-worthy steam, and soap opera-worthy plot lines.
The Girlfriend Experience
Sex/Life has proven to be a conversation-starting show, just like The Girlfriend Experience. Since its premiere in 2016 on Starz, The Girlfriend Experience made headlines for its provocative sex scenes and daring subject matter. Each season of the anthology series focuses on a different set of sex workers and their high-end clients, all of whom are seeking an emotional connection—a.k.a. the "girlfriend experience."
Made for Love
Made for Love, also based on a book, is a dark comedy about a similar topic to the one found in Sex/Life: Who we choose as partners, and the repercussions of that choice. Like Billie, Hazel (Cristin Milioti) feels trapped in her marriage—and it's understandable why. Her husband is a tech billionaire intent on tracking her every move. Made for Love describes the journey to escape him.
Elite
Sex/Life is, uh, steamy. And so is Elite, an immensely popular Netflix original series set at a private school in Spain. As a modern telenovela, the plot often veers toward the extreme, with at least one shocking crime a season. But it's the connection between characters that keeps people watching.
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