Warning: This story contains spoilers from Season 2 of “Sex/Life,” now streaming on Netflix.
Picking up right where Season 1 left off, the second season of “Sex/Life” follows Sarah Shahi’s Billie as she asks herself a big question: Can I have it all? She’s torn between wanting both the sexual relationship she once had with now ex-boyfriend Brad (Adam Demos) and the current life she has with her husband, Cooper (Mike Vogel), and their children.
Throughout the second season, as she and Cooper ultimately decide to separate, she dips her toe into new a relationship— but then realizes she’s not only still physically attracted to Brad, but is in love with him. Although he’s having a baby with his new wife, Brad eventually realizes he feels the same way about Billie. After six drama-filled episodes, the finale sees the pair back together —with Billie revealing she’s pregnant.
“The mantra for this season, really, is this is a love story. This is a fairy tale. This is not a morality tale,” says creator Stacy Rukeyser. “There are a lot of people who felt that maybe Billie should be punished for what she did at the end of Season 1. I was very firm that I was not going to tell that story, because it’s really against the ethos of our whole show. And quite frankly, if you want to see a morality tale about a woman with sexual desire, all you have to do is look at the entire canon of film and television. What usually happens is that a woman with sexual desire either goes crazy, or becomes the bad girl or the bitch or she’s punished — or even killed, which is the ultimate punishment. I was really adamant that that is not the story that we are telling.”
The story Season 2 did tell was, in the end, a happy one. Not only were Billie and Brad back together, she also had created a cordial co-parenting relationship and real friendship with Cooper. Despite seemingly wrapping up the storylines, Rukeyser has hopes —and many ideas — for Season 3.
“It’s definitely not intended to be a series finale. I believe there are always more stories to tell with these characters,” she says. The baby news, for example, was important to set up what the next season could be about — Brad and Billie’s blended family. “We’d also be back to that prime question from Season 1, which is, can you have sex and life all at the same time, especially as a new mom.”
Additionally, since pregnancy was such a hurtle — and one that ultimately led to their Season 1 split — she felt it was important that be part of their fairy tale ending. Overall, the happy ending was the point: “This show has always been intended to be escapist and inspirational, to inspire women to really look at their lives and make sure they’re happy and that they’re getting what they want — that they’re being all parts of themselves. And I feel that giving them a happy ending is a much better way to inspire women than basically making Billie miserable because she screwed up.”
Season 2, like Season 1, contained quite a bit of nudity — this time, showing a full frontal shot of Jonathan Sadowski. After his character, Devon, is in a car accident while receiving oral sex, he has to get reconstruction surgery on his penis and flaunts it around the locker room.
However, Rukeyser is staying mum about whether or not a prosthetic penis was used. (She also never confirmed whether prosthetics were used for Adam Demos’ Season 1 full-frontal scene either.)
“I’m not sure it’s a prosthetic! We’ll never tell,” she says with a laugh about Sadowski’s locker room scene. While he’s naked, Devon is showing his friends how beneficial the surgery was — while also making misogynistic jokes at the same time. “Devon’s been the devil on Cooper’s shoulder — he’s blithely cheating on Trina [Amber Goldfarb], he’s having Cooper go out, do drugs and get hookers. In the ‘Sex/Life’ universe, men who do things like that are punished. Women with sexual desire are not, but men who cheat on their wives, and do all that other stuff, are punished.”
Rukeyser always wanted to do a storyline about an enhanced penis, too. In fact, she once wrote a spec script about it years ago for “Nip/Tuck,” so when one of her writers pitched the idea, she was actually excited.
“I had done all of this research on it; I learned all about the inner penis, and how that’s a real thing. I was only too eager to go down this road. It felt like kismet in that way,” she says with a laugh. “I didn’t know if Jonathan would go for it. I mean, he loves comedy, and this is ultimate comedy — but he had to really put himself out there.”
The creator added, “I worked once upon a time for a producer who told me, when we were casting the day player roles, ‘There are no fat women in the universe of my shows.’ While I really disliked that sentiment, I stored that away for a moment when I would have my own show and apparently, in the Stacy Rukeyser universe, there are no small penises!”
Seasons 1 and 2 of “Sex/Life” are now streaming on Netflix.
