The highly anticipated third season of “Sex Lives of College Girls” was released on Max on Nov. 21. An episode will be released every Thursday through Jan. 23. The show, created by Mindy Kaling, is known for starring singer Reneé Rapp (who plays Leighton Murray) and actresses such as Pauline Chalamet (Kimberly Finkle), Alyah Chanelle Scott (Whitney Chase) and Amrit Kaur (Bela Malhotra).
The show is incredibly chaotic. I was extremely excited for this season, as Ruby Cruz will be joining the cast (the name of her character is still unknown) and it will feature Rapp’s final episodes, as she is leaving the show.
I only watched the first episode for this review, as it was the only one out when I wrote this, but I will be watching religiously when new episodes drop.
The first episode is called “Welcome Back to Essex.” It opens with Malhotra thinking she is talking to a sculpture of John Essex. (In this fictional universe, Essex is who the school is named after. Unclear on the why of it all, but I do think he is the school’s founder) Malhotra, who in prior seasons wanted to transfer out, is apologizing for everything she did last season (such as putting her ambition before her friendships, alienating her friend groups and so forth). The counselor she was with leaves her office, joining Malhotra at the statue and says that her GPA is too low; her only option is to come back in the fall.
Murray is driving back with her girlfriend, Alicia (played by Midori Francis) and her dad, who was in the back seat. When they have to pull over so Alicia can accept a call, Murray’s dad jokes that she is not talking to another girl (which, to be clear, no one was thinking), but something is going on, and I suppose we will find out exactly what that is soon. This new episode was shocking, filled with new revelations and characters. The plot is easy to follow but not incredibly dull, which I like.
Finkle and Chase are still not talking as in previous seasons, and while Chase moves to the Kappa house, Finkle lives with Murray and Malhotra. “We’re, like, 25% less hot now,” says Malhotra, and I agree. Not that they’re less hot, but that the group is not the same without Chase, so I hope that gets figured out stat.
Chaos builds as Finkle pulls up to the Kappa house and while her conversation with Chase doesn’t go as well as she’d hoped, maybe they will reconcile? Meanwhile, Alicia and Murray are having their own argument as Alicia announced that she is leaving Essex to work for the mayor of Boston. This surprised me, as I didn’t know that Francis was going to leave this season as well, but I guess it makes sense with Rapp’s departure. Murray leaves the room and insults Boston in the process (which is done comedically, as Rapp has an entire song dedicated to hating Boston).
Fortune Feimster makes a feature as an annoying person on the bus and Canaan and Finkle reunite — he gifts her a pretzel shirt from New York. Finkle does start to realize that her friendship with Chase is truly gone. “This is like Ten Commandments shit, you stole her man! You guys are done. Moses said that,” says Florez. And man, is she right. It’s either Canaan or Chase! Finkle will have to make this decision soon — if she doesn’t choose Chase, then I can’t; it’s over.
Chase deals with her unhinged sorority sisters and the party is on, baby (god, I wish college parties were actually as cool as the show’s). In a special moment that follows, Alicia and Murray talk things out and even say that they love each other. They’re so cute together and I am so happy that they haven’t broken up.
Finkle and Canaan call things off, and soon Finkle and Chase talk things through. Chase gets a well-deserved apology, and everything ends well. I am so pleased with how the episode wrapped this up. And we can see how Rapp gets her ending as well, when her math professor offers to make some calls and get her a transfer to MIT to study math. Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, who plays Lila Flores, is another one of the highlights of this show for me, and I am so happy to see that she’s back.
The chaos is back and it’s better than ever. I am looking forward to the new episodes this season and to see just how much more insane this show can get.
Rating: 4.5/5