Answers to All Your Questions About Netflix’s Insane, Insatiable Sex/Life—Including If We'll Get a Season 2
Just in case summer wasn't sweaty enough for you already, Netflix cranked up the heat in 2021 with its uber-steamy new series, Sex/Life.
The addictive fantasy show is about a sexy Manhattan party girl-turned-stifled Connecticut housewife (played by SarahShahi) who gets swept up in pleasurable pandemonium after her sensual ex-boyfriend Brad (Adam Demos) walks back into her life, compelling her to question her idyllic existence with husband Cooper (MikeVogel). It's been called one of those “so-bad-it’s-good” experiences a la Deadly Illusions or 50 Shades of Grey—which, probably not coincidentally, were also both over-the-top "sexcapist" entertainment with plenty of gratuitous graphic content.
Even more implausible is Sex/Life’s parallel behind-the-scenes backstory, which likewise involves co-stars coupling up in real life after leaving their respective spouses. (Talk about life imitating, uh, art?)
Whether you’re Sex/Life-curious after hearing all the hype, or you just finished bingeing season 1 and have a ton of questions—especially “when can we see more?”—keep reading to find out everything we know about Netflix’s Sex/Life and whether it will be renewed for season 2.
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What is Sex/Life about?
Billie Connelly (Shahi) lives a charmed, luxe life in the tony NYC suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut, alongside her hubby (Vogel), a buttoned-up investment banker and their child. However, Billie can’t help pining for her days of yore (i.e. her 20s) when she was pursuing a Ph.D. uptown at Columbia University by day and pursuing hot hookups by night on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
So when bad-boy ex Brad (Demos), a renowned music-label guru, reappears, Billie starts taking a long, hard look at what she really wants—especially sexually. On the one hand, Sex/Life examines that old trope about whether women can truly “have it all”: a fulfilling home life, a supportive marriage, kids, a satisfying career and a crazy sex life. On the other hand, Sex/Life is kinda like softcore adult entertainment. What we mean by that is, there are a lot of sex scenes.
Who stars in Sex/Life?
Shahi is a 41-year-old Persian-American actress best known for recurring roles in several TV shows, including The L Word, Fairly Legal, Person of Interest, City on a Hill and Nathan Fillion’s The Rookie.
Vogel is a model-turned-actor who starred alongside Anne Heche in NBC’s short-lived military drama The Brave; the 42-year-old has also appeared in films like Blue Valentine, The Help, Cloverfield and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
As for Demos, he’s a 36-year-old Aussie actor who’s perhaps the least well-known to American audiences among his Sex/Life costars, but you might have seen him on Lifetime’s acclaimed reality-TV drama UnREAL.
Rounding out Sex/Life’s main cast is Margaret Odette, who plays Billie’s grad-school BFF, Sasha. Unlike Billie, Sasha continued her career and never married.
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Are the Sex/Life’s characters dating in real life?
Actually, yes! Shahi reportedly separated from her husband of 11 years, Shameless actor Steve Howey, in June 2020, just a few months before Sex/Life began production that fall in Canada. By December 2020, she was hinting at finding love with Demos, admitting on Instagram that filming Sex/Life “unleashed parts of my heart I had hidden for so long. It helped me find my truth. I was broken open. Finally.”
By the time her birthday rolled around a month later—the same month she finalized her divorce—Shahi made things Instagram-official with her costar, declaring that she’d “found my love @adam_demos.”
What is the Sex/Life penis scene?
(Warning: spoilers!) In the third episode of Season 1, Cooper follows Brad into a gym, then into the gym's showers, then... well, let's just say he can't stop staring at the size of what he sees. And while there is indeed an ample appendage that you can feast your eyes on if you feel like cueing it up on Netflix, the streaming service also recently serviced fans' desires for more, more, more by sharing the actual page from the Sex/Life script that described the moment in question.
It seems the "penis scene" has been a big reason for the show's success (are you surprised?), with fans sharing videos showing their reactions to the scene on TikTok. Today Show hosts in both Australia and the U.S. (hi, Hoda Kotb!) have also gotten in on the fun.
Is that a real penis in Sex/Life episode 3?
Depends on who you ask! Newsweek previously reported that “a member of the prosthetics team confirmed that the scene does indeed feature a prosthesis.” However, Sex/Life showrunner and producer Stacy Rukeyser told Collider in June 2021 about the massive manhood, “That’s not a body double. I mean, people usually ask is it real or is it a prosthetic? I can tell you what Adam Demos says about it which is, a gentleman never tells. So, we are leaving that up to the viewer’s imagination."
Is Sex/Life based on a book?
Yes, it’s based on a self-published memoir by BB Easton called
On Instagram, Easton has posted about the similarities between her real-life escapades and all of Sex/Life’s plot twists and turns. In mid-July, for example, she wrote, “FUN FACT: The adorable police chase scene in @sexlife after Billie and Cooper’s romp in that private pool was inspired by a similar scene in 44 Chapters About 4 Men! Only in my version I was with my ex-boyfriend Hans, and ???? was the one driving topless…”
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Will there be a Sex/Life Season 2?
Yes! In late September 2021, the streamer confirmed that it had ordered a second season of Sex/Life—and revealed that Season 1 had been watched by a whopping 67 million households in its first month of release, which puts it only behind Bridgerton and The Witcher for an original Netflix series' audience.
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We also know that Shahi, Vogel, Demos and Odette are all set to return for Season 2, which will be filmed in Toronto like Season 1. Beyond that, though, Season 2 details are scarce at this point.
Back in June 2021, Shahi herself was one of the hopefuls holding out for a Sex/Life Season 2. She told Entertainment Tonight at the time, "Man, I hope... We don't know and I just hope that these stories continue to spiral even more down the rabbit hole that they already have. Billie's gotta live in this complex world—she's sexual and she's unhappy and she's happy and there's just a circus of things to explore with her. I hope we get another chance to do it again 'cuz I sure do love Billie a lot."
Author Easton had some more insider intel to share when she told the UK publication Express in mid-July, "There is a lot of talk about Season 2 and I have high hopes just because of the response worldwide."
Fans, of course, seem to be clamoring for more—thanks in large part to the show's Season 1 cliffhanger (warning: Sex/Life spoilers ahead!), in which Shahi's character declares that she truly does want it all—to both stay married to her husband while also getting to jump into bed with her ex—but Season 1 viewers don't get a chance to find out if that winds up working for her, Brad and Cooper in real life.
How many episodes are in Sex/Life Season 1?
The first season of Sex/Life includes eight episodes, each about 45-50 minutes long.