#The Cast of ‘Sex/Life’ Bares All for Netflix’s Steamy New Drama (VIDEO)

Two days after Netflix dropped the new season of folks pushing the envelope while pushing up on each other with Too Hot To Handle, there’s a new show on the streamer that is here to say “Hold my beer.” Because unlike the singletons of that resort-set reality show, the suburban (and scripted) adults of Sex/Life are down for more than just some blurred-out hookups. A. LOT. MORE.

In the eight-episode drama created by UnReal exec-producer Stacy Rukeyser, The Rookie alum Sarah Shahi stars as Billie Connelly, a seemingly happily stay-at-home mom who has the perfect Connecticut home, well-behaved kids, and unacceptably attractive husband in Cooper (The Brave‘s Mike Vogel in full corporate-daddy mode). Billie also has, it turns out, an unquenchable thirst for her former party-girl days, which were primarily filled with Manhattan nights out with bestie Sasha (theater vet Margaret Odette) and what was apparently Olympic-level bang sessions with hot Aussie music producer beau Brad (UnReal‘s Adam Demos).

After Cooper reads his wife’s fantasy journal and realizes that there is basically another man in his marriage, all sorts of messiness erupts. Billie’s fantasies get the best of her. Sasha confesses an unexpected tie to Brad. Cooper can’t handle not measuring up (literally…there is a men’s locker-room scene that needs to be seen and discussed forever). Even the neighbors get into the mix and lord alive, does that complicate things.

Amid all of this, is an astounding amount of sex. Like Cinemax After Dark on performance-enhancing drugs. But that’s just on the surface. Beneath copious amounts of bared flesh and soapy plot twists is an exploration—as told through the female gaze of Rukeyser—into how women have been programmed to subvert their sexuality, deny a part of themselves for the sake of society’s patriarchal views on femininity and how corrosive that can be to honesty and equality within romantic relationships.

“I wanted everybody around the world who has ever had an identity crisis or wondered ‘What if?’…to be heard in some way,” offers Shahi, who joined her co-stars for a chat with us ahead of the premiere. The group also discusses the tricky parts of playing in such intimate waters and what they hope viewers take away from it. Aside, of course, from how Vogel kept himself in butt-baring shape during a pandemic.

Sex/Life, Series Premiere, Friday, June 25, Netflix