As the long-awaited third season arrives, tons of fans will be looking for more shows like The Sex Lives of College Girls. In addition to starring in her own series, Mindy Kaling has also launched several others as a producer, including The Sex Lives of College Girls. This comedy aims to take a look at the sex lives of the title characters, and it demonstrates a remarkable complexity in its engagement with this thorny and at-times difficult issue. Additionally, there are a number of other series currently streaming that cover similar territory.

College comedies are typically male-dominated, but The Sex Lives of College Girls uses the genre to tell hilarious and insightful stories about these complex and fun characters. The show is also able to touch on heavier subjects without losing the fun and sense of humor it has become known for. Fans can still find some funny coming-of-age stories that similarly mix great characters with funny situations.

10 Love, Victor (2020-2022)

3 Seasons, 28 Episodes

Love Victor Movie Poster

Your Rating

Love Victor
7/10
Release Date
2020 - 2021
Network
CBS
Showrunner
Isaac Aptaker
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Michael Cimino
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Ana Ortiz

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Love, Victor is a spinoff of the 2018 film Love, Simon, starring Nick Robinson. Instead of focusing on Simon’s story, Love, Victor centers on Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino), who, after moving to a new city, must juggle the stresses of high school as he figures out his sexual identity. The series ran for three seasons between 2020 and 2022 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Seasons
3

The success of the movie Love, Simon spawned a spinoff, which focuses on the character of Victor, who has to figure out not only who he is but also what he wants in of romance. In the course of its three seasons, Love, Victor addressed a number of issues related to the lives of young LGBTQ+ people, including coming out, friendships, and family. What’s more, it never loses sight of the fact that it’s a comedy with a big heart.

A major theme of Love, Victor is the difficulty of being a young person attempting to come to with their identity. While the show speaks directly to the LGBTQ+ community and many of their experiences, this is a struggle that every young person can relate to. The Sex Lives of College Girls showcases that the anxiety, uncertainty, and shame of young identity don't go away when high school ends.

9 Physical (2021-2023)

3 Seasons, 30 Episodes

Your Rating

Physical
Release Date
2021 - 2023-00-00
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Rory Scovel
  • Headshot Of Geoffrey Arend
    Geoffrey Arend
  • Headshot of Rose Byrne
    Rose Byrne
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Ashley Liao

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

In Physical, Rose Byrne plays Sheila Rubin, a burnt-out housewife struggling with a disenchanted outlook on life who takes out her frustrations via an eating disorder she hides from her husband and others. While doing what she can for her family, Sheila reaches a tipping point when she discovers aerobics, a new outlet that allows her to escape her current monotony. While her husband, Danny Rubin, pushes forward with a less-than-noble political agenda, Sheila takes it upon herself to begin a darker journey to start her new life by any means necessary. Managing the business will be difficult for a woman in the 1980s, an obstacle Sheila intends to overcome.

Seasons
3

Actor Rose Byrne has proven herself to be an incredibly talented comedic performer in movies like Bridesmaids, Spy, and Neighbors. However, the Apple TV+ series Physical allows her to be hilarious while also building a strong and inspiring character. Byrne stars in Physical as Sheila, a woman living in the 1980s who is unhappy with her life as a housewife. However, she finds unexpected purpose and power in the world of aerobics.

Just as The Sex Lives of College Girls attempts to show the complicated psychology that is always involved with sex, so Physical also immerses the viewer in its main character’s psychology, allowing for a deeper understanding of what makes her tick and why she sees her eating disorder as a means of controlling her body. Byrne is able to fuse the comedy and drama of the series effortlessly, making Sheila a hilarious and entertaining protagonist with depth.

8 Queer As Folk (2000-2005)

5 Seasons, 83 Episodes

Queer as Folk (2000)

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Queer as Folk
Release Date
2000 - 2005-00-00
Showrunner
Daniel Lipman
Writers
Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman, Russell T. Davies
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Gale Harold
  • Headshot Of Hal Sparks
    Hal Sparks
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Randy Harrison
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Peter Paige

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Queer as Folk is a romantic drama series that follows a close-knit group of friends in the LGBTQ+ community. The series follows each of their relationships, careers, and their experiences with the evolving social landscape of the early 2000s.

Seasons
5

There are few LGBTQ+ series quite like Queer as Folk, which sought to explore the various ways in which its gay characters navigated life in Pittsburgh in the first few years of the new millennium. It was also very straightforward in its approach to sex, with an explicitness that was notable (even if it was on Showtime). However, what was important was that the sex wasn’t just intended to stimulate; it allowed the series to explore issues such as intimacy, love, and queer friendship in ways that are even now rare on television.

While the title The Sex Lives of College Girls might hint at a show that is a wild sex comedy, it is also a more thoughtful examination of romance, sex, and exploration at this age. Queer as Folk came out in an era when gay characters on television were still not totally accepted by the mainstream, but the show fully embraces its depiction of these characters in an honest way instead of just being scandalous.

7 Scream Queens (2015-2016)

2 Seasons, 23 Episodes

Scream Queens TV Poster

Your Rating

Scream Queens
Release Date
2015 - 2016-00-00
Network
FOX
Showrunner
Ryan Murphy

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

A dark satirical comedy-horror series, Scream Queens follows a college sorority group at Wallace University where an unsolved murder case is resurrected following a string of new murders. When the school's mascot, the Red Devil, begins murdering sorority , the girls fight against the potential closure of their home while trying to stay alive. 

Seasons
2

College is a formative time for young women, as seen in both Sex Lives of College Girls and Scream Queens, albeit in much different ways. Ryan Murphy has had quite a career in Hollywood, producing numerous television series which have experienced varying levels of success. Scream Queens, which focused on a clutch of murderous college students, was one of his lesser ventures, but it did have a camp feeling to it that aligned it with other Murphy series such as American Horror Story.

Beneath the murderous facade, the series demonstrates how often violence lurks beneath the surface of many college campuses. Taking away the horror elements of Scream Queens, the characters and their situations feel like something right out of The Sex Lives of College Girls. It is a show filled with humor even if it is willing to scare the audience as well.

6 Yellowjackets (2021-Present)

2 Seasons, 19 Episodes

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Yellowjackets
Release Date
November 14, 2021
Network
Showtime, Paramount+ with Showtime
Showrunner
Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, Jonathan Lisco

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Yellowjackets is a television series exploring the survival ordeal of a high school girls' soccer team stranded in the remote wilderness after a plane crash. It interweaves psychological horror and coming-of-age themes, simultaneously depicting their harrowing transformation and its lasting impact on their lives 25 years later.

Seasons
3

The Sex Lives of College Girls isn’t the only series that aims to explore the psychological lives of its characters, as a similar dynamic emerges in the series Yellowjackets. In this case, the series focuses on a group of women who survived a plane crash when they were teenagers and look back on the events. Those who lived through the experience deal with the trauma years later, while flashbacks reveal what they went through and what they had to do to survive.

Just as Sex Lives aims to blend together elements of psychological drama and comedy, Yellowjackets weaves elements of horror, mystery, and suspense into its dramatic story. However, fans should be aware that Yellowjackets is a much more intense series that can be hard to watch at times. It is more about the dynamic of these young women in a situation when societal norms go out the window.

5 Queens (2021-2022)

1 Season, 13 Episodes

Queens - Poster

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Queens
TV-14
Drama
Soap
Music
Release Date
2021 - 2022-00-00
  • Headshot Of Brandy Norwood
    Brandy Norwood
    Naomi aka Xplicit Lyrics
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Eve
    Brianna aka Professor Sex
  • Headshot Of Naturi Naughton
    Naturi Naughton
    Jill aka Da Thrill
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Nadine Velazquez
    Valeria aka Butter Pecan

WHERE TO WATCH

Seasons
1
Main Genre
Drama
Creator(s)
Zahir McGhee
The cast  of Queens walk forward and pose

The past few years have seen a number of television series aiming to unpack the relationships that emerge with musical recording groups, even as they also evoke nostalgia for the 1990s. In the case of Queens, the four central characters are of a female R&B group who reunite after years of estrangement for an attempted return to chart success.

As with The Sex Lives of College Girls, the series also dives deeply into the personal lives of its characters, all of whom have to balance competing demands and loyalties. Both shows are heavily focused on female friendships with the women ing each other through difficult times and personal struggles, but also dealing with their own differences. It is interesting to see such relationships explored through the lens of these older women with the longer history shared between them offering some fun dynamics.

4 Shrill (2019-2021)

3 Seasons, 22 Episodes

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Shrill
Release Date
2019 - 2021-00-00
Network
Hulu
Directors
Andrew DeYoung
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Dana Millican
    Kim
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Jeb Berrier
    Dave
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Tommy Snider
    Mike
  • Headshot Of Aidy Bryant
    Aidy Bryant
    Annie

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming
BUY

Aidy Bryant as Annie Easton smiling at a pool party in Shrill.

Aidy Bryant is one of the longest-running of Saturday Night Live, and she has a comedic voice that is all her own. That’s what makes her such a success in the series Shrill, based on the book by Lindy West. What’s especially notable about this series is that it is forthright about the fact that it is exploring issues related to weight and the fat-phobia that is so much a part of American culture writ large. Byant excels at creating a character who is determined to forge a life on her own .

Shrill is able to address modern issues with how society treats women and the struggles of being a young woman in the modern world. However, like The Sex Lives of College Girls, it does all this with a strong sense of humor and a cleverness that makes its messages all the more impactful.

3 The Chair (2021)

1 Season, 6 Episodes

Your Rating

The Chair
Release Date
2021 - 2021-00-00
Network
Netflix
Showrunner
Amanda Peet

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming
BUY

The Chair is a comedy-drama series created for Netflix that follows Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, played by Sandra Oh, as she navigates her new role as the English department Chair at the prestigious Pembroke University. Ji-Yoon faces unique challenges as the first woman to chair the department and as one of the few staff of color at the university.

Seasons
1

Between Sandra Oh's Grey's Anatomy and Killing Eve roles, she is a very well-respected actress with a number of well-regarded roles under her belt. While Netflix’s The Chair might not be as well known as those other series, it gives Oh another complex protagonist that she excels at playing. Oh stars as Ji-Yoon Kim, who takes over an English department in crisis as the first woman of color to take the position.

This series approaches college life from the opposite angle of The Sex Lives of College Girls, looking at a middle-aged woman who is part of the faculty rather than a young girl starting her adult life. However, it is still a tremendously entertaining, and often hilarious, look at the foibles, flaws, and idiosyncrasies that are such an important part of the academic experience and that dominate the lives of professors. It also manages to convert similar areas from its own perspective, such as the struggles to be taken seriously as a woman.

2 Dear White People (2017-2021)

4 Seasons, 40 Episodes

Your Rating

Dear White People
Release Date
2017 - 2021-00-00
Network
Netflix
Showrunner
Justin Simien
  • Headshot Of Logan Browning
    Logan Browning
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Antoinette Robertson
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    DJ Blickenstaff
  • Cast Placeholder Image
    Marque Richardson

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

Dear White People is a Netflix original Comedy Drama that acts as a continuation of the 2014 movie of the same name. Starring Logan Browning, Brandon P. Bell, and DeRon Horton, Dear White People tells the story of a group of black friends who attend a predominantly white Ivy League school. The series lasted for four seasons on Netflix before ending its run in 2021.

Seasons
4

There are several series out there, including The Sex Lives of College Girls, that examine fraught cultural territory, but few do so as successfully and rigorously as Dear White People. A follow-up to the 2014 movie of the same name, Dear White People follows the lives of several Black students at a predominantly white Ivy League university, as they deal with discrimination in its subtle and unsubtle forms.

Like The Sex Lives of College Girls, Dear White People approaches the issues of culture and race colliding on a college campus with some of the uncomfortable moments that result. This series largely eschews easy solutions or commentary and opts instead to blend together human drama, comedy, and social engagement in a way that allows its message to land successfully. It is insightful and eye-opening while still providing an entertaining show filled with complex characters.

1 Girls (2012-2017)

6 Seasons, 62 Episodes

Girls TV series poster

Your Rating

Girls
Release Date
2012 - 2017-00-00
Network
HBO Max
Showrunner
Lena Dunham

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming
BUY

Created by Lena Dunham, Girls is a coming-of-age comedy-drama series that follows a group of four twentysomething-year-old girls now discovering that they're on their own and must find their way through life. Central to the show is Hannah Horvath, who, after graduating college, is cut-off financially from her family. Hannah will soon discover trying to make it as a writer in Brooklyn is far more challenging than she thinks.

Seasons
6

When Girls debuted in 2012, it was like few other shows on television, thanks in large part to the unique creative presence of Lena Dunham, who created the series and also played the main character, Hannah. Like The Sex Lives of College Girls, Girls explores various aspects of life for a group of young women trying to make their way in New York City during the 2010s. They deal with their respective love lives as well as their own issues with each other while struggling with what they are meant to make of their lives as young adults.

The Sex Lives of College Girls is a bit more uplifting in of its female relationships, as there is a stronger sense of between the core group as opposed to the more selfish characters in Girls. However, the unlikability of Girls' main characters is part of the appeal, as the show gets a lot of laughs and cringe comedy moments out of seeing these characters make very relatable yet frustrating mistakes with their lives.