‘Sex/Life’: Sarah Shahi’s Billie is the Most Selfishly Horny Character in TV History

Sex/Life premiered on Netflix over the weekend, introducing us to a torrid love triangle for the ages. Sarah Shahi plays Billie in the series, a beautiful, bored housewife who longs for the sexual satisfaction she got from a bad boy ex. Things in Billie’s life explode when her hot husband Cooper (Mike Vogel) discovers Billie’s journal at almost the exact moment that former flame Brad (Adam Demos) comes back into her life. Sex/Life is chock full of graphic sex scenes, dirty fantasies, and heartbreaking hookups. It’s also devoid of any real character development. Sex/Life‘s leading lady Billie might have the dubious honor of being the most horny character in TV history.

Created by Stacy Rukeyser, Sex/Life tells the story of a woman who seemingly has it all, except an orgasm on demand. Not content with her doting husband (because he’s vanilla in the bedroom) or her lifeless vibrator (Billie, upgrade to something with a USB port charger and never have to worry about dead batteries again!), Billie fixates on memories of her wild nights with rich Aussie Brad. Billie vents her frustrations in a journal which her husband immediately reads. Horrified to discover his wife likes rough sex, Cooper takes her hard in the kitchen and immediately feels shame. Still, it’s not enough for Billie. She runs away to the city only to stumble in on her best friend hooking up with…Brad.

Now you would think that this would be the perfect set up for a passionate love triangle, that Sex/Life is brimming with tension and heartache. The problem is none of the characters are three dimensional people. Cooper is a suit, devoted to wife and family, and emasculated by the implication that he doesn’t measure up. Brad is a smoldering tease with Daddy issues. Other characters are mere clichés: Caroline the uptight, judgmental housewife, Trina, the slutty housewife, Sasha, the liberated career girl. However the worst offender in this parade of paper dolls is Billie herself. She has no personality traits beyond wanting sexual pleasure — and happiness in every form — all the time, at all costs.

Now am I mad that Billie’s horny? Of course not. I’m mad because that’s all she is. She theoretically wants to go back to grad school — and does — but that is filmed less like a moment of personal growth than living out an image of who she wants to be. She’s torn between her life with Cooper and the sex she had with Brad because she seems enchanted with the checklist of qualities Cooper offers her. He’s smart, kind, rich, and a good person, i.e. the kind of trophy husband she should want. She’s not necessarily hooked, though, on their chemistry. No, that’s Brad’s role in her life story. But he can’t offer her the stability she craves. She’s also a really bad friend. No, seriously, she masturbated to a FaceTime of Brad having sex with Sasha without getting Sasha’s consent. (THAT’S AWFUL!)

Sex/Life thinks it’s asking a deep question: what’s more important for a woman’s happiness? A great life or great sex. Sex/Life’s central question ironically diminishes the freedom of its leading lady by suggesting that it has to be one or the other. Moreover, it skirts around a real solution to Billie’s quandary. Namely, an open marriage. (But judging by how Billie really didn’t like how Cooper enjoyed himself at that sex party they consensually went to together, methinks Billie only wants an open relationship for herself…)

Ultimately Sex/Life Season 1 ends with Billie attempting to have both great sex with Brad and a good life with Cooper. After fighting to save her marriage with Cooper, she leaves without telling him to have sex with Brad. She even tells Brad that their sex changes nothing and she won’t give up Cooper. However she doesn’t tell Cooper this, building the foundation for a second season of betrayal, heartache and angst. It’s just nonsensical and frustrating and assumes that the character has learned nothing. Which tracks since outside her desire to have it all, she is nothing.

In essence, Billie is just a character who yearns. She is a vessel gobbling up sensations without emotions attached to them. This could be interesting if the show was willing to treat her with a sharper lens. Instead, we only see the world through Billie’s perspective, which is shockingly flat considering we’re privy to her inner monologue.

Billie might not have the most sex on TV, but she has got to be the single most sexually-obsessed character on TV. That’s because wanting sex is the only interesting thing about her. Ironically, Sex/Life is a show that would be a lot hotter if its characters seemed to live real lives.

Watch Sex/Life on Netflix