Billie Connelly (Sarah Shahi) is a married mother of two, who adores her husband Cooper (Mike Vogel) and their children. However, since the birth of their second child, their marriage has been stale, and Billie is growing unhappy taking care of their kids while at home. Nostalgic for days when she was single and on the prowl, Billie grows drawn to her ex-boyfriend Brad (Adam Demos), whom she's recently crossed paths with again, while struggling to remain faithful toward her husband.
Starring Sarah Shahi as the main character Billie, Sex/Life is a Netflix Original series inspired by the book 44 Chapters About 4 Men, with Mike Vogel, Adam Demos and Margaret Odette as the supporting characters.
The show was renewed for a second season as of October 2021. It was released March 2, 2023. The show was cancelled a month later on April 7.
Examples:
- Above the Influence:
- Brad refuses to have sex with Billie, even when she's offering it, since both are in committed relationships. He challenges her on whether unfaithful is really what Billie wants to be, and she admits it isn't.
- Brad also (temporarily) turns down an offer of sex from Francesca when they begin dating after he and Billie separate, saying that he's got to see his kids, but only delays it a day.
- Billie later successfully rejects Brad after he makes a pass at her when he's gotten married to Gigi.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: This seems to be a major part, if not the main reason, Billie was attracted by Brad (and still is). He's a risk-taking, troubled person who was much worse of a partner than her husband Cooper later. In fact, she describes many of her conquests as literal "bad boys", and they all burned her out because of their badness, which was why she chose Cooper. She ends up getting back with Brad and marrying him after she's divorced Cooper, though he's become better for her by then.
- Alliterative Name:
- Sasha Snow, Billie's friend.
- Cooper Connolly, Billie's husband.
- Alpha Bitch: Trina has the mom clique wrapped around her finger and isn't afraid to use deception and outright lies to keep it that way.
- Amicable Exes: Billie and Cooper evolve into being this by the end of Season 2. They make peace with each other, respecting the time both had together and becoming friendly co-parents of their kids.
- An Aesop: Sasha delivers one in the Season 1 finale-never try to repress your desires, it's only going to cause harm. People shouldn't have to either (especially women, of whom it's more expected).
- Auto Erotica: Billie and Brad did this in the past. When Cooper attempts to do this with her in the present, it doesn't go as well because of having a car seat in the back and her lactating while Billie is left unsatisfied.
- Babies Ever After: After at last Billie and Brad get together, marrying, she also whispers into his ear that she's pregnant, the last bit of their happy ending.
- Best Friend: Billie and Sasha have been best friends for years. While they have different lives (Billie's married with two kids at the start, Sasha's happily single), they remain close and always there for each other.
- Betty and Veronica: Billie is torn between Cooper, her kind husband, and Brad, her unstable ex-boyfriend.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Cooper looked visibly unhappy to see just how well-endowed Brad, his wife's ex, was when showering at the same gym (although from what's seen, a lot of Brad's prowess came from technique).
- Black Bra and Panties: Billie wears these when going out with Cooper in Episode 2, as shown when they undress later, to dress in a sexy fashion in hopes they'll recover their marriage's passion.
- Blackmail: After Cooper beats him up, Devon uses it to blackmail him into getting what he wants at work.
- Brainy Brunette: Billie and her friend Sasha are both black-haired psychologists with all the intelligence you would expect.
- Carpet of Virility: Mahid, Billie's new boyfriend in Season 2, has lots of black hair on his chest. It emphasizes his manliness as he's very muscular too.
- Chick Magnet: Realistically, as quite handsome men Brad and Cooper have no problem with finding women that want them. The opposite also goes for Billie and Sasha, both beautiful women who get plenty of male attention.
- Dead Sparks: When the series starts, Billie's marriage to Cooper has grown stale after they had their two kids. They attempt to spice things up, but Billie is drawn by her ex-boyfriend Brad. In Season 2 they separate and start seeing other people after attempting to repair things fails.
- Disappeared Dad: Brad's dad left him when he was 8. He sent records and cards after for years, though eventually they also stopped. It clearly affected him deeply. Later we learn he did meet his dad, and the pair had a good time together. His dad was dying and explained how he'd left because of being on drugs at the time. Before this, he had grave issues about fatherhood after Billie got pregnant, and acted poorly to her when she miscarried.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Cooper deals with divorcing Billie by drinking, doing coke, and having casual sex before it all comes down when he's in a car accident, gets arrested for DUI, then ordered to get into AA.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Billie checks out Cooper in the shower while he's naked, showing that she at least is still interested (whereas he has been ignoring her).
- Elevator Going Down:
- One of Billie and Brad's past encounters is shown to have been during an elevator trip to meet his family.
- Cooper fingers Francesca in the elevator after they get together in Season 2 following him separating from Billie.
- Emasculated Cuckold: Cooper feels extremely emasculated by the fact he's unable to physically satisfy Billie, especially when he reads her diary detailing her racy relationship with Sex God Brad.
- Erotic Dream: Billie and Brad both indulge in fantasies of having sex together again multiple times.
- Erotic Eating: Brad is shown pouring liquid chocolate on Billie's body and then licking it off in a flashback.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: All of the main cast are very sexually active (though a couple had been in a sexual rut at first, this quickly changes). Most episodes have multiple sex scenes, including flashbacks to the past (with some sex montages from then).
- Fanservice Extra: The swingers' party Billie and Cooper attend has many minor characters in little clothing or none, plus several having sex.
- Fantasy Sequence: Billie has one in which she imagines how things would be if she married Brad and they had children after he proposes (though she's already Cooper's wife).
- Female Gaze: Since the series is from Billie's viewpoint, shooting often focuses on good-looking men's abs whom she checks out (though her own body, along with other women's, also gets significant attention).
- Flashback: Billie has many of these, showing both her life as a single woman and previous happier times in her marriage to Cooper.
- Foregone Conclusion: Given that Billie in the present only has two children (with her husband Cooper) it's obvious that she and Brad didn't have a baby nor work out as a couple in general even before we learn what happened.
- Friends with Benefits: Sasha is in a relationship with Brad like this when the series starts, which Billie finds out by walking in to find him in Sasha's apartment (to her dismay, as she has a resurgent attraction for him).
- Get Out!: Cooper angrily orders Billie to go and leave the house when she confesses she's been with another man while the two are separated (it's pretty hypocritical as well since he dated/slept with multiple women during their separation).
- Green-Eyed Monster: Cooper grows increasingly jealous of Billie's ex Brad due to her racy diary relating their relationship, and insecure in comparison with him. It's pretty justified by just how much she still lusts for Brad.
- Grief-Induced Split: Billie's miscarriage leads to the end of her relationship with Brad, as the tragedy stirs up his unresolved daddy issues and causes him to mistreat her.
- Hypocrite:
- Right after he got oral sex from Trina, Cooper beats up Devon (Trina's husband) for propositioning Billie. Devon, though sleazy, even pointed out this was hypocritical for him to object (not that Billie's into him).
- Billie visibly feels threatened by the presence of Francesca, Cooper's boss, despite herself having been fantasizing about Brad and making Cooper feel threatened in the process.
- Interrupted Intimacy:
- Cooper takes Billie to a client's pool, where they start having sex but then get caught, as said client isn't on vacation like he'd believed.
- In Season 2, Cooper and Francesca are about to have sex in an office at work when they get caught.
- Cooper's preparing to have sex with Trina when his little son Hudson walks in.
- Jerkass: Brad treated Billie quite poorly while they were together a lot of times. Probably the worst is, after she miscarries, making out with another woman at her cousin's wedding and then breaking up as he's unable to deal with his daddy issues which this triggered.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Brad grows much nicer (for instance, he's very helpful with trying to find Billie's son) and becomes less of a bad boy by the time he and Billie marry, away from his original Jerkass ways.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Trina lies to the mom clique about Billie and Cooper taking her and Devon to a swinger's party (when in truth it was the other way around), resulting in the other moms shunning Billie. Later on, Cooper and Devon reconcile, and Trina laments that she and Devon have agreed to no longer attend the swinger parties, much to her displeasure.
- Lingerie Scene: Several women on the show are shown in their lingerie when undressing in preparation to have sex.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: The premise of the show is Billie being sexually frustrated due to Cooper, her husband, being a boring and stale lover. One scene even shows her urging him to "do it slower" but he's unable to do it. This causes her to start to long for the sexually adventurous days of her youth and she struggles with the dilemma that stale sex life is a serious enough issue to ruin her otherwise happy marriage.
- Love Dodecahedron: Billie is married to Cooper but attracted by her ex Brad. Cooper, meanwhile, later grows attracted to his boss Francesca. At the same time, Brad returns Billie's attraction but is also having sex with her friend Sasha, as "fuck buddies". Granted, more like a "lust dodecahedron" for some of it.
- Lust Object: Brad becomes this for Billie, whose interest in him is purely sexual at first, when they meet again.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places:
- Cooper has sex with Billie up against their kitchen table, as the first passionate encounter the couple has had in what's clearly some time.
- This appeared to be Brad's and Billie's thing while they were together. While they are seen doing it in bed, most of the sex they have that's shown is elsewhere.
- Sasha goes to Kam's office and they have sex together there in Season 2.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Brad is shown entirely nude from the front when showering at the gym he attends, showcasing his very large penis.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration:
- Billie masturbates by using a vibrator after giving up on having sex with Cooper, as he's more interested in the football game than her.
- Cooper is later shown masturbating while he reads Billie's racy diary accounts about her ex Brad.
- Billie masturbates while watching Brad and Sasha have sex over FaceTime.
- Mirror Character: Billie and Cooper are a little too alike in their obsession over Brad. Billie constantly reminisces over Brad's sexual escapades and prowess that made her feel so good, and Cooper ends up stalking Brad for one episode just to get a look at the competition.
- Mistaken for Gay: Billie and her friend Trina are mistaken for a couple at the spa in Season 2.
- Mr. Fanservice: Brad and Cooper are both handsome men with very toned physiques. They both get plenty of shirtless scenes, and Brad's also shown completely naked from the front in the shower, displaying his rather large penis as a result.
- Ms. Fanservice: Billie, portrayed by Sarah Shahi (former beauty pageant winner and professional cheerleader), is shown topless many times, often in sex scenes.
- New Old Flame: Brad and Billie used to be an item, and meeting him again while having troubles in her marriage re-ignites her attraction to him.
- Nice Guy: Billie describes Cooper, her husband, as a very kind man who goes out of his way to help others, while explaining she still loves him although their marriage has run into trouble.
- Office Romance: Brad starts dating Francesca, his boss, in Season 2 after he and Billie are separated. When they get caught together in the office, Francesca's fired and he quits in protest.
- One Head Taller: Billie (portrayed by Sarah Shahi, who's 5'3) only comes up to Brad's chin. Cooper is only slightly closer to her.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: It turns out that Billie's legal name is Wilhelmina, but it's only used once when she graduates from college.
- Race for Your Love: In the Season 2 finale, Sasha races to intercept Kam in the airport as he's going away for work in Singapore. She offers to join him there, giving up her plans in New York. However, it turns out Kam chose to give his plans up for her instead and stay there with her.
- Really Gets Around:
- Billie had quite an active sex life as a single woman, to judge by the many men she's shown having sex with in flashbacks.
- Her friend Sasha is still living that kind of lifestyle in Season 1.
- Rescue Romance: Billie and Brad's first interaction was him stopping some street asshole from harassing her. After driving her to his place and showing her around, things heated up very fast.
- Screaming Birth:
- Billie is shown giving birth to one of her children while loudly screaming during a flashback.
- Gigi in Season 2 also does this while having her son.
- Sex for Services: Majid tells Billie he's been sleeping with Crystal to get her investment in his restaurant.
- Sex God: Brad is extremely good at sex, which is a big part of the reason Billie fantasizes and reminisces about him so much, given her current sex life with Cooper leaves her unsatisfied. Billie herself seems to have been something of a Sex Goddess back in her younger days, but her passion has faded away over the years.
- Sexless Marriage: By the time of the series' start, Billie and Cooper's marriage has become largely this, to Billie's unhappiness. This is the reason she starts getting tempted by her ex-boyfriend Brad.
- Sex Montage: Billie and Sasha both have sex with their new boyfriends in "Georgia on My Mind", the scenes being interspersed. It's later repeated with "Future Starts Today" when Sasha's single again and she's shown having sex with multiple men in succession.
- Shower of Love:
- Billie tries getting Cooper to have sex with her in the shower, but he rejects it. Later, he invites her in when their marriage has grown better, and she goes happily.
- In Season 2, Billie at least has foreplay with Majid while they're showering.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Billie constantly talks about how Cooper is such a good nice man, which was a welcome respite from the serious damage all those "bad boy" types left on her. She even admits that he's the far better and safer man for her than Brad ever was. That being said, her earliest interactions with Brad where they established a sexual connection, he was doing nice things for her, too.
- Skinny Dipping: In a flashback, Billie strips naked and goes into a rooftop pool with Brad (who's also nude).
- Slut-Shaming: Billie, after separating from Cooper, gets disparaged over seeing someone else by her mom. It turns out that Billie's dealt with this for years, saying her mom taught her to feel shame over her sexual desires, something that led her into dishonesty as she repressed them. She calls her mom out for this. Her mom, though, apologizes for this, relating that she had been branded a slut herself long ago after she'd gotten caught with her boyfriend, then tried to steer Billie away from this, as she'd suffered for it.
- Speed Sex: Cooper often goes too fast while having sex with Billie, though she urges that he do it slower, and this seems to be part of why she's unsatisfied.
- Straight Gay: Cooper's brother is gay, it turns out. They act and look much alike, with him only being shown as gay when he kisses his boyfriend.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Billie and Cooper try to have sex while she's lactating. This causes Billie to squirt breast milk in his face accidentally.
- Token Minority: A couple of men of color join the mostly White cast in Season 2:
- Majid, a man who's half Persian like Billie is.
- Kam, who's Black and Sasha's ex-boyfriend.
- Token Minority Couple: In Season 2, Billie (who is half Persian/half white) and Sasha (Black), the two main women of color on the show, both get paired with men with the same ethnicities. Billie dates Majid, and Kam (Sasha's ex-boyfriend/fiancé) reconnects with her.
- Tomboyish Name: Billie, the main character. Her name is close to a more traditionally masculine one, and it seems this signals that she's a free-spirited, independent-minded woman at heart.
- Too Good to Be True: When Billie first met Cooper, she was taken aback by how nice, perfect, clean-cut, and sweet he was to her. In her own words, she kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and reveal something bad underneath. But it never happened, much to her surprise.
- Too Much Information: In "Seasons of Love", Sasha talks publicly about "churning the butter", something sexual her new man Kam does which gets her off very well, and he hastily covers her mouth, uncomfortable she shares this with others (Sasha's planning to make a blog post about it anyway however).
- Tragic Stillbirth: Billie got pregnant by Brad in the past, and they planned on having the baby together. However, then she miscarried, to her dismay, and they quickly broke up as Brad treated her badly afterward.
- Twofer Token Minority: Most of the cast is White, but with these women of color:
- Billie, the main character, is played by Sarah Shahi, who's of Iranian and Spanish descent.
- Sasha, her friend, is Black.
- Cooper's boss Francesca is of East Asian descent.
- Two-Person Pool Party:
- Billie had sex with Brad while in a rooftop pool on the night they met.
- Cooper later tries to recreate this with Billie after reading what she wrote in a client's pool.
- You're Not My Father: Brad angrily yells this at his stepfather during an argument before throwing a glass at him.
- Wall Bang Her:
- Billie and Brad are shown to have had sex up against a subway wall in the past, along with a couple of other places.
- In the present, Brad has Billie watch while he has sex with her friend Sasha up against a wall in Sasha's apartment via FaceTime.
- In Season 2, Cooper (after separating from Billie) cheats on Francesca, who's his new girlfriend, by having casual sex with a woman he meets up against a bathroom sink.
- Wedding Finale: Billie marries Brad in the Season 2 finale, after tons of Will They or Won't They? over the previous seasons, with both committing to each other after they had looked for love with other people.
- Wham Episode: "This Must Be the Place"; Trina tells Billie that due to Cooper and Devon patching things up after the "party" at their place, she laments that she'll have a little less freedom. This apparently inspired Billie to run to Brad's apartment. However, Cooper is seen looking at a tracker app to see where Billie was going.
