Dying for Sex is loosely on the real-life experiences of Molly Kochan, written by Liz Meriwether & Kim Rosenstock.
The miniseries depicts Molly being diagnosed with terminal cancer ,and leaving her husband in search of an orgasm.
Michelle Williams plays Molly, while the series also stars Jenny Slate, Rob Delaney, David Rasche, Esco Jouléy, Jay Duplass, Kelvin Yu, Sissy Spacek, & Zack Robidas.
Streaming on Hulu/Disney+ in Australia, the show made the top ten most-streamed series in the U.S. from March 31 to April 6 and received largely positive critical reception, though some questioned its length and volume of sex scenes.
From Dawsons Creek to this is a big leap for Williams, however as Molly she slays. I just felt the series was missing something.
It was well done, goes from sexy to sad within a few, short episodes. We start with Molly, ten years into an unhappy marriage with her husband Steve (Jay Duplass)
She is also inhibited by the traumatic effects of her mother's boyfriend forcing oral sex from her aged seven.
Her doctor calls her during a couples therapy session with Steve to say that a biopsy they had taken on her hip showed Stage IV metastatic breast cancer that had infiltrated her bones, brain, and liver; she responds by leaving the therapy session to buy a two-liter bottle of white label diet soda and menthols at a corner store across the street.
She calls her friend Nikki (Jenny Slate), who is overwhelmed by the news.
Her tamoxifen increases her libido, & Molly attempts to give her husband fellatio in their kitchen, only for him to start crying as her breasts reminded him of her death.
At the hospital, she tells Sonya that she had never had an orgasm with another person and their conversation inspires Molly to leave Steve and explore her sexuality.
We move then into the second episode where things really ramp up. Molly signs for a dating app and is pleased to receive multiple dick pics. At a subsequent hospital visit, she is told the doctors will induce menopause.
On her way out, she invites an app user to a hotel, but backs out after seeing him; she then does the same for a guy in an elevator, but rescinds the invitation after opting not to risk having to explain her mastectomy scars.
Once there, she orders a vibrator and orgasms to Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in Speed, a clownfish entering and exiting a coral reef, and in front of a male webcam model, the last of which infects Nikki's laptop with viruses.
The man promptly blackmails her, causing her to call Nikki and then Steve; the latter shames Molly, prompting her to gather possessions and leave him immediately, later moving in with Nikki. Steve hands Molly's medical records to Nikki, who promptly loses them.
At Sonya's suggestion, Molly and Nikki attend a "kink-forward, play-party potluck", where Molly witnesses Sonya's ex G slowly instructing a woman masturbate on a table. Impressed, Molly visits G at her workplace, where G tells Molly to attempt submission before attempting dominance; following an abortive attempt at the latter with the finance bro, Molly submits to G at the back room of her home goods store.
That afternoon, she returns to hospital, where she asserts her wants and needs with her doctor, and explores her relationship with Neighbour Guy. She then conquers a man who has a kink for pup play and checks him for ticks.
As we get halfway through the series, Nikki is unavailable due to anaesthesia from dental surgery, so Molly is taken to the hospital by her mother, a recovering addict who brings uninvited guests; Molly also sees Steve and his girlfriend. Nikki does not reply to Molly's texts, so she instead invites her pup player to snuggle with her for shock value. Nikki breaks up with her boyfriend Noah after he switches off her phone post-surgery.
At home, Molly attempts to urinate on her pet, but is interrupted by her mother, and neither can take Molly's pet's collar off; Molly calls Neighbour Guy and Gail tells him about Molly's cancer. After Gail leaves, Molly and Neighbour Guy discuss her condition and his past and she resumes kicking his penis.
Molly spends Thanksgiving with Neighbour Guy and experiments with butt plugs. She attempts to orgasm with him, but freezes from trauma.
At her cancer group, Sonya directs the attendees to write about their fears and then to move their bodies at will while others read their stories. Molly suffers a deep-vein thrombosis and spends Christmas in hospital.
Wanting to orgasm, she ignores Nikki's plans and Neighbour Guy and orders a dojo owner from Queens to masturbate on New Year's Eve; following an argument with Nikki, Molly runs out to the dojo owner's car, but loses sensation in her hand.
Molly sees Neighbour Guy while out and collapses shortly afterwards, prompting the pair to profess their love for one another; at the hospital, her collapse is revealed to be caused by a collapsed lung and she is intubated.
Faced with the possibility that Molly could die if her breathing tube is removed, Nikki decides to have it removed for Molly's comfort. Thankfully, Molly is able to breathe on her own and the two resume their goal of helping Molly have an orgasm with another person.
Nikki leaves the hospital to collect Neighbour Guy and Molly's things from her apartment, but is interrupted by her car being towed and then by Noah calling her; he brings Molly a bag of vibrators and Nikki some soup.
A subsequent lumbar puncture reveals that her cancer has spread to the spine and she needs to enter hospice care, between which Neighbour Guy makes Molly orgasm. She spends her final weeks with Nikki and Gail, and being looked after by Nurse Amy, with one final visit from Noah. After Molly's death, Nikki rekindles her relationship with Noah.
Dying for Sex explores lust, grief, loss, accepting death, learning to live and more across the eight episodes.
I liked this show, however as I said before, something was missing. Michelle Williams however did a great job as lead Molly.
