Sex/Life Star on New Love Interest: It's 'Beautiful to See Black Folk Fall in Love' in Season 2 of Netflix Drama

Sex/Life Season 1 was a tantalizing journey centered on bored housewife Billie Connelly (played by Sarah Shahi), who began journaling and then fantasizing about her hunky ex. In Season 2, which premieres Thursday, the Netflix drama goes just a little deeper.

“Season 1 was something else, and Season 2 amplifies and deepens that experience for all of the characters,” Margaret Odette, who plays Billie’s best friend Sasha, tells TVLine. “You’re going to see a lot more of Sasha’s life in this season, both her past and how she’s become this independent woman that we recognize her as today. You’re also going to see her be derailed by a love interest that threatens this future that she thinks she’s been building.”

The new season takes Cooper on a journey that is “intense and very different from Season 1,” Odette notes. “It is certainly a wild and different ride.”

But what about Billie and Brad (Adam Demos), who were last seen smiling at each other after Billie decided she wanted to continue seeing him? New episodes find the former couple not only still broken up but involved with other people. Brad has moved on with a woman named Gigi (Wallis Day), while Billie’s new man is a restauranteur named Majid (Tehran’s Darius Homayoun). Even with new partners, the Netflix show’s central pairing just can’t get each other out of their systems.

“That pull will definitely be there for these two,” Shahi teases. “Timing is such an important role in their relationship, and when one is available, the other one isn’t. Such is their story for the longest time. So it’s that and both of them being with other people and learning how to move on with their lives, but at the same time, it’s just that itch that you can’t help but scratch.”

Demos adds, “It doesn’t matter how hard they try, they’ll always be drawn to each other, and that creates the conflict: when you try to find peace with your life at the moment, but you can’t because they want to go to each other, but they just happen to keep doing it at the wrong time.”

Brad and Billie aren’t the only pair dealing with awful timing in Season 2. Sasha will see her life upended by the arrival of her former flame (played by She’s Gotta Have It’s Cleo Anthony). The show will explore how that past relationship shaped her life and career, unraveling a much more vulnerable side to the unapologetically single character in the process.

“I think it was really important to [series creator and showrunner Stacy Rukeyser] to have a window into how Sasha became this fierce, independent person,” Odette explains. “She didn’t just wake up and say, ‘Hey, I’m an unapologetic Black woman. Here I go.’ There was a journey to that, and so it was important for her to explore that.”

Streaming TV Scorecard: Renewals, Cancellations and Premiere Dates


Launch Gallery


The actress went on to say that she was “really surprised and titillated and excited” by the choice to give Sasha a love interest that “had such a deep impact on me that he seems to be a threat to how I’ve defined my life now, and what I want out of my life now.”

“It’s an honor to portray a Black woman who is so strong and so graceful and in her center that also has to embrace her vulnerability and has to embrace some messy, unclear, uncertain parts of herself,” Odette continued, “and then also is willing to accept this deep, all consuming, wonderful love. I think it’s just beautiful to see Black folk fall in love, and I’m happy to be a part of that.”

Source: Read Full Article