'Dying for Sex,' TV Show Review

I watched the finale of the FX show (streamed it on Hulu), 'Dying for Sex' last night and today I'm still feeling pretty soggy.

The story is based on the real-life best friends, Molly and Nikki, who created a 6-ep podcast about Molly's breast cancer returning metastatic and incurable and her deciding to leave her husband and go on a sexual exploration before she died.

Which she does. She does die. But, my God, I've never seen a more interesting or beautiful version of dying and death than they give us here. I am changed by it.

If you're avoiding the show because of THE BIG SAD, I will say that really only the last two episodes are tear-jerking and by that point, you want them jerked. The ride is so, SO worth the hard emotions and even in the final most devastating moments, the characters are fucking hilarious. Like, shockingly, bawdily funny. These are the friends who can't be allowed to sit next to each other at serious events because they'll giggle and misbehave and it's a pleasure to watch them sit together through the MOST serious thing that could happen and giggle and misbehave.

This show gripped me SO much that I never once picked up my phone to check if my games were playing by themselves and missed me. Also, we binged it really slowly. Like, it's only 8 x 30-ish minute episodes and it took us a few weeks. It's intense. It's a whole-ass experience. And I'm so glad I did it.

The performances are frank and raw and real. The chemistry between the leads- Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate- could not be more believable and natural, flowy, lovely. Michelle Williams can break your heart with an eyebrow lift. She is effortlessly, subtly funny and hella specific and fucking couragous- oh my gawd. I lost count of how many orgasms she had to play on screen or how often she was seen in what would be called compromising positions except that nothign was compromised. Her character was EMPOWERED and she completely embodied it. I told Robb halfway through that her acting school should just show a clip of her in this show and not bother with any other marketing, but apparently she emancipated herself at 15 and has been working since. Finally she's in a meaty, worthy role to show off her avalanche of chops. More, please. I don't know how the Emmy's don't just go deliver all the awards to her driveway right now.

Except they have to take a bunch to Jenny Slate, too. She's always wonderfully warm and funny, goofy, and easy to watch, but in this role, she packs depth and layers and the growth her character undergoes is profound to witness. She gives us the most beautiful love story.

The side characters are all comic legends, too. They were SO smart to populate this cast with funny people. We can watch funny people do anything and we can survive it. If they'd gone with tradtional dramatic folks for this dramatic plot, it could have been sappy and standard, but the humor is what keeps this show about death so very alive.

There is not a wasted moment or breath or part in this show. Paula Pell, with all her charisma and bubbly awkward joy, plays the hospice nurse/death doula and explains to the characters- and all of us- how human death works. Rob Delaney plays the cynical, horny, sad neighbor. Margaret Cho plays another end-stage cancer patient. Jay Duplass plays the ex, who cares but ain't it. Then there are legends like Sissy Spacek and David Rasche playing way more complex and interesting versions of an unstable mother figure and a cold oncologist. And Esco Jouley, who was new to me- plays with such heart and nuance the palliative care case worker in one of the coolest roles I've seen on screen.

Uf. I'm just going to quit all my jobs and promote this show for the rest of my life. Goodnight and go watch it. I have to go lay down and cry for a while about my favorite show...have you seen it yet?