S01.E10: The Truth

[peachmangosteen]

Season finale. Airs December 9th.

[aghst]

So all the girls have divulged their secrets to at least some of the others.

Leighton isn't completely out but that's probably going to be a season 2 arc.

Bela will be successful with her female college group and maybe she'll tone down her over sexualized speech.  At least refrain from terms like "ass meat."

Kimberly will find some way to come up with tuition money.

Whitney will become a star college athlete.

 

Pretty well done, seems like they started with Never Have I Ever as a template and then used an older cast, more age-appropriate plots.  Mindy is a growing mogul.

[gesundheit]

I really loved this show, I'm so glad it's coming back. I found it very charming and empathetic. Friggin' title, you can't convince anyone to give it a shot. It seems like they would've known that, though I guess they thought, "Hey, that other HBO show with 'Sex' in the title was one of its biggest hits!"

Having not gone to an elite college for undergrad, is that dorm setup a thing??? A regular dorm room can't really be that nice, with two bedrooms and a massive living room just for them? I know TV dorm rooms are always more extravagant than real ones, but this one seemed too far-fetched for even TV-student-housing.

[bilgistic]

I went to a mid-tier state school and at the time (mid-1990s) lived in the newest dorm, which was reserved for honors students, those with the same partial scholarship I had, and international students. My room was a suite with two bedrooms housing two women each and a shared living room and bathroom. Our living room was about half the size of the women's on the show. Our bedrooms were very small, like maybe 10' x 10'.

There were also "apartments" in our building. They had a shared living space and four bedrooms for four individual students. I don't remember if they had kitchens. Those bedrooms were like closets.

[WAnglais1]

59 minutes ago, gesundheit said:

 

Having not gone to an elite college for undergrad, is that dorm setup a thing??? A regular dorm room can't really be that nice, with two bedrooms and a massive living room just for them? I know TV dorm rooms are always more extravagant than real ones, but this one seemed too far-fetched for even TV-student-housing.

I think it's the "Friends Syndrome." We got a pretty cramped room with a bathroom shared by the entire floor. Cinder block walls and windows so old, they cranked out. 

I do remember our Honor Code and if you were caught cheating, that was it, you were out. There were a couple of University Officials on it, but it was mostly students. 

I love Mindy and think the actors are great, but I went to college at the start of the AIDS era, and was really unattractive. So, this is unrealistic to me. Still, it was nice to see someone believe the woman in these situations. 

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, gesundheit said:

Having not gone to an elite college for undergrad, is that dorm setup a thing??? A regular dorm room can't really be that nice, with two bedrooms and a massive living room just for them? I know TV dorm rooms are always more extravagant than real ones, but this one seemed too far-fetched for even TV-student-housing.

I've heard of it before.  I thought my school used to have a few of them scattered around but I never saw them if it was the case.

I can say that my dorm room was on the larger side but that's because it was in a residence hall built in the 1800s.  The more modern dorms at my state school had tiny tiny rooms. 

[DearEvette]

2 hours ago, gesundheit said:

Having not gone to an elite college for undergrad, is that dorm setup a thing??? A regular dorm room can't really be that nice, with two bedrooms and a massive living room just for them? I know TV dorm rooms are always more extravagant than real ones, but this one seemed too far-fetched for even TV-student-housing.

The vast majority of dorm rooms are open doubles with blocky furniture and cinder block walls.  Even at nice colleges.

But... In my freshman/sophomore dorm on each floor were two suites that could house four and each person had a separate "room" -- i.e there was a wall to ceiling wardobe that separated the beds so you had a sense of personal space and privacy, but no interior doors.  and a central sitting area that was big enough for a couch, chair, & table.  It wasn't as big or nice as the one shown here and even in the suite we still had those cinderblock walls.  But it was a major score to get a suite.

The beds were not as nice either, they were standard sized extra long twin beds that are still on most campuses.

[aghst]

Considering what they charge for room and board and tuition, they could be a nice space.

I know that many universities spent heavily to put up amenities to attract students.  So they had nice student centers and some schools had things like a climbing wall.

 

 

[gesundheit]

In grad school I lived in the dorms and we had a suite with a common room, but nobody ever ever ever ever hung out in the "living room." We basically never interacted. (And the living room was cinderblock with generic modular furniture.) That's part of what cracked me up so much, not that they had a suite, but that it was a luxury suite. I feel like maybe some greek houses have something like that, but it was just jarring to see such a palatial and elegant setup.

[zenithwit]

This was a really nice show and I'm glad it got renewed for another season.  I'll probably binge watch this a couple of more times before then.

On 12/11/2021 at 1:47 PM, gesundheit said:

Friggin' title, you can't convince anyone to give it a shot. It seems like they would've known that, though I guess they thought, "Hey, that other HBO show with 'Sex' in the title was one of its biggest hits!"

Definitely agree that the title of the show is a deterrent and I'm sure they could have picked a better title.  I know someone who chose not to watch because of a combination of the title and the naked party featured prominently in the trailer.  Plus, sex doesn't feel as central to the overall plot here as it did on Sex and the City.

On 12/10/2021 at 9:10 AM, aghst said:

Leighton isn't completely out but that's probably going to be a season 2 arc.

It's really interesting that Leighton chose to come out to Kimberly first when she already knew Whitney's secret.  Maybe it was out of convenience but maybe she consciously or subconsciously knew that Kimberly is a really good friend.  I loved when Kimberly said that she thought Leighton could do better when Bela was showing the photos of guys 

On 12/10/2021 at 9:10 AM, aghst said:

Bela will be successful with her female college group and maybe she'll tone down her over sexualized speech.  At least refrain from terms like "ass meat."

I think Bela is being set up for a romantic storyline with the non-creepy editor.  It was really cool how the show had him take a breath and acknowledge his initial bad reaction as well as acknowledge all the personal reasons he had in maintaining the current power structure (he's living in the creepy editor's apartment, etc).

[Irlandesa]

11 hours ago, zenithwit said:

Definitely agree that the title of the show is a deterrent and I'm sure they could have picked a better title. 

It's probably a wash in the end.  Given how many streaming services and shows there are, the title makes this one stand out.  It turned people off but it also likely got people to notice.

[OhIKnow]

On 12/17/2021 at 4:31 AM, zenithwit said:

I think Bela is being set up for a romantic storyline with the non-creepy editor.  It was really cool how the show had him take a breath and acknowledge his initial bad reaction as well as acknowledge all the personal reasons he had in maintaining the current power structure (he's living in the creepy editor's apartment, etc).

I thought the same thing, especially after that scene where she ran up to him after the party. 

[mbgriffith1]

One thing I will never understand - how come student loans are basically never mentioned in TV shows when characters are trying to find ways to pay for college? I get not wanting to take them out, but they are an option. 

[Lassus]

On 12/11/2021 at 4:47 PM, gesundheit said:

Having not gone to an elite college for undergrad, is that dorm setup a thing??? A regular dorm room can't really be that nice, with two bedrooms and a massive living room just for them?

Having lived in dorms at this actual college (Vassar), the answer is basically no, but.  I mean, no, but I had a single in a quad with a not unreasonably inconsequential shared living space - I mean nothing as big as all this, of course, but it was there.  That was 1988-1992.  There were various random singles and doubles throughout the campus that were surprisingly and weirdly large.  I think there were like maybe two or three legendary/mythic 19th-century leftover rooms on campus that maybe had their own (very tiny) bathroom?  But for the most part, yes, it's all communal bathrooms.  Which, even in the 80s were all-inclusive co-ed!  

Edited April 25, 2022 by Lassus

[Empress1]

On 1/7/2022 at 4:08 AM, mbgriffith1 said:

One thing I will never understand - how come student loans are basically never mentioned in TV shows when characters are trying to find ways to pay for college? I get not wanting to take them out, but they are an option. 

TV and movies never ever get financial aid right. I’m going to assume Kimberly’s parents fall into the “OK financially but not OK enough to pay outright” bracket. Essex is supposed to be Ivy-esque, right? A lot of those schools are debt-free if you’re below a certain income - at my alma mater it’s $150K/year.

That said, she said she needed $22K a semester which would leave her $154K in the hole (I’m assuming the first semester is covered), so I can understand why she wouldn’t want to take on that kind of debt. I wonder if being an RA would help - they usually get free room and board.

On 12/11/2021 at 4:47 PM, gesundheit said:

Having not gone to an elite college for undergrad, is that dorm setup a thing??? A regular dorm room can't really be that nice, with two bedrooms and a massive living room just for them? I know TV dorm rooms are always more extravagant than real ones, but this one seemed too far-fetched for even TV-student-housing.

I went to an Ivy and my freshman dorm was suite-style: two doubles, like they have, with a shared bathroom. No common room. There was a common room for each floor. I did like that Alicia’s off-campus apartment was a tiny studio in a pretty bare-bones building - no elevator, the hallway was kind of dingy. 

Binged this over the weekend and really liked it. I really enjoyed college and it had me nostalgic for that time. The trial and error, figuring out how to be an adult, making new friends, having all your friends concentrated in the same place (which really never happens again in life), romantic messiness …

Did Nico’s girlfriend break up with him?

[Kirsty]

On 12/17/2021 at 12:31 PM, zenithwit said:

I think Bela is being set up for a romantic storyline with the non-creepy editor. 

Yeah, I could see it. I could also see Canaan with Kimberly, or Canaan causing problems for Whitney and Kimberly because he likes them both. I thought he was a little too distracted by Kimberly's things when Whitney was sitting on top of him!

I like that the Nico storyline is just done. There was no misunderstanding or mitigating circumstances! And he doesn't secretly have deeper feelings for Kimberly. He's just a beautiful guy with the morals of a weasel, but the sex was great.

Good show. I'd watch another season.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Kirsty

[peachmangosteen]

4 hours ago, Kirsty said:

I'd watch another season.

It was already renewed for season 2.