When Leighton Murray arrived at Essex College, she was keeping secrets. Yes, about her sexuality but the closet doesn’t only obscure your sexuality, it hides your entire identity…and so Leighton Murray was a stranger, even to those to whom she was closest.
Early in The Sex Lives of College Girl‘s third season, Leighton finds herself keeping another secret. Only this time, it’s not because she’s hiding any part of herself; instead, she keeps the secret because she’s allowed her roommates — Kimberly, Whitney, and Bela — to truly see her. Leighton opened herself up, forging true relationships with people who know and embrace every facet of her identity, and she’s scared of losing that. But, as secrets are wont to do, Leighton’s gets out: she’s leaving Essex and she hadn’t bothered to tell her best friends.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Kimberly cries, as the roommates confront Leighton about her plans. “Are we not as close as I thought we were?”
“No, no, we are,” Leighton assures them, while struggling to hold back tears. “I came to Essex thinking that I was going to date men and I would be in Kappa. And I would’ve done those things and I would’ve been miserable. Then I met you three and you gave me the strength to be myself.”
Bella makes one last attempt to get Leighton to change her mind but she resists, “I don’t want to go, I can’t imagine not having you guys with me — I mean, it is terrifying — but I think this is what I have to do if I care about my future and I really need your support because if I don’t have that, I know I’ll change my mind. I can’t lose you guys as friends.”
The words feel like they’re coming both from the character and the actress that portrays her. Last year, Reneé Rapp announced that she would be departing TSLOCG ahead of its third season. Rapp had always been candid that acting wasn’t her first love, music was, and her path would always lead her back there. But Rapp would always be grateful for her seasons as Leighton Murray.
“A lot of queer work gets belittled — but playing Leighton has changed my life. I love who I am 10x more than I did before knowing her,” Rapp posted at the time. “I hope she gave y’all a little bit of that too. She’s such a tiny part of representation but even the tiny parts count. I wouldn’t be half the person I am without her and y’all.”
It’s hard to begrudge an actor from pursuing their passions, even if it means we get less queer representation on our screens. (Or that my Whitney/Leighton shipping will remain relegated to fanfic.) That said, TV writers haven’t always been thoughtful in how they write characters’ exits (*cough*Shondaland*cough*). We’ve all seen characters become shells of themselves just to hasten an actors’ exit. To TSLOCG‘s credit, everything about Leighton’s transfer from Essex — the details of which I won’t spoil — feels true to the character we’ve gotten to know over two seasons. Even if it comes sooner than we expected, Leighton’s departure feels like a fitting end to the show’s most compelling arc.
But while TSLOCG succeeds in ushering Rapp off the canvas, it’s less successful in navigating its third season without her. Rapp’s exit presented three challenges for TSLOCG‘s writers: First, how do you continue to incorporate queer representation in the show, given that the collegiate setting almost obligates it? Second, the friendships and the chemistry between the four roommates has been integral to what makes TSLOCG worth watching; how do you maintain that in Rapp’s absence? And lastly, how do you accomplish both those things without it feeling forced?
Knowing that Rapp’s exit was imminent, I’d hoped that it’d mean that the show would give more screentime to its role players: Whitney’s lesbian soccer teammate, Willow (Renika Williams), Kimberley’s boss, Lila (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino), or dorm hottie Jocelyn (Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer). All three had been scene stealers during the show’s first two seasons and would’ve integrated seamlessly with the remaining roommates. Unfortunately, that’s not what happens. While Lila does get a bit more screentime this season, the real Rapp replacements come in the form of new Essex students, Kacey (Gracie Lawrence) and Taylor (Mia Rodgers).
Kacey is a transfer student who joins her high school boyfriend at Essex, following a year at Duke, and takes Leighton’s spot in the suite. Thankfully, the show doesn’t try to force her into the friend group. She is, in a word, insufferable: a pageant girl with a promise ring and a boyfriend who is her entire identity. Kacey is smug and condescending…and while some might argue that Leighton was also smug and condescending when we met her, the show humanized (and, eventually, softened) her through her coming out story. Through the seven episodes of TSLOCG provided to critics there is none of that for Kacey. There was no reason to cheer for her; instead, I found myself cheering for her downfall.
This season, Bela tries to put the lessons of her dreadful freshman year to good use, becoming a Freshman Advisor and Friend (FAF) and mentoring a new class of Essex students. Among her advisees? Taylor, a quick, sharp-tongued queer freshman from England. She frustrates her FAF repeatedly but anytime Taylor needs help, Bela shows up and a real friendship starts to develop between them.
As interesting as I ultimately found Taylor, both she and Kacey also feel somewhat unimaginative. It is as if the writers took Leighton/Reneé Rapp’s entire persona and split it up between two characters. Taylor is an unapologetic queer young woman who, as it happens, looks a lot like Rapp. Kacey arrives at Essex after having spent a year in Rapp’s home state, clinging to the life she built in high school. And, surprise!, later in the season, it turns out that Kacey can sing like a songbird. Plus, their names are Kacey and Taylor! Subtlety is not these writers’ strong suit.
On top of the Reneé Rapp-sized hole in season three of TSLOCG, the show suffers from pacing issues that have plagued the show for its entire run. Problems, like Kimberly kissing Whitney’s ex-boyfriend last season, are quickly resolved, never to be mentioned again. In one episode, Whitney’s spot in the starting lineup of her soccer team is threatened by a freshman phenom but by the next episode, it’s already forgotten. There’s a parade of new love interests this season — almost entirely male — but they come and go so quickly, I can’t be bothered to learn their names. There’s little discussion of Bela’s failing grades and no mention of Kimberly’s money issues from last season. The lone consistent storyline is Whitney’s inability to balance her academic and athletic pursuits but, after two seasons of that, even that storyline has grown tedious.
There was no easy way to replace Reneé Rapp and so, perhaps, TSLOCG‘s third season was always going to be a slog, but I can’t help but think that the writers took the wrong lesson from Rapp’s departure. With such a dramatic change to the “College Girls,” the show opted to focus more on “the Sex Lives,” which ultimately just made Rapp’s absence more glaring. It’s the “college girls” that audiences have connected with — like the foursome on Sex and the City and enigmatic trio on The Bold Type — it’s the friendships that we’re invested in. Season three would’ve done better at devoting more of its energy to those.
The Sex Life of College Girls season three premieres tonight on Max.
What scares me about this preview/review is that you were given seven episodes, and yet you make no mention of Ruby Cruz. Even if you were wanting us to be go in blind with her character, I imagine you’d still say something about her. I can only conclude she doesn’t appear in the first seven episodes of a 10 episode season.
I just checked on IMDB and it does *say* that Ruby Cruz is in 9 episodes, so fingers crossed. I get the impression she has a relatively small role, perhaps (we can hope) intended to be bigger in S4, but who knows if they’ll get a renewal.
I’m cautiously optimistic that I’ll still enjoy the season, but not surprised it’s suffering after Rapp’s departure :/ As the above commenter said, I’m also a little concerned that there’s no mention of Cruz’s character!
What’s the significance of the characters being named Kacey and Taylor?
Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift are famous American singers. My guess is that’s a reference to Kacey’s ability to sing well, though I could be way off base.
Gah, as a big Lawrence fan I was hoping that as a replacement for Rapp in the show I’d be pretty pleased with Gracie’s character but sounds like she’s a tough sell. Ah, well, fingers crossed I can look past any annoyances like I did with Leighton in season 1 and Tatum in season 2! Also have Ruby Cruz to look forward to as well (enjoyed her in Bottoms and Willow)!