‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Just Made the Same Mistake — for a Third Time

Season 3 of The Sex Lives of College Girls has already seen the departure of one main character and the introduction of two new ones. In just the second episode of the season, the show said an emotional goodbye to Leighton (Renée Rapp) when she decided to transfer to MIT. Essex wasted no time in assigning a new roommate to Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott), Bela (Amrit Kaur), and Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet). In the very next episode, they met Kacey (Gracie Lawrence), who has already had multiple storylines of her own and even some character development as well.

Another new main character is Taylor (Mia Rodgers), Bela’s Freshman FAF mentee, who has since become her friend. The season has seen a lot of change so far in just the first five episodes, including in the girls’ romantic relationships. Kimberly started the season dating Canaan (Christopher Meyer), and has already since started and ended an entire relationship with Eli (Michael Provost).

Whitney is now at what looks to be the beginning of a relationship with Isaiah (Devin Craig), and Bela seems to be at the start of a relationship with Arvind (Nabeel Muscatwalla). Bela’s relationship with Arvind had the potential to be a slow-burn romance, but The Sex Lives of College Girls has once again rushed into yet another romantic pairing and missed out on a slow-burn, for a third time.

‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Ruined Bela and Eric’s Relationship

Going into Season 2, it looked like The Sex Lives of College Girls was setting Bela and Eric (St. Denis Medical‘s Mekki Leeper) up for a slow-burn romance. By the end of the first episode of the season, though, Bela and Eric kissed. They spent the next few episodes hooking up non-exclusively before finally making it official in “Taking Shots.” It was disappointing to see the show rush the start of this relationship, but the end of the relationship was even worse. The very next episode, “Dopplebanger,” saw Eric stealing a huge career opportunity out from under Bela’s nose, and Bela in turn cheating on him to try to get it back.

The Sex Lives of College Girls has always suffered from rushed pacing, but this relationship was the first time that the show flubbed a chance for a slow-burn pairing. Bela and Eric were hardly the perfect match, but they had a lot of potential as a pairing, and the competitive nature of their relationship was a really interesting obstacle. This relationship easily could have stretched out for another season or two.

Instead, though, within one episode of becoming official, Bela cheated on Eric. The episode after that, he found out and dumped her. For a show that is so focused on dating, The Sex Lives of College Girls‘ romantic relationships aren’t given enough time to become meaningful or memorable. Bela and Eric’s breakup should have been devastating, but it didn’t have the intended emotional impact, because their entire relationship timeline happened so quickly.

‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Flubbed Its Best Slowburn with Kimberly and Canaan

Canaan and Kimberly would have been an especially fantastic slow-burn, particularly due to how subtle yet strong their connection was. They started out as coworkers and quickly became friends, and it seemed like the show would keep the pairing that way, particularly after Canaan dated Whitney. The Sex Lives of College Girls‘ other major pairings happened relatively quickly, including Leighton and Alicia (Midori Francis), Kimberly and Nico (Gavin Leatherwood), and Kimberly and Jackson (Mitchell Slaggert). Even Bela and Eric had a clear spark from early on.

Kimberly and Canaan were so established as platonic, that it could have worked to make them romantic, but the show would have needed much more time to build up to it. Instead, though, The Sex Lives of College Girls rushed the pairing in just a few episodes, and then essentially retconned it within the first episode of Season 3. In “Sex & Basketball,” Kimberly started to question her feelings for Canaan when she accompanied him to his awards gala. Instead of letting these feelings sit for a while, the show had her dump Jackson later that episode, and kiss Canaan in the next episode, “The Rooming Lottery.”

Because of the rushed pacing and poor choice of timing, the main focus of Kimberly and Canaan’s romantic arc became the betrayal of Whitney. The show in turn broke them up immediately into Season 3, but not before declaring that they had spent the entire summer apart, and that the extent of their relationship was mostly just that one kiss from the Season 2 finale. The show should revisit this pairing in the future, and much more slowly and carefully next time. As it stands, though, Kimberly and Canaan are another example of The Sex Lives of College Girls making the same mistake over and over again.

Bela and Arvind are ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Latest Missed Slow-burn Opportunity

The Sex Lives of College Girls introduced Arvind early on in Season 3 as a potential love interest for Bela. When it was revealed that he had a girlfriend, the pairing gained the potential to become an interesting romance. Bela had never been shown to really be pining for someone before, and it had all the makings to be a very compelling storyline. “Franklin the Fox” revealed a really fascinating new side of Bela, with her making the mature decision to step away from another romantic connection due to her seemingly unrequited feelings for Arvind. Once again, though, the show’s pacing ruined the opportunity for a more nuanced romantic storyline.

In Arvind’s first episode, Bela developed feelings for him, and then it was revealed that he had a girlfriend. At the end of the very next episode, he told her that he’d broken up with his girlfriend. In the following episode, “Parents Weekend 2,” Bela and Arvind got together. Based on The Sex Lives of College Girls‘ previous patterns, this relationship will probably be over within a few episodes. As long as the show continues on this path for the rest of Season 3, it will be impossible to become invested in any of the girls’ romantic relationships, because they all start and end so quickly.

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