Rediscovering your libido when you're dying of cancer

A few years ago, there was a small wave of trauma comedies, series that addressed issues usually associated with drama (mental health, illness, etc.) from an unexpectedly humorous perspective. Titles like Lady Dynamite and One Mississippi now it is added Dying for sex, a sex comedy about a woman who is in stage 4, metastatic, breast cancer. Molly (Michelle Williams) has been following a treatment that seemed effective for a tumor until the doctor informs her that, unfortunately, the cancer has reappeared and spread to her bones. There's nothing left to do except slow the process and provide her with the best palliative care possible. Although her husband supports her, she realizes she doesn't want to spend the last days of her life with the man she married. She prefers to be with her best friend, Nikki (Jenny Slate), an aspiring actress who is as loving as she is absent-minded. Molly makes another decision. She doesn't want to die without having experienced an orgasm. Because despite having lived with a partner for so many years, she has never achieved complete sexual pleasure. And the chemo, which leaves her crushed in many ways, also seems to stimulate her libido. So she decides to sign up for Tinder and make up for lost time as much as possible when it comes to sexual enjoyment.

Dying for sex takes an unusual approach to female sexuality. The series can also be read in reverse, as a different kind of fiction about the experience of suffering from advanced cancer, with everything that entails not only in terms of sex, but also mood, physiological reactions, and the need for support. This is a series that emphasizes reconnecting with one's own intimacy and the pursuit of pleasure through the exploration of unorthodox expressions of sexuality. Dying for sex takes advantage of the lubricated context of comedy to serve us the story of a woman who, on the brink of death, discovers the joys of domination.

Granted, it does so with a representation of sadomasochistic dynamics for all audiences, but at the end of the day, this is a series hosted on Disney+. And the creators, Kim Rosenstock and Elizabeth Meriwether, often interrupt the more daring sex scenes with some humorous device, as if they had to lower the tone or the daring with a joke. They also end up finding a fairly conventional partner for Molly, the strange neighbor, but capable of lovingly committing to her, so the series also ends up in a certain conservatism in this sense. But these less orthodox displays of female sexuality are appreciated.

Based on the podcast of the same name that Molly Kochan created from her experiences, the ultimate charm of Dying for sex The great (non-sexual) love story is the one experienced by both of the protagonist friends. The series ends up being a celebration of a friendship until death, with all the intensities and tolls that this entails for someone who decides to put their dying friend at the center of their lives. The emotion of this bond reaches us through the hands and skin of two great actresses. Michelle Williams takes on the most difficult role, in one of the best performances we'll see on screen this year, for how she embodies the immense fragility of a fatal illness from a representation far removed from the typical ones. Jenny Slate, meanwhile, is capable of stealing our hearts in the role of the unconditional friend capable of abandoning everything to accompany Molly on her final journey.