Let’s talk about sex

This week we get laid, we hang with the bold and the beautiful, and look into the lives of a group of girls from New York City — and Sex and the City this isn’t. We also look at the frivolties of E! Entertainment’s favourite comedian, Chelsea Handler.

Laid is back with its sexual themes and unorthodox characters. Laid is a show about sex and death, now in its second season.

Roo McVie (Alison Bell) works in market research. Her best friend EJ Griggs (Celia Pacquola) is getting married to Zach (Toby Truslove).

In season one, Roo discovered that all the men she has had sex with have died — all 22 of them. She gets some esoteric help. Thinking she is healed, she has sex with Charlie (Abe Forsythe), a good friend/boyfriend. It was the final scene when we saw Roo post-coital looking worried as Charlie wasn’t waking up.

Opening of season two, Charlie is in a coma, so Roo still has a cursed vagina. But she is trying anything to deal with it. Laid is funny. It’s been a long wait for the new season, but well worth it. A must-watch on a Wednesday night.

Another show that has been a long wait, but that’s because I haven’t thought to watch it, is The Bold and The Beautiful. It’s a show that you don’t really have to watch daily to know what’s happening. The reason is the actors have that ‘looking into space’ or ‘talking to themselves while exacting revenge’ technique to get viewers hooked.

I’ve seen a month’s worth of episodes, and there is a love triangle. Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton), who is married to Stephanie Forrester (Susan Flannery), wants an annulment to be marry Hope Logan (Kim Matula). Stephanie has a blood clot on the brain, which apparently can practically melt away, according to the script. The blood clot, however, was false. It was a plot to keep Liam and Stephanie together.

The Bold and The Beautiful has been a staple of daytime TV for decades. There have been some interesting plots to keep us enthralled and some moments of emotion that have kept us glued, even with their slightly Botoxed foreheads.

I can be a sucker for daytime television serials. They kept me entertained while I studied for my Higher School Certificate and one even kept me home from school as there would be a particular juicy storyline I had to watch until the end. That show was The Young and the Restless and the year was 1995.

The particular riveting storyline only lasted five days, which meant I didn’t miss too much school, and my fake illness wouldn’t have been too suspicious. Only a few people know about that, so moving on.

Coming to Foxtel (Showcase) this month is the show that breaks boundaries and has more realism than Sex and the City, which it’s often compared to. The show is called Girls and it deals with
the trials and tribulations of four girls in their 20s from Brooklyn, NY dealing with sex, dating and finding their own way in the world.

At just 25 years of age, when most women start to embark on phases of career, babies and perhaps marriage, Lena Dunham has written and directed a series based on her friends’ unique and awkward moments of being 20-something.

Dunham plays Hannah, a down-and-out heroine. She’s insecure about her weight and trapped in a dead-end ‘toxic’ relationship with her ex. Her friends deal with other intricate matters.

This is the real deal. No saccharine-sweetened scenes or glossed-over subjects or themes. This is as real as it gets.

Someone else who is the real deal is Chelsea Handler. If you have never heard of her, you may have heard of Chelsea Lately, a nightly talk show that combines comedy with news with a celebrity-bashing twist. She often ends the show with a ‘chat’ with someone in entertainment.

But the main angle is Handler with a panel of comedians discussing news and other items that often involve celebrities doing stupid things. Handler tells it as it is. She is feisty and you wouldn’t want to get in her bad books.

Handler is not only a comedian with her own show but she has authored four books. Her first book, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands, describes the variety of sexual encounters she’s had.

Handler also wrote other books with themes of sex, her penchant for vodka, and her life from the point of view of her family and friends.

As Handler is heading towards her 40s and with Chelsea Lately extended for another three seasons on E!, she will have many more stories to tell.

By TIMOTHY CONNELL

INFO:
Laid – Wednesday 9PM ABC1
The Bold and the Beautiful – Monday – Friday, 4.30pm, Channel 10
Girls – Monday, May 28, 8.30PM, Showcase (Foxtel)
Chelsea Lately – Wednesday – Friday (New) 10.30PM E!, Monday – Tuesday (Repeats), 10.30PM E!