4 min readThere is still plenty of sex in movies, but TV is truly where it’s at in terms of stories that are centered on sex. The longform nature of the medium combined with a more permissive attitude toward what is depicted is a combination that often yields stories that are invested in exploring sexual intricacies. So far, the year has delivered heartily in this regard, with shows like DTF St. Louis, Vladimir, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and good old reliable Bridgerton steaming up screens.
Below, we've rounded up the sexiest TV shows of the year so far.
DTF St. Louis
As an inquiry into intimacy among (mostly) straight-identified male friends, HBO’s DTF St. Louis traces ground covered by Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film Challengers, but in more exacting detail. DTF, named after a fictional sex app that characters Floyd (David Harbour) and Clark (Jason Bateman) bond over, draws a similar conclusion—that strong intimacy among men may look what is (broadly and stereotypically) referred to as “gay,” but it’s much more nuanced than that. (Yes, Floyd and Clark dance together in their underwear at one point…as friends. But loving ones!) Floyd and Clark also bond over Floyd’s wife, Carol (Linda Cardellini, in an astonishingly frank performance), with whom Clark has sex sometimes while Floyd watches.
The entire show—also, a procedural with a mysterious death at its center—is gripped with sexual tension, especially as Clark and Carol begin their flirtation, but it is not without its depictions of actual sex. At what we eventually discover is Floyd’s urging, Clark and Carol try out the Amazon position, a variation of missionary that inverts the typical inserter-insertee positioning (here, Clark is on his back with his legs back, and Carol is on top, making Clark the passive partner). During their hotel meet-ups, they experiment with role play (Clark acts as a “sex robot”) and Carol sits on his face while working on her phone. In addition to its explorations of male intimacy and gentle cucking, DTF St. Louis devotes itself to a repeated mantra and the title of the limited series’ finale episode: No one's normal—it just looks that way from across the street.
Vladimir
Netflix’s limited series Vladimir was adapted from the 2022 novel of the same name by its author, Julia May Jonas (who is credited as the show’s creator and who wrote four of its eight episodes). Its protagonist M (played by a luminous Rachel Weisz) is a professor at a university in upstate New York who looks askance at #MeToo-era values, cancel culture, and pandering to the “uncomfortable” in direct-to-camera monologues and quips (instead of more conventional voiceovers). While her professor husband John (John Slattery) is embroiled in an investigation regarding students with whom he had affairs (M and John are in a peaceful open marriage), M pines for the freshly hired assistant professor Vladmir (Leo Woodall). Her lust and his seeming reciprocal flirtation extends over several episodes—in tightly edited montages, she imagines his touch and mouth on her. She fantasizes while having sex with her husband, the montages conveying her wandering mind.
Spoiler: M and Vladimir finally consummate their tension in the show’s finale. As they begin, M wonders if she should take her clothes off and Vlad tells her that he can’t wait. When he enters her, she orgasms practically spontaneously, giving herself (and more importantly, the viewers) much-needed release.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
Apple TV’s charming and well-acted comedy about a young mother (the titular Margo, played by Elle Fanning) who turns to OnlyFans to help lighten her financial load is yet another show predicated on a college student sleeping with her professor. It is during those early scenes in which Margo and Mark (Michael Angarano) have the kind of can’t-keep-our-hands-off-each-other fornicating that the generally sexy series gets explicit (at least, so far—only four episodes had been released at the time of the publication of this column). We see a rapid-fire montage of extremely tight close-ups of sex: her holding onto his sock-clad feet, his hand (wedding band visible) sinking into her skin, her head banging against a wall. All the while they thrust and moan. Later, they have clothed sex against a wall loud enough to disturb Margo’s roommate. And then when she gets pregnant, said sex proceeds to upend her life.
Bridgerton
Finally, a show that is truly invested in hand stuff. The fourth season of Netflix’s beloved period piece focuses on Benedict (Luke Thompson), the second Bridgerton son, and his love affair with Sophie (Yerin Ha), a maid he encounters during a ball. Tension simmers until they find themselves together later on a staircase, where they make out passionately. He licks two fingers and up her skirt they go, as she finishes with an, “Mmm.” An episode later, Benedict pledges, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
It turns out she wants him too, and so love-making ensues. Brief, clothed cunnilingus leads to more extended penetration, albeit under sheets. In missionary to start, she tells him, “Slow at first please. I’ve heard it can hurt.” There’s a great shot from above the bed of his sculpted back. Sex on the side and from the book (spooning, if you will) occurs and then they finish on their sides facing each other. A few episodes later, sitting behind her in a bath, he washes her with a sponge. At the prospect of intercourse, she says, “I cannot risk it yet,” so he does has before and gives her a reach-around. She reaches back, returning the favor. Hand stuff for all!
