If you studied teenagers just by watching television, you'd conclude they have only one thing on their minds. And it's not climate change.
So it's no surprise that HBO Max executives greenlit a series called "The Sex Lives of College Girls," the kind of title you used to linger over in the adults-only section of a video store.
The premise certainly sounds titillating enough: Four attractive coeds explore their newfound freedom at a prestigious school, with random hookups and naked parties. They spend more time scrolling Tinder than studying for their midterms.
Raging hormones is not a new subject for co-creator Mindy Kaling.
For "The Office," she helped create her character, Kelly Kapoor, who seemed to show up for work only to land a boyfriend. In "The Mindy Project," she played a doctor determined to model her life on a rom-com. In the series "Never Have I Ever," which she also co-created, the main protagonist is a teenager hung up on losing her virginity to the hottest boy in school.
"I guess I'm more interested in young women and their horny exploits than I would have thought," she said during a virtual news conference this past summer.
But Kaling is more ambitious than the people behind "Riverdale," "Sex Education" and other shows in which characters seem to be continuously on the prowl.
In "College Girls," which debuted Thursday on HBO Max, Bela (newcomer Amrit Kaur) celebrates the liberation from her strict parents by asking strangers to show her their abs. But she's also battling sexism at the school's humor magazine.
