Michelle Williams Checks Off Her Fuckit List In Hulu’s “Dying For Sex”

Giving new meaning to #fuckcancer, she's making up for lost time!

Hey Fleshbot fans! I’m here to tell you about a new streaming limited series you may have missed. So much new content goes up on streaming these days that you might miss some good stuff. Luckily you have me to help you out! Please note that this series carries trigger warnings from me for childhood sexual trauma, terminal illness, and death.

Dying For Sex is a limited series based on the life of Molly Kochan, a real person who, at age 42 was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. She decides that with the remaining days of her life, she’s going to live in the moment, and also go on a sexual odyssey and have all the types of sex she’s never had but always wanted to try and she wants to, for the first time in her life, have an orgasm with another person. In the series, Molly is portrayed by Michelle Williams (Dawson’s Creek, Brokeback Mountain), and her best-friend-turned-caregiver Nikki Boyer is played by Jenny Slate (Obvious Child, Big Mouth).

We open the first of eight roughly 30-minute episodes with Molly receiving the news that her breast cancer is terminal. Up until this point, Molly’s devoted husband Steve has been her very thorough and competent caretaker, which sort of shifted his role in her life away from anything sexual. When they try to have sex, it’s awkward and weird, so Molly makes the snap decision to deputize Nikki as her caregiver and leave Steve, moving into a hotel and then her own apartment. Nikki is pretty much a disorganized hot mess with a mama bear’s heart when it comes to her bestie. She’s always got her back, even if it means going toe to toe with medical personnel or throwing impromptu parties in Molly’s hospital room.

We meet quite a cast of characters like Molly’s recovering addict mother (Sissy Spacek) and palliative care worker Sonya (the amazing Esco Jouley). See if you can spot Margaret Cho, too! Molly’s various partners of one type or another include her next-door neighbor and a puppy boy who actually manages to be the least awkward thing about one of her chemo sessions, even though he shows up in full puppy gear and snuggles up at Molly’s feet. I found the show to be an excellent commentary on so many things, including the state of health care in the US, our society’s attitudes about dying, and, most of all for me, it’s a sexual liberation story and a female friendship story. I quite enjoyed it.

Grab your snacks, besties, and some tissues, and binge Dying For Sex today. Dying For Sex is available for streaming (at press time) on Hulu and Disney+. If you can’t get enough Dying For Sex, check out the podcast and book that inspired the show.