Just two episodes into its third season,The Sex Lives of College Girlssaid goodbye toReneé Rapp’s Leighton Murray. Leighton has been one of the four roommates and main characters since the show’s pilot, along with Whitney Chase (Alyah Chanelle Scott), Bela Malhotra (Amrit Kaur), and Kimberly Finkle (Pauline Chalamet). Although Leighton’s (and Rapp’s) send-off wasbeautiful and fitting for her character, it was sad to see her go.The Sex Lives of College Girls, for its part, has wasted no time in trying to move forward from this character exit, particularly with the introduction of two new characters.
The Sex Lives of College Girlshas already devoted a significant amount of screen time totwo new Essex College students, Taylor (Mia Rodgers) and Casey (Gracie Lawrence). As a freshman FAF, Bela is responsible for Taylor, so the two have had multiple storylines together already. Casey is the girls' new roommate and has already gotten her own storyline separate from the girls. These new characters are good additions to the show, but there is already a clear replacement for Leighton’s place among the core four girls right there:IliaIsorelýs Paulinoas Lila Flores.
‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Should Make Lila a Main Character
While the new characters are definitely compelling, the viewers don’t really know them yet, and it will take longer to feel invested in their storylines. Lila, on the other hand, has been around since the very beginning of the show.Lila is arguably the funniest character inThe Sex Lives of College Girls,always dropping perfect one-liners and regularly giving Kimberly kind but honest reality checks. She has been shown to have career ambitions, as she is now the Manager of Sips, and she also just launched her own fashion line. Additionally, Lila gets along with all of the other main girls very well.
Lila is the natural choice to be the show’s next main characterstarting with Season 3, but she still hasn’t had her own storyline apart from the other girls. Even the more Lila-centric plotlines are a part of one of the other main girls' storylines, usually Kimberly. Because Lila is such a funny character, she is often played as comic relief to the show’s more serious plotlines, so she hasn’t gotten a more in-depth storyline of her own yet. Instead of pushing Casey into the core group so soon,The Sex Lives of CollegeGirlsshould just bring Lila up to main character status.
Lila Steals the Show in ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Latest Episode
In Season 3, Episode 4, “Franklin the Fox,” Essex College introduces delivery robots to its on-campus dining locations. Lila doesn’t take to this well, because, as she explains to Kimberly and Canaan (Christopher Meyer), this will lead to them getting less tips.Chalamet and Isorelýs Paulino play off each other very well as a comedic duoin this storyline, with Kimberly obsessing about following the rules and Lila locking the robot in a closet. It’s absolutely hilarious to watch as Lila pushes Kimberly to lie, and Kimberly tries and fails to do so.
Leighton Murray is an irreplaceable character, but Lila should be the one to take her spot inThe Sex Lives of College Girls' central friend group. Last week’s episode makes that especially apparent, as Casey gets her own storyline where she auditions for the play and meets a love interest in only her second episode.Meanwhile, Lila has been around from the start, but she only gets to be comic relief in the other girls' storylines.
Even as comic relief, Lila steals the show, as the episode endswith Lila ordering fifty robots to a pit so that she can light them all on fire.This is easily the funniest scene of the season so far, as Kimberly, previously just high on MDMA, wonders if this is actually happening, and Lila assures her that it is. Lila has the potential to be more than just a funny sidekick to Kimberly. She can be the next main characterof The Sex Lives of College Girls, with her own plotlines, new love interests, and scenes where she exists outside the rest of the girls.
New episodes ofThe Sex Lives of College Girlsare available to stream Thursday nights on Max.
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