Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sexify’ Season 2 on Netflix Is Better (And Sexier) Than Ever

Sexify, the Polish import premiering its second season on Netflix, is proof that the gamble that the streamer has taken on international series has been a worthwhile investment. The show, about three college friends who attempt to launch an app to optimize the female orgasm, is definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan of sexy and hilarious ensemble shows like Sex Education and Sex and the City.

SEXIFY SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A nude male model poses for an art class. Paulina (Maria Sobocinska), a student in the class, makes eye contact with the model. He smiles at her and asks for a five minute break, and the two leave the room.

The Gist: Back in season one, Natalia (Aleksandra Skraba) was just a super-smart college student who was working toward developing an app to enter into a tech competition. When her original idea for a sleep app was determined to be a snooze, she enlisted the help of her two friends to develop an app that could optimize the female orgasm so that women can take control of their sex lives. Her best friend Paulina (Maria Sobocinska) was recruited because of her sexually unfulfilling relationship with her boyfriend, while Natalia’s dorm-mate Monika (Sandra Drzymalska) came from money and had the business brain to help her launch the thing.

Now done with school, the friends are now on their way to making the app a reality. It’s the eve of the official launch and each of them is still testing out the beta version of the app, as is depicted by a montage of all of their sexploits (some alone, and some with a partner), tapping the results of their sexual pleasure into their phones when they’re done. Monika, whose connections have helped her raise money for the launch and have secured her a spot on a talk show to promote the app and while she’s there, another guest, an irritating, cocky rapper named Young Juvenile, flirts with her. In the name of research, she goes back to a hotel with him and they have sex. In her art class, Paulina, who had been eyeballing the male model, seemed like she was going to do the same thing (casual impromptu sex, for the betterment of the app, of course) but when she and the model left the art studio, she seemed to panic, opting instead to masturbate instead of using him for his body. Which makes things awkward when she runs into him at a pastry shop where she’s picking up the cake for the app launch party. Distracted by him, she grabs the box she’s handed and leaves, not realizing that the cake she picked up was for a young boy named Maksim’s birthday party, and not the cake she ordered for her sex app launch party.

Later, the friends gear up for their launch and hundreds of people gather for the party, but while they’re counting down to the big moment that the app goes live, the electricity goes out. As a distraction, Monika insists they serve the cake, at least, and she’s dismayed to learn that the cake they’re serving at the event has a knight in armor attached to the top and says “MAKSIM” in big letters across it.

As the three pass around blame for being broke, all signs point to Monika, who left months of unpaid bills pile up, and they realize that the app can’t launch if they can’t pay their debts. As they wonder who to turn to – maybe Monika’s rich dad? Maybe Young Juvenile, who’s young, rich, and seems to be in love with Monika? – in walks one of the most important women in the tech industry, Malgorzata Debska, who offers to become an angel investor in the business. With a caveat… the women must guarantee the app will get a million users, which is twice as many as they originally planned for. Natalia doesn’t think that’s possible, but Paulina and Monika, improvising, claim they can do it, because they already planning to launch a sex app for men. This is a lie, of course, made even less believable when Paulina is like “We’re calling it Maxim,” after spotting the little boy’s cake with the name Maksim written on it over in the corner, pulling a classic Usual Suspects.

Debska thinks Maxim is a bad name, but the rest of the concept is great, so she agrees to fund their business to actually get it off the ground. Natalia is floored at what her friends have done, because even though they have managed to save Sexify, this means she’s going to have to start the process of developing a new app all over again, this time doing research on men, and thus we have our premise for season two.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? While the sexual empowerment themes about young adults figuring out what gives them pleasure are reminiscent of Sex Education, that plus the bond of female friendship also feels similar to shows like The Sex Lives Of College Girls and Sex and the City.

Our Take: Judging by the first episode alone, Sexify Season 2 is off to a strong start. The plot point of developing an app for men not only answers the question of where else the show can go in its second season, but it adds plenty of conflict, especially for Natalia as she’s placed directly at odds with her business partners who don’t seem to realize that developing a new app for a whole new audience will require way more time than Natalia has. It also creates an opportunity for plenty of humor, as all three women can definitely agree on the fact that a sex app for men can just be a dumbed-down version of Sexify, since men are “extremely simple,” as Monika puts it.

The show has only gotten stronger since last season, as the cast has become more three-dimensional as each woman now has some ownership of the Sexify company as well as their own sense of purpose. Where they were once each just an archetype, now they’ve come into their own and are much more well-rounded than at the beginning of the series. The show also has thankfully built worlds around each of them so that they don’t only exist as one unit, each of them has friends, roommates, relationships that exist outside of the app, which helps create a believable universe. (Yet, in this universe, there is one unifying truth that leads them to the decision to build an app for men, and that is that all the men they encounter in their 20s are idiots, both on a personal, but especially a sexual level.)

Sexify is a smart show that’s not afraid to be bold, funny, or get naked. If this is what Polish TV is giving us right now, I will gladly take it.

Sex and Skin: Right out of the gate, before the opening credits roll, there are shots of our app developer Natalia having sex in her bed, and images of Paulina and Monika masturbating. That sets up the tone for everything else to come.

Parting Shot: You had to know this was coming: Over at Maksim’s house, he and all of his friends have gathered for his birthday party. “Time for cake!” his mother yells, and as she opens the box to an audience of a dozen or so young boys, a pink cake with a large frosting vulva is revealed. The camera zooms in on one of Maksim’s friends, dressed as a knight, staring directly into the camera, not knowing how to react to what he sees.

Sleeper Star: As Young Juvenile, Nikodem Rozbicki is perfect as a hot, smug, annoying, sexy, un-self aware young celebrity that Monika can’t seem to shake off.

Most Pilot-y Line: “We’ve got four weeks to create an app like Sexify from scratch!” Natalia says, frantically realizing that she’s going to have to develop an app for men in a hurry, but it sums up the rest of teh season in a nutshell.

Our Call: Sexify is fun show that embraces feminism, an openness about sexuality, and its complex female friendships. I’m sure you could say the show owes something to Carrie Bradshaw and company, but it’s no knockoff of Sex and the City, it is, in fact, it’s own thing entirely, a whole different tone, more modern, and through the lens of a generation who grew up swiping left and right. STREAM IT!

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.