The Sexiest TV Shows of 2025 (So Far)

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In a stunning turn of events that wouldn’t have been predictable 20 years ago, TV has turned out to be cinema’s more explicit sibling when it comes to depictions of sex. Without the threat of being evaluated by the MPAA (and slapped with a hard-to-market NC-17 rating), TV can confidently go more places and show its characters in less clothing than its media counterpart can. There’s been no shortage of sex on TV this year so far, between the likes of Severance, The White Lotus, The Couple Next Door, and more. But how explicit—and, more importantly, hot—has it been? Some answers below.

Severance

Season 2 of the beloved Apple TV+ series Severance made some time for the ol’ Innie-Outie. The first encounter takes place between Mark (Adam Scott) and who he thinks is Helly (Britt Lower) in a tent during a work retreat. Illuminated by a heat lamp, the red-hued pair make out—we see closeups on hands and faces while the naughtier bits are relegated to the shadows. In all, a tasteful scene (that nonetheless ended up in a dogpile with episode director Ben Stiller on top during filming). It turns out that it wasn’t Helly that Mark was bedding but her Outie Helena Eagan, who had been deceiving Mark (in addition to his coworkers).

A few episodes later, Mark gets to experience Helly proper after confessing the mixup. “You thought it was me. Which means you wanted to with me. What sucks is she got to have that and I didn’t,” says Helly, who then reasons, “I don’t want her memory. I want my own.” Under tarp-covered desks (“Tada, a tent”), they have sex. Again, it’s mostly shot in closeup, though somehow this scene shows even less (they don’t even kiss for very long), as though it’s just their secret. While not substantial or particularly steamy, the sex scenes gave the show’s plot even more depth, exploring notions of consent and bonding within the show’s idiosyncratic universe.

The White Lotus

The sixth episode of The White Lotus season 3 brought a sense of release when one character jerked off his brother under a blanket during an inebriated three-way with an older character, Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon). The release, while ejaculatory in nature, was more importantly a narrative one: Finally, something happened on this inert season of a once bustling show. Sure, earlier in the season we saw the dong of patriarch Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) inadvertently spill out of his robe. (Later, Isaacs would bemoan a perceived “double standard” when it comes to asking male actors about the veracity of their onscreen genitalia. He then walked it back. Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook, who play Isaacs’s kids on the show, told TV Insider that the actor’s onscreen dick was indeed a prosthetic.)

Of course, there was the thrilling monologue by Frank (Sam Rockwell) about his sexual and gender exploration during his sexcapades in Thailand. (“Maybe what I really want is to be one of these Asian girls.”) But until Nivola’s Lochlan reached out and touched his brother Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), actual sex was confined to mere suggestion. The incestuous handjob was foreshadowed in an extremely open (and wandering-eyed) discussion about masturbation in the first episode. Plus, there’s the episode 5 kiss between the brothers. (It wasn’t a make-out, and it would not even be worth mentioning here if it didn’t kick off the threesome). It’s an incendiary move to show such intimacy between brothers, but scandal-starved viewers of the show don’t seem to be complaining.

Temptation Island

On Netflix’s spin on Temptation Island (originally on Fox during the early-aughts golden era of reality TV and then rebooted on USA, where it ran from 2019 to 2023), you can see a butt … but not much else. Picture it: Lured into the shower by Natalie, Grant disrobes, giving the cameras a clear view of his full moon. But then once the—per the onscreen captions—“[panting rhythmically]” starts, the glass shower is too fogged up to see much of anything. Well, that’s just great. A scene in the next episode featuring Natalie and Grant in the tent dubbed the “Temptation Haven” (an outdoor smush room, if you will) was much the same—just a long shot of the tent and panting on the soundtrack. Brion’s threesome with Courtney and Alex? Similarly offscreen, with some “[rhythmic wet slapping]” and moaning being the best evidence that actual sex was occurring behind a closed door.

The show’s premise, naturally, is all about sex, as couples arrive at the island together only to be split into gender-specific houses and introduced to singles whose sole purpose it is to facilitate cheating—if sex with someone on a place that’s literally called Temptation Island counts as cheating. The couples watch the most transgressive footage of their other half and make tough decisions about the nature of their relationship. In a world where polyamory and general nonmonogamy are increasingly more mainstream, it all seems rather quaint at this point.

The Sex Lives of College Girls

The last four episodes of the third season of The Sex Lives of College Girls aired in early 2025 … and that may be a wrap. In March, it was announced that Max was canceling the show. While it is reportedly looking for a new home for season 4, nothing has been confirmed. If episode 10 of season 3 really is the end of College Girls, the chatty show will have gone out not with a bang but with an attempt at a showstopping musical number sung by relative newcomer Kacey (Gracie Lawrence). Sigh.

Earlier in the season, Kacey loses her virginity to Cooper (Roby Attal) in a completely tame scene that only hints at potential sex—her intensity after the fact (insisting he meet her mother almost immediately) is way more graphic and serves to scare him away. Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) takes her “first-ever nude pic,” but when it turns out to be a Live Photo with her face in it, she freaks out at her boyfriend Brian (Michael Hsu Rosen), insisting he delete it. Lila (Ilia Isorelýs Paulino) gets involved—and cartoonish, testicle-targeted violence ensues. Bela (Amrit Kaur) kisses a girl and she likes it, then comes out as bi and no one cares. Aside from a few conversations that slip in sex ed, like Jessica Seinfeld sneaking cauliflower into mac and cheese (“You still should get tested for HPV since there’s no test for men”), the last handful of episodes of this show that’s supposedly about sex were largely devoid of the act—well, save for a scene of Brian thrusting cartoonishly fast on top of Kimberly. They’re both under a blanket at the time. She’s wearing a bra. They engage briefly about Foucault’s ideas regarding prison reform while they’re doing it. At least they’ll always have that.

The Couple Next Door

This import, which originally aired on British TV in 2023 and finally landed on Starz this year, has the timeliness of a contemporary magazine cover story and the sex-negative judgement of a ’60s pulp novel. It concerns good-looking couple Evie (Eleanor Tomlinson) and Pete (Alfred Enoch), who move next door to an even better-looking couple, Becka (Jessica De Gouw) and Danny (Sam Heughan), who turn out to be swingers. Well, they don’t actually identify as such (“happily nonmonogamous” is how they put it), but their agreement means they won’t be joining a polycule or taking on secondaries any time soon. “We’re allowed to play with other people as long as we’re both present,” explains Becka.

Except they don’t even do that. When the inevitable partner swapping takes place, it’s in separate rooms during a country-house getaway. Evie and Danny have the time of their lives; Becka and Pete … don’t. That’s technically the second broken rule. The first? “Not with friends.” Then it gets even wilder when Evie tells Danny to finish in her despite a broken condom. “I’m on the Pill,” she says. Spoiler: She isn’t, and that her story begins with another unsuccessful attempt at IVF for her and Pete should tell you exactly where this is going.

Evie is straight-up maniacal by the end, openly pining for Danny and effectively coercing him into sex. There’s a subplot involving a stolen sex tape in which Becka and Danny hook up with another couple—it’s maybe the least explicit sex tape of all time—which eventually causes her yoga class to be empty (as if people wouldn’t be pouring in after getting to see her hotness in action). Oh, and Danny is a corrupt-ish traffic cop who is being investigated by Pete, a journalist. That Pete is the more sensitive, less nonmonogamy inclined partner at least attempts to show us something new and non-stereotypical, but The Couple Next Door doesn’t have too much to say or add to the conversation about open relationships. It’s trashy fun that’s this close to being a soap opera. It’s less a sex-positive examination of modern love and more a cautionary tale whose overarching advice is: Be careful where you stick it.