Created by UnReal's Stacy Rukeyser, Netflix's Sex/Life follows Billie Connelly (Sarah Shahi), a discontent mom in Greenwich, CT who longs for the days of her freer youth in Manhattan. She begins journaling about her exploits with her ex-boyfriend, Brad (Adam Demos), creating ruffles in her marriage to Cooper (Mike Vogel). So begins a love triangle infused with fantasy, the written word, and a journey of self-discovery in this eight-episode show.
For the author, B.B. Easton, watching Sex/Life was a surreal experience—"absolutely, comically surreal," as she tells journalists during a junket. Sex/Life is based on Easton's self-published 2016 memoir, 44 Chapters About 4 Men.
"Seeing these gorgeous supermodel humans on a screen portraying characters based on my husband and myself while we're sitting on our busted, 12-year-old couch in our sweatpants, quarantine day 587...we're just so tickled. It's been an absolute dream come true that I didn't even know I had," Easton says.
Written in diary form, 44 Chapters About 4 Men is a whirlwind tour through Easton's four main loves prior to meeting her husband Ken. She describes the four as a "tattoo artist turned U.S. Marine turned motorcycle club outlaw, a baby-faced punk rocker out on parole, and a heavy-metal bass player."
Like Billie in Sex/Life, Easton was compelled to start the journal because she was feeling stalled in life as a married mother-of-two and school psychologist. Ken, her husband, was very different from the tattooed bad boys of her youth. "The man is at least ninety percent perfect for me, but lately, all I can think about is the less-than-or-equal-to ten person that's missing: passion and body art. Two things I need to mourn and move on from in order to protect my lovely, monotonous marriage. But I can't," Easton wrote in the book's first diary installment.
She longed to resurrect the thrill of her past loves—and journaling became an effective way of doing so. "That was the most cathartic experience for me. It helped me form a bridge between my current life and the girl I used to be. I was living my current life but I was writing about all these fun experiences and it helped me feel like I was the same person," Easton says.
Then, Easton tried to bring some of that energy into her marriage. Easton deliberately left the journal out so her husband could read it. By doing so, Ken learned what she really wanted. Then, in Easton's words, "he upped his f***ing game."
While the concepts are similar, the book deviates from the show in one major way. Easton never gets together with an ex, like Billie does in the show. Still, for Easton—who wasn't involved with the series—the change makes sense. "It's the same undertone of the book. Is there something better? Does it get better than this? She's exploring the same question...it ramps up the drama," she says.
Though her journaling scheme worked for her, Easton recommends taking a slightly different tactic for anyone feeling stalled in a long-term relationship. "I do not recommend leaving [your journals] out for your husband to find. If you're trying to alter your husband's behavior, maybe just try having a conversation. If I had a time machine, I might just try that instead," she says, laughing.
"If you're trying to alter your husband's behavior, maybe just try having a conversation.
Easton is the first to admit that her book can be "embarrassing" and "self-deprecating" at times. Ultimately, she says she published 44 Chapters About 4 Men to help others in her position: In a loving relationship, but feeling stuck anyway.
"I thought there might be some things in there that would help other people. Not just women. Anyone in a long term relationship. Nothing is 100 percent perfect. Writing the book showed me that the things I thought weren't perfect about my partner are actually what makes him perfect for me even though they drive me crazy. That's why we're still together. I wanted to illustrate that for other people. The love is there, there's a way to find your way back to that," she says.
Following the success of 44 Chapters About 4 Men, Easton wrote a few more chapters about those four men. Her spin-off series devotes a book to each of her tattooed protagonists. All are written in her signature shameless, no-holds-barred, humorous style.
