YMMV / The Sex Lives of College Girls

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Bela is either an iconic The Pollyanna and an Ethical Slut who is fun to have on screen, or just an ambitious self-centered person who is determined to achieve her goals through numerous ways regardless of whether it affects the people she cares about. Such as Eric and her colleagues of The Foxy just to name a few.
  • Kimberly was also hit with this. While her shyness and more-often-than-not struggles to fit in at college are quite endearing to see, especially when it comes to meeting cute guys like Nico and Jackson, most viewers criticize her poor-decision making: sleeping with Nico behind Leighton's back (not that Nico comes off as much of a saint as he also hid from her that he had a girlfriend studying abroad), neglecting her studies to the point of almost getting expelled for cheating on an exam and losing her scholarship as a result of it. It became worse in season 2, as not only did she kiss Canaan after realizing her feelings for him and immediately dumping Jackson after that, but even LIED to her best friend's face about it.
• Designated Hero: Nico can be considered this for playing Kimberly, having a girlfriend who's studying abroad and not telling her, and ultimately costing Kimberly her scholarship by encouraging her to cheat on her Econ exam.
• Designated Villain: Tatum. Even though she's openly lesbian, Tatum is also a Leighton lookalike who behaves the same way as she did. However, she does absolutely nothing wrong other than simply feeling uncomfortable with and throwing not so over-the-top insults the women's center and Leighton's new group of friends (most of them being trans or non-binary). Even though we're supposed to root against her, let's not forget that she didn't have the same Character Development that Leighton underwent in the first season. So her reaction to attending the party was completely reasonable.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Willow, Whitney's friend is well liked for being hilarious and supportive to her friend. Even going as far to cover for her regarding her mom finding out she was the one to have an affair with their coach.
  • Lila, Kimberly's co-worker at Sips, is also very well-liked by fans despite being mostly Out of Focus thanks to her hilarious one-liners.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Overlapping with Harsher in Hindsight. When Leighton was coming to terms with being a lesbian on the show, Reneé Rapp said that she feared that she wasn't "gay enough" to play her, especially because she had a boyfriend at the time and professed to craving male validation. She later came out as a lesbian in 2024, identifying her past relationships with men as comphet and revealing that she did not enjoy any of them. Rapp admitted that she was basically just seeing her own self in Leighton's lesbian storyline, though she wasn't ready to admit that to herself back then.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Evangeline, who works for a sexist comedy magazine (The Catullan), complains about Danny's attitude and sides with Bela roasting him by bringing up that he called her Ali Wong when she told him her name. In real life, both Wong and Sierra Katow are stand-up comedians.
• Squick: The whole "My son is so attractive" thing from Nico's mother is a complete EW.
• Les Yay: When Jess, one of Leighton's ex-partners, confronts her for seeing Molly behind her back and reveals to have bought Phoebe Bridgers concert tickets for them, Bela offers to go with Jess instead. She can be seen smiling a little.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Bela, one of the titular characters, wanting to transfer to another school by the end of season 2 after she ruined her relationships with Eric and The Foxy, and she happens to be about to be put on academic probation. You'd really expect Bela to run away from her problems instead of atoning for them when the series has been renewed for a third season.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Eric wasn't exactly disliked that much when he first appeared, but initially got flak for his condescending (and somewhat sexist) demeanour towards Bela, and then viciously dismissing her legit accusations about Ryan groping her. However, Eric was more positively received when he personally apologized to Bela for his previous behavior, and wishing her good luck once she quit from The Catullan over the less-than-pleasant environment in it. The fact that he and Bela entered a relationship in the second season, only for Bela to cheat on him for selfish reasons, made him both more likeable and easy to sympathize with.
• Ron the Death Eater:
  • Alicia was seen as a bitch by the fandom for breaking up with Leighton by refusing to respect her wishes of coming out whenever she's ready to do so with the "You're bringing me back in the closet with you" excuse, completely overlooking the fact that Leighton herself has internalized homophobia and dating someone who is still closeted doesn't suit well for her as she feels they're ashamed of her.
  • In Tatum's case, she had no problem with giving Leighton the time to come out to her father at her own pace, only for Leighton to immediately break up with Tatum an episode later for insulting her friends from the women's center (even though Leighton did exactly the same to them during her time at community service), all because she wants to change about herself the things they have in common with each other. Even Tatum pointed out Leighton's hypocrisy in this as she calls out her behavior. The fact that Tatum did not go through the same Character Development as Leighton in season 1 is totally reasonable yet unnoticed in her part.
  • The fans see Kimberly as an obsessive boyfriend-stealer when she got involved with Nico (who was in a long-distance relationship with a friend of Leighton's), and later Canaan, her best friend Whitney's ex. They also find her shallow for only crushing on good-looking guys, especially when she chooses Jackson over a nerdy classmate who had a crush on her, and whom Jackson himself had set up Kimberly with. Her roommates even accused her of this.
• The Scrappy: Trying to find Dalton fans is a waste of time as he had an inappropriate relationship with Whitney, lied to her about being in a loveless marriage, searched online if it was illegal for a coach to sleep with their student, and even had another affair with a different girl while coaching at a separate college. He was even willing to throw Whitney under the bus if her mother, who is a senator, found out.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Dalton gets fired after the truth about his affair with Whitney comes out. To add salt to the wound, she remains unnamed while he very publicly takes the heat for both this affair, and one he had with a different college athlete.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: When Eric is introduced in season 1, you're expected to believe that he is just like the rest of his male colleagues of The Catullan, especially when it comes to undermining a woman's aspirations to be a comedy writer themselves and his sour demeanour towards Bela. However, later episodes prove this wrong when he was apalled to find out that Ryan groped Bela and another writer named Carla, despite initially not believing them. Even after she quit from the magazine over the traumatic experience, Eric and Bela still parted on good terms, to the point of fans wanting them together as a couple. The writers responded to this request once the second season was released. Also, you're allowed to feel bad about Eric, no matter how much of a jerk he was when you first met him, when Bela gets into a famous comedian's pants in favor of an internship and he feels understandably hurt and betrayed since they were a couple and he got cheated on. She even got lectured by his dads for her actions.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Bela's entire behavior and actions in season 2 earned her the ire and hatred of the entire fandom. First, for cheating on Eric with a famous comedian to get on his good graces, then betraying her colleagues from The Foxy by having a journalist publish an article that only acknowledges her work, leading them to kick her out of the magazine, and even telling an aspiring writer to quit comedy, all without a care for their feelings.
  • Kimberly can also count as one for destroying her friendship with Whitney by kissing Canaan and then cowardly lying about it. And the worst part is that Whitney saw the whole thing. Most of the viewers had to side with Whitney on this and root against Kimberly, whose actions were nothing but selfish. She clearly forgot how she lost the scholarship because of some guy, and now because of another guy she ended up losing her best friend.