FX's New Show Led By Michelle Williams Debuts With Near-Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score

Michelle Williams' new FX show is off to a stunning start on Rotten Tomatoes. Williams got her start as an actor in the mid-90s, appearing in episodes of Baywatch and Home Improvement before eventually landing her role as Jen Lindley in Dawson's Creek. Though she appeared regularly in movies throughout the '90s and early '00s, including Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), it was in Brokeback Mountain (2005) that she made a real splash as a star, earning a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Alma opposite Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger.

Since this Oscar-winning hit, Williams would find success with movies like Blue Valentine (2010), Shutter Island (2010), My Week with Marilyn (2011), Manchester by the Sea (2016), and The Greatest Showman (2017). She'll also be well-known to some audiences for her inclusion in two Venom movies, as well as for playing Mitzi in the cast of The Fabelmans (2022). Now, she's making the jump back to TV once more in a new series for FX.

Dying For Sex Scores An Impressive Debut on Rotten Tomatoes

The FX Show Is Close To Perfect

Dying for Sex now has a Rotten Tomatoes score, and it's impressive. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock, the upcoming FX on Hulu miniseries adapts the podcast of the same name by Nikki Boyer. Dying for Sex stars Williams as Molly Kochan, a woman diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer who leaves her husband of 15 years in order to explore her sexuality. The series also stars Jenny Slate, Rob Delaney, Jay Duplass, and Kelvin Yu, and will consist of eight episodes.

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Ahead of the show's release, Rotten Tomatoes reveals that Dying for Sex has debuted with a 95% critics' score from 21 reviews, as of writing. Though this score could fluctuate as more reviews are added, it earns the series a "Certified Fresh" status that is unlikely to change. An audience score isn't present yet, but one should start to take shape this weekend after more people get a chance to watch the show and weigh in.

Dying for Sex marks Williams' latest starring role in a TV show since 2019's Fosse/Verdon miniseries, which was also well-received.

What This Means For Dying For Sex

It Continues An Impressive FX Trend

Critics, so far, are in agreement that Dying for Sex tells a surprisingly emotional story about one woman confronting her own death while balancing this with the absurd humor that comes with her sexual adventures. The show's exploration of female sexuality and friendship is said to be powerful and novel, with Williams and Slate delivering strong performances. In her Dying for Sex review for ScreenRant, Rose Graceling-Moore awards the show a perfect score of 10 out of 10, praising its insightful and touching storytelling:

The series manages to pack a significant number of meaningful subjects into only a few hours of TV; not just death and sex (which, on their own, are pretty weighty), but everything from childhood trauma to the breakdown of a marriage, difficult relationships with parents, racism and sexism in medicine, kink shaming... it's a laundry list of Serious Subjects. However, it's all approached with an awareness that in comparison to death, it's not that deep, and that life itself can only be taken so seriously.

Critically, Dying for Sex marks another win for FX after acclaimed shows like Shōgun, The Bear, and Say Nothing. What isn't yet clear is whether this critical response will translate into viewership success. Shōgun reviews, for example, were similarly glowing, and that historical epic series went on to become a global smash hit, leading to a season 2 renewal despite being billed as a miniseries. Dying for Sex won't achieve this same level of success just because of its subject matter and premise, and it probably won't be getting a season 2, but it's evidently a series worth checking out.

All eight episodes of Dying for Sex release on FX on Hulu on Friday, April 4.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes