We talk a lot about the female gaze in pop culture – like, a lot – but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a TV series that gets it quite so right as Dying For Sex.

The title of this one says it all: it’s an eight-parter about Molly (Michelle Williams), a woman with incurable cancer who’s desperate to explore each and every one of her sexual fantasies before… well, you get the picture. Unfortunately for her, though, her sweetly devoted husband, Steve (Jay Duplass), might look hot when he’s disappointed and wearing a blazer, but he can’t endure so much as half a blowjob without crying.

As Molly puts it, her boobs make Steve think about death. “He’s the caretaker and martyr, and I’m his patient. And that means he won’t touch me,” she laments to her best friend, Nikki (Jenny Slate), about 20 minutes after she learns that her cancer has metastatasised into her bones. It’s not until she sits down with Esco Jouley’s Sonya, the psychologist on her palliative care team, that she realises what’s number one on her bucket list: an orgasm with another person.

“You could start exploring,” says Sonya, after a non-judgmental chat about leather and bondage. “There’s a whole world out there.”

Watch the trailer for Dying For Sex below:

Dying For Sex review: a fearless exploration of desire, death and the female gaze