Why Do I Envy Messy Fictional Young Women?

TV's most interesting protagonists check their superego at the door, and man, do they make it look fun

- CARLA SOSENKO

We pray at the altar of these chaos queens (clockwise from top): Too Much's Jess (Stalter), Tell Me Lies' Lucy (Van Patten) and Big Mood's Maggie (Coughlan).

Based on its trailer, the third and final season of Hulu's Tell Me Lies (out Jan. 13) will bring gobs more toxicity to the idyllic campus of Baird College. There will be betrayal, codependency, selfishness bordering on sociopathy and so much sex. The friend group, led by the compulsively self-destructive Lucy (Grace Van Patten), seems poised for its most dramatic-in-a-bad-way semester so far. So why do I think their mess looks cool? What is wrong with my brain?

“Absolutely nothing is wrong with your brain,” licensed clinical social worker Kelley Kitley, owner of Serendipitous Psychotherapy, reassures Us. “You’re living in nostalgia, whether you’ve experienced anything like that or not.” She likens it to watching