5 reasons to watch The Bold Type

• Inspired by the life of former Cosmo editor Joanna Coles
• Starring Aisha Dee in a Teen Choice Award-nominated role
• Teen Choice Summer TV nominee
• 100% critics rating, Rotten Tomatoes
• Perfect for fans of Sex and the City or Younger

Seasons 1 to 3 of The Bold Type, the hit series inspired by the life of former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, are now streaming first and only on Showmax in Africa.

Created by Parenthood writer Sarah Watson and set in New York, The Bold Type is about three ambitious friends who met as they started at Scarlet, a global woman’s magazine that Vox describes as “a fictionalized version of Cosmopolitan by way of Teen Vogue’s rebrand as the internet’s most intersectional magazine.”

Season 1 kicks off as Jane (Katie Stevens from Faking It) has just been promoted to writer at Scarlet; Kat (Aisha Dee from Channel Zero: The No-End House) is now the social media director; and Sutton (Meghann Fahy from Political Animals), alone of the three, is still an assistant.

It’s like Younger set in the fashion and magazine world; or The Devil Wears Prada with a nicer boss; or a millennial Sex and The City with better friends and more of a social conscience.

You shouldn’t need more reasons than that to add this to your watchlist, but here are five more anyway:

1. You’ll raise your #friendshipgoals

Jane, Kat and Sutton may make you feel like you haven’t been a good enough friend recently.

They see each other every day – and almost every night. They drink wine and gossip in Scarlet’s fashion closet, have frank conversations about EVERYTHING, go on group Tinder dates, get drunk in a bathtub together, and even make breakfast for each other – during the week.

These are the kind of friends who step in to offer free housing when you hit financial troubles, who hold your hand when you get tested for the BRCA gene, who force you to take off a fedora before you humiliate yourself, who would even pull a Yoni egg out your vagina – literally…

2. It’s about women who work

The Chicago Tribune hailed The Bold Type, and Younger, as successors to “Sex and the City’s unique brand of single-city-girl life,” but added that, in contrast, “they stand out because dating partners consistently take a back seat to the 9-to-5 grind for the main characters…”

If watching people work doesn’t sound like fun to you, just remember that this is a fashion magazine. If nothing else, as Vulture says, “The Bold Type is really the place to visit for wardrobe envy these days.”

For a change, you’ll also want to work for their boss, Jacqueline (Melora Hardin from Transparent). As Bustle writes, “Unfortunately, being an asshole has often felt like a prerequisite to being a female boss on screen: look no further than The Devil Wears Prada’s fearsome Miranda Priestly as evidence that female bosses — especially in the cutthroat world of women’s magazines — are hardly portrayed as supportive and kind… With Jacqueline, The Bold Type offers up a different kind of female boss who doesn’t have to act like a man to get ahead. She just has to be her fiercely feminine self….”

3. It’s changing the conversation around sex on TV

The Hollywood Reporter called The Bold Type “a transformative series for the way in which its characters navigate sex and sexuality” and noted that the three friends have “no boundaries when it comes to normalizing conversations around sex and sexuality.”

Never had an orgasm? Your partner is unwilling to perform oral sex? Starting your first lesbian relationship in your mid-20s? The Bold Type is full of candid conversations about topics you normally only read about in your favourite women’s magazine…

The romance is fun too. As Vulture wrote, “How lucky we are to be alive during the TV rom-comaissance! The Bold Type fits nicely next to shows like The Mindy Project, Jane the Virgin, and Younger — all smart, funny, swoony rom-coms.”

4. The show is “millennial utopia.”

Indiewire called The Bold Type “the summer’s most insightful series about young women… The rom-com fearlessly tackles the politics of the ‘Woke Generation’ with style and humor.”

To quote Mashable, “If you aren’t watching The Bold Type, you are missing out. The show is millennial utopia; feminist, progressive, positive, all packaged with a frothy style.”

It’s also refreshingly non-judgemental about millennials. As Cosmopolitan says, “In the age of think pieces about millennial entitlement, it can be hard to find a TV show that manages to both critique our social media-obsessed culture and engage with it… The Bold Type continues to be this kind of show — capable of poking fun at the world of Instagram and Twitter without discounting it as a real force in young people’s lives…”

5. It started well – and is getting even better

Season 1 has an impressive 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes but the new season is doing even better, with a 100% critics rating. As Slate says, is that “The Bold Type is getting better and better. Season two is a big improvement. ”

Still not convinced? The series was nominated for Teen Choice Summer TV and Choice Summer TV Star Female (Aisha Dee) awards, as well as a GLAAD for Outstanding Comedy, a Satellite Award for Best TV Drama, and an Imagen Award for Best Actress (Katie Stevens).