7 edgy R-rated movies and series for adults only

Turn off the lights and enter your sexy little parental control PIN number, cos it’s grownup time again on Showmax.

Welcome to our safe space, where nothing that happens between happily consenting adults in real life life is off the table or taboo. Whether you want the naked truth about all the flavours of sex and sexuality, or you want to find out what it’s like working in adult entertainment, we’re here with choices. We have the experts, sexperts and insiders who’ll put a human face on the story, with empathy and openness. And sometimes, because it’s not all so serious, we’ll have a little fun with it, too. 

Here are seven sets of our favourite series and movies … for grownups only. 

1. Anora

A young stripper from Brooklyn meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Anora won five Oscars: Motion Picture of the Year, Best Actress for Mikey Madison and Supporting Actor for Yura Borisov, and Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing awards for indie darling Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project). Anora also won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and over 150 other awards.

Stream Anora now on Showmax.

2. Chocolate Kings

SAFTA-winning producer-director Vincent Moloi takes us behind the doors of The Chocolate Factory, the only agency for Black male exotic dancers in South Africa. “The series delves into the provocative and seductive aspects of this unique world, while also providing a wealth of education and entertainment. It is a captivating blend of twists and drama,” Vincent teases. 

Chocolate Kings centres on the business’s creative director Nhlanhla “Sweet Chilli” Malinga, as he strikes a balance between being a dancer by night and a man of faith by day. Nhlanhla and five of his dancers hold honest, authentic discussions around how their work (and the prejudices against it) impacts their daily lives in their roles as fathers, sons, brothers and lovers. And they show how the job shapes their perspectives on masculinity, whether they’re dancing at the club, modelling or working at private parties. 

Binge Chocolate Kings Season 1 now.

Also watch: Chocolate City. This American movie starring Michael Jai White is set in the world of male exotic dancers. And This Body Works for Me S1-2 takes us behind the camera and inside the world of women working in adult entertainment clubs and websites in South Africa. 

3. Koek

Koek might be the most fun you can have with someone else’s clothes off! Everyone involved in showrunner Christiaan Olwagen’s Showmax Original series is having the time of their lives. Sandra Prinsloo chomps the scenery and dreams up schemes in full drag as leopard print-wearing mob boss, organ trafficker, and dirty dancing club madame deluxe Moekie Koekemoer. And Cindy Swanepoel pulls many a daring move out of her derriere as frumpy 40-year-old doctor Christelle, who’s forced to turn to the pole (and some less savoury shenanigans behind the velvet curtain that’ll make dark use of her surgery skills) when her plot to find out what her cheating husband is doing behind her back goes … um… t*ts up. 

While Koek is a drama with a plot as sticky and twisted as a koeksister, the visual flair, in-your-face honesty, and ear for what South Africans say and how we think make this a recipe to remember. Someone has clearly been eavesdropping to what moms actually talk about in the school drop-off queue! And then there’s the intriguing, shifting relationship between Christelle and Moekie. These aren’t your granny’s jiggly milktarts. 

Binge Koek Season 1 now.

Also watch: For a closer look at sex work in the suburbs among the middle-aged and middle class, try Emma Thompson’s movie Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, which follows a woman’s later-in-life experience of physical pleasure after a lifetime of marital blahs. Thomas Jane’s Hung Season 1-3 takes us under the covers with a man who starts making bank with his biggest asset. There’s more swinging shenanigans and sexploration among the married couples in comedy movie Swaaibraai.

4. Wyfie

There’s a first time for everything in long-running Showmax Original drama series Wyfie. Meet four young women at a South African university who are eager to tick them all off: that first kiss with a guy, your first kiss with a girl, your first time in bed with a stranger, your first crush, your first time doing the walk of shame without your underwear (breezy), and your first time struggling with forbidden love. It’s going to be an education. 

Wyfie is all about challenging who you think you are. For our four roommates, it’s about finding themselves and their true desires through all the noise of what men want (and take) from women, and overturning the traditions that have groomed them into accepting life in a trap. And it’s about the unlikely friends we make along the way when we push back. Get ready for a look at life that’s never covered in the curriculum. 

Stream Wyfie Season 1 now. New episodes on Tuesdays.

Also watch: Mindy Kaling is behind comedy series The Sex Lives of College Girls Season 1-2, which takes a more lighthearted look at growing up, breaking traditions, and exploring your sexuality during your university days.

5. The Sex Lives of College Girls

Season 3 of The Sex Lives of College Girls returns to Essex College for sophomore year with Bela, Kimberly, Leighton, and Whitney all facing major changes in their lives after the turbulent Season 2 conclusion. 

Reneé Rapp is focussing on her music career, so we’ll be seeing less of Leighton this season, but Pauline Chalamet (Kimberly), Amrit Kaur (Bela) and Alyah Chanelle Scott (Whitney) are all back. 

6. Laid S1

A surreal and quirky comedy with a fatal twist, Laid follows Ruby, a woman discovers her former lovers are dying in unusual ways. To figure out why and to stop it from happening again, she must go back through her sex timeline — with the help of her best friend — to confront her past in order to move forward.

Laid stars Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Ruby, opposite Emmy nominee Michael Angarano (This Is Us, Oppenheimer) and Zosia Mamet (The Flight Attendant, Girls).

7. Good Luck To You, Leo Grande

Intimacy is the subject of this naughty comedy. Two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson stars in a 2023 BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated performance as a widow who hires a sex worker named Leo Grande to compensate for her unfulfilling sexual life with her late husband.

Dating, mating and marriage

Looking for entertaining dramas that spotlight modern dating and the games that adults play? Our Showmax Originals have it all – honesty, humour and an eye for beauty in love scenes that had Twitter (X) in a flutter. Adulting Season 1-2 gives us the lowdown on what (and who) South Africa’s men are chasing in their 30s, and how they’re defining what it means to be a man.

Single Kiasi Season 1-3 is Kenya’s cheeky answer to what women want, as it follows three inseparable best friends through all the ups and downs of love, marriage and divorce, always supporting one another and challenging the expectations placed on women. The Wife Season 1-3, based on the bestselling novels by Dudu Busani-Dube, gives us the passionate and complex story of seven brothers and their criminal empire, through the eyes of the women who love them. And while the rating is a little gentler, there’s just as much daring dating on the go between South African men and women in Unmarried Season 1-3.

Also watch: For more shameless and provocative views of modern dating and sexual politics, dive into women’s lives on New York’s dating scene in the classic Sex and the City Season 1-6 and its follow-up And Just Like That Season 1-2, or try HBO’s Looking Season 1 as it strips down what it’s like for men who love men in San Francisco. 

Sex talk gets real

Showmax hosts a number of dynamic, daring documentaries about who’s doing it, where, and how. It’s a full sex education class in the privacy of your own home, with plenty to think about, debate and explore.

Showmax Original smash hit series Sex in Afrikaans Season 1 pops the conservative mask off the Afrikaans community as 10 panellists and a group of adult entertainers talk about all the ways in which we (and their clients) really pursue pleasure, even in Pretoria. Kim Windvogel and journalist Romantha Botha ask celebs and civilians what the rest of South Africa does between the sheets in a frank and sympathetic discussion in Sex & Pleasure Season 1.

Now turn out the lights, and let us turn on your screen in ways you’d never imagined!

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