Welcome to Long Live the Sex Scene , a special project by Cosmopolitan that explores why these steamy television and movie moments truly matter, especially right now. Join us as we rewind, replay, and then rewind them all over again.

It was the middle of the pandemic when I first discovered Netflix’s Bridgerton season 1. I was starved for human connection. I hadn’t been on a date in over a year and my sex drive was in the toilet. A frivolous, faux-period drama felt like appropriate viewing for my bored, chaste existence. So imagine my surprise when less than three minutes into the first episode, Anthony Bridgerton (played with major angst by Jonathan Bailey ) has bare-assed sex with his mistress up against a tree in the middle of a field. Apparently, I was in for something a

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