People think BDSM is sexy and serious. But in reality, most kinksters are…kinda nerdy.

KNOTTY is a one-hour ensemble dramedy series with whips, chains, and Star-Trek-themed sex parties. When a sexually-repressed PhD student bases her psych thesis on her secret desires, she risks everything and dives into the lifestyle-BDSM scene expecting leather and lace, only to fall in love with a world of lustful LARPers, Pokémon perverts…and an ambivalent professor.

The pilot follows Emily: a chronically dissatisfied, type-A PhD student ashamed of her own secret fantasies. Emily wants to prove that her taboo desires are psychologically normal through her thesis study – but she needs to find research subjects yesterday.

That’s when she meets Alex, a socially anxious physics professor who knows a lot about rope...and not from boy scouts.

Alex brings Emily into the NYC kink community: a world full of misunderstood, self-proclaimed perverts who spank each other with D&D manuals and have “Cum to the Dark Side” sex parties.

Hermes, an energetic Latinx gay trans “pup,” takes Emily under his wing and teaches her the intricacies of consent. Nubia, a brilliant, confident, and curvy disabled Black femdom, shows Emily that the community is inclusive and supportive.

Emily wants to stick around, but there’s a catch. Not only is the kink community built on honesty and acceptance – and she’s analyzing people like lab rats – but it’s also an ethical violation if she stays. If the IRB finds out, she could get expelled.

Throughout the season, Emily keeps her study a secret from her BDSM friends so she doesn’t get blacklisted. Simultaneously, she keeps her kink life a secret from her roommate who could turn her in to the IRB.

KNOTTY is dark, sexy, nerdy, and hilarious. It captures the laughs of SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS with the sex appeal of FIFTY SHADES. The show investigates BDSM through the lens of psychology, and explores the power dynamics inside academia – which are, actually, pretty kinky.

Every episode, our characters learn things about themselves through BDSM. Over the season, Emily creates deep bonds with these perverted misfits.

As a girl who tried to be good her whole life, Emily ironically finds happiness in being…naughty.