On Friday night, my phone started blowing up with excited messages.

All thanks to the fact that streaming service Stan had added a shiny new addition to its lineup and suddenly my friends and I found ourselves needing to dissect every detail of the lives of a group of fictional women living in New York City.

And before you ask, no, we weren’t two decades late discovering the glory of Sex and the City (can you imagine pitching that as the new show to watch during your morning coffee catch-ups?). Instead we were all obsessively watching a series called The Bold Type. 

The show, which was inspired by the life of a former Cosmopolitan Editor-In-Chief called Joanna Coles, follows three 20-something women who work at Scarlet magazine, a glossy title that’s moving away from centering on beauty and fashion, and championing a new focus on feminism and politics (and a whole lotta racy sexy tips).

The three characters all started off in the trenches together at Scarlet as assistants and are now the ultimate work-wives, supporting each other through the highs and lows of their careers and personal lives.

Check out the trailer for The Bold Type on Stan, post continues after video. 

Australian actress Aisha Dee stars as Kat, Scarlet’s Social Media Director, who’s embarking on a new relationship that has her questioning her sexuality. She’s also exploring what it means to be the first biracial women in her company’s predominately white and male hierarchy.

Katie Stevens plays Jane, a former assistant who has just landed her dream job as a writer on the magazine, and is finding it a lot more difficult than she ever anticipated. Add to this the stress of dealing with the legacy of her mother’s death, plus a steamy series of hook-ups with a sex writer from a rival magazine, and you’ve got a pretty juicy story-line for Jane to follow.

Rounding out the trio is Meghann Fahy as Sutton, a girl from a small, dead end town who moved to New York to pursue a career and, thanks to being whip-smart and hardworking, is making her way slowly up the Scarlet fashion ladder. There's just the very small issue of the secret relationship she's carrying out with one of the magazine's board members.

Before I really sunk my teeth into The Bold Type, I already had a clear idea in my head of what I thought the show was going to be.

I expected a frothy TV concoction of enviable fashion and scandalous workplace escapades, with a few raunchy sex scenes thrown into the mix for good measure.

However, I soon realised that, while the series has all of those things in spades, it's also brimming with intelligence and heart.

Over two seasons, and against a backdrop of career based story-lines, Kat, Sutton and Jane together navigate breakups, sexual identity, looming infertility, racism, unemployment, fraught relationships with their parents, online harassment and even a very clever episode devoted to the need for gun reform.

What the show really does best, however, is highlight the magical and intense bonds that women can form in the workplace. Showcasing the kind of unbreakable friendships, always funny in-jokes and comforting closeness that only comes from working side-by-side in the trenches together.

The Bold Type is equal parts smart and entertaining, and it might just be the most unexpected TV surprise of 2018.

Seasons one and two of The Bold Type are now available to watch on Stan . Season three of The Bold Type will premiere on Stan in 2019 on the same day as the U.S.

For more TV and movie recommendations from Mamamia's Entertainment Editor Laura Brodnik, sign up for her newsletter or follow her on Facebook.