Michelle Williams returns after a two-and-a-half year break with today’s provocative FX series “Dying for Sex.”

Based on a real-life case and dropping all eight episodes Thursday, “Dying” charts the journey of a woman who, given a terminal cancer diagnosis, decides to leave her husband of 15 years and search for sexual pleasure.

Williams’ Molly goes on this excursion with her best friend Nikki (Boston’s Jenny Slate). Until now, Molly had never experienced sexual fulfillment and she is determined to try many variations.

Which is why one magazine dubbed “Dying” the kinkiest show on television.

For Williams, 44, the question the series raises is serious: Can you have pleasure without shame?

Williams, who experienced the tragedy of Heath Ledger’s unexpected, early death 17 years ago, was asked if this role has changed her view on death.

“Well, I had to get my head around it,” Williams said in an online press conference where she held hands with Slate. “If I can take this as a lesson that there is a way (to realize) she dies but she lives.

“Which is that she is trying, in these last months and then moments, to find out how to be both receptive and also in charge.

“That scene where she gets the information of what the progression is, in real time. What the physicality is going to look like and feel like – when you get the information, then you can live inside of the information. When the information is kept away from you, then you enter this state of confusion and powerlessness.

“That scene alone was an incredible gift. To have that passage and understanding. So that inside of that information and those days you can construct it in your own way.

“The idea is to bring death itself into your life. Like having a death consciousness and an idea of your own mortality. I think about a death consciousness as a way for life’s fullness.”

Slate, 43, spoke about the emotional ride that filming “Dying for Sex” was.

“I don’t love hospitals and don’t think of (them) that much. But I was surprised my own discomfort around the equipment — and Michelle there with these tubes. I was frightened.”

She told herself, “It’s acting. But (my discomfort) was really notable. I have this fear. You should use that in acting as an instruction and make sure that it flows with the character.

“But it was a moment for me, and new for me. And it was scary.  It was a challenging day. I remember where this story has really gone to the center. Our story is not to reject complexity and look at the whole tapestry.”

All episodes of “Dying for Sex” stream on FX Thursday, and on Hulu Friday

Jenny Slate in a scene from “Dying for Sex.” (Photo Sarah Shatz/FX)