Sex Education: The show with advice you didn’t get at school
Sure it’s another US high school drama, but it‘s far more honest than the rest. And it’s set in Britain.
I stayed up until 6:00 am binge watching Sex Education.
It was meant to be just another episode of trashy teen drama to watch before bed, but I ended up laughing, crying and falling so in love with the characters that I sacrificed my own health to follow their journey. I’m also mildly sleep deprived right now, so let’s hope this makes sense.
At the centre of Sex Education is Otis (Asa Butterfield), a 16-year-old high school student living in some truly idyllic British countryside, whose sexual awakening has yet to really begin. What makes this complicated is his home life with single mother Jean (Gillian Anderson), a practising sex and relationship therapist, whose comfort with discussing sexuality is the embarrassing bane of Otis’ existence. A beautiful and diverse ensemble of characters surround Otis, and really, they’re the reason this show is such a pleasure.
WARNING: Mild spoilers ahead. You can read on, and still enjoy the twists and turns of the show.
Every character has their special moment
Sex Education has all of your classic stereotypes — the jock, the outcast, the popular kids, the nerd, the hentai obsessed girl who’s desperate to lose her virginity — everything you’d expect from a high school drama. But each character has a series of unique and beautiful moments that turn the cast into a lovable ensemble. It’s revealed that even the perfect kids at school have troubled home lives, that the bullies are bullies for a reason, and that our heroes can be pieces of shit too. The characters in Sex Education are human.
Normalising the normal: Flipping your expectations
The term normal is shit because there’s no such thing, but it’s the easiest way to describe how Sex Education refuses to trivialise characters and events. In one particularly special scene, Sex Education flips the recent trend of actively showing horrific violence on screen (13 Reasons Why, I’m looking at you). Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) is a young, gay, black, sometimes cross-dressing teenager, and he serves as the most lovable character in the show. So it’s an amazing moment when we see two cis white male teens embrace Eric’s cross-dressing without hesitation. Elsewhere, it’s barely even referenced that another has two mums — they just do — and it’s awesomely unnerving to watch.
A US high school in the UK?
One thing you’ll notice throughout this show is that for a British high school, things certainly feel very Americanised. Students toss around a pigskin on the lawns, the ‘cool’ uniform of choice is a varsity jacket and everything is bathed in golden sunshine. I don’t think any of those things exist in the UK, especially sunshine. This is because Netflix is trying to maintain international appeal, whilst taking on the BBC in an attempt to be the home of British-made television. Producing Sex Education in Wales shows a commitment to making television in Britain while still marketing to a global audience who relate better to US high school movies than a wet weekend in the UK.
So yea, it’s a high school drama, it’s not perfect. At times the dialogue is clunky, and you’ll probably feel offended when the popular kid serenades his crush while standing on a table in the full cafeteria, but it’s a small price to pay. Netflix is continuing to produce British content with incredible heart. They’ve done it so well with Sex Education that I kind of want (read: desperately need) a second season — and that’s saying something!
