**Warning: this article contains major spoilers.**
Let’s face it: TV has been a big part of our lives during the pandemic, so we’ve all probably developed a lot of strong opinions about shows and have those few we will die on a hill for. One of mine is the Netflix teen drama Sex Education, and I cannot understate how incredible its newest season is — I binged it in about a day and a half.
When I got into the show in January of 2020, I was amazed at its raw, honest, and hilarious plot and dialogue. Led by veteran actors Gillian Anderson and Asa Butterfield, the cast includes a variety of (mostly young) British talent. It centers around Otis, an insecure, socially awkward, high school junior (a senior by season 3) living in a small English town, whose mother Jean is a sex therapist —yep, you read that right! He navigates his school life and winds up starting an underground sex advice clinic with Maeve, the school’s resident badass feminist. Meanwhile, Otis’s best friend Eric is confident about his identity as a gay Black teenager, but he deals with being harassed at school for it and problems with his immigrant parents. Maeve lives alone in a trailer most of the time and manages financial insecurity, and the school’s “popular kids” all have big secrets. There’s so many characters and storylines, but it all works to make it a true dramedy masterpiece. The performances of Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, and Aimee Lou Wood have captivated me the most, but really, all the actors are amazing.
Sex Education talks about the nitty-gritty truths of sex that teenagers and young adults often don’t bring up. It’s so important that we do so, because sex is really not at all like how it’s portrayed in the media. However, we should also note that only 55% of American teens have had sex by age 18, so most schools aren’t actually quite as “sex-crazed” as Moordale Secondary. The show deals with many related topics as well, such unhealthy relationships, leaked nudes, abortion, and sexual assault, and it’s very vulnerable and real when featuring them. Watching it as a college student meant that I could look back at high school drama and laugh, but it’s still a very relatable show for people our age, because these struggles don’t end as soon as we show up on campus. College is a time when so many people experiment with sex and enter real relationships, so it’s very important for us to be serious with what we actually know and want.
The central relationship throughout the show is Otis and Maeve’s, who are still on a slow-burn and begin Season 3 in casual relationships with other people, but in their story plays out along with several others. Eric’s new boyfriend Adam used to bully him until his incredible character arc throughout the first two seasons and is the former headmaster’s son but struggles academically. Otis’s ex-girlfriend Ola (whose dad is now having a baby with Jean) and her girlfriend Lily struggle to agree on how Lily’s intense alien kink can fit into their sex life, new nonbinary student Cal catches supposedly-straight head boy Jackson’s eye, and star student Viv navigates a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend whose sexts just confuse her more than anything. Moordale’s new headmaster Hope comes in and institutes many reforms to clean up the school’s public image, but she ends up being exposed as a dirty-playing sleuth who teaches abstinence and makes students who don’t fit into her cisgender, heterosexual norms extremely humiliated and uncomfortable. She takes the head student job from Jackson and gives it to Viv, who then finds herself struggling on whether to be loyal to Hope or her peers. I always related the most to Viv when she was introduced in Season 2, also being a nerdy plus-size girl whose dream in high school was to get into a prestigious university. I really appreciated seeing her character development throughout the season, and also loved that the writers finally gave her a relationship! While the show still has more progress to make (for example, a transgender character), Season 3 mostly keeps on track with the necessary inclusivity of a young adult show in 2021.
Sex Ed was just renewed for a fourth season, but there’s so much uncertainty about the plot after how Season 3 ended. It’s an excellently done show that gets real about the intricacies of relationships and sex amidst a backdrop of teenage drama. I’d say that it’s good for ages 15 and up, but that doesn’t mean you should watch it with your parents when you go home for the holidays- it’s a little too graphic and awkward for that. Anyways, you can watch the Season 3 trailer here, and happy viewing!
Source:
“Over Half of U.S. Teens Have Had Sexual Intercourse by Age 18, New Report Shows.” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22 June 2017, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2017/201706_NSFG.htm. Accessed 28 September 2021. Press Release.