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Sex Education Season 1 Review

Sex Education is a British dramedy streaming series that released its first season consisting of eight episodes in the beginning of 2019.

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“Sometimes the people we like don’t like us back,

and there’s nothing you can do about it“

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It follows an insecure boy who has a sex therapist mom. Together with a girl from school, he starts to teach other teens about sex and help them with their various problems in this area. This show reminded me at first so much of ‘Big Mouth’ that I was taken aback by that familiarity factor. In terms of subject matter and also the wildly uneven nature, they are both of rather similar quality, but this series in particular needs more sophistication in future seasons as it’s quite unrealistic and overly forced in some storylines.

I liked Otis quite a bit and it was great seeing Asa Butterfield back in the acting game after being somewhat absent in recent years. He’s excellent here and the character is very relatable and by far the most grounded of the group. His relationship with his mom was so well realized, albeit the explanation behind his masturbation troubles was overly Freudian in focus. Still, he’s very strong and a necessary straight man in an otherwise overly comedic and goofy cast.

Gillian Anderson is surprisingly fantastic as his mother and I loved everything about her. Her blossoming romance with her neighbor was so much fun and genuinely cute and sexy at the same time. The character could have been an absolute one-note joke, but the actress and some solid dialogue rooted her in reality at least a bit.

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Most of the protagonist’s troubles with girls take center stage in this season and his growing romance with Ola is excellent and very sweet. I found the total contrast between his expertise in the sexology field and his own insecurities in sex and around girls highly realistic as in real life there are so many therapists that also need professional help for themselves.

A bulk of the other subplot surrounds his gay friend Eric. He is a proud gay teen wearing an eyeliner in school and even doing drag at times. While I respected the portrayal of more feminine gay men in a time where the opposites are interestingly enough usually portrayed, the show still felt very unrealistic in the scenes where he could just fight bullies by standing his ground. That was beyond dumb and not at all how real life works.

Nonetheless, I loved the character. The actor playing him was great. The whole last minute storyline about a steamy fling with his bully was intriguing and wildly entertaining, and hopefully the next season will get back to this subplot even if the character is moving out of town.

Maeve looks so much like Harley Quinn that it was crazy how much she truly resembled her in pink hair and confident attitude as well. I liked her, but most of her romantic relationship with Jackson was very boring to me and one of the dullest subplots for the show so far. Otis being interested in her and their time together was much more enjoyable.

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I liked Lily and her determination to lose virginity and in the last episode she got some great moments, but Sex Education does not utilize the other characters that well, at least for now as Jackson, Anwar and Amy all needed better development. The show’s humor is fun at times, but a more dramatic approach would have made the series more sophisticated and grounded. The acting is great, but the writing can be problematic in that some of the dialogue and scenarios felt too silly, though undeniably entertaining. I loved the school and it pleasantly reminded of Hogwarts, but the school and friendship scenes take a backseat to the sex bits, though the Otis/Eric friendship is excellent.