Sex Education Review: A Final Season We Won’t Forget

Here we are, ready to talk about a Netflix product that is impossible to forget with our review of the fourth season of Sex Education. However, it is not easy to write something worthy about this series. Because it enters inside us, triumphant with that truth that is always before our eyes but which, on TV, we are used to seeing in products idealized to the point of ostentation.

Today we will therefore talk about how Sex Education, although leaving us a little suspended, achieved its objective in a coherent way and in line with the meaning of the story.

Sex Education 4: trama

Before we get into the Sex Education review, let’s talk about the plot. Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) he is about to attend the second half of his senior year of high school, together with Erik (Little Friend). However, we are at Cavendish Sixth Form Collegeafter the closure of Moordale Secondary, or to be more precise the Sex School. No longer being the only child in the Milburn household adds to the sadness of missing Meave (Emma Mackey). Throw them into the mix, with a dash of school nemesis, and you get a nice cocktail of nervousness and agitation for our Otis as he tries to bring his clinic to this new school.

The progressivism of the school guides the students. Yoga courses, painting courses, a sustainable atmosphere and a group of popular kids to be “always positive”. There’s Viv (Chinenye Ezeudu) who remains completely shocked by the non-competitive approach praised by this new college, together with Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) but intent on forgetting Cal (Two righteous) with all her strength. Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) on the other hand, she tries to find herself in the happiness of taking an “A” level art course, while Adam (Connor Swindells) he wants to prove to himself that he can do it and Meave tries to chase his dream in the United States.

Sex Education: not your usual Teen Drama

We will never forget such a well-written story on the issues that we are forced to live and relive every day. Because Sex Education is not the usual Teen Drama full of cheer leaders, stereotypes, clichés and useless idealizations. Maybe it gives this impression initially, someone said this, but you can be sure that episode after episode it becomes a stab in the chest that always turns on the same wound.

Sex Education tells the truth without having to bow to mainstreaming and fandom demands. She continues along her path and between one accusation and another she arrives straight at her goal. It leaves us with a bitter taste, it’s true, but that’s exactly the beauty of it.

Sex Education is not concentrated in the usual story. The “supreme ship” is driving the plot, it’s true, but ultimately it’s just a plus to the concept itself conveyed by the show. The objective is to tell the story of some teenagers and their attempt to understand what to do with their lives, in a brutal and as realistic way as possible, in a sick and bureaucratically disconnected society.

But what is Sex Education?

Sex education talks about relationships, about identities that want to get out at all costs. As already mentioned, there are no usual clichés and idealizations, this series is much more.

Sex Education is Aimee, voice of women realizing that they can live without a man to be happy. A little woman who manages to find the strength to report harassment without justifying it. A woman who brings out the so-called, and finds the courage to get up and overcome a bad trauma.

Sex Education is not the usual “Mean Girl” who belittles everyone for parents who are too rich or overprotective, but Rubi (Mimi Keene) who hides herself and her father behind high heels and glitter, until she understands that if we show weakness it is only a symptom of a great personality.

Sex Education is Cal in search of their own identity, in a high school where a millennial principal tries to standardize it. The struggle, however, is not idealized at all, it is strong, desperate, exasperating and sought to the point of exhaustion. There is no wine and tarallucci to make us all happier, just mere difficulties that will disappear with a lot of effort over the course of life.

Sex Education is Adam who represses his sexuality because of a seemingly unfeeling father. It is Adam who finds the courage to defeat his fears and respond, without venting to those weaker than him.

Sex Education is Erik, who never flaunts his personality even if it seems that way. He simply stands in those shoes that fit him perfectly. There is no extreme because Erik is his strength, his courage to dress as he likes. It is no coincidence that he only seems strange when he tries to anonymize himself with a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.

Sex Education is Gin (Gillian Anderson) who faces the difficulties of raising a child at 50. It is above all here that we finally see that harsh truth we were talking about above. We don’t put up with the usual single mother, multitasking in the throes of passion for her career. We see a silent cry for help that would never have the courage to be uttered out loud; however, when this finds a voice, we finally normalize a situation that has always been present in our society. It exists, it is devastating and it is told to stop giving humiliating labels unnecessarily.

Sex Education is Meave triumph of responsibility. She is not the usual punk girl from the corridors of all American series. Meave is altruism disguised as arrogance, Meave is a desperate need for a mother’s hug. Meave is courage and sensitivity, willpower and the ability to follow that path that scares her so much.

Sex education then it is Otis, the classic “underprivileged” boy who immediately enters our hearts. He is insecurity and everything that is usually attributed to the village loser. But Otis manages to find his strength, and it is this strength that then makes him irresistible in the eyes of his adventure companions. Otis is a little stupid, sometimes even an asshole and a little bit of a child. However, he would do anything for his loved ones. Even if he takes advantage of situations a little too much he manages to grow, understand and let go without being selfish.

Sex education is Meave e Otis. But not only.

As we were saying, this is more of a plus. The series wouldn’t live without the natural chemistry of all the characters. It wouldn’t be there without that ability to integrate perfectly and talk about delicate topics such as accessibility, stalking and anxiety without falling into ridicule. That ability to do it naturally without forcing it to be included in the topics for the mere desire to receive praise.

There is the defeat of one’s monsters, of one’s fears, the courage of a father to say I love you to his son while hugging him with discomfort.

A worthy conclusion

This was unfortunately the last season of Sex Education. There won’t be any others. Let’s face it: Little Friend (Erik) got the coveted role of the new Doctor Who, Emma Mackey (Meave), Connor Swindells (Adam) and Ncuti himself Grateful, participated in the film Barbie (and for other curiosities about the film you can go and read our review),and they had declared that they would not return for a fifth season if there was one. If we wanted to see Otis and Meave and Erik and Adam and everyone else again, we’d just have to hope for a reunion in a few years. This would be the moment, however, to make it enough, as was desired Laurie Nunn at the announcement of the fourth season, when he declared that it was the right time to end it. Yes, even if we haven’t seen all the characters again. We would only risk ruining the point of the series.

Because Sex Education is a blow to the soul, or rather a stab in the stomach. With it we understand that love is risk, that love is being able to make those around you happy, and when you do it to the tune of “Let it Be” dei Beatles everything is more magical, you don’t get angry and you don’t have to be disappointed as a spectator. Let’s face reality: life is a long road and the crossroads are infinite.

Sex Education is not sex education, it is life education: have the courage to scream if someone bothers you, have the courage to dance and set fire to your demons! Sex Education is a double-edged sword that we will never forget.