Cat Gonzales
Photography & Social Media Editor
On Friday, Jan. 11, Netflix released Sex Education, an original TV show. As the show starts out, there are two teens at home alone having sex. Adam (Connor Swindells) cannot finish and his girlfriend at the time, Aimee (Aimee Lou Woods) is absolutely frustrated. She asks “Did you fake it?,” and then it cuts off to the title scene.
Sex Education is more than just about sex; it is a laugh out loud high school experience all over again. Otis (Asa Butterfield) has a hard time masturbating and even the thought about touching himself is disgusting. He does not have any experience in lovemaking, but he is open for business by talking to other students about their crushes, relationships, sex or trying to figure out their sexuality. Otis lives with his single mother Jean (Gillian Anderson), a a sex therapist and author. In her books, she reminisces about her ex-husband and their sex life. As she started to make one about Otis, she surrounds herself and her son with different canvas, videos and conversations about sex.
Otis’ best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) is gay and very open about it. All throughout the show, Eric is bullied by Adam. Adam’s father is the head of the school, and he threatens Adam with military school if he doesn’t focus on his academics.
Having class with the school bully is hard for Otis, but being paired up with him is even harder. Otis rushes around the house to hide everything of his mother’s to make sure no one knows what she does for a living. Once Adam arrives at his house and starts searching- “just to look,” something catches his eye. Otis’ mother comes home, and Adam and she share a blunt to smoke. She advises him to be careful with how much he smokes, even remarking, “…I have clients who are heavy drug users at your age, and now they have troubles with sexual performance.”
Hearing that Otis had a sex therapist as a mother around school is not something he wanted. But then he meets his crush, Meave Wiley (Emma Mackey). Meave and Otis make it a goal to set up an underground sex clinic for students like Ruby (Mimi Keene). Such lessons involve how to give a blow job without throwing up on someone. As Otis tries to talk her through it, he doesn’t know how to communicate with her without using technical scientific jargon that most people would not use.
Trying to find clients is hard when Otis already has a bad review. A rumor goes around that there is a huge party at Aimee’s house. Meave and Otis see an opportunity to find clients. Eric watches for the cutest gay guy in the class, knowing he will be at the party as well. As Otis is going through the party, he is out of his comfort zone completely and hides in the bathroom. Here he finds a girl in the bathtub and starts giving her advice to help her sex life.
Meave is single, but she has a secret sex life with the captain of the swim team Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling). They have had many interactions before, but this time she might be in trouble. Meave was feeling sick, so she decides to take a pregnancy test and when it comes back positive, she had to keep those things in mind about what to do next.
This show is more than sex, secrets and school bullies. I would recommend it to a mature audience and yes, the show starts off super sketchy given the first scene, but give it a chance. I can tell you that episode five and the last four minutes was my favorite, and you will soon see why.
I give this show a 9/10.