SEX EDUCATION

                               Sex Education: Finally A 2019 Netflix Stunner!!

 
Socially awkward high school student Otis may not have much experience in the lovemaking department, but he gets good guidance on the topic in his personal sex ed course living with mom Jean, who is a sex therapist. Being surrounded by manuals, videos and tediously open conversations about sex, Otis has become a reluctant expert on the subject. When his classmates learn about his home life, Otis decides to use his insider knowledge to improve his status at school, so he teams with whip-smart bad girl Maeve to set up an underground sex therapy clinic to deal with their classmates' problems. But through his analysis of teenage sexuality, Otis realizes that he may need some therapy of his own.

Sex Education has to be one of Netflix's most innovative and original take for a tv show in a very long while. The show's ridiculously high ratings has nothing to do with the obviously catchy title, but lies in the ability to create a show targeted at a specific audience type and which has perfectly captured the target audience. Essentially, the show does not suffer an existential crisis, neither does it suffer from an identity crisis. It is just perfect.
Talking about the positives of the show, everything about this series just appears to be spot on. But as usual with our analysis, we will pick things up with the storyline and the storytelling technique. We like the fact that the scripting team chose a storytelling technique that was near improbable, and quite so not because of its complexity, but due to its outright simplicity that you would not expect it's adoption for a tv show. We liked how the characters were created for TV without a storyline to flow with, it is akin to the hugely successful Shameless tv show and it's narrative choices. The fact that the series was not made to be seen from the perspective of any one character or from any select multitude of characters meant that the audience need not choose or align with a character's situational story, but could easily relate with the entire cast depending on the particular scene or the episode message.
As for the plot, it's basic, it's built around sex! The one topic that young adults hope to experience in time but one which most are not adequately prepared for. The show offered a unique take on how young adults deal with these issues while at the same time through a combination of character dialogues and situational occurrences and reactions; offer good and detailed advice on how best to address such issues should they ever present themselves. However, we must also mention that some of those messages may not in some societies be really appreciate when taken at face value, but when you really consider that these things actually do happen and will continue to happen, then it's easy to appreciate the core messages embedded in this show. Thus, the entire plot and it's wider story derived therefrom is not only one hugely exciting show, but actually quite educative and intellectually stimulating...albeit on the sex topic.

The characters were amazing at acting their roles. Once again, Netflix and her casting team have really dug deep once again to cast the absolute best for this show. If you go into this show thinking 'I want to see this series because it has a very nice premise', please wait until you meet the cast tasked with bringing the idea home to your screens. That being said, worthy of mention are the irrepressible and standout performances of Asa Butterfield (Otis), Emma Mackey ( Maeve) and Ncuti Gatwa( Eric). Their combination is absolutely marvelous and smacks of good acting built upon a long career acting together. Ncuti for one delivered prime and precise acting, depicting the character of Eric with superb aplomb to very annoying perfection. You could not have asked for any better. Emma made the character of Maeve so likeable, and in the long run, she made the show quite relatable and very bearable to watch.
On the conflict side of things, well its practically non existent as there was no conflict properly so called. At best what we had was just a bunch of young adults struggling to come to terms with the approaching adulthood, the thrills that come with it and the uncharted territory upon which they must now chart. This we feel made the show even more intriguing and rivetting to watch as it offered a different dimension to tv shows of the sort. The ending of the first season however offers up snippets of a building conflict, which even though makes us excited for a sequel, but at the same time kind of makes us feel would overly complicate the second season. Perhaps this may dilute the quite concentrated sexually oriented plot element of the show by adding maybe too much of the emotive elements for the 2nd season. But really, with the way this show is structured, we feel and hope that Netflix does no wrongs at all.

From us at FCA, we recommend with reckless abandon this show for all of our readers. It's worth the time and effort. Plus it delivers some very wacky good scenes, so be prepared to have some very good laughs in between scenes. Again, a very great show to watch. You don't want to miss this one, as it may perhaps be in the running for some of tv's most prestigious awards soon.

 

Created by: Laurie Nunn
Starring:
Asa Butterfield
Gillian Anderson
Ncuti Gatwa
Emma Mackey
Connor Swindells
Kedar Williams-Stirling
Alistair Petrie
Mimi Keene
Aimee Lou Wood
Chaneil Kular
Simone Ashley
Tanya Reynolds
Mikael Persbrandt
Patricia Allison
James Purefoy

Executive producer(s): Jamie Campbell, Ben Taylor
Producer(s): Jon Jennings
Cinematography: Jamie Cairney, Oli Russell
Editor(s): Steve Ackroyd, David Webb, Calum Ross

FCA's AppR: 8.9/10

NB. It's a solid entry into Netflix's multi - lingual and multi-cultural array of shows. England has really delivered for Netflix. Perhaps with this, England has taken over from Germany ,more so after the somewhat low performance of Dogs of Berlin.