Sex education is less fun for teens than it is for mums. It’s super weird talking with a parent, especially one of the opposite gender. However, Sex education is a big deal, and even the TV folks agree with us.
People have various opinions as to whether the TV depiction of teen sex is moral enough or even responsible enough. There is less talk about whether the depiction is bad enough. This is a review of the Netflix series Sex Education, and a look at its depiction of teenage sex.
There is so much sex in this movie, and the title already advertises this effortlessly. The sex scenes may be one of the major attractions of the series, but the “education” part is more of what you should look out for.
The unlikely educator in this film is Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield), who is an awkward, inexperienced teenager.
Jane, who is his mother (an interestingly deadpan Gillian Anderson), is a sex therapist, with an awkwardly frank manner and a somewhat limited sense of personal boundaries.
This mum explains sex to her very young son, Otis, in a flashback. The talk goes like so: “Intercourse can be wonderful. But it can also cause great pain. And if you are not careful, sex can even destroy lives.”
You’ve probably heard the saying that the cobbler’s children may not have shoes. Well, Otis is fixed, clean for footwear. But he can not masturbate.
The teenager’s adolescent anxiety about his male parts and changing body (he’s not excited about erections, either) gets deepness by the choking T.M.I. factor of staying in the same space with an oversharing mum with lots of erotic art on the walls and a range of exotic implements in the drawers.
But Otis is a super-smart skid and has picked up a bunch of sex and adult-related knowledge through osmosis. When he a classmate discusses an uncomfortable sex issue with him, his secret crush and friend (Emma Mackey) Maeve convinces him to start up a side gig in school as a “sex and relationship therapist” for his peers. Those who can not do it, teach.
It’s apparently a far-fetched premise, as even one of Otis’s clients admits, but having to deal with Jean has given the teen boy a specific perceptiveness and skill set, and somehow he sells it well with the TV show.
The series is well written as it initially strains to establish the gradual format: Some inquisitiveness, XXX.” But it all blooms, over eight exciting episodes, into a smart, sensitive look at how teenagers battle to find their place and figure out their body’s owner’s manuals.
The creator of Sex Education, Laurie Nunn, shows her skills and exceptional planning abilities as she manages to create a teen sex comedy like none we’ve seen before.
The series is timely but not ineptly topical, with a refreshing lack of fretfulness about its subject. What we mean is that Sex, in this TV series is nothing close to being a “problem” an issue, or a lewd lure: It’s an integral part of health.
So yes, you’ll come across stories about revenge porn, S.T.D.s, and an attractive, perceptive abortion subplot in the series third episode. But there are also storylines about sexual compatibility and fantasy, and the apparent gap between pornlike expectations and mundane reality. The series comes across as empathic and nonjudgmental, just like Otis.
It is also a very generous series in scope. Past teenage comedies tended to be more about the uncontrollable sexual desires of male virgins like the lead character, and their struggles to get sex.
“Sex Education” centers and decenters the lead character, Otis. The young man functions as the protagonist but is more comfortable as a laid back observer, listener, and supporting player in stories of others.
One of the most robust Twists belongs to Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Otis gay best friend, with whom he has an annual date where they dress up in drag to watch “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”
In this series, Eric is exuberant but quite naïve, but he isn’t only discovering his sexuality but learning the things that he likes and the best way to present himself in the rest of the world.
The series reveals a tremendous small moment for Eric, who is black, as he admires the “fierce” nail polish on a black man who is older, and cheerfully offers a piece of advice “Stick to the jewel tones.”
While dealing with homophobia happens to be a great part of Eric’s journey, it is not the sum of it. Eric is always picked on at school, but not because he is gay. The young man is ridiculed for being a band geek who got a public erection one time, giving him the nickname “Tromboner.”
Sex Education prides itself in several brilliant moments, mainly because the story has a knack for portraying characters as stereotypes, then adding some complications.
For example, nerds have lusts; jocks have anxieties; bullies and mean girls have sympathetic backgrounds. One such character is Maeve, who is exquisitely drawn. She’s a pretty smart one, tough and outcast both for being a girl who has sex and enjoys it and for being poor.
Sex education is a very graphical teens comedy, but it’s full of lessons and laughs for both parents and other adults.
The series was created to be a very “graphical one” with sexual scenes popping in your face from time to time. However, if you hate sensors, then this one is great for you as streaming means, you get to see everything.
For the ratings, that’s your job to do. However, it’s an excellent movie for mums who have no boundaries and would want to torment their teens a little. If you feel it’s going to be a little too much, then don’t watch it with mum.
