Sex Education (2019) Review

Sex Education is a UK show on Netflix. It was released in January 2019 and focuses on a young man going through high school with his two friends. The young man (Otis)'s mother is a sex therapist and has some boundary problems with her son. Since Otis grew up surrounded by his mother's work and studies, he has picked up a lot of information (her mother sees clients in their home) just from naturally living around his mother. Otis's friend (Maeve) sees an business opportunity for Otis to give sex related advice to their classmates (all sorts of problems dealing with human sexuality, including but not limited to: masturbation, oral sex, lesbian relationships, genitalia, among other things). Eric is Otis's other friend and is a gay drag queen with a not as accepting family, so the show explores that character dynamic as well. I will not give spoilers in this review.

The show itself is one season (as of this review), with each episode being around fifty minutes long. The show, overall takes a more comedic tone but has its serious moments throughout the season, dealing with Maeve, Otis, and/or Eric. Its serious moments hit hard and well with the emotions, treating the appropriately heavy scenes as indeed heavy. It is graphic at times with its sexual nature (just look at the title of the show), but it is done tastefully, overall.

The costuming for the show is done well. While the behind the scenes crew was inspired by the 1980's overall aesthetic, interviews with the cast confirmed that the show takes place in present day. The lighting and soundtrack for the show are also handled nicely. Episode pacing doesn't go too fast and doesn't go too slow.

The show's group of characters that it focuses on (between Otis and his friends and the regular classmates that they interact with) come from all types of diverse backgrounds and each fill in their own high school "niche" (jocks, musicians, bullies, etc.) but they do not feel like a stereotype in any sense of the word.

The show's actual sex education when it comes to Otis's sex therapy sessions do have plausible and realistic experiences with his clients. This show is not a documentary, but it does try to at the very least see plausible with the different sexuality problems discussed in the show. The show also does a good job at handling topics that polarize people (LGBTQIA individuals, abortion, among other topics).

Overall this show has a really strong start to it. It has a strong rating on Rotten Tomatoes (91%) and around a 8.4/10 on IMBD. Personally, I strongly recommend this show.