Sex Education series 4

[Imamumgetmeoutofhere]

Drops today on Netflix. Is anyone else looking forward to this?

The first 2 series I felt were really good and highlighted so many important issues. The 3rd series however felt a bit forced and like they were trying to cram as many current and relevant issues into it as possible. Plus the "evil" head teacher felt a bit silly too.

What do we think will happen this series?

No it wasn’t brilliant but I’m also glad they sent Maeve back to America and not stick around for puppy love

Maybe I have terrible taste but I loved it. I especially loved Aimee’s “Healing Journey” and her discovering her artistic talents.

Really loved how Eric grappled with his faith and identity, and how they intertwine. I thought how he spoke to God in the end was very moving.

Honestly? It wasn’t perfect but I don’t think it was bad on any scale.. just a bit of a different tone to the first two series.

Maybe I’m just a bit hormonal but I blubbered my way through the final episode

And I really enjoyed the whole storyline with Adam but it felt like I was watching a different show during those scenes! A bit disjointed imo

Oh I enjoyed it, but thought it was unbelievably clunky. Also Cal is such an undeveloped character and I really did struggle with the lack of anything other than relentless positivity about teenagers getting top surgery

It sadly seems to have disappeared up its own arse. And most of the kids at the new school seem irritating as hell. Way too nazel-gazey and pompous.

Good bits were the stories around Aimee, Maeve, Ruby and Eric.

I've only watched one episode so far because a lot of what I liked about the previous seasons seems to be missing... the 'college' is bloody awful and the new characters are very annoying. I get that going to a new place can upset dynamics, etc, but I'm struggling with the original characters being portrayed as unwoke country bumpkins who need to be 'taught' not to gossip, to recycle paper, etc, etc.
It's also irritating the hell out of me that Jean is suddenly completely incapable. Yy having a baby is tough but her portrayal has tipped into ageism and sexism already - and she's hardly been in it!

It's also irritating the hell out of me that Jean is suddenly completely incapable. Yy having a baby is tough but her portrayal has tipped into ageism and sexism already - and she's hardly been in it!

I said this to DH. Successful and polished woman has a baby and so becomes a frazzled and irrational woman with a shit-tip of a house.

I think this might have been done under the guise of 'it's not weak to ask for help or take anti depressants' Probably because she is a new mother who is also dealing with likely perimenopause (is she meant to be 46? I can't remember) It's just another lazy storyline / box they decided to tick in my opinion though.

I would happily watch a show based on the ongoing journeys of Adam, Aimee and Eric. The rest of it can get to fuck though.

Yes, I am quite invested in Adam's future now 😄

Another vote for a spin-off about Adam on the farm

I would also watch a series about Eric becoming a pastor.

The church thing annoyed me too though. I mean I thought it was cute how he met god and wanted to be a minister but the whole portrayal of his church as being backwards in their beliefs and him making them rethink (as if the minister just hadn't thought his faith through xD) is so patronising.

They could have shown him struggle with the idea of giving up sex and choosing his religion.
Because that's a real struggle many gay people of faith have. That they can be gay, but never act on it because the act is considered a sin.

Maybe he concludes that God wouldn't care and joins a Liberal Church or something. But instead they went for the tired troupe of 'churches are homophobic and need to get with the times'.

I liked how they portrayed disability and how disabled people are treated.

I liked Aimee's healing journey too.

Hated all the transgender shite. Not really necessary. It felt more like a show about being LGBT+, rather than about having sex!

Not enough of Jean and I miss Jakob too.

The seeing God stuff was stupid and unncessary but I do love Eric.

Overall a very weak season

I like the fact that they have a rounded disabled character (Isaac) with proper storylines, which don't always relate to his disability.

I thought the new disabled character (Aisha) was tokenistic as she wasn't really developed at all. And the scenes where they all parrot lines about society's barriers for disabled people were really poor writing. Good writing shows the barriers (the lift not working) without having to spell it out in an explicit political speech - real people just don't talk like that in everyday life.

This series suffered a lot from that sort of thing, I thought. Rather than showing us things through natural storylines, a lot of issues were aired in the form of speeches. It was all a bit much.

The exceptions were things like Adam and Aimee's storylines, where the character progressed and developed in a more natural way, tackling some heavy issues in the process.

None of the new guys were well developed to be honest. It felt like we just saw surface stuff, and then at some point they'd make an announcement about whatever trauma they were suffering, ticking off different issues like check boxes.

Or a time travelling hero? ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’ve mostly loved all four seasons but I’m glad it’s over - would have been impossible to sustain any belief in teens who all look thirty five.

And of course, alongside Ncuti Gatwa’s unfeasible beauty (the comparison of his sculptured bone structure with Asa Butterfield’s has always been hilarious) all I could see during this season was Dr Who … awakening.

But Jodie Turner-Smith as God was a whole other story.

I did have some reservations about the narrative and some of the characterisations. But there can hardly be another show that’s been so consistently visually outstanding. The work that must have gone into portraying the new college and the students’ pastel outfits. And how all that contrasted with Adam’s entirely brown house, and the wider landscape, and, and, and … It deserves all the prizes for How Things Look.

Also, is it just me that hates Otis? He's a shit friend, and drops people when they aren't useful to him. And he was all in favour of clipping Maeve's wings if it meant he got to keep her.

I was cheering Maeve on when she went back to the US.

The best character development has to be Adam’s dad, surely! He has had one of the best arcs on tv. I found all of his scenes quite emotional to watch.

Loved Isaac, he has come so far from being universally the most hated man on TV when he deleted the voicemail.

I think my favourite scene of the series was the ex-music teacher stepping up to sing U2 at the funeral. I felt a bit emotional.

Agree re: Adam's dad. The storyline for that whole family has been good from series 1.

I get what your saying about Otis being horrible but I think at times he's being a normal teenager. Lots of us become a bit self absorbed at that age, besotted with first loves etc.

At 18 I was considering seeing if I could move from my uni of choice (about 70 miles away) to one closer to home just so I could be nearer my boyfriend (now DH. I hadn't been with him at the time of applying so this obviously wasn't factored in to where I went, we met 3 months after I applied.

If it wasn't for his mum (now MIL) saying if it was meant to be it would work then I would have done it and it would have probably limited me in life experience as I would have still lived at home.

And I think there is an element of that here, Maeve is Otis first love and he's besotted with her and that's why he doesn't want her to go, I don't see it as clipping her wings so to speak.

The Cal storyline was handled terribly I thought.

If a teen is feeling very depressed and suicidal, that is not the right time to make major decisions about surgery, let alone presenting surgery as the answer to all of their problems. Why did no one in the programme suggest proper therapy or treatment for the depression? It's all focused on the surgery, with no acknowledgement that Cal really needed to talk to a clinical professional about their mental state.

This is a fair point re: Maeve, but I still think the way he treats Eric and Ruby isn't great.

I’m enjoying it in a sort of car crash way. The college is very culty which I’m finding weird.

I love the visuals and the core characters but the new queer characters have some really poor acting which I think is why they grate so much.

Agree that the visuals are a TREAT.

Me and DH can’t stop saying TOM BAKER WOULDN’T DO THAT every time Eric gets a blow job in a toilet etc.

I'm on the last episode and other than a few standout moment (Aimee as always and Adam and his dad) this series has been a huge disappointment.

The Cal storyline was dreadful. She should've been seen getting some therapy rather than everyone indulging her. The new friend group was just beyond irritating as well.

The American stuff was terrible and felt like filler episodes that maybe would've been okay if there was another series coming.

The woke theme running through the whole thing was massively overplayed and incredibly irresponsible given how it was promoted.

Ruby was good but suffering from Olivia and Anwar not there as supporting characters.

Just really surprised this is how it's ending. Series 1-3 were really good and this was just flat.

I'm glad they didn't write Adam and his family out, as they did with other characters who didn't go to the college. It felt like that part was written by a completely different person.

Little comic touches like Adam asking his dad if he wanted to hug a horse. And driving the car and not knowing how to stop. 😄I'm sure there was more humour in the earlier series.