Plot Summary – Moordale’s friskiest come together again; Otis sports a mustache but hides a secret; Jean comes clean; a head teacher arrives.

★★★

This review may contain spoilers for all 3 seasons of Sex Education

Many may be shocked at my lower rating for this season. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of this show. I really enjoyed Season 1 and thought that Season 2 was an improvement on the original, building on the ideas and themes and taking the characters in new directions. I loved the writing and thought that the characters were very well developed. This is precisely the reason why the back half of this season disappointed me so much. Instead of progressing the ideas and themes of the show, it feels like more of the same. The shock value or intrigue seems to be the main focus instead of remaining true to the characters so meticulously set up in the first two seasons.

Let me elaborate. Season 2 had one of the most infuriating TV endings of all time, the entire world hated no one on television more than Isaac. Maybe this is more of a reflection on Maeve as a character being more mature than me but I thought the gravity of his actions were overlooked and just forgiven with a ‘sorry’ and a shitty excuse. Once the writers took that decision, they didn’t even stick with it, reverting back to Otis and Maeve anyways. In the end, they make Isaac seem like the victim which really doesn’t make sense in my mind because he was the cause of the issue. In general, I feel like the decisions taken by characters have no weight cause they’re overridden by the writers almost immediately either by changing the decision or making it insignificant.

Another example is Jean’s storyline where we go through this laborious pregnancy across the season and watch the forced relationship between her and Jakob develop all for it to mean nothing in the final episode with the reveal that the father is someone else just to create shock value and suspense for the next season. It has gone from the show’s trump card to an overused trope to just do shocking things. The show is so far removed from what the original season was that when Aimee said that her and Adam aren’t really friends, I completely forgot that they were the couple that made the events of this show happen in the first place. Are we really supposed to believe that a sensible sex therapist like Jean wouldn’t do a DNA test much earlier after having casual sex with multiple men and knowing Jakob has a vasectomy? Are we supposed to believe that these kids could really make such a shocking video with high production value in a few days? Are we supposed to believe that Maeve is this super genius who can get into any program and university even though we don’t see her studying or worrying about academics for a single second of S3? In S1, Biology A-levels are something that bond Otis and Maeve and the show is just far more grounded in reality. Viv is always hinted at being not as privileged as some of the other students but this is immediately thrown aside when the plot needs her to be edgy. That audio clip would have been way better to be released to the media, and the school could have probably retained funding rather than making a video.

Some positives about this season were that I really liked Michael Groff’s storyline, I thought Ruby and Adam were very well-written and developed and I think their arcs had the most reality to them. Aimee was also brilliantly handled this season, her whole arc was handled with so much care. I really liked the addition of Cal and the NB representation was welcome. Their relationship with Jackson also was handled quite maturely and I really liked how it was resolved. Lilly and Ola were also fairly well-written but I was disappointed that in the end, they just maintain status quo. The technical aspects of the show were great as usual, the direction, the soundtrack, the acting, the cinematography, the editing were all top-notch but as a writer I fixate on the writing and that’s where this season let me down.

I am cautiously optimistic for S4. I was super hyped for this season and it just didn’t deliver. The plotlines being set up for S4 are intriguing but I’m scared that they’ll do more of the same again or go completely off the rails, both of which wouldn’t be in-character for the great foundation the first two seasons set up. This is of course, my opinion and if you differ in opinion, I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts. You can comment down below or drop an email to arnavsam@gmail.com