Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sex Education’ On Netflix, About A Sex Therapist’s Son Who Dispenses Sex Advice To His Classmates

Do you remember sex education classes in high school? Awkward, right? Imagine if you live with an actual sex therapist who’s as uninhibited outside of work as she is in her office. That’s the idea behind the hilarious British series Sex Education. Read on for more…

SEX EDUCATION: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see a shaking light fixture in a house; we pan down to see the oblivious owners go about their business. We cut to upstairs where two teens are having vigorous sex. “You like my tits?” the girl says to the guy.

The Gist: The guy she’s having sex with is so in his own head that, despite his partner’s enthusiasm, he can’t finish. She can tell he faked an orgasm so she asks to see the condom. “Where’s the spunk?” she asks him.

Cut to the bedroom of Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield), who is so socially awkward that he can’t even masturbate. He even lays out lotion, tissues and old nudie magazines to make his mother think he actually did the deed. Why would he do that? Because his mother Jean (Gillian Anderson) is a sex therapist, which is likely part of the reason why he won’t touch himself, especially as a parade of men burst through his door in her robe, thinking it’s the bathroom.

On their first day back to secondary school, Otis and his friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) vow to move up the social food chain, though Eric chides Otis for his inability to even touch himself. Eric is constantly bullied by Adam Groff (Connor Swindells), the headmaster’s son who has gotten a reputation for having an “elephant dick” but, as we saw in the first scene, his performance isn’t up to snuff. We also meet Maeve (Emma Mackey) a hellaciously smart student who couldn’t care less about school, to the point where she sells term papers out of a cordoned-off bathroom.

Adam gets paired with Otis on a project, and after visiting Otis’ house, finds out what Otis’ mother does, complete with a draw full of gigantic dildos. After Jean comes home, the two smoke some weed, to Otis’ dismay, and the two are getting along until she suggests that Adam’s drug use could hinder his sexual performance. To get back at Otis, he finds an old video of Jean and sends it around to everyone at school.

Adam also takes Viagra to help him with his girlfriend, he finds that his raging hard-on won’t go away. Maeve finds him, and asks Otis for help. Otis not only finds out why Adam can’t perform, he talks him down (pun-intended), and Adam actually finishes the next time he has sex. Maeve sees this and proposes an idea: Otis helps out all the sex-crazed students at the school and split the money they charge for him to do it.

Our Take: Sex Education is Laurie Nunn’s first attempt at a series, and boy she has a slam dunk with this story. One of the keys that made the first episode so enjoyable is that Nunn kept the core cast small, so with a 51-minute running time we got room to find out a lot about the characters without needing a ton of exposition. There are a number of major laughs on the first episode, and it’s not shy to show everything — Everything! — when it comes to sex.

There are at least three or four moments where we couldn’t believe that Nunn “went there”, including how Adam shows the entire school how he now owns both being the headmaster’s son and having a large member. In another scene, a picture of female anatomy that Otis filled out in class with Maeve — who was shocked he knew where everything was, at least at first — is a potential source for self-pleasure. But those scenes and more aren’t quite as shocking when you realize how germane they are to the story.

Anderson, sporting a British accent that sounds more Dame Edna and less Julie Andrews, still shines as Jean, who has very little inhibition and no self-awareness at how it’s affecting Otis, yet can turn around and be a loving, caring mother to him without analyzing him — at least for a minute or two. And we love what we see from Mackey, who shows Maeve is wicked smart despite being a bad-ass.

Sex and Skin: The show is called Sex Education, for Pete’s sake, so we pretty much see sex and skin from beginning to end, including male private parts.

Parting Shot: After proposing the business deal, Maeve says to Otis, “Your words made [Adam] cum.” He’s at first hesitant, but as she walks away, he says, “I’m in!””

Sleeper Star: Ncuti Gatwa is pretty funny as Eric, but we see how troubled he is when Adam bullies him, and there’s a hint that he hasn’t come out to his parents yet, which is intriguing.

Most Pilot-y Line: The class’ “top boy” Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) has hot sex with Maeve in secret, but then joins along during the day when his buddies say “nice rack!” or make fun of her for being a “nympho”, as if this is 1995.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If the first episode is any indication, Sex Education is going to be one funny show. It’ll certainly be more entertaining than the sex education we got in school.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream Sex Education on Netflix