Those who can’t do, teach. And those who can’t shag, start running sex therapy clinics. That has always been the essential premise of Netflix’s Sex Education. Over the course of three series, kids have fallen in and out of love, in and out of popularity, and in and out of each other’s beds. All while dispensing preternaturally mature advice about sex and relationships. Now in its fourth and final season, the show is ready to see its characters fly the coop, finally leaving behind the cloying world of high school.
It’s about time too, as the plausibility of these characters as school-age minors approaches breaking point. Otis (26-year-old Asa Butterfield) has finally landed Maeve (27-year-old Emma Mackey), the impossibly cool, talented and beautiful girl he’s spent a trilogy of seasons pining over. But their stars aligning was just in time for her to shoot off to America on a special student programme, led by Schitt’s Creek’s Dan Levy. Back home, Eric (30-year-old Ncuti Gatwa) is still struggling to live an authentic life as a young gay man while satisfying the demands of his religious family, while Aimee (29-year-old Aimee Lou Wood), recovering from the trauma of sexual assault, finds an unexpected connection. Meanwhile, defenestrated headmaster Mr Groff (Alistair Petrie) tries to heal both himself and his relationship with troubled son Adam (26-year-old Connor Swindells), and Gillian Anderson’s Jean is struggling to balance co-parenting with hosting a new radio show. And… breathe.
