2023-09-21 11:23:06
How long can you wait before replying to a nude photo sent to you? Not long, that must be the answer to the question with which the fourth and final season of “Sex Education” begins. Eight new episodes can now be seen on Netflix. Which you should watch just for that reason if you want to have a say. Because “Sex Education” is that one cult series that everyone watches. Like “Girls” and “Sex and the City” before that.
We remember: The last episode ended with a farewell to two lovers. Maeve went to America to study writing at a prestigious college. Otis stayed behind with his mother and newborn sister. Which leads to the sexting problem mentioned at the beginning. But he still has his friend Eric, who broke up with his friend Adam in season three because he wasn’t open about his bisexuality. Aimee is back too. She is still on a self-healing journey after a sexual assault and has sworn off relationships. The new season starts with a new school year – and a new school. And that leads directly to a parallel universe.
To imagine this visually, it is best to think of a self-declared diversity collective of young parents in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Imagine a large round table around which everyone sits. In the middle is a pile of pencils, craft scissors, glitter and foam rubber. They brainstorm and create the “The Perfect School” project.
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The result is a place that everyone cycles to. It is recycled and every student receives the same reusable water bottle. Of course you can choose the color. Everything is ultra-modern. Tablets are used in courses. You book appointments with the sex therapist using a touch screen on the wall in the waiting area. There are meditation and yoga classes, a stage for free speaking and a slide to get into the auditorium. There are no grades. Students vote on all decisions at the school. The most popular girl at school was once a boy and regularly raises money for charity with her boyfriend, who was once a girl. Blaspheming is uncool, if you do it you have to throw money into the “blasphemer jar”. Most of them are queer, i.e. either bisexual, transsexual or homosexual. All ethnicities are represented. The classes are inclusive.
An approach: Adam Groff and his father
What: Samuel Taylor/Netflix
In the new season, marginalized groups and mainstream society swap places. The former “it girl” Ruby – normative, pretty, mean – eats alone in the toilet here during her lunch break. In the cubicle next to her, the director of the old school does the same – of course the toilets are gender-neutral. At the new college, Mr. Groff, replacing the old white man, is now a substitute teacher. He has now started therapy after he lost his son and his wife because of his strict, conservative attitude.
This educational horror is of course not meant entirely seriously. After Eric and Otis initially marvel at how queer everything is and how everything looks like the dream model of a diverse and politically correct world, it quickly becomes clear that this school is just as annoying as any other. There are the recycling smart-asses and the glass-blaspheming moralists who forbid negative comments to the point of self-flagellation. Otis also struggles with losing his best friend Eric to the cool queer kids whose group he doesn’t fit into. There is also the other sex therapist “O”, who competes with his own practice. The new season is just as strange, at times uncomfortable to watch and surprising, as the one before it. And still beautifully written.
Father-son conversations
In the most beautiful scene, Mr. Groff tries to build a connection with his son Adam. After a driving lesson together, they lean against the car and eat sandwiches. In the middle of an English hilly landscape. The father then explains to his son that he once thought he was gay for a week after seeing a Clint Eastwood film. When Adam then explains to his father that he is bisexual and not gay, his father replies casually: “They say that Alexander the Great could have been bisexual.”
Another scene is notable because it is so unpleasant to watch. A trademark of the series. During a lecture, Otis’ cell phone’s Bluetooth connects to the projector. Suddenly, his many attempts to send Maeve an appropriate penis picture (in response to her breasts) are visible to the entire school. The penis image narrative takes on a whole new perspective. Otherwise more of a debate topic about toxic male aggression, here we take a look behind the scenes of an insecure teenage boy. Who wants to be sexy, but is afraid that his erect penis might appear aggressive.
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“Sex Education” is what “Sex and the City” was in the 2000s. Even before New Yorkers modernized themselves with “And Just Like That”. A sex-positive cult series. Only with pubescent characters and a younger target group that is growing up with social media and more opportunities. And so it also asks other questions: For example, if you are measured by actions that took place years ago, but of which video evidence is floating around the internet. So whether there is a right to be forgotten. Or a right to remember when you seek contact with your biological father, whom you never met because he was a sperm donor. Which is the equivalent of breaking up with someone you’ve never really been with: ghosting. And whether you – as a homosexual – can remain part of a community – the church – that does not accept all parts of you.
Ncuti Gatwa as Eric Effiong
What: Samuel Taylor/Netflix
As in “Sex and The City”, these questions are led by an egocentric main character who builds a career on sex and love without knowing the answers in his own private life. He also has a tendency to complain, but in return doesn’t listen to his friends much. In general, friendship plays a similarly important role as love in both series. But “Sex Education” has an important element that “Sex and The City” lacks and that shouldn’t be missing when talking about identity – including sexual identity: family.
Otis’ life and relationships are always told in relation to his mother. Just like Maeve and Eric’s. Otis blames his mother for his problems in the bedroom. Jean Milburn, the mother, is a sex therapist and struggles with postnatal depression and her sister in the new season. At the same time she starts a new job as a radio presenter. The producer is played by Hannah Gadsby. The Australian comedienne became internationally known in 2018 through her Netflix special “Nannette”.
If you didn’t like “Sex Education” before, the new episodes will really annoy you. Everyone else can look forward to crazy stories.
#Ghosting #ghosting #answer