Sex Education: Season 2
Spoiler-free review
By Christiana
Netflix`s hit TV series for teens aired its second season on January 17th, picking up where it left off - Eric`s whirlwind romance starting to shape up, Maeve`s insanely demanding personal life, Adam`s difficulty in coming to terms with his sexuality and of course, in the centre of it all, Otis` successful attempt to finally becoming a “usual teenager”.
“Sex Education” is a beautiful coming-of-age story peppered with bits of old-school musical references and funny innuendos brought to the screen by fan-favourite Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa). The second installment of the series stands out as a much bigger production, featuring many trending topics and issues present in the modern world, such as sexual assault, female empowerment and learning to embrace your flaws. Some of the key moments from the new season hinted at an unseen side of Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) and Maeve (Emma Mackey), which could have been explored to a greater extent.
Adam (Connor Swindells) had a significantly smaller part this season, despite finally getting to know him and his interests outside of school - aspect which should have been developed on a larger scale by the writers’ crew. The audience did not get too much out of Lily (Tanya Reynolds) either, as she was absent for most of the story line.
A definite downside is probably the considerable abuse of mature content in the show, making it harder to watch and even absorb by those who are not used to this kind of genre. Being the opposite of family-friendly, a chance of a big percentage of viewers suddenly becoming interested in watching “Sex Education” significantly narrows.
A bit frustrating at times (plot-wise), it eventually worked out in the end just fine. On a brighter note, the script complimented most of the protagonists` narrative and left us with much to think about and in addition, displayed a few effortlessly amusing performances by Ncuti Gatwa and Asa Butterfield. Where the first season failed to impress and turned out to be rather forced in some areas, the new season felt pretty natural as a whole and offered a much clearer view in perspective.
As a teen watching the series, I`d say it was a great experience overall, except for the minor issues regarding the plot. I couldn`t help to notice that it referenced certain topics of subject that teenagers nowadays are confronting with on a daily basis, and so, comparing “Sex Education” to another coming-of-age show was inevitable. Andrew Goldberg and Nick Kroll`s “Big Mouth” for instance, would be a great example in which awareness and humor are ideally combined (with the help of animation this time) to serve the purpose of the show.
