Sex Education’s fourth and final season gave us much to digest. It was an interesting feast, which was very eventful but that did leave me with a squiffy belly at certain points.
Maybe I lack an attention span but the change in location, the many many new characters and the range of storylines left me confused. The show jumped between storylines and tried to squash in as many issues as possible without giving enough time to some of the characters’ journeys. The show’s greatest strengths are its ensemble cast, the relationships between characters and the range of personal and societal issues it addresses but it got a bit carried away this time round.
I missed Moordale. The change in location to Cavendish College, an eco-friendly, anti-gossip queer haven was a novelty at first but it was completely idealistic. I recognise that this is all fiction and tv is not real but in what world does handing out iPads end all social disparity in education?? School is a bit shit and weird and Moordale managed to encapsulate the strangeness of school and the difficulties of being a teenager that looks twenty-six years old. Where were the iconic Moordale characters? The boy who spread chlamydia and “didn’t do a poo”? Ms. Sands and Mr. Colin Hendricks (that one scene during the funeral was breathtaking but wasn’t nearly enough)? The choir and its inappropriate setlist for a school environment?? At times Cavendish tried to satirize its own notions but it just didn’t provide the same comical backdrop as Moordale. It was too serious and earnest and although elements of Moordale were implausible (why did the athletes wear letterman jackets in rural England?) its imperfection and strange hilarity was far more entertaining and flavourful.
The change in location was one thing, but I have so many questions about the entire erasure of some of the show’s most iconic characters. A lot of the show’s actors had moved on to other projects, were unable to return for the final season and the show creator Laurie Nunn decided that their storylines had run their course. This was overcompensated for by adding a bajillion new characters, a strange move for the final season of a show with a large pre-existing cast. I missed characters like Lily, the quirky alien girl and Rahim, the Frenchman who rocked a bowl cut like nobody’s business. Aside from the lack of funny and strange side characters, people like Ola and Jakob whose lives had become so entangled with other characters were removed with little ceremony or reference to them. I’d have liked to see how the messy breakdown of the situation between the two families affected both Ola and Jakob afterwards. Ola in particular was a really interesting and empathetic character (whose friendship with Adam was so beautiful and pure!!) and she was completely erased and never mentioned in season four.
WORDS: Aoibhinn Mitchell Walsh
Jean my-one-true-queen Milbourne had a very turbulent journey this season. Her relationship with Jakob had ended badly, she nearly died giving birth to Joy, she’s facing the prospect of being an older single mother and her son Otis is shit. I think that coming to terms with all of the above and her struggle with post-partum depression was enough for her to deal with. Why did they add a previously unmentioned sister and a radio show with an unfortunately unfunny Hannah Gadsby onto her plate. Jean’s struggle to navigate motherhood from the start again, dealing with her mental health and her heartbreak would have been enough to sustain her narrative. I also think that Dan the motorbike guy (Joy’s father) is quite an underrated character and was criminally underused. An exploration of their dynamic as co-parents would have made more sense than the aforementioned mess.
Otis is the true villain. He is the embodiment of a spoiled stunted man-child. Maybe Otis’ childish behaviour was a choice made to convince the audience he is still a seventeen year old boy but this twenty year old teenage girl is unconvinced. His sex therapist competition with O was really uninteresting to me and even his therapising was underwhelming. The sexual education element of this season was not as informative or risque as previous seasons. His singular obsession with how the world revolves around him is infuriating. So many of the people in his life were dealing with huge changes and difficulties and Otis was only concerned with how he was affected. Eric really highlighted Otis’ narcissism and general unpleasantness when he confronted him about how one-sided their friendship is and how Otis is too uncomfortable with their differences to acknowledge them. Otis lashes out at his friends and his mother and always manages to wheedle his way back into their good books with a half-assed apology. One of the greatest moments of the season was when Ruby Matthews doesn’t accept Otis’ hand of friendship after using her to emotionally lash out at his girlfriend. Slay Ruby you do have enough friends and don’t need one more.
Despite the drawn-out aspects of this season, the final episode was really excellent in my opinion. There were some really satisfying resolutions for some beloved characters. The development of Adam and his father’s relationship was really lovely. Watching two stoic but wounded men reconcile with each other felt very cathartic to watch. I cried like a baby when Michael says “I’d quite like to hug you” after Adam asks him if he’d like to “hug a horse?”. Amy’s storyline was brilliant, using her trauma to fuel her art and her new relationship with Isaac!! Her story ended on such a positive note but did also acknowledge that she’s still not entirely okay and will always be deeply affected by her assault. I also appreciated how not everything ended entirely happily ever after. Viv and Jackson had difficulties of their own this season but their friendship was as strong as ever at the end of it all. Cal’s story was a difficult one this season. Despite the positive changes in their life, their internal struggle and their battle with their body was left unresolved. I thought Maeve’s story was turbulent but that the writers did her justice as a character. The American school story felt very disconnected from the rest of the show. It was hard to see her loss of confidence but her speech at the end to her teacher played by Dan Levy was brilliant. In true Maeve fashion, she knocked this pompous man off his high horse and held him accountable for his words and influence. Her grief after her mother died was portrayed quite well in how it was confusing, she was both heartbroken and relieved in a sense. Although the writers really let Elsie, her little sister, fall through the cracks – why was she not present at her own mother’s funeral? The way that Maeve and Otis’ relationship ended was a brave choice made by the writers. Although it was a little disappointing that things came to an end between them after they’d only just begun after such a long build up it felt very realistic. The finality of their breakup reflected the mature tone of this final season and gave the show a concrete resolution.
Overall I thought that the team behind Sex Education did a good job tying together the plot at the end and gave each remaining character on the show a fully fleshed-out storyline. However, I think that the writers overcomplicated matters by trying to give each character a stand-alone storyline that didn’t necessarily continue from the previous season. This final season had a much more mature tone and addressed more societal issues than previous seasons. My favourite storylines this season were Aimee’s, Adam’s and Eric’s. They are arguably the three funniest personalities on the show and yet each of them had very different and moving storylines. They each underwent major personal growth and left the show with a solid sense of themselves and a clear path ahead of them. Every character on the show was given a thoughtful resolution that made sense for their character by the end of the season. In this sense I really appreciated the maturity of the season but it was the least funny season in my opinion. The humour was lost in the seriousness of this final season. On the whole it was an enjoyable watch with a very strong ending.
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