Sex Education (TV series)

Sex Education is a British teen sex comedy drama television series created by Laurie Nunn for Netflix. It follows the lives of the teenagers and adults in the fictional town of Moordale as they contend with various personal dilemmas, often related to sexual intimacy. It stars an ensemble cast that includes Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Alistair Petrie, Mimi Keene, and Aimee Lou Wood.

The first series was released on Netflix on 11 January 2019. The second, third and fourth series followed in January 2020, September 2021 and September 2023, respectively. Sex Education has received critical acclaim for its performances, writing, directing, production value, and mature treatment of its themes. The programme has been a viewership success, with over 40 million viewers streaming the first series after its debut. Wood won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for her role in the second series, and the third series won Best Comedy Series at the 50th International Emmy Awards.

Premise

Sex Education primarily follows Otis Milburn, a student at Moordale Secondary School. Otis begins the series ambivalent about sex, in part because his single mother, Jean Milburn, is a sex therapist who frequently has affairs with male suitors but does not maintain romantic relationships.

Other students at Moordale Secondary include Eric Effiong, Otis's best friend and the gay son of Ghanaian-Nigerian immigrants; Maeve Wiley, an intelligent and rebellious teen with a troubled family past; Adam Groff, headmaster Michael Groff's son who develops a bullying nature out of his own self-loathing; Jackson Marchetti, the head boy struggling to meet the high expectations set for him; Ruby Matthews, Anwar Bakshi, and Olivia Hanan, members of a popular clique known as "the Untouchables"; Aimee Gibbs, an Untouchable who secretly befriends Maeve; and Lily Iglehart, a writer of alien erotica determined to lose her virginity. The school is soon joined by Ola Nyman, whose widowed father, Jakob Nyman, begins a relationship with Jean. Otis's father, womaniser Remi Milburn, and Maeve's mother, drug addict Erin Wiley, later return to Moordale to reconnect with their children.

Plot outline

In the first series, Otis sets up a sex therapy clinic with Maeve to help the students of Moordale Secondary with their sexual problems. Their business becomes a success, but tension arises when Otis finds himself becoming attracted to Maeve.

In the second series, new students arrive at Moordale Secondary, including Ola, who becomes Otis's first girlfriend. Maeve struggles to confess her feelings for Otis, Eric helps his former bully Adam come to terms with his sexuality, and Jean becomes the school's resident sex therapist as a chlamydia outbreak highlights the teens' need for better sex education.

In the third series, a new school year begins as Otis is having casual sex with Ruby while Eric and Adam are made official. Maeve works with English teacher Emily Sands to apply for an exchange program in America, Jean expects a baby in the near future, and new headmistress Hope Haddon's plans to revamp Moordale Secondary creates conflict with the students.

In the fourth series, the students adjust to the new term at Cavendish Sixth Form College after Moordale Secondary is shut down. Otis competes with a rival sex therapist on campus while juggling his long-distance relationship with Maeve, who begins her studies at the prestigious Wallace University in the United States.