Culture Diary: Sex Education
I watched the first episode of Sex Education on a date. It was just as awkward as it sounds. The series opens with a sex scene between two teens, having sex as parents watch TV downstairs, and since the show is British, there’s nothing left to the imagination. There’s sex talk and “tits” (God I hate that word) and a shot of an empty, used condom. The guy, Adam, fakes an orgasm, which his girlfriend immediately recognizes and calls him out on. And with that, we have our first sex mystery.
Sex Education is a lot like many other teen shows. There are clear delineations of social status—the jocks, the cool kids, the drama kids, the nerds. There are dances and group projects and school plays and problems with parents. But what’s so sublime about Sex Education is how it treats its characters, especially the teenagers. Though the show opens with a sex scene and revolves around sex as the central premise, it also develops truly dynamic and interesting characters.
Soon after witnessing the opening unbalanced amorous act, we meet Otis, the show’s main character. His mother, played brilliantly by Gillian Anderson, is a prominent sex therapist who doesn’t shy away from discussing sex with her son, and indeed, anyone who will listen. Instead of inspiring a similar comfortable attitude about sex in her son, the opposite is true—Otis is extremely repressed, unable to even “wank off”…
