# Sex Education -- Netflix TV show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, netflix\ **Created:** [January 24, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914 "2020-01-24T19:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/21 "2020-06-05T14:47:39Z")
[If, yes. When, who knows](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a30543403/sex-education-season-3-release-date-trailer-cast-plot/)? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/22 "2020-06-05T15:54:30Z")
Gotta say the scenery has me thinking Wales must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Which reminds me of one of my favorite jokes: Drunken Irishman to 2 large women in a bar: Excuse me, but I heard your accents. Would you two ladies happen to be from Scotland? Woman in response: Wales, you wanker! Irsihman: A thousand pardons. Would you two whales happen to be from Scotland? ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/23 "2020-06-29T11:34:35Z")
Just discovered the show and binged it over the course of 4 days. Powerfully well written. The last episode of season two drove me nuts when Isaac pulled that shitty move. Who dares take someone else’s phone and listens to their messages? I feel like a kid wanting Otis and Maeve to get together, which I assume will eventually happen. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2020, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/24 "2020-06-29T13:25:59Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Gotta say the scenery has me thinking Wales must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is indeed. The series is actually shot in the [Wye Valley](https://www.google.com/search?q=wye+valley&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB869GB869&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwia0NWij6fqAhWDlFwKHaHbCJQQ_AUoAnoECBoQBA&biw=1957&bih=1199), which straddles the English/Welsh border and is very beautiful and also not well known to tourists, so makes for a great day out - and also an unusual choice for the production company, as I doubt many British people know it well. Otis and his Mum’s house in is a place called Symond’s Yat, which has a great pub on the river. Apparently you’ll soon be able to [rent the house](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/sex-education-house-otis-where-filmed-location-wales-rent-netflix-a9299781.html) for holidays. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/25 "2021-09-19T23:12:54Z")
Bumping this topic because I’ve been binging the third season this weekend and a question arose. The head teacher refers to “investors”. So is this a for-profit school? Is that a thing in the UK? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/26 "2021-09-20T11:08:04Z")
No, for-profit schools aren’t legal in the UK (private fee-paying schools tend to be not-for-profit charitable trusts). Obviously we have for-profit educational companies such as language schools, but not for core education. Of course, Sex Education is set in sort of a weird fantasy world where people wear pseudo 70s clothing and go to a school which looks more American than British (eg lockers in the hallway, school branding, no uniforms, that kind of thing), so I wouldn’t use it to educate yourself on our school system. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/27 "2021-09-20T18:52:40Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > No, for-profit schools aren’t legal in the UK (private fee-paying schools tend to be not-for-profit charitable trusts). For-profit education not being legal doesn’t mean you can’t have investors and capitalist interests in education though. Privately held EF has two UK high schools: [EF Education First - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_Education_First) And, although I have no idea if the UK is better than Norway at preventing this sort of thing, sometimes there are ways around not-for-profit laws. Norwegian private education institutions have tested the limits of the laws against profit by the non-profit entity renting real estate and buying services from for-profit entities owned by the same investors. But even in a completely non-profit situation, if the school wasn’t an independent charitable organization, but someone’s ideological/vanity project, you could imagine them pulling funding. I’m not saying that’s possible under UK law, just that “for-profit education isn’t legal” isn’t, by itself, a bar to the events happening in the show. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/28 "2021-09-20T18:53:33Z")
We also binged it this weekend. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/29 "2021-09-21T17:16:46Z")
If you don’t want to see someone’s cat crushed to death (with a big pool of blood) as a joke scene, you might want to avoid season 3 episode 3. (Or possibly the whole series.) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/30 "2021-10-12T12:46:01Z")
I watched all three seasons recently. I mostly enjoyed it (it was really funny in places), but I agree with this comment: > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Towards the end I did get a feel of new obstacles being tossed in just to keep the episodes going, though. It wasn’t quite as bad as Sons of Anarchy when it comes to characters self-sabotaging for the sake of plot material, but it was getting pretty close. The whole “we’re shutting down the school instantly – good luck” ending was pretty stupid, though. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/31 "2021-10-12T16:59:26Z")
I thought season 3 was the weakest of the series so far, largely because I thought it was being too self-satisfied in its attempts to bring humanity to previously one dimensional characters. Adam is no longer a bully? And Ruby is no longer a horrible queen bee? And Simon (?) suddenly has a change of heart for the incredibly selfish violation of deleting a voicemail on Maeve’s phone? AND previous headmaster learns the meaning of love and how to make salad? And all of that takes screen time away from the characters we actually care about? There’s certainly value in gaining sympathy for a previously unsympathetic character, but that can’t be the ONLY thing your show does. Also, I never really bought into Hope (new headmistress). She was just too moustache-twirlingly evil too much of the time. People wearing PUBLIC SHAME SIGNS?!!??!?!?! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/32 "2021-10-12T17:12:41Z")
I agree that Hope was pretty evil but the prior headmaster wasn’t great either. Remember that he released Jean’s notes from her meetings with students and teachers, which was a huge privacy violation. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/33 "2021-10-12T17:42:15Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > And all of that takes screen time away from the characters we actually care about? There’s certainly value in gaining sympathy for a previously unsympathetic character, but that can’t be the ONLY thing your show does. I call this “ensemble cast syndrome”; all of the supporting characters have to get their own story line and bit of character development and that squeezes out the (erstwhile) main characters bit by bit. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/34 "2021-10-12T19:34:17Z")
And the teachers have gone past the point of being “sex positive” with the students to being enablers. I’m pretty laid back and liberal, but if a teacher is leading a high school choir in the song _Sucking On My Titties_, not only is his judgement so poor that he should be immediately fired, but there should be a deep and serious police investigation into his browsing history and his past for possible sex crimes. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/35 "2021-10-12T20:11:44Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I call this “ensemble cast syndrome”; all of the supporting characters have to get their own story line and bit of character development and that squeezes out the (erstwhile) main characters bit by bit. There’s some truth to that… but in this case it’s not just focusing on previously side characters, it’s focusing on previously _unsympathetic_ side characters. Which, again, is not in and of itself bad, but doing four at once got a bit wearing. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/36 "2021-10-12T23:28:03Z")
I loved the redemption attempt by the old headmaster, salad and all. I did buy Hope as an Umbridge because, like Umbridge, I’ve met too many people like her. I’m surprised they all lied down and took it, but I guess without Otis and Maeve riling them all up, the other kids are fairly compliant. Is it coming back for S4? I’d hate for it to be done but it’s hard to think the kids can keep passing for teens. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2021, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/37 "2021-10-13T08:48:30Z")
I can see arguments about suddenly highlighting Ruby, and Isaac. Gods, I _hate_ Isaac . But Adam has never been a _side_ character. And never not a little sympathetic, even at his worst. > [@Fair\_Rarity](#): > > Is it coming back for S4? Yes, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/38 "2021-10-13T15:23:23Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > But Adam has never been a _side_ character. And never not a little sympathetic, even at his worst. This. And, Adam’s dad aside, the characters are all teenagers. Teenagers do a lot of changing and Adam’s behavior was clearly rooted in dealing with being closeted and dealing with a terrible dad who he could never get away from since he was the headmaster. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/39 "2021-10-28T15:44:00Z")
I’m currently watching S3, and boy, did I disagree with many of these comments. Yeah - the show is ridiculously over-the-top. Always has been. Maybe moreso in this season, but doesn’t detract from my enjoyment. As my wife asked, “How do these kids afford all those clothes and makeup?” And the scenes w/ public sex are pretty unbelievable. But that doesn’t stop me from being invested in the characters and developments. I have been thrilled w/ the development of characters such as Ruby. I find it impressive that they are able to get me to care about such exaggerated characters/situations. Makes me wonder why more other shows are not able to do so. And I welcome the attention to the more secondary characters. I’m a little tired of the Maeve/Otis thing, and Eric’s ignorance during the trip to Nigeria was ridiculous. But don’t get me going about the impracticalities of the entire poo-in-a-sock thing! I think we’ve seen 6 eps, and I’m sad it is ending so soon. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914/40 "2021-10-28T15:45:31Z")
FYI, I believe it was renewed for a fourth season. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-education-netflix-tv-show/846914.md?page=3)