Laurie Nunn is a gifted storyteller. The brilliance of the closure of Sex Education (Netflix), its ambitious war wagon against everything we should know and still don’t know about sex – adolescents and not-so-adolescents – makes it abundantly clear. He is aware that in the third season – by far the most irregular season, completely limited by the plot, unable to develop as the characters do and therefore unsuccessful – he is at a dead end has arrived – and decides to finally leave the table. Eliminate Moordale High School outright and send Otis – a very appropriate Asa Butterfield from the start – to a new world, the very postmodern Cavendish High School: pure queer, nerdy and emo eco-utopia.
One would say that Cavendish is the future present, the place where the changes have been recorded – dizzying, overwhelming – that have taken place in the world of young people since 2019, the year in which Nunn made his necessary and more than nourishing, healthy and respectful career project began. Their intention was to give shape to what didn’t exist, a truly communicative sex education that illuminates every corner, clarifies all the unknowns, eliminates the enemy – pornography, what young people see without a map – and so on is exactly what he has done, and in doing so he has formed a new generation of teenagers who, in this final season, will be confronted with his own generation: that of Abbi (Anthony Lexa), Roman (Felix Mufti) and Aisha (Alexandra James).
More information
They must be joined by O (Thaddea Graham), Cavendish’s sex therapist, a very popular student – with hundreds of thousands of followers on social networks – who will confront Otis with his outdated, traditional model. Because in addition to expanding the battlefield in terms of everything to do with sex and its consequences and even the organs involved – lumps can also be seen in boys – and age-related imbalances in reproduction – yes, it’s about menopause, with Hannah Gadsby (Nanette) at the helm – Nunn normalizes gender fluidity by conforming to what society is trying to tell today’s adolescents and takes it a step further towards the place we are headed.
Yes, the series’ old characters – representatives of Nunn’s generation and all before – are out of place and are looking for their place for the first time. The epitome is Ruby (Mimi Keene), the popular straight girl, not popular at all in a world where the rule is to always be under construction, to escape the stereotype to perhaps create another stereotype or an infinite number of them them. Even Jane Millburn (a great Gillian Anderson in the other role of her life), Otis’ mother, the very famous sex therapist, always on top, is aging – in her mind – without a cure. And here is the miracle that brings about an end that is experienced as a new beginning. That the characters adapt, as the play does, to what should already be here and hopefully will be here one day.
You can follow EL PAÍS Television on X or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Get the TV newsletter
All the latest news from broadcasters and platforms, with interviews, news and analyses, as well as recommendations and reviews from our journalists
LOG IN
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits