Show: Sex Education
Release date: Sept. 21, 2023
Season: 4
Episodes: 1-8
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: B
Sex Education filled viewers screens for the final time on Sept. 21 with eight, one-hour long episodes — all of which made everybody question their sexuality in awe of Gillian Anderson's character Jean.
But while the writers may have succeeded in developing meaningless, tick-box storylines, they failed to mend the hearts of viewers rooting for the familiar faces of season one.
With the move to a new college, Cavendish College saw all the Milburn chaos as Otis (Asa Butterfield) formed a rivalry with a new sex therapist on campus. Emma Mackey's character, Maeve, has landed in the US for her prestigious writing program. And Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) acts as a savior this season whilst navigating wokeism at its highest at Cavendish.
Anthony Lexa's new addition Abbi set the tone for the season with her agonising over-optimism. Abbi herself acts as an emblem of the general weak feelings of season four. Introduced as one half of the 'head couple,' she contributes to the nauseating environment of toxic positivity at Cavendish.
Abbi and Roman are the head couple that reign over Cavendish, leading other students to obsess over them. In turn, Abbi is hyper-focused on becoming a positivity extremist and creates gossip punishments for her friends in an attempt to keep them from speculating about problems in her sex life.
Abbi and O, who runs a sex therapy clinic at Cavendish, were among the new additions of the show which made this season frustrating to watch, as their presence has little relevance to the story so far. It is hard to understand how the writers imagined that introducing brand new, frankly annoying, characters would satisfy viewers as opposed to focusing on the relationships developed in prior seasons, which viewers may have wanted to see resolved.
Otis, the series protagonist, had to navigate where to set up his sex clinic in competition O. Otis' rivalry with her allowed for newer characters to be introduced whenever they sought help from O.
Otis is a very real representation of the confused and overwhelmed teenage boy, and his teenage insecurities are something that many viewers can relate to. This leaves people continuing to root for his complicated relationship with Maeve.
One plot viewers could enjoy was the conclusion of Maeve and Otis' relationship. The relationship between Maeve and Otis is one that comes close to the earth-shattering pain felt when Marianne and Connell couldn’t communicate in "Normal People." But the two are finally together at last in a long-distance relationship as Meave attended a writing program in the U.S. while Otis remained in England.
The two remained together this season, a bittersweet scene since they were so far apart. It felt obvious Maeve would return to the U.S. in the end, so viewers had the time to prepare for their ending. The emotional preparation had already begun after season three’s finale when she first set off.
Maeve and Otis each endured their own personal journeys this season irrespective of each other, so it felt as though their relationship was already over, and the little content that we saw of them together was a special treat. Yet, these moments had little impact on the plot as a whole.
"Episode 6," the funeral episode, met viewers with a strange celebrant and portrayed the two sides of addiction, giving audience members closure. After an amazing feature of U2's "With or Without You," it was Maeve’s brother, Sean (Edward Bluemel), who caused the stir in this episode after his rant about his mother’s addiction, retold stories and rehashed his trauma, despite how painful it was for Maeve.
Maeve attempted to see the good in her mother's life, but Sean couldn't see past the pain she caused and forced the others to see it too. This was an important step as Maeve tries to build a life for herself in America, instead of dealing with turbulent family drama.
Aimee, however, was an angel sent from Heaven in this episode. The relationship between her and Maeve, and the love they have for each other is a picture of real female friendship that we should all strive for.
Aimee also discovered that getting into photography would help her recover from being assaulted on a bus in season two, which was slightly unexpected and phenomenal. The montage of Aimee at the bus stop lighting her jeans on fire was so powerful and uplifting for Aimee, who has often fallen into the "dumb blonde" category in previous seasons.
Aimee used her film photography as part of her recovery and showed her frustration while living as objects through the "male gaze."
The final season did not have the same grit as previous seasons, and it didn’t feel like I was watching a funny, U.K.-teen series about sex but rather a weird cult series of positivity with characters that had little relation to each other.
Although it was fun to binge and see more of Gillian Anderson on my screen, if this season was the first, it is safe to say I wouldn’t be watching the rest.