Season two Sex Education Review: More sex, more fun, more parenting issues…

Last season’s surprise sleeper hit, Sex Education was a master-class in comedy-genius, and the latest season from (Netflix) opens with a sequence that swiftly takes its place in the pantheon of peen-based comedy greats.

Suffice to say that since we left Otis at the end of the first season, having successfully masturbated for the first time, he has taken gleefully to his new hobby, and the opening the scene establishes the tone of the new season – furiously fast, furiously outlandishly funny and not for the faint of heart any more than the first series was with Otis (Asa Butterfield) joyfully wanking in an array of different places, to a choral rendition of The Divinyls ‘I Touch Myself’ (sung by Belgian women’s choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers).

THE PLAYERS:

Maeve (Emma Mackey) has been kicked out of school at the end of last season and is working at a pretzel stand, but with the help of Miss Sands, she wrangles her way back into school through the special ability program. All she has to do thereafter is wrestle with her unwelcoming and far more privileged peers and the return of her mother and former junkie, Erin played brilliantly by Shameless star, (Anne-Marie Duff), allegedly clean for a year and with a three-year-old half-sister in tow.

While Otis (Asa Butterfield) must negotiate his new relationship with Ola (Patricia Allison) and it’s the start of a new term and Otis’ girlfriend Ola, who’s also the daughter of Otis’ sex therapist mum’s (Gillian Anderson) new partner, Jakob (Mikael Persbrandt) – has joined the school. Shown around the schools’ cliques in a sequence that could be lifted straight from Clueless or Mean Girls.

While his mother Jean (Gillian Anderson, given a whole heap more to do this time around and rightly relishing every moment) throws more spanners into his sexual works by dating Ola’s dad.

Across town, in fact, completely in a different school – poor beleaguered Adam (Connor Swindells) – is unjustly expelled from military school and sent back home to a dead-end job and his ever more hateful father. Swindells gives an extraordinary performance with what amounts to barely a hundred lines in the entire eight episodes.

I don’t want to spoil Eric’s storyline because it doesn’t get going until a few episodes in, but is flirting with a potential new love interest in the form of French transfer student Rahim (Sami Outalbali). Ncuti Gatwa remains openly optimistic and handles everything (and we mean, everything that life) will throw at him with such deftness and authenticity that you can only boggle at the fact that Laurie Nunn’s creation is his first major role!

These, and the returning supporting cast, are joined by several additional characters to make up a packed roster that initially feels a bit overwhelming but, just like the students coming back after a long break, the audience is quickly eased in to school life.

One of the standout new characters is Isaac, a wheelchair user who lives in one of the trailers near Maeve, played by disabled actor George Robinson. As smart and acerbic as Maeve, and carrying comparable emotional and physical scars, by the end of the series he’s a credible love rival for uptight Otis (but be warned, Isaac can be trouble!).

Another season one favorites ditzy Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) and kooky Lily (Tanya Reynolds) get their own satisfying, filled-out subplots.

This season also doesn’t just focus on the kids but attempts to cover storylines with the parents and teachers to touch on topics like the importance of communication, reclaiming your sexuality, infidelity, perimenopause, and the differences between sex and love.

But season two deliciously belongs to Otis’s mum, former X-Files Agent, Gillian Anderson who brings poise and class and is, as ever, never less than captivating. Charged with revamping the school’s sex education syllabus, she’s now housed within the school and threatening Otis’ business (when it, of course, kicks off again as the season progresses) and her head-to-head battles with Mr. Groff are delicious.

There’s also a touching mile-stone and alteration between Otis and his father. With plenty of questions. What does it mean to be like your parents? How you are influenced by them too?

Yet in the show’s stellar second season, it’s the girls who shine the brightest, particularly in a sensitive, heartfelt storyline about the singular experience that binds all women together: unwanted sexual contact. And partially, naive Aimee who is sexually assaulted while riding a crowded public bus on her commute to school, Aimee is horrified when a man pressed into close contact with her masturbates and then ejaculates on her leg.

Aimee’s story culminates late in the season when, in a feminist reimagining of The Breakfast Club, and evoking the spirit of John Hughes’s iconic 80’s teen movies without sacrificing the sense of Britishness, English teacher Miss Sands confines six girls from different cliques to detention in the library, believing that one of them is responsible for a work of slut-shaming grafitti in the school stairwell.

She instructs the girls to identify an experience that binds them together—only then will they be free to go.

FINAL VERDICT:

We have the writing and performances to thank. The scripts from creator Laurie Nunn and her team are razor sharp, managing to be both frequently funny (nearly every joke lands) and, at the right moments, tender and intelligent.

Tackling tough topics with playfulness and sensitivity is no mean feat either, but Sex Education does it with a deft hand. It’s a massively entertaining, warm and timely show, and fingers crossed for a season three!

Sex Education season two is available to stream on Netflix now.

5/5 STARS