'Sex Education' Knows How to Climax in Its Heartfelt, Charming and Mature Fourth and Final Season

Before it introduced anxious teen sex counsellor Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield, Flux Gourmet), his fellow-therapist mother Jean (Gillian Anderson, The Great), his ever-exuberant best friend Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa, the next Doctor Who), and his whip-smart and rebellious crush Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey, Emily), Sex Education's very-first episode started with trembling lights. With that debut back in January 2019, depictions of adolescent sexuality on-screen earned a welcome shake up as well. Horny high schoolers struggling with life, love and lust are such a pop culture staple that they inhabit their own genre, which this British series has always recognised. But when a show bursts onto streaming queues with a roll in the sheets that ends with a guy (Barbie's Connor Swindells as Adam Groff) faking an orgasm with his girlfriend (Living's Aimee-Lou Wood as Aimee Gibbs), it's clearly not interested in sticking with the usual tropes — and it wants its audience to know it. 

Candidly and enthusiastically subverting well-worn cliches about growing up and exploring all things carnal has always been Sex Education creator, lead writer and executive producer Laurie Nunn's focus in her first major project beyond the stage and shorts, as seen in that attention-grabbing premiere run, then 2020 and 2021's equally excellent second and third seasons, and now the show's big finish. Another key element right through to the series' fourth and final go-around, which hits Netflix from Thursday, September 21 to cap off its tale with as much charm, heart, humour and maturity as ever: knowing that it's far more relatable to be open, honest, warm, authentic, inclusive and diverse than to just spill out the same old coming-of-age story.

Here's a third factor that's also long been crucial to Sex Education: understanding that life doesn't begin or end with surging hormones. When the series arrived with bulb-jostling sex, it pushed viewers into the thick of an existing relationship in a situation that couldn't be more intimate, and yet it didn't need to get neat or overly definitive to reach that point. That approach has thrived throughout the show, and not merely in fellow opening scenes in following episodes that've laid bare other residents of Sex Education's English village setting in various steamy states. It's there in its handling of romances, friendships and getting erotic, and in every subject that comes with each. And, when the beloved hit comes to its last-ever climax, it does so by recognising that an array of futures await Otis, his friends and his family members — even if the program they're in is saying goodbye.

In other words, as it spends time with Moordale Secondary School's students, parents and teachers — and, in season four, the pastel-hued and progressive Cavendish College cohort instead — Sex Education embraces being in the moment while also appreciating that lone moments rarely define anyone forever. That's among the lessons that its characters keep learning in their own ways, all while listening to their hearts, yearning over crushes, uncovering their preferences, pondering priorities, making mistakes, amassing regrets, grappling with history and dreaming about possibilities. Also, in a series with a Degrassi-esque list of topics covered — a show that could've been called Relationship Education, except that it isn't as pithy — as Otis and company touch upon everything from pregnancy, pleasure, body image, masturbation, asexuality and addiction to assault, faith, gender identity, transitioning, mental health and prejudice.

Although no longer a virgin scared of self-love who gets talked into giving his peers advice, which is how Sex Education began his tale, Otis is still as uncertain as ever when season four kicks off. With his old school shuttered and snapped up by developers, he's forced into a new start, as well as a new bid to become the on-campus sex therapist — competing with existing student O (Thaddea Graham, Wreck). While Eric doesn't want them to be dubbed outsiders from the get-go, he fits in easily when he sees "all the gays everywhere", in his excited words. The fact that Maeve is at university in the US just after they've just come to terms with their feelings for each other was always going to hold Otis back, of course. The pair are finally more than friends, but also on different continents.

Sex Education's fourth season isn't short on chaos for everyone, with Maeve being overlooked by her professor (Schitt's Creek favourite Dan Levy) for a well-to-do classmate, then coping with heartbreaking loss; Eric tussling with what it means to be queer and Christian, and not wanting to hide either; Adam attempting to find a path beyond school; Jackson Marchetti (Kedar Williams-Stirling, Small Axe) confronting both his health and past; and Aimee getting closer to Isaac Goodwin (George Robinson, Perfect) as she discovers new ways to work through her trauma. Viv Odusanya (Chinenye Ezeudu, The School for Good and Evil) makes a connection that turns dark, Cal Bowman (singer Dua Saleh) is six months into taking testosterone and desperate for top surgery, and Ruby Matthews (Mimi Keene, Tolkien) is trying to carve out a new status quo now that she's no longer the resident queen bee.

Also, newcomers Abbi (debutant Anthony Lexa) and Roman (fellow first-timer Felix Mufti) beam with positivity as Cavendish's golden couple but have intimacy issues, while Aisha (Alexandra James, Backstage), who is deaf, helps fight for better treatment of pupils with disability. Among the adults, Jean finds being a new single mum to an eight-week-old baby filled with challenges, especially when her sister Joanna (Lisa McGrillis, Last Night in Soho) visits with good intentions but plenty of drama. After separating, Adam's parents Michael (Alistair Petrie, Funny Woman) — also Moordale Secondary's ex-headmaster — and Maureen (Samantha Spiro, The Pentaverate) are still working on who they each want to be.

With such a wealth of folks familiar and fresh filling its frames — even with adored faces such as Ola (Patricia Allison, His Dark Materials) and Jakob Nyman (Mikael Persbrandt, Foundation), Lily Iglehart (Tanya Reynolds, Emma), Olivia Hanan (Simone Ashley, The Little Mermaid) and Anwar Bakshi (Chaneil Kular, Atlanta) absent — Sex Education's swansong has much to juggle. Balancing its various players and their plights has never been this astute and engaging series' problem, though, and neither has fleshing out its characters, their emotions, and their ups and downs. In fact, Nunn and her writers, directors and exceptionally cast actors have always taken the opposite route. The more amusingly and affectionately rendered mess that has surrounded Otis, Eric, Maeve and the like, the more realistic, resonant, sincere and meaningful they've all proven. This crew will be deeply missed, but perhaps the biggest compliment that season four inspires springs from the show's legacy: its young stars are already popping up everywhere (not just Swindells but also Gatwa and Mackey were in Barbie), and the series that thrust them to fame won't ever be forgotten.

Check out the full trailer for Sex Education season four below:

Sex Education season four streams via Netflix from Thursday, September 21.

Images: Samuel Taylor / Netflix.