REVIEW: 'Sex Education'
Starring Gillian Anderson and Asa Butterfield, this new Netflix series is brazen without being smutty
- by
Gavin Scott
As you might imagine with a show called Sex Education, there is a lot of intercourse going on. Just not for Otis Thompson (Asa Butterfield), who can’t even, well, take care of himself.
Matters aren’t helped by the fact that his mother, Jean (Gillian Anderson), is a sex therapist with a stream of frustrated clients and satisfied lovers coming through the house, and a very modern approach to parenting. But the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, and when the school’s resident bad girl, Maeve (a fantastically deadpan Emma Mackey), realises Otis has a knack for helping their fellow students with their sexual issues, she sees a commercial opportunity.
With shades of Skins, this British high-school comedy takes a similarly brazen approach to teenage sexuality without ever coming across as smutty. If it can keep it up – sorry! – this has real legs. (On Netflix from Fri., Jan. 11) 4 stars
