Note: Season 1 spoilers for Sex Education below. If you haven’t seen it, watch it! You have 9 days to catch up.
It’s here! It’s finally here! I’ve waited for this day for almost a whole year. Netflix just released a new trailer for Sex Education Season 2 which will be premiering on January 17. If you remember from last season, we ended off on a bit of a happy but cliff-hanger-y note. Otis kisses Ola, to the shock and disappointment of Maeve who was about to confess her love for him. Eric and Adam went from victim and bully to secret lovers (a decision which I did not and still don’t approve of) right before Adam moves away to military school leaving Eric heartbroken.
For shows like Sex Education, it can be easy to lean heavily on the show’s premise during the first season. High schoolers providing sex advice is the initial draw for the show. While Sex Education does a good job of building relationships and characters, a lot of the comedy and plot come from Otis’s and Maeve’s sex therapy business. The second season is usually the hardest because Sex Education has to maintain its brazen attitude towards taboo topics, while also providing us with new content. Either the therapy premise will have to be developed further, or the show will have to explore new stories, characters, and relationships. I hope it’s the former because the guy yelling “why does my cum taste like Kimchi” is probably one of my favourite scenes from the trailer. (Is someone telling him it tastes like that or is he tasting it?)
Given such a tall order, the trailer is promising. There are several new characters and relationships that we hadn’t seen from the first season. Maeve with her mother, Otis with Ola, and Eric with the new sexy French exchange student, played by Sami Outalbali who is actually French by the way. There’s also a new, studious character, Viv played by Chinenya Ezeudu.
Side note: I swear that if Eric ends up with Adam in some convoluted, abuse-redeeming way, I’m going to FREAK.
It seems like while the dynamics of the three main characters was the meat of Season 1, their individual stories and development will be the focus of the second season. I’m excited because I think Sex Education does a great job of its characters and the existing set ups (like Maeve and Otis, and even Otis, his mother, and Ola’s father) are all potential ways to change up expected formulae.
What I think really resonated with audiences is that the writers are really in tune with what people (especially teens) want to know about sex, and they talk about it. Teen Vogue did a story a few days ago after visiting the set and reported that Eric even teaches Otis about douching. Diverse and relevant! That’s what I want to see from season 2 and right now, that’s the energy I’m getting from the trailer.
Attached - Gillian Anderson at the Golden Globes on Sunday.
