SCREEN
BY EMMA SMART
WORDS EMMA SMART, DANIELLE MUSTARDE, ROXY BOURDILLON, CARRIE LYELL. PHOTOS SAM TAYLOR/NETFLIX, LIAM DANIEL/FOCUS FEATURES
SEX EDUCATION
Created by Laurie Nunn
Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) is an inexperienced, socially awkward high school student who lives with his mother, a sex therapist, played by Gillian Anderson. Surrounded by manuals, videos and tediously open conversations about sex, dorky Otis is a reluctant expert on the subject. When his home life is revealed at school, he soon realises he can use this to his advantage, teaming up with Maeve (Emma Mackey), a whip-smart bad girl, to set up an underground sex therapy clinic to deal with their fellow students’ weird and wonderful problems. Through his analysis of teenage sexuality, Otis realises he may need some therapy of his own. Sweet, charming, and rather raunchy, it’s worth a watch for Anderson alone, who turns in an outstanding performance as Jean, and who got us all hot under the collar when she described herself on Twitter as a “shag specialist”. New sexual orientation for 2019: Gillian Anderson.