Sex Education Series 3 is streaming exclusively on Netflix from today.
Review
It is a new term and the long-delayed third series of Sex Education is finally here and it certainly delivers on the sex and the education. All the students are back and they certainly are as charming as ever. But, does the latest series live up to the first two seasons of the show? Absolutely!
The story for season three is fairly straightforward. It’s a new year, Otis is having casual sex, Eric and Adam are official, and Jean has a baby on the way. Meanwhile, new headteacher Hope tries to return Moordale to a pillar of excellence, Aimee discovers feminism, Jackson gets a crush and a lost voicemail still looms. This latest series is filled with commitment animals, alien phenomena, vulva cupcakes and much more of Madam Groff.
Let’s just get this out of the way. I am a massive fan of this show. It is sweet, raunchy and filled with charming characters that are all given lots of time to be fleshed out and to get to understand and know. So, naturally I adored season three of Sex Education. It is probably the series with the biggest heart I have seen all year and it is a delight to sit through. Very early on, it establishes the new headteacher’s goals and how Hope wants to change the school, for the better. Her ideas certainly don’t align with how the students want to spend their time at Moordale and that is where the core tension comes from.
All the cast are excellent as usual. Asa Butterfield crushes it as Otis, Gillian Anderson is amazing as Dr Jean Milburn, Emma Mackey kills it as Maeve while Ncuti Gatwa has a lot of comedic and heartwarming scenes as Otis’ best mate Eric but this time around, Mimi Keene is certainly given the most to do as Ruby and steals the show. Compared to the previous two seasons, her character development is dialled up to eleven and she has the most gut-wrenching character arc yet. She is emotional and shows her range as a young actress which I really did not expect heading into season three.
Alistair Petrie’s Michael Groff also goes on a bit of a journey that was quite unexpected. At the end of season two, he was fired as the headteacher of Moordale and left jobless and that is where his character picks up here. He is on the search for a job and feeling like he has little purpose in life anymore. It certainly felt like the right way to take his character but the way they incorporate him into the overall narrative felt different and satisfying.
The final outstanding performance I want to touch on is Jemima Kirke’s Hope Haddon – the new headteacher of Moordale. At first glance, she seems like this young, quirky new headmistress but as the series progresses you see a darker and much more emotional side to her character that took me by surprise. She gets lots of depth and the way she plays off all the students is used perfectly and in quite a menacing way which keeps the tension quite high.
My only problem with the latest series is that some storylines and characters do get side-lined in favour for others. For some, that won’t be an issue but for others, it may seem a little irritating and not as balanced. I would say Ola (played by Patricia Allison) definitely didn’t have as much to do this time around as she did in season two along with some of the incredibly likeable teachers.
Verdict
Sex Education series three is a near-perfect series of television. It is sweet, joyous and an absolute blast from start to finish and might just be the best season yet. The whole cast absolutely knock it out of the park once again and leave you itching for season four. The best series of television you will see this year!
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