POP Review of Netflix's 'SEX EDUCATION' | Hang the Critic

hello my name is Josh Ball and I would
like to talk to you about sex
I can see that got your attention
Welcome to hang the critic
with Josh Ball I am Josh Ball
and this is hang the critic
today is going to be
the first of what hopefully will be many
what I call spontaneous reviews or pop
reviews why not
Netflix is an interesting beast in many ways
I think it’s a really good thing because it’s a
platform to help aspiring independent
filmmakers and I love independent
filmmakers and I love independent film
as a result it tends to be a bit of a
mixed bag sometimes you get it shows
that just guys hits hits hits hits hits
hits so sometimes you get sure as they
get 80% hits and 20% misses and
sometimes you get shows where you go
who thought that was a good idea and
sometimes the hits are phenomenal hits
now one of these such shows that I have
really really like obsessively been
getting into recently is sex education
now before your mind starts going crazy
no it’s not a porno and it’s not a documentary
sex education is a team
dramedy technical term dramedy set in
a high school

in the UK and it is about
young awkward teenager so a teenager
named Otis played by Asa Butterfield I
mean that’s a name isn’t it Asa
Butterfield
it’s like Benedict Cumberbatch if you
have a name like that you got to get a
job where you have your name
something you know awkward young
teenager whose mother works as a sex
therapist and she’s played by the
brilliant Gillian Anderson was amazing in
this and everything that she does it
Otis has a best friend his name is
Eric and he’s played by Ncuti Gatwa
really hurt that I pronounced that right
I’m sorry if I didn’t one day it comes
to the attention of Maeve who is the
sort of you know the rebellious type teenage girl played by the
wonderful Emma Mackey
like it’s it’s an amazing cast really
that everyone does an amazing job
she approaches Otis having noticed
that he has retained a lot of
second-hand therapeutical knowledge from
his mother with the idea of opening up
basically a small business in the school
where they charge students who are
looking for sex advice really now there
are a few things that can be quite
confronting about the show
least of all really the fact that it’s
about sex and it contains a lot of
sexual intercourse well one of the
confronting things is aesthetically it’s
based on American high schools so
everyone’s wearing in casual dress in
the school and there’s lockers in the
hallways and the Dark Soul where those
jackets with the letters on them the
geeks and is the jocks and there’s the
popular group is the school bully and as
the ditsy girl should be a baker and just a
muddy banker break is not on that
I’m gonna stick with beta I do really
like toast what’s brilliant about it is
as you watch it all this becomes sort of
secondary things there’s so much depth
that’s achieved with all the characters
and they’ve become much more than their
outward appearance it’s about not
judging people upon first impressions
then understanding that everyone is
going through going through troubles it
promotes understanding and appreciation
for other people’s struggles and I love
that about it and another one things
that’s very confronting about it is
Asa Butterfield the first thing I ever
saw him in was the boy in striped
pajamas and that’s a film about the
Holocaust it could be quite a shock to
the system to see the kid from boys try
pajamas repeatedly trying and failing to
jerk himself off the show goes with
incredible fluidity from being ball
bouncingly funny incredibly endearing to
being very distressingly real they don’t
steer away from very serious subject
matter sex in teen comedies has always
historically been dealt with very
tongue-in-cheek like I was a bit worried
it was gonna be something akin to
American Pie or The Inbetweeners where
it’s already mmm-hmm and there’s a
degree to that in it but it’s also a
degree to which it takes the subject
matter very seriously and covers a very
wide range of not only basic sexual
intercourse but all all the different
facets of it and the different moral
implications to it but by the second
episode it starts dealing with teen
pregnancy and by the third episode is
starts dealing with abortion if that’s
just the tip of the iceberg
at no point feels like it’s shoving the
information down your throat because he
keeps up a level of being and
entertaining and engaging I might have a
mild moderate crush on Maeve yeah no
shit what gave it away she touched my
eyebrows now I’ve an erection right I don’t know
about you but I have a tendency to
really invest emotionally into things
that I watch especially when there are
characters that I can relate to and
another thing that I love about it is as
much as it’s about the teenagers it’s
also about the adults and the way they
relate to the younger characters in a
lot of teen comedies parents and adult
characters tended to fall into one of
two groups they were either figures of
authority with iron fists like the Dean
of Students from Ferris Bueller or there
were comic side pieces that were just
there for a laugh to be awkward like
Jim’s dad from American Pie
but in sex education they’re treated as
genuine human beings who are also going
through troubles it’s not so much
promoting you know rebellion against adult
Authority and all that stuff that was
big in the eighties it’s more about
understanding that for your kids or your
parents are humans as well and their
going through troubles just the same as
you are life is hard and life is
hard for everybody then pop it then pop it not at me I’m faculty
I love the most I know I’m saying love a
lot because it’s just it’s about love
the best shows are about love and being
there for each other and being
supportive it’s wonderful yes it very
accurately depicts a cringy nature and
the awkwardness of the teenage
experience but it also very much
embraces that not only the message but
just in the way that it’s presented even
these characters who seem like you know
cool they got all that shit together and
then a couple of episodes later you
realise no they don’t have that shit
together
because no one has that shit together
if I could sum up what I think is one of
the key messages is that awkwardness is
normal it’s okay to feel insecure about
yourself and about your body
and about sex in general everyone feels
insecure it’s a perfectly
normal human reaction punt those sort of
things is feeling like oh I must be so
weird
you know I must be so very alien because
you know I look around and no one else
seems to be having these sort of
troubles but they are they just have
those troubles behind closed doors
that’s the thing that I love about in
sex education because it goes behind
those closed doors and the more you
relate to it the more you can understand
that these things are okay sex is OK
different sexual preferences different
sexualities then shouldn’t be any taboos
to that this show is fighting and
succeeding in my opinion to break
through those taboos sex doesn’t make us
whole and so how could you ever be
broken that’s all I got for this episode
of hang the critic I hope that you like
I hope you subscribe share I hope you
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keep watching movies keep watching
Netflix and I’ll see you when I see you
that’s the sort of place this is Jen
a lot of sexy people not doing much work
and having affairs

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