This TV series is not for the prudish among us. I have seen someone call it pornography, and I am almost certain that is how my father would describe it. However, it is a very good show that touches on some very important topics especially where it concerns the LGBT community. For this reason I would like to do a whole show review. I may do episodic reviews at a later date, in order to give this show the credit it deserves. It does feature quite a bit of nudity. I would caution that people uncomfortable with LGBT relationships should not watch, except I really think they would benefit most from the show.
The main relationship the show focuses on is not LGBT, and that is a little disappointing. I didn't really enjoy the main ship of the show, even though the show fought so hard to make me care. I would have rather seen the main two end up with one of their other relationships. For a little while I thought Otis and Ola would be a good match, but I think the show was right to split them, they're better as siblings. I still think Maeve was best paired with Jackson, and I really couldn't stand that she broke his heart like that. Still, I think his friendship with Viv was the best thing that came out of his breakup, and he might not have gotten to know Cam either if they had stayed together.
And I've started talking characters before I've even given a premise. The show is about a group of British teenagers who are in the last few years of their education. The school they are attending is run by an uptight prick called Mr. Groff. The main character is a boy (Otis) who hasn't quite grown into his sexuality yet, having been scarred at a young age by witnessing his father cheating on his mother, then overhearing the subsequent fight between his parents after which they divorced. His best friend Eric is openly gay, but it is never suggested that this makes Otis even slightly uncomfortable. They interact as freely as any other two friends might. Otis is very uncomfortable with his mother's occupation (sex therapist) choice of art work (many erotic or phallic designs) and the tools of her trade (mostly sex toys, but some anatomical depictions of the female sex organ). He shows this in the first episode by trying to hide all this from his assigned study partner Adam when he comes over to study.
The headmaster's son Adam takes some viagra in order to help him with his girlfriend problems, but cannot get his girlfriend Aimee to meet up with him because she's still angry that he was having problems the night before. So he goes into the abandoned bathrooms, where all the teens go to do forbidden stuff. While he's there, Otis and Mauve happen to stumble upon him. Otis gives him some advice, which Adam totally takes the wrong way, but it works to help him overcome his problem, and Maeve is given the idea that Otis is really good at giving sex advice and there's certainly a market for it. They start what they call "the clinic" which is a business where teens come to Otis with their problems and he helps them. He doesn't want to do it at first, but he has a crush on Maeve, so he goes along with it.
Throughout the show, the problems addressed are valid issues, and the show also criticizes the poor excuse for sex education most schools give their teenage students, since it ill-prepares them for the adult world of sex and the internet is not always the most useful source of information because of the vast array of bad and potentially dangerous material you can find on there. Some of the issues addressed are: female pleasure, the right to choose, asexuality, gender identity, sexual phobia, STDs, safe sex practices, masturbation, slut-shaming and sexual assault.
The show also addresses many different child-parent relationship dynamics. The relationship between Otis and his mother Jean is the most prevalent, as is Eric's relationship with his family, but the dysfunctional ones (Maeve and her mom, Adam and his dad) are also a very good part of the show. Jackson's anxiety about his moms getting a divorce is a key point in his character arc and eventual growth.
One of the most potent storylines of the show concerns the slightly airheaded Aimee who starts off the show dating Adam and is part of the popular posse, but secretly meeting Maeve in the bathrooms to hang out because Maeve isn't the type of person her friends would approve of. Aimee is an important part of the show from the very start. It is a party at her house where Otis and Maeve give the advice that starts the ball rolling for their clinic since Adam didn't like the result after his session (Aimee broke up with him because he exposed himself to the whole cafeteria). The storyline in question happens after Aimee has chosen her friendship with Maeve over the popular crowd because Groff decides to suspend Maeve despite her unparalleled intelligence after an incident where her brother was selling drugs at a school dance. Groff thinks she and Otis have been dealing because of the clinic money. Since Aimee's no longer part of the popular crowd, she starts riding the bus to school. One day, while on the bus, a man begins to masterbate next to her and Aimee, who is uncomfortable, asks to get off the bus. After she exits the bus, Aimee finds that the man has ejaculated over her best jeans. When she tells Mauve about the incident, Maeve insists she go to the police. Aimee brushes it off initially, and plays it down, but it really hits home how much this affected her when she is unable to board the bus on subsequent days, electing to walk several miles to school, and when she can't abide her boyfriend's touch because she keeps seeing the man who assaulted her. This really shows how traumatic any type of sexual assault can be.
The best relationship in the show was Adam and Eric. Although Adam started out with Aimee, even going so far as to show up uninvited to her party and he keeps acting slightly jealous at her relationships with other men after him, it is obvious even in the beginning while he mercilessly bullies Eric, that he has a crush on him. This comes to a head when they are both put in detention and end up fighting over how to put up a music stand. They struggle and end up on the floor, then Adam kisses Eric and goes down on him, but afterwards swears him to secrecy. Their relationship is put on hold when Adam's dad ships him off to military school. After Adam is gone, Eric starts dating the new kid (Anwar) who's from France, but Adam gets kicked out of military school after he accidentally stumbles on two of his classmates jerking each other off and they plant drugs on him to get him expelled. He ends up working at the shop that Anwar's father owns and this is how Eric finds out he's back in town. Adam starts showing up to Eric's house late at night and taking him to a secret spot where he goes to smash stuff when he's angry. They smash stuff together until it's almost morning then go home and kiss. Eric is confused, but finally decides he wants a boyfriend who isn't ashamed of him, so he choses Anwar. Adam doesn't know what to do at first, but he figures out that he's bisexual and then he decides to tell Eric how he feels, in front of the whole school. He gets up on stage during the school performance of Romeo and Juliet to tell Eric "I want to hold your hand". So they start actually dating.
Second best relationship is Ola and Lily. I thought at first that Ola would have been a good match for Otis and she is the one who is able to help him overcome his sexual phobias, but he still has feelings for Maeve, who decides to tell him that she reciprocates those feelings right before what's supposed to be the night he and Ola go all the way. Then, after he tells her he's with Ola and can't return her feelings, she texts him sorry interrupting the two of them on what is supposed to be their first night. Ola gives him an ultimatum, but Otis can't respond right away. While he's deciding, Ola starts having confusing dreams about her friend Lily and this is how she figures out that she's pansexual (attracted to the person, not their genitalia) and that she is in love with her best friend. So when Otis finally decides to tell Maeve he can't see her, Ola tells him it's not going to work because their personalities clash. Ola kisses Lily, but at first Lily starts avoiding her. It seems she has never considered whether a lesbian relationship would be right for her and at first it makes her uncomfortable.
The best heterosexual romance in the story is definitely the music teacher Mr. Henricks and the English teacher Ms. Sands. Their relationship is so sweet and weird at the same time. It never says just when they started dating, but during the school trip arc, when the kids are in their last year, she says they've only been dating for a year because he proposes to her. She compromises and says they should move in together instead.
Most supportive family goes to Eric Effiong's family who try their best to support him and keep him safe. They welcome both Anwar and Adam into their home with open arms, and even give him dating advice. There is not a hint of homophobia about them. His father is a little scared for him to go out in make-up and flashy clothes, and for good reason because that is when he gets attacked after Otis selfishly ditches him for a clinic thing with Maeve. At first, he lets this get to him and he starts toning down his fashion choices, but eventually, he decides that he has to be himself even if no one else understands. His father tells him that he loves him and wants him to be safe.
Although I'd like to give most dysfunctional family to Maeve since her brother deals drugs and her Mom is an addict, they both still love her and are supportive in their own way. Instead, most dysfunctional goes to the Groffs, especially between Adam and his father. Adam is constantly berated and belittled by his father, to the point that when he's being expelled from the Military academy he begs the headmaster to let him stay rather than go home to his verbally abusive father. It turns out Adam has a gift for training dogs and he works really hard to train their small house dog Madame in a competition. When he doesn't win anything substantial he tells his mom, who he wasn't going to invite in the first place and who he hasn't come out to as of this moment, that he doesn't want her to tell his father because, since he didn't win anything Mr. Groff would "just be disappointed" in him.
The show also explores asexuality in a productive way when a girl who identifies as asexual is supposed to be playing Juliet in the school play, but the director doesn't think she's showing enough passion. She goes to Otis for help, but he just tells her she needs to meet the right person. Her friends are pressuring her, and she doesn't know what to do, so she confides in Jean, who has set up a presence at the school to feel out possible curriculum changes for the SRE (Sex and Relationship Education) class. She tells Jean she thinks she's broken because all the other kids her age are wanting sex, but she doesn't. Jean tells her that sex doesn't make us whole so she could never be broken.
In season three, it even introduces two non-binary characters, one of whom (Cal) becomes a big part of the story. They become friends with Jackson, and Jackson develops feelings for them, but when they start to express affection and Cal tells him that it will be a queer relationship, he realizes that he's been seeing them as a girl. That is a problem, Cal tells him, because they're not a girl. Cal gets into it with the new headmistress (Mr. Groff gets fired at the end of season 2) who is trying to tell them their gender expression is wrong because she doesn't understand it.
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