Sex Education

Overall, season four of Sex Education delivers a welcome final lesson for all involved—and, in the process, puts a nice little bow on everyone’s stories.

Despite the fact that Sex Education has gone through some big changes this season, it’s still very well worth a binge for the genuine laughs and heartfelt emotion that each episode brings.

New characters bring a freshness to the season, with their relentless positivity and openness, and they are well-cast. They adore Eric from the first moment, but they’re less convinced about Otis, which creates some nice tension between the loving friends whose bond has been a highlight of the series.

Imperfections notwithstanding, Sex Education season 4 is a wholly satisfying conclusion to one of Netflix's best original shows to date. Nunn successfully launches a raft of new characters at this late stage, while taking much of her existing roster into bold and compelling new directions.

The sprawling cast is still a lovely highlight, able to handle all the material here whether it's ludicrous or wholeheartedly dramatic.

This concluding season is — unlike many of the things experienced throughout the show — confident, satisfying and memorable for all the right reasons.

Season 4 was not always what I wanted it to be, but the series finale was. It brought those silly small moments back. It made me remember why these kids were so endearing in the first place, and why I’ve loved watching this show for so many years as I grew up alongside these characters.

While Sex Education does stumble with a lot of changes in its fourth season, the show does, eventually, hit its stride near the end. Isn’t that what teenagerhood is all about too—figuring life out after big changes?

Nunn and her creative team clearly want to do something different for their send-off; and they also want to do too much. And while the show’s heart remains intact, like one of its characters, Season 4 opts to sacrifice some of it to make a statement. The result? “Sex Education” at its weakest and most uneven, even as the cast remains in top form.

This season tips the scales toward preachiness. .... What saves the series from collapsing into earnestness is its unexpected swerves.

This final season of Sex Education may leave viewers feeling nostalgic but, much like high school, ultimately ready to leave it behind.

This series feels like a strangely subdued curtain call for a show that never shied away from celebrating teen sexuality at peak raunch. That said, gradually, as the episodes go by, it starts feeling like a brave, even classy move to go out, not with, as it were, a bang but with maturity and sensitivity.

Sex Education season 4 tries to spin as many plates as possible to end on the highest of highs, so it was inevitable that at least one or two would end up smashing. In the grand scheme of things, however, the positives still heartily outweigh the negatives, and sacrificing some of its earlier motifs in favor of growing up both dramatically, thematically, and emotionally makes perfect sense for a final season.

Sex Education gets by just fine based on the superb performances and terrific pairings (you could watch Butterfield and Gatwa, in particular, gadding about all day.) But the fairy-tale endings all round just don’t wash: this uncoupling is far too conscious.

The quality of the acting, writing and production put the series firmly in the middle of the televisual pack, but as a progressive voice it has been all but peerless.

The final series has its moments, mostly when it returns to the core cast and regains the confidence to let them do their still-glorious, alchemical thing together. The rest is heavy going and the goodbye less painful that it should have been.