Sex Education Season 2 Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs...

3. The Cliched, Sitcom-Level Writing

Though season two's batch of eight episodes are mostly well-written, it's also tough to ignore just how heavily the show relies on cliches from both TV sitcoms and rom-com movies.

There are numerous instances per episode where a relationship dispute could be solved by the most basic feat of communication, and there are countless conveniently missed connections which feel contrived wholly in order to create some easy conflict.

Then there are more outwardly silly, sitcom-y moments like Otis getting stuck babysitting Maeve's (Emma Mackey) infant half-sister and inevitably losing her, and several soap opera-inspired infidelity subplots which prove more tiresome than involving.

Though the series' approach to the sexual fluidity of its characters is largely admirable, there is one major exception where a character's coming-out feels forced in an attempt to get the writers out of a corner they wrote themselves into. It's insanely transparent.

Perhaps most aggravating of all is a sexual assault subplot involving Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood), which while attempting to tackle an important issue, makes the cringe-worthy decision to have Aimee be "haunted" by visions of her assaulant. It's a corny visual device that undercuts the seriousness of her assault.

And yet, the show is still so brilliantly acted and utterly compelling as a character drama that it manages to prevail in spite of its more generic and formulaic creative decisions.