Sex Education — the hit Netflix original drama comedy set in a British school with very American styling — released a teaser trailer for its fourth season today, and with it came an outpouring of love from its dedicated fanbase.
The show, starring Asa Butterfield, Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa, and Gillian Anderson, has been praised for its hilarious yet tender writing, and the way it wrestles with some important themes, as well as its callbacks and references to popular teen culture, especially the work of John Hughes (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and numerous other iconic coming-of-age films). The series has been nominated for countless awards, and the critically-acclaimed third season (well, they’re all critically-acclaimed) won the 2022 International Emmy for Best Comedy Series.
If you’re hyped for the newest season of the show, or you’ve only just stumbled across it and want to know when the fourth season is out so you can catch up, read on to discover when Sex Education season 4 releases on Netflix!
What is Sex Education about?
Sex Education mostly follows the adventures of Otis (Butterfield), a teen who studies at Moordale Secondary School. Otis starts off the show being pretty uninterested in sex, mostly because his mother Jean (Anderson, who as always is incredible) is a sex therapist who seems unable to maintain a real relationship. Otis spends a lot of time with his best friend Eric (Gatwa) – the gay son of West African immigrants, but soon notices Maeve (Mackey) – a rebellious yet highly talented teen who lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Other major characters include Adam – the son of the gruff school headmaster and a bully who is hiding his sexuality behind bigotry, Jackson – the most popular boy in school and a jock who struggles to maintain his perfect reputation, and Ruby, Anwar, Aimee, and Olivia – members of a popular clique (although Aimee secretly befriends Maeve early on in the show).
Season 1 begins with Otis setting up a sex therapy clinic with Maeve, using the lessons he’s absorbed from his mother to help the student body of Moordale with their problems. However, as he and Maeve get closer, they soon develop an attraction to each other, although neither seems to ever find the right time to say something.
The 2nd season saw a crew of new faces arriving at Moordale, including Ola – who ends up in a brief relationship with Otis while her father and Jean also become romantically entangled. All the while, Jean becomes the school’s sex therapist as an outbreak of an STD causes waves among the student body.
Season 3 sees Otis enter a secret relationship with Ruby – with some hilarious and heartbreaking consequences. Eric — after spending the previous season helping Adam come to grips with his sexuality — enters into a relationship with him. A new headmistress named Hope Haddon plans to change Moordale in a way the students find unacceptable, leading to rebellion. All the while, Otis is still giving out advice about sex and pining after Maeve – who gets a scholarship to a prestigious American college and leaves.
The 4th season will see Moordale closing, and Otis and Eric heading to a new place of learning. Worried they’ll be too out there to fit in, the pair are surprised to find they’re nowhere near as open as their new fellow students.
When will Sex Education season 4 be released on Netflix?
Netflix has announced that season 4 of Sex Education will be released on Sept. 21, 2023. If previous releases are anything to go by, the entire season will drop at once, so bingers will have plenty to feast on!
Is this the last season of Sex Education?
Yes, it was officially confirmed today (July 5) that this season of Sex Education would be the last in the series, although this has been an open secret in the entertainment industry for a while now. One thing lovers of the show can take heart from is the fact that it seems the showrunners were able to finish the series on their own terms, which makes a stark change from Netflix’s usual approach to critically-acclaimed, highly popular originals (murdering them gleefully).
There are still plenty of issues to be resolved, like whether or not Maeve and Otis will end up together, or if his strange magnetism to Ruby will mean he finishes the series dating someone the audience never thought he would. Or, perhaps, he’ll even end up single. After all, Sex Education has delighted us with its refusal to stick to sitcom norms in the past, and we have no doubt season 4 will continue that trend.