Sex Education season 4 thoughts
The good
Aimee’s journey. As I’ve discussed online no end, I have complex PTSD. While I was never sexually assaulted like Aimee was, her avoidant trauma responses were very relatable to me. To see her taking the power back this season, especially when the burned the jeans she was assaulted in and did the photoshoot with them, made me feel a bit less alone as I try and heal. I cried my eyes out, so much so that I had to take a break from watching to collect myself!
“Even when I’m doing something I love… it feels like I’m still wearing them, like it never goes away”
Cal’s story as a non-binary person is very different to mine (and for the record, that doesn’t make either of us any less valid, because there is no singular way to be non-binary). Nonetheless, hearing someone I love as much as I do Gillian Anderson affirm our shared gender nonconformity meant the world. I’m sick of facing transphobia from society, but especially from people that I once considered idols. So knowing that Gillian embraced a role where her character supports trans youth healed something within me. It’s not the first time she’s showed up for our community though - she always makes a point to include non-binary people, for example in her Dear Gillian announcement video. I don’t mean to undermine the real hero of the story here: Dua Saleh, the actor who played Cal - it’s just that I had already formed such a deep connection with Gillian, so it hit me doubly hard from her.
The funeral scene. Just… the funeral scene. I really lost it when Mr Hendricks played With Or Without You on the piano and everyone else joined in.
Other people have spoken about this better, so I won’t get into it as much, but by god, the representation. One example that really struck me was the sex scene between Abbi and Roman at the end, where she said “I love being inside you”. It wasn’t a big deal, their transness was completely normalised.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I loved the Motis ending! Maeve made the right choice going back to America, and long distance relationships are really hard when you have no plans to reunite, so I get why they called it off. Also, relationships at that age don’t usually last, as much as I hate to say it, and yet via Maeve’s letter, the show managed to honour that they can still shape one’s life and be really important.
The bad
If it wasn’t clear, I’m a Jean Milburn stan first and a human second. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in how they handled her storyline this season. Firstly, I’m tired of every single female character on television having an arc that culminates in motherhood. Not knowing who the father was felt like bad writing for Jean specifically, like very out of character, because she’s a sex therapist, so she’s all about safe sex and communication around those things. By no means am I suggesting that they should’ve kept Jakob as a character (if you don’t already know, his actor sexually assaulted hundreds of women which, by the way, was public knowledge before he was ever cast), but they could’ve come up with a better workaround. Maybe I’m biased because Jean is a comfort character of mine, but I wasn’t very pleased with the fact that they didn’t allow her to be happy for a single second this season either! That being said, I do think it’s important that we don’t gloss over the postpartum depression representation here, which could mean so much to so many. I wish they’d brought Maureen in to help Jean though, because their relationship was so special and yet we didn’t see them interact onscreen once this season.
I haven’t heard anyone else mention this, but I was disappointed with how they handled sapphic relationships this season. Not only were Ola and Lily erased entirely, but the writers fucked up the storyline for the only established sapphic couple remaining (Roz and Sofia Marchetti). Like, why was the Big Plot Twist™️ that there was, in fact, a man intimately involved with their family? Our lives don’t have to revolve around men, you know? The show didn’t explicitly acknowledge the fact that genetics to not make a family in my opinion either, because Roz and Sofia’s conversation with Jackson was just about how his biological father was missing out on raising him.
The… mixed? Idk!
I deserve to be sent to horny jail for this, but Jean breastfeeding initially drove me insane. I quickly changed my tune though, because breasts are not inherently sexual and breastfeeding shouldn’t be sexualised, so it makes me feel a bit icky to see people thirsting over that.
I’m not sure how I felt about the development of Adam and Michael’s relationship. On one hand, I thought it was beautiful to see them both grow and reconnect. On the other hand, I was slightly concerned that it was veering into “you have to forgive your abuser” territory. I don’t have parental trauma, so I don’t have the authority to comment, but I’d be interested to hear other people’s perspectives.
I really appreciate how they tried to explore toxic relationships with the introduction of Beau as Viv’s love interest. However, I don’t feel that it was given the weight it deserved, because there was so much else going on.
In summary
I’m not disappointed with how this season turned out overall. Although it definitely wasn’t perfect, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, and it made me very happy. I do recommend checking trigger warnings before watching it though, because it is a lot darker than previous seasons.
I’d missed this show and these characters more than I’d realised, and I can’t believe I’ll never see them again. It was really hard to say goodbye!
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im losing my goddamn mind, arcane is a steampunk MASTERPIECE
This is a story of love and loss and betrayal completely submerged in oppressive cyber/steampunk dystopian LUSH OPULENCE and the characters are the sumptuous brushstrokes in its grand and sprawling canvas of an uncanny universe brimming with explosive violence.
Violet's feverish, terrifying rage and self hatred!!!! Jinx's endless hunt for approval!!!!
Cait!!!! Cait MY LOVE. it is honestly difficult to look at her? I ADORE her
This whole fucking universe is a live wire, a mf bomb, exploding in the most sumptuous ways every fucking episode and IM LOSING IT
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Y'know, as much as I liked Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, I kinda really wish it'd been released weekly instead of via Netflix's usual "Eh, fukkit, drop it all at once; enjoy your binge, idiots" model.
Like, just imagine being left with the episode one cliffhanger ending after how hard the series had been advertisted as a straight-forward adaptation. It would've been insane, but it also woulda been so damn fun. It's such a shame we'll never see all the speculation about where the story could've gone from there, or (in the case of future episodes) all of the little moments that would've been narrowed in on until the next episode comes out.
I mean, I watched this thing two episodes a day to try and digest it better, but that could never compare. And that was just me doing it deliberately; I know no one else out there did that. Jus', goodness. What a lil' bummer that we missed out on those between-episode weeks.
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Episode 4 was a nightmare for the most part ughhh. I don't even know where to begin and I don't want to. How they could butcher everything so bad I wanna scream. They're trying so much to be different and better but it's like the live action is written by someone who really hated the og show and especially Aang or understood them on a very surface level and if one more person blames Aang I'm gonna throw hands. The only good things in this ep was related to Zuko and I don't care despite him being my fave in og show. Because I can't believe they ruined the parts I loved most with Bumi and Iroh so bad. That's it. I'm done torturing myself for today.
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im watching spn and everytime i rewatch im like aww dean is a fuckin dick and HE IS. It is part of his character HOWEVER he has good reason
ngl i only watched spn episode by episode before i was like FUCK IT LMFAOO cuz it is literally IMPOSSIBLE to binge this show. My binges have a 3-5 season maximum before im like ok...and not to mention these seasons are 22ish episodes each (back when were a true country...a proper country lol) like helloooo???
Any ways the episode where dean admits he had to go to a boys home and john was basically like "stay yo ass there" IS INSANE the more info you get about john the more you are like those kids should've been taken into protective custody.
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