The creator of 'Sex education': "Maeve and Otis represent teenage love"

Creator Laurie Nunn entered the writers' room for the fourth season of Sex Education not knowing it would be the last.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
19 September 2023 Tuesday 11:44
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The creator of 'Sex education': "Maeve and Otis represent teenage love"

Creator Laurie Nunn entered the writers' room for the fourth season of Sex Education not knowing it would be the last. She had not discussed it with Netflix. But, as she planned the characters' plots and began writing the scripts, she realized that she was headed for the end. “I work in a very organic and fluid way; There is a lot of rewriting, the plots are changed a lot, sometimes even while we are recording," she admits to La Vanguardia, "and the further I progressed, the more I realized that the plots reached an outcome with which I felt very happy, without leaving nothing to resolve.” Her work could be one of the British bastions of the platform but they gave it a wide berth to say goodbye to the cycle and thus “finish on a high” while waiting for the public to give their opinion this Thursday, when the final eight episodes will be available. available.

The season does not begin with the scent of conclusion but rather a new beginning. Moordale school has closed, Maeve (Emma Mackey) is on a scholarship in the United States on a writing course, and Otis and his friends must integrate into a new center that is even more progressive and already has a sex therapist student (Thaddea Graham). . “It was a really fun idea to work with: making the Moordale students feel insignificant and behind,” she explains.

In this new context, the series further expands its sense of diversity with the signing of Anthony Lexa and Felix Mufti, two trans performers who represent the school's royalty. “We wanted to focus on trans voices during the writing process and we worked closely with the scriptwriters, the consultants, the intimacy coordinators and the actors themselves,” he details about a process where the challenge is the same as with the rest of the characters: “that they are not defined by their identity even though it is important and we investigate extensively so that they have nuances.”

Sex education, by the way, this time talks about the prostate and male pleasure, postpartum depression, how faith can be reconciled with homosexuality, the transition process of trans people and, as Nunn defends, platonic friendships: “ “Maeve and Otis represent teenage love and first romance, which has something magical about it, but they are only seventeen years old.” In this sense, she wants to “honor platonic friendships and not just romantic ones” to show that “men and women can be friends and friendships can be as important as romantic relationships.”

Now, to shake the couple's foundations, both geographical distance and Ruby (Mimi Keene), the popular and viperous girl who tries to fit in at a center where her tactics have no effect, come into action. “I don't believe in having an antagonist who is an antagonist just because: I was always clear that I wanted to show that she was more than that, that she had a lot of pain,” she advances.

If anyone wonders how the main plot of the series will end, they can be clear that it will be consistent with the will of its creator, who prefers to block out the noise of the fans: “If I took too much into account the expectations of others, I would change the way to write and it would be forced.”