Line #4 YMMV/SexEducation


1	* AbandonShipping:
2	** Some viewers have grown tired of the Otis and Maeve slow-burn, finding it clichéd and disliking how [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter anyone else who dates Otis or Maeve is never given a proper chance to be a love interest]], in favor of setting Otis x Maeve up but never following through on the thing they're ruining other things for.
3	** Even though Ruby/Otis has become one of the most popular ships from the show, with its fans constantly engaged in ShipToShipCombat with Maeve/Otis shippers, a considerable number of fans found Otis to be too unlikable in Series 4. So they decided to abandon the Ruby/Otis ship.
4	* AccidentalAesop: Miss Sands’ character is a stellar example of how a student can improve drastically when they have a teacher that cares and goes the extra mile for them. Both Adam and Maeve come from backgrounds that (for different reasons) make it difficult for them to succeed in school, but her care for them and participation in their lives truly helps them.
5	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Isaac's actions in the season 2 finale cast all his motivations into question. [[spoiler: Deleting Otis's voicemail declaration of love for Maeve]] is undeniably an asshole move, but did he do it out of a well-intentioned but misguided attempt to protect Maeve, or [[StalkerWithACrush have her to himself]]? In Season 3, he claims it was the former, specifically citing Otis' [[KickTheDog cruel treatment of Maeve at the party]] which, to Isaac, was his only interaction with Otis, but he does admit it was in-part because he felt threatened by the prospect of "losing" Maeve to Otis.
6	* ArcFatigue: Some viewers think the Otis and Maeve arc is tiring, and that they're more interesting with other people. Given that the majority of their other relationships were interracial and another one was with a disabled person, it does kind of muddy up the series' message of inclusion and coexistence.
7	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
8	** Otis. Plenty of fans are charmed by his {{Adorkable}} tendencies, shyness when it comes to his own sexual issues and on the whole being a very helpful and kind person. The rest of the fans has friction with him because of his selfishness, immaturity, entitlement issues and his romantic plot between Maeve and Ruby doesn't cover him with much glory.
9	** Many fans hate Ruby for constantly bullying everyone around her, including her own friends. However, she is one of the most popular characters in the series, as many fans are charmed by her "queen bee" persona, and the fact that she's a more complex and vulnerable character than she seems. Especially since season 3, where she's gained more CharacterDevelopment.
10	* CryForTheDevil: Hope is thwarted and forced to resign as headmistress. The next we see of her, she's in tears over the fact that she can't get pregnant regardless of how many IVF treatments she takes. Given she'd already received her comeuppance and is now dealing with an issue that will likely haunt her for the rest of her life, it's not hard to feel bad for Hope.
11	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: A large amount of viewers interpret Lily Iglehart as autistic, thanks to her strong interest in aliens, role-playing, and erotica (which are often read as special interests), her blunt nature, her difficulties with socialization, her flat affect, and her repetitive behaviors. The scene where [[spoiler:everyone around her, including her friends, make fun of her for her interest in sci-fi erotica]] is also widely noted as paralleling [[spoiler:ableist bullying in school settings and how damaging it is to autistic people]].
12	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Among asexual viewers, Florence has become incredibly popular due to being a rare example of positive asexual representation. The mere promise of seeing their orientation accurately represented got some asexuals to watch the show, despite her only getting some focus in the fourth episode of Season 2.
13	%% Fan Preferred Couple: Otis/Ruby have been decided to not be an example, since they are not more popular than Otis/Maeve.
14	%% For further questions, please see the Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14860997890A40152400&page=1
15	* HarsherInHindsight:
16	** Hope's prudishness and bigotry don't seem too farfetched considering [[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-31/qld-school-contract-lgbtqi-citipointe-christian-college/100791734 at least one school in Australia]] has mandated a zero-tolerance policy towards enrolling students on the LGBT+ spectrum.
17	** The chlamydia outbreak at the beginning of the second season becomes this after the Covid 19 pandemic set in less than 3 months after the season dropped. Numerous panicked staff and students wearing masks was meant to be humorous because chlamydia isn't airborne, but these scenes play quite differently in the age of Covid.
18	** The ArcVillain for Series 3 is called Hope. Series 4 ended on a fairly pessimistic note.
19	* IronWoobie: Maeve. She maintains a tough demeanor, while being bullied at school for rumours spread by her ex-boyfriend, and is constantly abandoned by her family (her drug-addict brother and flighty mother), who she still loves unconditionally. In season 4, her streak of adversities continue when her novel is dismissed by her tutor, her mother dies of drug-overdose and her relationship with Otis doesn't work out, when she decides to return to university on Jean's advice.
20	* JerkassWoobie: Just to name a few.
21	** Michael Groff. He had an awful childhood, as both his father and older brother would relentlessly torment him, shaping Michael into the bitter and resentful man he is during his time as headmaster of Moordale. It's clear who he gets the attitude from.
22	** Ruby. She has a sick father, is not as wealthy as she claimed to be and her childhood was also as traumatic when her former friend O joined the other mean girls who made fun of her bedwetting problem, which explains why is she such a bitch to everyone at Moordale. Then, she sleeps with Otis [[DefrostingIceQueen and starts warming up a little]].
23	* LesYay: Many fans would like to see Maeve and Aimee's friendship blossom into a romance, particularly as they grow closer over the span of the series. It helps that the show is so LGBT-positive in general.
24	* LGBTFanbase: There are two (TWO!) out gay characters, both with layered and positive portrayals! And in the final episode of the first season, a potential relationship is set up between two male characters. Second seasons introduces even more varied LGBTQ+ characters. There are kids who are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual or non-binary.
25	* MoralEventHorizon:
26	** Groff has always been an asshole, especially to his son, but he crosses the line HARD in season 2 when secretly making xerox copies of Jean's notebook, which contained highly personal and sensitive information from her sex ed therapy sessions, effectively humiliating everyone, violating the privacy of every single person in there, including teachers, and getting Jean fired from her school job, all out of petty spite.
27	*** Some would say he crossed the MEH when he extorted a false confession from Maeve by threatening her brother. Or when he let Jackson think they had an agreement that Maeve would be let back into school if Jackson won the swim meet.
28	** [[spoiler: Isaac crosses the line when he didn't respect boundaries by deleting Otis' voice message to Maeve from her cellphone, in either a very misguided effort to protect her or trying to have her for himself but effectively elevating himself as the closest to a big bad the show has in our eyes]]. Dials back slightly in the third season when he realises how creepy a move it was, but for most people it's enough to qualify.
29	** Remi Milburn crossed the line when he had sex with one of his clients, traumatizing Otis, and then gaslit his wife.
30	** [[spoiler: The guy in the bus crossed it when he sexually assaulted Aimee.]]
31	** Hope crosses it when she publicly shames Adam, Lily, and Cal by having them read a humiliating "confession", then forces them to wear signs and denies them communication with others. It crosses her well into being a fascist bully, and while her attitudes had already indicated she was a HeteronormativeCrusader, the fact she includes Cal -- whose only "crime" is being non-binary -- among the trio turns the above into a hate crime.
32	* NauseaFuel:
33	** The behind-the-scrotum shots of Adam's abnormally large penis.
34	** The gory death of a cat.
35	** Rahim [[spoiler:throwing his shit out a window in a sock that lands on the windshield of a French family.]]
36	** Otis makes a terrible first impression on the campus after a big presentation ends up showing off his collection of dick pics.
37	** When Jackson has fears of developing testicular cancer, he begins having visions of scrotums in the most unexpected of places.
38	* NightmareFuel:
39	** The beginning of the third episode of the third season has a scene where a microwave falls down on top of a cat and kills it rather brutally. [[https://twitter.com/xebenny/status/1439012873703940098 Animal lovers are advised to steer clear of this scene.]]
40	** As positive and upbeat the show is on LGBTQ issues, it's also not afraid to remind viewers of how scary the world can be for openly queer individuals. Eric is victim to a hate crime in the first season, while walking home alone late at night, and the third season shows he's not forgotten it when he's left alone at night in a random street in Nigeria, a country where homosexual activity is a capital offence in some parts.
41	** For those AfraidOfBlood in Series 3 after Jean [[spoiler:gives birth, she starts excessively hemorhagging from her vagina, leaving her family very unsure whether or not she was gonna actually make it.]]
42	** Viv's relationship with Beau eventually goes toxic when his jealousy of Viv's interactions with the other boys takes over. To see the [[NotSoStoic normally steadfast]] Viv huddled in bed with tears in her eyes while her phone is flooded with messages from Beau guilting her into forgiving him is unnerving.
43	* ReplacementScrappy: The Coven were intended to be the GoodCounterpart to the Untouchables, but their "wholesome queer" image combined with their lack of meaningful character arcs made them come across as one-dimensional substitutes for Ola, Lily and Rahim.
44	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
45	** After playing the part of the RomanticFalseLead and turning audiences off with his possessive nature, Series 4 emphasized Isaac's redeeming qualities. He finds new love with Aimee and gives a very empowering speech about Cavendish College's ableist priorities.
46	** By season 3, Mr. Groff has earned a lot of sympathy when he was revealed to have been abused by his father and older brother as a child. He's also struggling to reconnect with his ex-wife Maureen and son Adam and earn their trust back to make up for how harshly he's been treating them lately.
47	* RonTheDeathEater: Despite being the main character, audiences agree that Otis is the worst character throughout the entire course of the show as he's made a lot of selfish immature decisions. These include drunkenly insulting Maeve and Ola - the former mostly - in front of the entire school for playing with his feelings, being unable to tell Ruby he doesn't love her and unfairly lashing out at his mum whenever she tries to give him advice. Not to mention he consistently displays a misogynistic attitude anytime someone from the opposite sex challenges him and while he always eventually realises he's in the wrong, it doesn't stop him from repeating his mistakes. In series 4 he would just become even more divisive to audiences, as he tried to usurp O's position as Cavendish's resident sex therapist out of entitled jealousy, he disregarded Ruby's feelings for him and only used her as a prop to get himself elected as Cavendish's sexual therapist to replace O and very poorly handling the situation with Eric and their different preferences. And when Otis finds out that Maeve's decision to return to Wallace University was influenced by Jean's conversation with her, he doesn't take it well and accuses her of ruining any chance he had with Maeve when the time finally came. [[https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a37709652/otis-milburn-asa-butterfield-sex-education-villain/ There's even an article depicting Otis as the show's "true main villain"]].
48	* TheScrappy: Isaac wasn’t very liked for his somewhat rude attitude and especially after [[spoiler: he deleted Otis’ voicemail on Maeve’s phone so he could have her for himself]]. Even if he was just trying to keep a supposedly toxic person out of Maeve's life (and it should be noted that he was judging Otis on one single event without any real knowledge of who Otis is as a person), he should have known by then that she's capable enough to make her own decisions.
49	* SeasonalRot: ''Sex Education'' experienced this to starting in Season 3 for a lot of fans. While the first two seasons garnered pretty universal acclaim, Season 3 turned a lot of fans off the show due to its drawn-out romance between Maeve/Otis.
50	* ShipToShipCombat: After season 3 released the fandom was divided between fans of Maeve/Otis and Ruby/Otis. The Ruby/Otis fans preferred Otis' chemistry with Ruby and were sick of the WillTheyOrWontThey dynamic between Maeve and Otis. Meanwhile, the Maeve/Otis fans still enjoy the bond the two have developed over the course of the show and that they have a more equal relationship. Conversations between fans of the two ships can get very heated.
51	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Series four ended up being a divisive one due to several factors. Some of the fan favorited characters have left the series after season three, they were replaced by the new characters who weren't given enough depth beyond being tokens and [[spoiler: the long-awaited consumation between Otis/Maeve ship was immediately followed by a breakup that neither lover seemed too happy about]].
52	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
53	** The idea of an asexual main character was originally greatly appreciated by some fans, but as it becomes clear that Otis is traumatized, rather than just asexual, that never came to be.
54	** Hope and Aimee never have any meaningful interactions. Given the former's puritanical attitude and the latter's sexual appetite being stunted thanks to some pervert on a bus, it would have been interesting to see how they might have played off each other.
55	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
56	** Isaac in season 3, as he has a HeelRealization for what he did in Season 2 and apologises for it. After some time cooling off, Maeve forgives him, and they even start a budding romance, until she kisses Otis. Isaac is angered and leaves, deciding he can't be with Maeve if she's still got unresolved feelings for Otis, and decides to take his heart off the table. OK, but he's not the one who exactly has high moral ground given the message incident, but also, ''Maeve's sister is missing''. His feelings are ''not'' the important bit here, and his decision to pull back outside of the barest effort makes his previous supportive gestures come off as further demonstration of him just playing the part to get her affection.
57	** Cal isn't wrong to call out Hope for refusing to acknowledge their gender identity, but some of their responses to Hope's microaggressions come across as a little too belligerent. Carrying drugs on school grounds or during school hours and sharing them with a fellow student also means Hope actually does have legitimate reason to single Cal out.
58	* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack:
59	** Isaac in season 3. After what he did in season 2, even if he confessed and apologised for it, his explanation for doing so still casts him as a possessive and jealous sort. Maeve, given her staunch independence, should maybe not just ignore these red flags.
60	** Otis himself, after the incident at the party. Granted, he was ''very'' drunk, and him and Maeve had both hurt one-another with their WillTheyOrWontThey escapades and he was clearly wounded by it, but it was still a horribly cruel thing to do.
61	* TheWoobie:
62	** Eric in season one as he’s bullied in school, misunderstood at home and subject, neglected by his friend and subject to a hate crime.
63	** Aimee in season 2 and on after being sexually assaulted.
64	** Lily in season 3 when being pushed from all sides for her artistic individuality causes her to go into a deep depression eventually throwing away the things that made her feel good about herself. She gets better by the end of the season but it’s rough to watch her go through that.

Context YMMV / SexEducation