Saturday's Netflix & chill - Loris S. Musumeci
Sex works. At least on screen. The success of pornography, the success of Sex Education on Netflix. Sex is attractive; it's what we're all attracted to. It drives our gestures and movements. It drives our daring and our cowardice. Alain Souchon sang itLooking up girls' skirts is the business of a lifetime. The business of a lifetime.
«Retina and pupils
The boys are bright-eyed
For a fool's game
Seeing up girls' skirts
And all of life
Absorbed by this affair
In this game of fools
Voir sous les juupes des filles» (Seeing up girls' skirts)»
Screens in bed
But sex often works less well in bed than on screens or in songs. Incipit of each of the eight episodes in the first season of Sex Education. From erectile dysfunction and lack of passion to vaginas that won't let you explore them. Difficulties faced by young people at Moordale High School.
By a more or less incongruous coincidence, the establishment has seen the birth of a sexual assistantship. No sexologist, shrink, doctor or teacher. No. Just a young man, Otis, who uses his words alone to solve a fellow student's impotence problem. Ironically, Otis is very uncomfortable with his own sexuality - not having an ejaculation at sixteen isn't dramatic, but still... space, especially for a budding sexologist. In fact, he's uncomfortable at all. He wants to keep a low profile and be subject to the gaze of others as little as possible.
Maeve, extroverted, dark, authoritarian, yet very cute and very practical fucker, Otis' feat. There's plenty to do. Business plan and all bells and whistles. She takes care of the business side of things, he takes care of the practical side with more and more consultations. All's well, but all's not. Because nothing is ever easy. And because, from episode to episode, there are stakes, downfalls, glories, frustrations, discoveries, failures, despair... and hopes.
We got it, we got it
The story is a good one, and young people have embraced it for the first season, and are only waiting for January 17, 2020 to see it. bang - since we're talking about sex - season two. But what's the series really worth? It has its share of bullshit, heaviness and levity. When you watch the whole season in one night, lassitude is also part of the equation, yes.
What's more, some of the mannerisms, some of the shouting, some of the talking, some of the repeated shots of the high school building are almost nauseating in the long run. We get it, all right. So-and-so is gay, the other has a hard life, the teachers are either too nice and stupid, or too stupid and mean. The cinematography isn't thrilling either; the image isn't extremely polished. The mise-en-scène shows no originality whatsoever.
Lack of nuance
As for the more societal and philosophical aspect of the film, it's a tricky one. On the one hand, the screenplay has the merit of lifting taboos, decomplexing, and playing humor well with some of the most frustrating problems, but on the other, it overemphasizes the issue of social pressure on sex. The characters are caricatural, and therefore funny, but this doesn't always serve the nuance of the subject.
And it's fucking right and left; Souchon is certainly right, but... Sex Education tends to reinforce the obsession in a counterproductive way. The moral question is not as unhealthy as it might appear to the prudish, but the fact remains that it never seriously puts on screen the proposition of abstinence as an invigorating reconstruction.
The real causes of various kinds of impotence are often concealed in favor of trivialities: no deep feelings, too many plans projected onto the other person, not enough self-confidence. Fair enough, but that's not all. We need to explore the subjects of early coupling, pornography and masturbation, with all their good and bad points.
A discovery that ha-bite my mind
But what do the people want? Bread and games. Entertainment. Netflix & and chill. No harm, no shame. Sex Education, despite its flaws, lives up to these expectations. It's a credit to the actors, who, at their young age, are learning as they learn. It's a credit to director Laurie Nunn, whose series responds to a need, and makes a strong commitment to it. And her main skill lies in articulating the evolution of young people's sexual education alongside the evolution of their feelings for love. A real discovery for me ha-bite - excuse the pun - my mind since discovering the series.
Sex Education, For season two, we're asking you to take us a step further, to penetrate the nuances more gently, and to keep us just as entertained as ever.
Write to the author: loris.musumeci@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Netflix
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