two main characters at least are abandoned by their parents, otis by his father and maeve by both her parents and brother multiple times, leaving her living alone
I am furious. This show has been consistently excellent with smart writing. Why would anyone think to add the graphic death of a cat for literally no reason? It’s gratuitous and disturbing. In S3 E3 skip the entire first two minutes if you want to avoid it, which I strongly recommend. This moment alone bumps this off my list of favorite shows. Ridiculous.
There is a (depressing, to me) scene at a faire where a person wins a goldfish in a bag, and there are many more bags hanging with goldfish in them. (Season 2, episode 2)
A cat is crushed by a microwave at the beginning of S3E3. You see the cat twitching under the microwave and blood oozing from underneath it. Graphic and confronting.
S03E03 - A cat is killed right at the start of the episode when a microwave accidentally falls on it. You don't see the impact but you see the cat bleeding and twitching under the microwave so fairly graphic too.
11:10-11:54 Aimee talks to a friend about the assault she suffered on the bus, and how it has affected her life. She gets emotional as she talks about it.
S1E3: Someone shouts "I hope you get raped" at individuals protesting outside an abortion clinic. S1E5: A girl's nude photo gets leaked to the school. S1E6: Someone mentions sex slavery in a piece of science fiction she's creating. S2E3: Someone is assaulted on a crowded bus, and bystanders do nothing. S2E7: Flashbacks of one character being groped, another being flashed (no frontal nudity), and another being followed in the dark.
Unsure where else to put this so I picked the closest sounding thing. While doing a speech, Otis speaks about being a sex therapist in front of a large crowd and connects his phone to the projector board. His nudes show up against his will on the board, and they all see it.
One of the main characters gets a weight dropped on his hand, there is implied bone breakage and he has to wear a cast for a few episodes due to this injury. Nothing is graphic and there is no breakage sown, only him gripping his hand and asking for an ambulance
I can’t remember if I’m missing any but two of the main disabled characters that I can think of are both played by disabled actors!! Isaac was originally written as an amputee I think but when George Robinson who plays him got the part, Isaac’s character was rewritten to have a spinal cord injury reflecting Robinson’s real disability. He’s introduced in Season 3 and shows up a lot in Season 4 as well. Another disabled character is Aisha who is deaf and is alsp played by Alexandra James, a deaf actress. It’d be pretty risky saying any show is perfect but Sex Education does a pretty good job with representation!!
S1E4: Otis sees one of his clients with a girl besides the one she's already dating. S1E6: Someone's husband is shown having sex with another woman (his client). S2E4: Two ex-spouses cheat on their partners with one another. S2E5: Someone cheats on his wife.
There is a weird mechanical clown thing in the shopping centre when they are searching for Cal. Kind of like a machine you put coins in and it makes the puppet move.
In season 2 episode 1, [Spoiler/description] Otis spend a lot of time in the shower to touch himself. This will lead to several discutions with his mother within the episode.
Additionally, there's a scene where a boy shits in a bus toilet, and it starts over flowing. He panics, pulls it out and throws the feces out a widow. It hits a passing car and it is very graphically shown on their car windscreen.
Ep 3: After the Party night, Eric wakes up in his bedroom an v* in the bin. When his mother talks to him, he g**s a little bit, but does’nt v* again.
Ep 5: Joanna comes home drunk. It happens right after Jean opens the door (46:53- 47:50). Visual & audio. Just for context: In between the v* , Joanna tells Jean about her debts, but you won’t miss more conversation :)
Ep 8: At minute 33:17 & 33:35 Otis makes g**ing noises but does’nt v*
S1E5: A man spits on someone during a hate crime. S1E8: Someone shoots spitballs. Two characters spit on each other during a fight. S2E1: Someone farts.
Erin is mentally ill and she gets very angry in one scene and attacks two social workers, Maeve protects the social workers and no one is properly hurt
Season 3 episode 5 has a character frantically trying to unclog a toilet in a bus bathroom while someone won’t stop knocking on the door. The bus bathroom is very small, so that plus the sense of urgency could be claustrophobic.
There is a scene in S1E4 where Otis is attempting to masturbate, and to show distress, the camera using dutch angles. I wouldn't describe it as shakey, but might be in the same ballpark?
In the recap of season 3 at the start of season 4, Jean talks directly into the camera (though it's shown after that she was supposedly talking to the baby)
S1E5: Eric, a black gay man, is the victim of a hate crime while he's wearing drag. He's subjected to sexual harassment while the perpetrators sarcastically call him "miss."
S2E6: Someone asks a character why he's in a wheelchair. Another person points out that's not an appropriate question, and the character in the wheelchair makes up a story for his own amusement.
Sex scene at the beginning, someone Took potency drugs and you can see his boner (under his shorts, but very clearly visiable) later someone shows his penis poblicly to the school, but it is pretty obvious when it happens and can be skipped
when maureen divorces micheal (mr groff) he has no place to live, so he sleeps in the school in his office at first, but then moves in with his brother, and then with mr hendricks
Eric goes through a bit of an existential crisis as he navigates through his experience of being gay and also wanting to be part of the church community. He speaks to God in a dream
Both seasons end in a sad way for the main characters.
[SPOILERS BELOW]
S1: Maeve sees Otis kissing Ola and runs away, crying.
S2: Isaac deletes an important message for Maeve from Otis and Jean finds she is perimenopausal and pregnant.