SEX EDUCATION SEASON 4 SOUNDTRACK & REVIEW

Photo Credit: http://www.thepinknews.com

After four years and four seasons, it’s time to say goodbye to our beloved Sex Education students. But what’s in store for our favourites Otis, Maeve, Eric, Adam and Aimee – plus, of course, Otis’s mum Jean, and Adam’s dad, Michael Groff?

Netflix’s Sex Education thrust its way onto our screens in 2019 with a riot of colourful, 80s-influenced costumes and a school set up that looked like something out of a John Hughes movie (the Independent referred to it as, ‘the most American TV show ever to be set in Britain’). Audiences worldwide quickly fell in love with rebellious Maeve (Emma Mackey) and insecure Otis (Asa Butterfield) as they set up a secret sex and relationships advice clinic at Moordale Secondary, resulting in streaming figures that hit 55 million for season three.

Since its debut, there have been all manner of ups and downs, with Otis and Maeve finally getting together at the end of the last season – before Maeve was offered the chance to study at a college in the US.

Grab an expert recap on the get togethers, make ups, break ups and shake ups from season three with Dr Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson) before you dive in:

A Change of Scene

So, this time around, it’s all change – not least in terms of the school itself. Moordale has been sold to developers, meaning that our besties have been somewhat scattered. Otis, Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Aimee (BAFTA-winning Aimee Lou Wood), Ruby (Mimi Keene) and others including Viv (Chinenye Ezeudu), Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling), Isaac (George Robinson) and Cal (Dua Saleh) are now attending spectacularly hip Cavendish Sixth Form College. A riot of day-glo colours (‘It’s like Amsterdam! But in space!’), Cavendish is student-run and about as progressive as it’s possible to get (ultragreen, gender-neutral loos, lunchtime yoga sessions, silent discos, a Speaker’s Corner and more) – in other words, the polar opposite of Moordale.

Out of school, Eric might still be struggling to consolidate his status as an out gay man with the views of his church community, but at Cavendish, he instantly finds his tribe, as he falls in with the most popular group – an LGBTQ+ clique nicknamed ‘The Coven’. Conversely, Moordale’s OG Queen Bee Ruby finds herself back at the bottom of the heap without her friends Anwar and Olivia, who’ve gone to a different school.

As for Otis – he’s got competition. When he tries to set up a therapy clinic, he discovers Cavendish already has a counsellor, in the shape of O (Thaddea Graham). A battle ensues for clients and supremacy; Otis brings on Ruby as his campaign manager and both sides resort to some fairly dirty tricks in an attempt to come out on top. Plus, Otis is struggling with a long-distance relationship with Maeve, and the fact that his mum, Jean, who, let’s not forget, nearly died giving birth in last season’s finale, is clearly not coping as well as she thinks she is with newborn Joy. Otis puts in a call to Jean’s sister, Joanna (Lisa McGrillis), to come and help, who crash lands in their house, bringing her own type of chaos.

Maeve is enjoying life at Wallace college in the US, and clearly feels freer, but isn’t sure that her lecturer, Mr Molloy (a fun cameo from Schitt’s Creek’s Dan Levy) rates her as a writer. Adam (Connor Swindells) has decided that college isn’t for him, and has started an apprenticeship at a farm/riding stables, and has to overcome a fear of horses (‘No, I mean, their faces are a completely normal size’); his dad, Michael (Alistair Petrie) is trying to ‘become a better man’ and forge more of a connection with him, which leads to one of the season’s most touching story arcs.

Go behind the scenes to see how it all came together, including costumes, make up and locations:

Rain or Shine

Season four covers a lot of ground, with all the characters being challenged in both new, and old ways. From friendship fractures to the deepest of grief, coming to terms with identity, unresolved trauma and, of course, issues around sex, there’s something for everyone (and plenty of good advice if you’re going through anything similar yourself.)

The main theme of season four, for all the characters, is ‘moving on.’ Carefully paced and plotted, by the series finale, you’ll feel that all the people you’ve come to know and love have some sort of resolution and have grown – even if, for one of the key relationships, things don’t end in the way many fans would have hoped for.

Laurie Nunn, Sex Education’s creator and writer, told Elle that, ‘even though the show is called Sex Education and is so much about love and relationships, I’ve always really felt like it’s actually about friendship and community underneath that.’ The finale avoids everyone being neatly tied up two-by-two; Nunn said, ‘I wouldn’t say that I set out to intentionally do that, but I remember getting to the end of the series and going, “Oh, hardly anyone’s actually ended up together.” That wasn’t necessarily done by design, but I think it speaks to what the show is about, really, which is finding your people and figuring out how to support the people around you better, and that doesn’t necessarily always have to be in a romantic setting.’

Proving her point, why not re-live all the best bits from Otis and Eric’s friendship, courtesy of Netflix:

The Soundtrack

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Ezra Furman is an instrumental component of Sex Education’s soundscape. While composer Oli Julian handles the show’s catchy score, Furman has both contributed her own songs and written many original ones specifically for all four series.

Furman told Netflix’s Tudum that she’s enjoyed how the creative process has evolved over the course of the show. ‘For the first season, they gave me so much [info] because I didn’t know what the show even was. [In the beginning,] I had multiple episode scripts, then they started giving me fewer scripts in advance and were more like, “Here’s the whole arc of the season for Maeve. Here’s what’s going on with her, can you write something for this scene, at this point in the arc?” I love doing it that way.’

One of season four’s biggest emotional moments comes at the end of episode three, a ballad called ‘Tether.’ ‘Because these are well-written, true-to-life characters, it was possible for me to find something I could write that was actually heartfelt,’ Furman said. Throughout the series, emotional moments like this one draw heavy feelings, and it’s often Furman’s music working in tandem to further amplify them. The three new tracks for this final series are ‘You Like Me’, ‘Tether’ and ‘Honeycomb’.

Meanwhile, season four of course has its usual array of eclectic song choices for the soundtrack, from party tunes to tearjerkers. Music supervisor Matt Biffa, who’s worked on all four seasons, has also lent his magic to soundtracks for This is Going to Hurt, I May Destroy You (for which he won an Emmy award) and The End of the F**king World.

Particular highlights are the touching version of U2’s ‘With or Without You’ that Mr Hendricks (Jim Howick) plays at a heartbreaking funeral; Eric getting ready to go out, accompanied by Five Star’s ‘Rain or Shine’; Adam’s dad, Michael, prepping for a big night out to ‘Are You Man Enough?’ by the Four Tops and Aimee’s impromptu photo session with a bunch of garden gnomes, soundtracked by Pink Floyd’s gloriously bonkers ‘The Gnome’.

Here’s the full rundown of all the tracks featured in season four:

Episode One

• ‘Take Care Of Business’ – Nina Simone
• ‘Close To Me’ – The Cure
• ‘Vicious’ – Fat Girls
• ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ – Confidence Man
• ‘Lilac and Black’ – Ezra Furman
• ‘Any Way The Wind Blows’ – The Cold Stares
• ‘Rain Or Shine’ – Five Star
• ‘Forever In Sunset’ – Ezra Furman

Episode Two

• ‘What So Never The Dance’ – Bootsy Collins
• ‘China In Your Hand’ – T’Pau
• ‘Work That Body’ – Diana Ross
• ‘I’m Coming Home’ – The Staple Singers
• ‘Do The Evolution’ – Pearl Jam
• ‘Hold On I’m Comin’ – The Voltage
• ‘I Believe In Miracles’ – Jackson Sisters
• ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ – The Stooges

Episode Three

• ‘She Used To Wanna Be A Ballerina’ – Buffy Sainte-Marie
• ‘Way I Walk’ – The Cramps
• ‘Dance Across The Floor’ – Jimmy ‘Bo’ Horne
• ‘Feels Like I’m In Love’ – Kelly Marie
• ‘Respectable’ – Mel & Kim
• ‘New Radio’ – Bikini Kill
• ‘Love Vibration’ – ESSEL
• ‘Cleo’ – Shygirl
• ‘Strut’ – Elohim & Big Freedia
• ‘BANG’ – COBRAH
• ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ – The Go-Go’s
• ‘Tether’ – Ezra Furman

Episode Four

• ‘Whip It’ – Devo
• ‘Dream A Dream’ – Bic Runga
• ‘Are You Man Enough?’ – Four Tops
• ‘Yes I Do’ – Stefano Richter & Gabriele Mustafa
• ‘Long Time Gone’ – Bachelorette
• ‘Dedicated To The One I Love’ – The Mamas & The Papas

Episode Five

• ‘Rub It In’ – Jack Jersey
• ‘Tell Me When’ – The Applejacks
• ‘Don’t You Worry’ – Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford
• ‘I Found A Reason’ – The Velvet Underground
• ‘Sittin’ Pretty’ – The Datsuns

Episode Six

• ‘Chapstick’ – Todrick Hall (feat. Trixie Mattel)
• ‘Faith’ – George Michael
• ‘Tell You (Today)’ – Loose Joints
• ‘With Or Without You’ – U2
• ‘The Gnome’ – Pink Floyd
• ‘Se Not Speaking’ – unofficial
• ‘Strawberry Letter 23’ – Shuggie Otis

Episode Seven

• ‘I Got A Name’ – Jim Croce
• ‘Push’ – Pharoahe Monch
• ‘Youth Against Fascism’ – Sonic Youth
• ‘Volunteers’ – Jefferson Airplane
• ‘You Like Me’ – Ezra Furman
• ‘Last Goodbye’ – Jeff Buckley
• ‘This Time Tomorrow (In The Canyon Haze)’ – Brandi Carlile

Episode Eight

• ‘2 Become 1’ – Spice Girls
• ‘Honeycomb’ – Ezra Furman
• ‘Seabird’ – Alessi Brothers
• ‘That’s A Bet’ – Arnold Albury and The Casuals
• ‘Footloose’ – Kenny Loggins
• ‘Colours’ – Donovan
• ‘Let It Be’ – Aretha Franklin

Want more of the Sex Education music? Take a listen to Oli Julian’s season four OST:

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Can’t get enough school-set drama? Read our review Sex Education season three, Netflix’s other massive global hit, Wednesday, or if 80s-style teens are more your thing, then of course there’s Stranger Things.

And if you need music to license for your TV show, then look no further than our hand-picked kick-ass women playlist to channel Maeve, Aimee and new Sex Ed character O, or our drama, comedy or dramedy playlists for more hand-picked tracks.