Netflix's Sex Education season 3 should center around the show's best couple rather than Otis and Maeve. Since it first hit the small screen back in 2019, Sex Education has become one of the streaming giant's biggest success stories. Popular with fans and critics alike, the comedy-drama series has received a stack of award nominations, as well as wins for stars Ncuti Gatwa and Aimee Lou Wood. Arguably more than any other series on the service, Sex Education has cemented Netflix as a major player for cutting-edge, modern TV making.

The show itself chronicles the ill-advised business ventures of teenager Otis Milburn. On the advice of fellow schoolmate and free spirit Maeve Wiley, played by Emma Mackey, Otis decides to set up his own amateur sex therapist service. Before long, he's advising everyone on their various personal and physical issues, often with mixed results. Throughout the course of the previous two seasons, Maeve and Otis have teased fans with a constantly tumultuous will-they-won't-they romance. However, with season 3 around the corner, the show now has a chance to turn its attention to another, more interesting relationship.

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One of the highlights of the previous season was undoubtedly the arc around Otis' best friend Eric and former bully Adam. After an unexpected sexual encounter in season 1, the pair were apart for much of the follow-up. However, things changed dramatically for the couple when Adam, who had previously been ashamed of his sexuality and unwilling to display his affection in public, declared his feelings for Eric in front of the entire school during a performance of Romeo and Juliet. Once Eric reciprocates, the audience is left with the impression that the two plan to start a full-blown relationship.

 

Adam and Eric in Sex Education

The Eric and Adam storyline is fascinating for several reasons. For starters, it addresses the complex psychology around sexuality in a way that Otis and Maeve's relationship never does. It also highlights how a previously emotionally stunted and downright mean character in the case of Adam can grow over time. Adam's previous issues with his own sexuality also create more genuine tension within the relationship – his gradual acceptance of who he is feels like a far more believable arc than the occasionally outlandish narrative devices that drive Otis and Maeve together.

Given the conflict between both Adam and Eric throughout season 2, the new season also places the characters in entirely new territory. Throughout their relationship to date, fractiousness and instability have been the dominant forces. It will be fascinating to see how the characters cope now that they are, theoretically at least, on the same page.

Sex Education is at its best when it approaches familiar and difficult subjects, from emotional intimacy to sexual health, with honesty and humor. Throughout the course of the show thus far, Adam and Eric have arguably exemplified this strength more than any other characters. Even when the rest of Sex Education's occasionally implausible plot is unconvincing, it's impossible not to find the drama between the pair extremely compelling.

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