TV Show - Sex Education

Just finished watching Season 1
Season 2, Finished watching 3/29/2020, see below!
Premiered: 1/11/2019
Season: 1
Number of Episodes:  8
Length of Episode: 45 min.
IMBd:  8.3
RT Critic's Consensus:  Bawdy, heartfelt, and surprisingly wise, Sex Education is a raucous romp through a group of teenagers whose sexual misadventures are so thoughtfully rendered, adults could learn a thing or two from them.
RT Audience Score:  95
cag: LOVED it, going to be an all-time favorite
Produced by: Netflix

Characters:
     Otis Milburn - Asa Butterfield (main character, a HS kid whose mother is a sex therapist)
     Jean Milburn, Otis' mom, is played by Gillian Anderson
     Maeve Wiley is played by Emma Mackey, the "hot" female lead, who befriends Otis
     Eric Effoing is Otis' best friend, gay and black and wonderful
     Adam Groff is the mean kid, who we can tell is attracted to Eric, very much against his will, lol
     Ola Nyman has appeared on the scene, and becomes Otis' girlfriend
     Jakob Nyman, Ola's dad, has an on and off relationship with Otis' mom, who doesn't "do" relationships, but is very much attracted to Jakob....

My comments:  This was totally and fulfillingly entertaining.  X rated in places, R in others. British.  FUNNY and heartfelt, with some really serious stuff thrown in, too.  What a MARVELOUS cast!  Some are newbies, and they're wonderful.  I was so upset when the short series one came to an and, but an happily awaiting season two which is currently in production.

Storyline from IMBd:  Feeling pressured by the rumor that everyone in his class is having sex except him, awkward teenager Otis (Asa Butterfield) struggles with masturbating. It doesn't help that his mother, sex therapist Dr. Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson), constantly meddles with his personal life. Things come to a weird turn when Adam (Connor Swindells), his school's resident bully, learns about Jean and asks Otis for help regarding his sex life with girlfriend Aimee (Aimee Lou Woods). The situation becomes even weirder when the school's resident bad girl Maeve (Emma Mackey) and Otis' gay best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) persuade Otis to open a "sex therapy clinic" in school, with Maeve and Otis splitting the profits.

Season 2, Finished watching 3/29/2020, see below!
Premiered: 1/17/2020
Season: 2
Number of Episodes:  8
Length of Episode:  45
IMBd:  8.3
RT Critic's Consensus:  Sex Education's sophomore season definitely has more going on, but by treating each new subject with care and humor, it leaves plenty of space for its characters to grow.
RT  Audience Score:  97
cag: LOVED it, going to be an all-time favorite

Produced by: Netflix

Additional and new characters for Season 2
Jackson Marchetti is Maeve's old boyfriend and swimming star, who is tired of swimming and takes up acting
Viv, a socially awkward smart girl who tutors Jackson
Isaac, a wheelchair bound trailer park neighbor of Maeve's
Aimee Gibbs, sweet, slighty dumb, and promiscuous, she's Maeve's best friend
Lily Iglehart is Ola's bestie...and becomes more....
Rahim is the sexy new student who instantly goes after Eric

59. The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

listened to on Audible
2016, Katherine Tegen Books
344 pgs.
YA CRF (older YA)
Finished 11/1/16
Goodreads rating:  4/27 - 1470 ratings
My rating:  4 (As brilliant as it is, somehow I can't quite give it a 5. Not sure why...)

My comments:  To be quite truthful, I'm not exactly sure what to think of this book or how to rate it.  I knew from the beginning it would not have a "good" ending.  It's a book about rape and abuse and discusses sex and sexuality unsparingly.  The story is told in three very distinct, reliable voices.  It's a heartbreaking book.
         These are the words of Emily May, a Goodreads reviewer who I really enjoy (although we don't always agree).  This is exactly what I was thinking, so why put it in my own words?

     BRUTAL. That's how I would describe this book. It sits there all unassuming with its cute yellow cover and pictures of animals, but underneath it has some serious fangs. Rather like the female of the species, I suppose.
     Quick warning: this book may not be suitable to those sensitive to rape and/or animal cruelty. Make no mistake, it's a nasty book. At times it's absolutely disgustingly awful. But it's a very sharp and effective look at sexual assault and rape culture too. And somehow so fucking funny. Well, maybe if you have a sadistic sense of humour, which it turns out I do.
     I don't even know how to adequately explain it. The Female of the Species is told from the perspective of three different characters - Alex, whose sister was raped and murdered; Jack, the popular guy who desperately wants to get to know Alex; and Peekay, the preacher's kid whose ex-boyfriend ditched her for the beautiful Branley, and who now works at the animal shelter with Alex.

Goodreads synopsis:  Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence.
          While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even in her small hometown. She relegates herself to the shadows, a girl who goes unseen in plain sight, unremarkable in the high school hallways.
         But Jack Fisher sees her. He’s the guy all other guys want to be: the star athlete gunning for valedictorian with the prom queen on his arm. Guilt over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered hasn’t let him forget Alex over the years, and now her green eyes amid a constellation of freckles have his attention. He doesn’t want to only see Alex Craft; he wants to know her.
         So does Peekay, the preacher’s kid, a girl whose identity is entangled with her dad’s job, though that does not stop her from knowing the taste of beer or missing the touch of her ex-boyfriend. When Peekay and Alex start working together at the animal shelter, a friendship forms and Alex’s protective nature extends to more than just the dogs and cats they care for.
         Circumstances bring Alex, Jack, and Peekay together as their senior year unfolds. While partying one night, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting the teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever.

32. Gun Games - Faye Kellerman

Decker/Lazarus # 20
10 unabridged cds (on the road back and forth to school)
2012, William Morrow & Co.
Harper Audio read by Mitchell Greenberg - very well
375 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 5/3/2015
Goodreads rating: 3.82
My rating: 3.5
TPPL
Setting: Contemporary LA

My comments:  Actually, 3.5.  Reason?  About 50% of the story is about Decker's 15-year-old foster son, piano prodigy Gabe Whitman, who meets a shy 14-year old LA/Persian Jewish girl, falling, apparently and mutually, head-over-heels for each other.  He's a horny, 15-year old boy, but she's been raised as an Orthodox Jew in a very strict home, and the sex talk...then scenes...are more graphic and in-your-face than what I remember of previous books in this series.  I'm not a prude (at all!), but she was so young and innocent that in some ways her capitulation was believable, but in other ways not.  Of course, their story intersects with the case that Decker is working on (what a coincidence!) and everything turns out okay.... it was all okay - likable and interesting - but a little unbelievable.

Goodreads synopsis:  Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus are back in this gripping mystery involving a secret cabal of some of Los Angeles' most wealthy--and vicious--teens
          LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman, the son of a troubled former friend, into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep--witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city's most exclusive prep schools.
          Gregory's mother, Wendy, refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen--evidence that propels him to launch a full investigation with his trusted team, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver. But the case becomes darkly complicated by the suicide of another Bell and Wakefield student--a death that leads them to uncover an especially nasty group of rich and privileged students with a predilection for guns and violence. Decker thought he understood kids, yet the closer he and his team get to the truth, the clearer it becomes that he knows very little about them, including his own charge, Gabe. The son of a gangster and an absent parent, the boy has had a life filled with too much free time, too many unexplained absences, and too little adult supervision.
          Before it's over, the case and all its terrifying ramifications will take Decker and his detectives down a dark alley of twisted allegiances and unholy alliances, culminating at a heart-stopping point of no return.