Forget Sex Education, Netflix’s 100%-Rated Teen Dramedy Does Everything Better

Summary:

• There is a worth-watching teen comedy drama, which follows the students of a high school and their struggles with love, sexuality and social acceptance.
• It explores the essential topics of maturing, sexual and romantic relationships of teenagers, racism and lookism, presenting a fair image of Gen Z.

Back in 2019, the first Sex Education season, perfectly balancing between comedy and drama, brought the themes of teen health, adulthood, understanding your sexuality and choices closer to the surface. Luckily, there is another platform’s show, which continues this trend, but explores coming of age from quite a different, surprising angle.

It starts off right by depicting a shocking incident that happened in a high school. We see a map detailing the sexual exploits of the school’s students, which is found graffitied on the wall, leading not only to their public shame, but also to them being forced to attend the Sexual Literacy Tutorial course (SLT) to improve their sexual education.

Here a straight comparison to the Sex Education series can be drawn, even though this show differs by its deeper dramatical aspect. There are devastatingly bigger racial tensions, much sexual misconduct and personal drama shown by the creators. However, all these essential issues are also addressed through a frank, humorous approach.

Another difference, which makes this teen show much more peculiar, is the fact that it’s set in Australia, with the indigenous characters being involved in the narration. Today’s industry is not so generous in featuring these people, especially the teenagers, but here is a clear representation of not only the youth of Australia, but also the whole Gen Z.

We’re talking about the 2022 Netflix ’s banger series titled Heartbreak High, the first season of which received rare 100% of critical acclaim on Rotten Tomatoes. It appears to be a soft reboot of the 1994 Australian series of the same name, which followed the lives and the struggles of students and teachers at a multicultural high school in Sydney.

Created by Hannah Carroll Chapman, it assembles the cast full of the rising stars of Australian cinema, including Ayesha Madon, James Majoos, Chloé Hayden, Asher Yasbincek and Thomas Weatherall. They reprised their roles in the show’s second season, which aired on Netflix last week and developed the unique characters’ arcs.

The show is being compared to “a mixture of Skins and Sex Education but in an Australian way”, as voiced by Redditor @radiohead_fan_13, or is said to give strong Euphoria vibes, but does teen drama even better than the already iconic HBO’s show.

Check out if Heartbreak High beats all of them, as it’s available for watching on Netflix.