It doesn’t matter if you grew up around the cornfields of Indiana or the industrial wastelands of Manchester: Teenage years usually suck from every angle. You’re horny most of the time and awkward all of the time, but if you could time-machine back to school with the knowledge you have now, you would totally own that student body, man.
Thanks to the release of Netflix’s new comedy Sex Education, you can relive those glory years all over again, but this time with the dignified sheen of British accents and Gillian Anderson. To celebrate this charming new series, Vulture put together a streaming list of all the great British shows that (1) are equally horny, and (2) revolve around a group of youths as the protagonists. (For clarity purposes, we define “youth” as characters who are still in school.) Try not to get too nostalgic while watching.
Sex Education
A timid virgin with a heart of gold (Asa Butterfield) comes to a pretty amusing realization on his quest for popularity: His fellow students have a bunch of sex-related problems they want thoughtful answers to (amazingly, the health teacher’s half-assed condom-banana demonstration didn’t do the trick!), so he decides to open up a sex-therapy “clinic” with the help of a new friend. Despite his lack of experience in the boudoir, it turns out that his winning combination of kindness and helpful advice is what these students need, which may come from the fact his mother (Gillian Anderson) is one of the best sex therapists in the business. Just don’t call him her protégé. Where to stream: Netflix
The Inbetweeners
The dawn of the tech-savvy millennial school experience is beautifully summed up with The Inbetweeners, and by “beautifully summed up,” we obviously mean there’s loads of terrible sexting, terrible sexual escapades, terrible porn breaks, and terrible lies about made-up sexting. Four best buds in the London suburbs, who all have varying degrees of success with the ladies, just want to get through their education with as much popularity and notoriety as possible — but between their collective seduction efforts to land some “birds,” it’s their destined-to-end-in-disaster outings as pals that always get the most laughs. Male friendship is important! Where to stream: Netflix, Vudu
Skins
Of all the shows on this list, Skins might take the cake. We have sex, drugs, murder, bullying, more sex, mental illness, more drugs, and the occasional uplifting montage packaged into this debauched series. Each episode is told from the perspective of one character as they navigate the hellish confines of school while tending to their oft-dispiriting home life. (Don’t worry: The cast completely changes every two seasons, so you can skip a “generation” if you’re not vibing with them.) You could argue that the voyeuristic pleasure-domes these teens seem to inhabit are just too unrealistic to be enjoyable. We’re not one of those people. Where to stream: Netflix
My Mad Fat Diary
When a teen girl returns to a life of suburban normalcy after a stint in a mental hospital (her friends believe she was just traveling abroad), her reacclimatization period isn’t just about the banalities of taking new meds and going to therapy. Rather, it’s a complex process involving everything from her unabashed, voracious sex drive to her plus-size-body insecurities, which she tries to work through thanks to the support of her tight BFF group. (One of whom is Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer.) They’ll be there for her no matter what, especially when she finally gets to shag the hottest guy in school. And loudly! Where to stream: Hulu
Misfits
A delicious sci-fi pick! For all of the show’s untimely probation-officer deaths and never-ending carousel of supernatural powers, Misfits at its core is about a bunch of horny juvenile delinquents. Sure, they committed a bunch of crimes to land themselves into an eternal community-service situation, but like all teens, they’re mostly just horndogs who can’t stop thinking about doin’ each other. Hell, one of the first powers someone acquired was sending people into a sexual frenzy through touch! Also, they have to save the world every other episode? No wonder they have all that pent-up sexual aggression. Where to stream: Hulu
Fresh Meat
Consider this the spiritual sex successor to The Inbetweeners, and not only because the two shows share the same lead in Joe Thomas. With the main action revolving around a student home on the outskirts of a university, six yin-and-yang housemates have to not only deal with being “freshers” (first years) at their college, but doing it while somewhat removed from the main action on campus. Inevitably, two people start falling for each other in the house, but there’s a whole lot of equal-opportunity bang sessions here, there, and everywhere. Where to stream: Netflix, Hulu
Hollyoaks
America has failed in injecting a daily soap opera aimed specifically at a younger audience into our veins, but fear not — Hollyoaks is here to save the day. In the event that you don’t want to start in [does Google search] 1995 and dedicate months of your life to catching up on the entire series, all you need to know is that the show follows the scandalous lives of the town’s teens (plus their extended, messy families) who lie, cheat, shag, and steal in the pursuit of “better” lives. Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can sure as hell buy you some drama. Where to stream: Hulu
Coming of Age
If you’re looking for a quintessential “this school year will be our last sex-crazed romp before we have to enter the real world, ugh” narrative, Coming of Age delivers on the title’s double entendre. With a group of students living in a constant state of vulgar denial that they’ll soon have to deal with life outside of their university, most of the episodes center on that common feeling one encounters during their final year of school: senioritis, with an extra side of kink. Oh, and also sex dolls — lots of sex dolls. Where to stream: SideReel
