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Netflix's Sex Education: Why Does The British Comedy Feel So American?

14 January 2019, 15:50 | Updated: 15 January 2019, 11:44

As Sex Education series 1 hit Netflix, viewers are left wondering why comedy with British accents has such an American style, with a high school full of lockers & jocks despite being set in Wales.

Netflix's Sex Education has been met with rave reviews ever since Asa Butterfield and his fellow cast of British actors burst onto our screens with series 1, but as audiences settled down to binge the hilarious new drama, many have been left puzzled by the very American style present in a show filled with British accents that was filmed in Penarth, South Wales.

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Sex Education's Maeve Wiley and Aimee Gibbs talk by their lockers. Picture: Netflix/Sex Education

The show, based around Otis, an awkward teen headed into his final two years at 'Moorfield High', features lockers, students throwing round American footballs and throwing 'frat' style house parties.

For a show being touted as the new Skins, scenes of school kids pulling up to their sprawling high school in open top cars and handing out hall passes all of which which was pretty unexpected and we finally know why.

People took to Twitter confused about the American/British mash-up in Sex Education. Picture: Twitter

Sex Education was filmed in South Wales but features enormous American high school. Picture: Twitter

It turns out, the American styling was a very deliberate move from both Sex Education writer Laurie Nunn and series director Ben Taylor both say that the US high school feel was done to help open the show up to international crowds who wouldn't notice the Americanisms as much as UK crowds.

Gillian Anderson, who plays Otis's sex therapist mum, Jean, told the RadioTimes.com: "There is a bit of both worlds, decidedly, in the series, and the aim and the hope is that Americans won’t notice."

“The rules are shifting all the time in terms of how an audience receives the shows that they’re watching, what they’re willing to accept and what realms and worlds they’re willing to step into to suspend their disbelief.

Gillian Anderson's said the decision to 'Americanise' Sex Education was to make it accessible to viewers globally. Picture: Netflix/Sex Education

The shows writer Laurie has spoken about wanting the influence in the show, saying: "I’ve always been really influenced by American film and TV shows; they played a really big part in my own teenage years, so that was always something I wanted to come back to."

So, if you haven't started watching it yet, expect modern day Wales and kids with British accents getting locker slammed, with all the rules of TV shaken up in true Netflix style!