There are some TV shows that you need to exercise some parental control over, or in other words that you need to watch when there's no chance of your Mum and Dad sidling up and sharing the sofa with you. Netflix's new show Sex Education is one - here are 10 more.
Sex Education – not the school subject – is a hilarious and heartfelt new comedy-drama series available for your viewing pleasure courtesy of Netflix.
It tells the story of socially-awkward high school virgin, Otis, played by Asa Butterfield (Ender's Game, Son of Rambow, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) who lives with his sex therapist mother (Gillian Anderson of The X Files and more). Otis soon discovers he has a knack for sex therapy himself and joins forces with 'whip-smart bad-girl' Maeve (Emma Mackey) to set up a clinic, using what he has learned from listening into his mother's sessions, to help fellow students deal with their own weird - sometimes very weird - and wonderful problems.
The series is filled to the brim with excellent messages on consent, relationships, sexuality, pregnancy, friendships and more – that's the heartfelt part. It further succeeds in sparing parents and their teenage kids all the awkwardness and anxiety of those difficult conversations they have to have with one another as the latter grows up.
However, it is also hilarious in a 'whatever-you-do-absolutely-do-not-watch-this-with-your-parents- sort of way. Examples include a prosthetic penis, some very enthusiastic demonstrations of a certain act on bananas and, obviously, lots and lots of sex - the name gave it away, right?
It would be bad enough for your parents to walking in on you watching some of the more heated scenes let alone willingly sitting alongside one another to watch the series unfold. But Sex Education is not alone in the whatever-you-do-absolutely-do-not-watch-this-with-your-parents regard. So, let's take a look at some of the others.
10 TV shows you absolutely should NOT watch with your parents
1) The Inbetweeners: First up on the list is everyone's favourite coming-of-age sitcom, The Inbetweeners. It followed the misadventures of Will, Simon, Neil and Jay as they navigated the considerable difficulties of school life, friendship, male bonding and lad culture, not to mention the added struggle of a whole lot of bad luck with the ladies. The series was also filled to the brim with NSFW moments and consequently NSFWWYP (not-suitable-for-watching-with-your-parents) moments – not that they weren't often really funny, though.
2) Geordie Shore: Geordies don't tend to mince their words and that has very much proven to be the case on MTV's Geordie Shore. Still going strong to this day, the series follows the lives of up to a dozen housemates, all living together under the same roof for a number of weeks, as they party, argue, fight, bicker, drink and get off with one another. It is most certainly an experience: perhaps just not one to share with your parents.
3) The Affair: The clue is in the title really, isn't it? Airing on these shores on Sky Atlantic, The Affair explored the aftershocks of an affair, as it happens, between married writer, Noah Solloway and waitress, Alison Lockhart – both played by uber-talented Brits, Dominic West and Ruth Wilson (Luther's incredible, if slightly unhinged, Alice Morgan). There was sex. A whole lot of sex. A whole lot of sex that left little to the imagination. It also has succeeded in wrangling multiple seasons out of that sole concept – the affair, not the sex.
4) Secret Diary of a Call Girl: If you were wondering what Billie Piper did post-Doctor Who then a better question might be swapping the 'what' for 'who'. After starring as Rose Tyler in the family friendly science-fiction series, Piper took the role of Belle in Secret Diary of a Call Girl, playing the titular call girl as she sets about satisfying some bizarrely hilarious requests from her various clients scattered across London – sheep sounds, for a peculiar example. While the series, by all accounts, reviewed very well, it was perhaps one to watch by yourself and definitely not with the 'rents or, worse, with Doctor Who fans expecting a spin-off series.
5) Game of Thrones: The critically acclaimed fantasy epic, based on the novels by George R. R. Martin, that has proven to be a veritable magnet for primetime Emmy Awards is returning for an eighth and final series in April to bring the story to an end and once more it will come with its very own pick-your-poison when it comes to awkward viewing situations with your elders – be it gratuitous sex, nudity, violence, gore or bloodshed. Episode seven of series one in Petyr Baelish's brothel deserves a mention here.
6) Big Mouth: From dragons to hormone monsters…Big Mouth is an animated comedy on Netflix that follows a group of teenage boys and girls as they journey through puberty. It is an experience only complicated by visits from the Hormone Monster – a monster that only arrives when those teens are especially hormonal in the explore their bodies sort of way. Sure, there are multitudes of very helpful lessons for teenagers when it comes to growing up and experiences ahead, but animated or not, that sort of hormonal is not the sort of thing to be watching with your parents, unless they like cartoon pubic hair and singing tampons.
7) The Deuce: The origins of the adult-film industry, surprisingly, does not really offer the most family-friendly of viewing experiences. The well-reviewed series follows twins – played by James Franco – strapped for cash and threatened by the mob as the porn industry really begins to rise. It is returning for a second season – likely to be as graphic as the first. And when we say graphic, we mean REALLY graphic. Probably not a show you'll gather the family together to watch as you eat dinner.
8) Prime Minister's Questions: In this day and age, it is safe to say that those sat in the House of Commons are hardly covering themselves in glory for one reason or another. Therefore, watching the bray-fest that is the Prime Minister's Questions in which MPs behave worse than primary school children and no question is really answered may well risk catapulting your blood pressure to volcanic levels. A sense of exasperation may build, resulting in language you would never usually utter in front of your parents to escape your lips. While there is no nudity, bad language or Game of Thrones-esque battles – let us not get into any sort of a debate as to if that would be an improvement – it could result in political debates unfolding in your living room. Nobody wants to end up there.
9) Shameless: Shameless – the name is already a warning itself – ran on Channel 4 for a whopping 11 series and has since gone on to spawn remakes in America, Turkey, Russia and even, Pakistan. It was, by all accounts, a family drama as it followed the Gallagher family and others on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. But considering the no-holds barred sex scenes among other aspects, it wasn't a watch-with-your-family sort of drama, unless you were one of the Gallaghers, by which we mean Shameless and not Noel and Liam.
10) Family Guy: There really is nothing off the table when it comes to Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy. The long-running animated series follows the fun and games of the Griffin family – Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris and Stewie. The fact that the series has a separate Wikipedia page entitled 'Criticisms of Family Guy' most probably tells you everything you need to know. It is inherently a show for dark humour, one filled with sex, violence, gore and tons of offensive jokes. That is not to say it's not routinely hilarious. It is. It just may not be the sort of humour that you are ready to share with your parents.
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