If Netflix has mastered anything, it's the ability to make and market a never-ending stream of thoughtful British TV shows that would never have seen the light of day on any other network. Sex Education is the latest, and even with an insanely good premise and brilliant headlining cast, it transcends its own sky-high expectations.

"Sex" and "teens" and "British" as a formula is tried-and-true and mostly foolproof, unless you are me, someone who grew up in England until he was 19. Skins was a game-changing show in 2007 that even now informs the way we portray the culture of youth. Recent hits on the aforementioned platform, like Lovesick, carry on this grand tradition, and Sex Education might be the most satisfying of the lot.

Set in modern-day England (though you wouldn't know it—the costuming choices and aesthetic in this show are bold and ridiculous but never distracting), the show follows Asa Butterfield as Otis and Gillian Anderson as his mother, Jean, a renowned sex therapist. Otis is a virgin and entirely uncomfortable with his mom's profession, not to mention her laissez-faire approach to adult hookups in his home. It doesn't help that, you know, this is high school and all Otis's friends know about his mum's job. Kids can be...the worst.

But Otis and Jean have a special (if initially awkward) bond as Otis begins to grow into himself as a young man. Anderson's usual expertly crafted cool detachment is modulated here into a loving directness with her son, and he responds to that with respect. Eventually, with the help of a few friends, Otis is running his own clandestine sex clinic at school, having learned from the best. You don't need to have had sex to identify what's wrong with your very inexperienced peers, after all, and wouldn't you know it, teens have a lot of very pressing sex questions that a teacher would probably be less than thrilled to help with.

So yes, it's a funny, fast, and occasionally filthy show, but Sex Education also succeeds with earnestness in tandem with its brashness. It might not necessarily be a family show in the traditional sense, but it's certainly about family, at the end of the day. That and how to bang well, an everlasting and relatable problem.

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