Cancelled Netflix series just became the service's most popular show

If you’re a subscriber to Netflix, chances are you’ve probably had one of your favourite shows cancelled throughout the duration of your subscription. The streamer has somewhat of a bad rep for prematurely cancelling shows that had way more mileage in them. Major hit Sex Education was the latest to kick the bucket, airing its fourth and final season.

Sex Education premiered back in 2019, receiving critical acclaim. Set within Moordale Secondary School, the show originally centred around Otis whose mum just so happened to be a sex therapist. To improve his social standing at school, Otis decided to use all that he knew to set up an underground sex clinic, and so our adventure with these characters began. We knew going into season four that it would be the final season, and it does sound as if it was a joint decision between Netflix and showrunner Laurie Nunn, but a premature one at that.

Take a look at Sex Education’s season four trailer below.

Nunn explained, “In my mind I always felt like I could just write these characters forever and ever. Letting them go has been painful and I think I'm still processing that. But it happened very organically: when we did the writers’ room for season four we didn't set out for it to be the final series.”

Nunn continued, “This was not an easy decision to make, but as the themes and stories of the new season crystallised, it became clear that this was the right time to graduate." It’s interesting because many fans feel the complete opposite. The final season has been declared to be the weakest, with plenty of viewers saying that more time was needed to flesh out the story and give certain characters the closure they deserved.

With that in mind, and judging by these viewership figures, it looks as if both Netflix and Nunn may have ended things a tad too soon. As reported by Deadline, the final season of Sex Education is the highest-rated series on Netflix so far this year in the UK. Here, the premiere was watched by three million people, with 2.5 million tuning in to the second episode. This places it ahead of previous frontrunner At Home With The Furys which had 2.6 million viewers in August.