Sex Education Season 2 Making Headmaster Groff A Villain Was A Mistake

Sex Education Season 2 Making Headmaster Groff A Villain Was A Mistake

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Sex Education season 2 makes Headmaster Groff the main antagonist, villainizing him to such an extreme that it hurts the show overall.

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Sex Education Season 2 Making Headmaster Groff A Villain Was A Mistake

Sex Education, a show that prides itself on its nuanced and sympathetic character portrayals, gave Headmaster Michael Groff (Alistair Petrie) little chance at such complexity in its second season.

At its core, Netflix’s Sex Education is about people. It uses bright colors, a strange yet recognizable setting, and textured characters to create an off-kilter world in which people willingly say out loud the things they are thinking. In doing so, it opens a dialogue about sex and relationships, exploring contemporary society’s relationship with both.

Not all characters in the show are good people. Sex Education season 2 presents a handful of characters whose intentions are not always pure, but handles them with grace and delicacy. Otis (Asa Butterfield) spends most of the season acting more like a “nice guy” than the actual nice guy audiences know he can be. Otis’ dad (James Purefoy) continues to be an absent father, but willingly admits he is “an asshole”. The relationship between Maeve (Emma Mackey) and her mother (Anne-Marie Duff), a recovering addict, is treated with enormous care – humanizing rather than villainizing the characters in a way that is denied to Headmaster Groff.

Sex Education’s Headmaster Groff Becomes A Cartoon Villain

Sex Education Season 2 Making Headmaster Groff A Villain Was A Mistake

In season 1, Headmaster Groff certainly has an antagonistic purpose, acting as the overly-strict authority figure archetype. The characters in Sex Education are all somewhat comedically overblown, but they never act without motivation. When Groff threatens Maeve with expulsion in season 1, he is both under the impression she is running a drug ring and trying to protect the reputation of his son. They might not be good reasons, but at least they are reasons.

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In season 2, Headmaster Groff often acts out simply because the scene requires an antagonist. He instantly develops a vendetta against Jean (Gillian Anderson) despite her providing helpful feedback. Eventually he associates her with the reason his wife wants to divorce him, but his opposition to her seems to mostly come from the story needing a bad guy. For a show explores the complexities of sex, it leaves his lack of desire for his partner of many decades as a character flaw that, unlike other relationship moments throughout season 2, goes unexamined.

By season 2, episode 7, Groff is acting more like a bully from a John Hughes film than the headmaster of a school. He goes full Regina George, distributing fliers containing confidential therapy session information about his underage students. When Regina George shares the Burn Book in Mean Girls, it is understandable (if not justifiable) because she is a teenage girl. Headmaster Groff is an adult who has spent his entire career working with young students.

Sex Education Is (Usually) Good At Humanizing Villains

Sex Education explores how there are rarely bad people; instead there are bad actions. It is a show that follows through on its characters, unwilling to write off any trait as a permanent flaw. Adam (Connor Swindells) could have easily been reduced down to a dumb bully, but season 2 takes care to break down his motivations and backstory, and allows him to improve himself. He spends the entire season being held accountable, forced to grow into the kind of person who deserves a shot with Eric (Ncuti Gatwa).

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Otis has also been on a journey. His actions, which had already become problematic by the end of season 1, turn downright deplorable in season 2. Although his flaws are relatable, he is not allowed to continue along the path of negative actions without consequences. The show forces him to confront himself, leading to an apology that is wholly satisfying and believable. For a show that gives so much leeway to its characters to evolve, Sex Education is uncharacteristically cruel to and dismissive of Headmaster Groff, reducing him down to a caricature of the villain he could be so much more than.

Next: Sex Education Avoided Falling Into Netflix’s Season 2 Trap

Shannon Lewis is a features and news writer on Screen Rant. She has experience in editorial working as the deputy editor for Specialty Food, an online and print magazine, curating its news section and social media. She has worked as a freelance writer since 2017, writing articles, features, and profiles in a wide range of topics, from business and tech to pop culture and media. Previously, she has also worked as a ghost writer for a fiction manuscript, and co-founded arts-and-literature magazine, Octarine. Hailing from Queretaro, Mexico, she is a graduate of the University of East Anglia’s English Literature with Creative Writing program. An avid reader and fan of writing, she leverages her love of literature to dissect movies in her favorite genres, including horror, rom-coms, and superhero movies. Her focus is on the cross-section between story, cultural background, and character development. When she isn’t busy reading everything ever published under the mantle of Image Comics, you might find her writing fiction, rock climbing, or putting together a horror anthology with friends.

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