S&X Review: More Than a Show About Sex

By Justin D Williams

Netflix’s S&X is one of those shows where the title and premise immediately tell you that it is going to deal with subjects that television sometimes struggles to discuss seriously. A drama centered around a sex therapist could easily become overly provocative, uncomfortable for the sake of being uncomfortable, or rely heavily on comedy to get through its subject matter. What surprised me about S&X is how quickly it moves beyond that surface-level premise and becomes a much more thoughtful show about relationships, intimacy, communication, and the things people are afraid to admit about themselves. There is humor throughout the season, but underneath all of that is a surprisingly compassionate look at people who are trying to understand why something in their lives or relationships is not working.

The series follows Ichito Shimotori, a sex therapist who spends his days helping people with intimate problems that they often feel unable to discuss anywhere else. That setup gives S&X an episodic quality because different patients bring different situations into the clinic, but the season also has an ongoing story surrounding Ichito himself. The return of Yumi, someone with an important connection to his past, gradually forces him to confront parts of his own life that he has been much better at avoiding than addressing. I liked that contrast because it prevents the show from becoming nothing more than a collection of unusual cases. What really worked for me was how many of those cases eventually reveal themselves to be about something much deeper than sex.

A problem that initially appears physical might actually involve insecurity, loneliness, fear of rejection, trauma, or two people who simply stopped communicating with one another. The series does not always find the perfect balance between its comedy and its heavier moments, particularly early in the season, but it becomes much more confident as it goes along. Once I understood what the show was trying to accomplish, I became far more invested in the people entering Ichito’s clinic and what their situations were revealing about them. The ongoing storyline also gives the season an emotional center because Ichito is not presented as someone who has everything figured out.

He can recognize problems in other people almost immediately and provide them with a safe environment where they can discuss extremely personal issues, yet he has a much harder time applying that same honesty to himself. That contradiction makes the character far more interesting than if he were simply the brilliant therapist who always knows exactly what to say. S&X understands that being knowledgeable about relationships does not necessarily mean you are good at navigating your own.

Kento Nakajima does a great job carrying the series as Ichito because there is an immediate sincerity to the character. Ichito never feels like he is looking down on his patients, even when their situations are complicated or uncomfortable, and that sense of empathy is incredibly important for a show like this to work. At the same time, Nakajima allows us to see the difference between the professional version of Ichito and the much more uncertain person underneath. Some of my favorite moments with him are not the scenes where he explains something to a patient, but the quieter moments where you can tell that he is struggling to understand his own emotions.

Yuko Araki’s Yumi is equally important because she has a life and identity outside of simply being connected to Ichito. Their history gives the relationship some emotional weight, but Yumi also has her own ambitions, frustrations, and personal struggles that she has to work through. I liked that the show gives her room to challenge Ichito instead of using her only as someone who exists to support his development. Their relationship becomes another example of the show’s central idea that knowing how to communicate and actually doing it are two completely different things. The supporting cast also helps keep the individual cases from feeling disposable. Some patients obviously leave a bigger impression than others, but the better episodes give enough time to understand the person behind the problem rather than reducing them to whatever issue brought them into the clinic. That was important for me because this premise could have very easily turned its patients into jokes. Instead, S&X generally approaches them with enough empathy that even when I did not agree with someone’s behavior, I could understand what the series was trying to explore through them.

For me, Episode 4 is the strongest episode of the season because it takes the compassionate approach the series has established and puts it in a much more difficult situation. Without spoiling anything, the episode deals with behavior that has caused genuine harm and forces Ichito to navigate the difference between understanding why someone behaves a certain way and excusing what they have done. That distinction is incredibly important, and I thought the episode handled it better than I expected. It shows that empathy can be part of confronting harmful behavior without ignoring the people who were affected by it. Episode 4 also represents the point where I felt the show had completely figured out its identity. The humor takes more of a backseat, the emotional stakes are stronger, and the subject matter is treated with the seriousness that it deserves. It also challenges Ichito in a way that some of the earlier cases do not because listening to a patient is one thing, while forcing someone to recognize the consequences of their behavior is something else entirely. If I had to pick one episode that demonstrates what S&X can accomplish when everything comes together, this would easily be it.

The central theme of S&X is communication, but more specifically, it is about how shame prevents people from communicating honestly. Many of the characters are not necessarily incapable of explaining what they are feeling. They are afraid of what will happen after they say it. They worry that a partner will reject them, that somebody will judge them, or that admitting what they want will somehow change the way other people see them. The clinic essentially becomes a place where those conversations can finally happen without that immediate fear. The show also spends a lot of time examining the difference between physical intimacy and emotional intimacy. Being physically close to someone does not automatically mean you understand them, just as loving someone does not mean you automatically know what they need. Some of the problems throughout the season exist because characters make assumptions instead of having difficult conversations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0JDcngKiPo

That may sound simple, but S&X does a good job showing how complicated those conversations become when embarrassment, resentment, insecurity, and past experiences are involved. Ichito himself might be the best representation of that theme. He spends his professional life encouraging people to be honest about their feelings while keeping portions of his own emotional life locked away. The irony is intentional, but the show never treats it as some big joke about a therapist who cannot follow his own advice. Instead, it reminds us that understanding something intellectually and being emotionally prepared to confront it are completely different experiences.

I came away from S&X liking it much more than I expected. The first episode had me wondering whether the series was going to lean too heavily into exaggerated comedy, but once the characters and patient stories started receiving more room to breathe, the show became considerably more interesting. The subject matter might be what initially gets your attention, but it was the conversations surrounding loneliness, vulnerability, relationships, and self-acceptance that kept me watching. There are a few tonal bumps along the way, and some cases are stronger than others, but the season finds its footing quickly enough that those issues never overwhelmed what worked. Kento Nakajima gives the show the compassionate lead it needs, Yuko Araki brings genuine emotional weight to Yumi, and the better patient stories give S&X opportunities to approach topics that are usually either avoided or treated as jokes. More than anything, I appreciated that the series understands that intimacy is not simply about what happens physically between two people. Sometimes intimacy is admitting that something is wrong, telling somebody what you need, listening when another person tells you what they need, and being willing to have a conversation that you would rather avoid.

Final Rating