Remember Lily? The Real Reason Tanya Reynolds Left Sex Education
The actress should have stayed on the show.
Prior to the release of its fourth and final season, Netflix's Sex Education was widely considered to be the best teen drama series of recent years, as its wacky sense of humor, colorful cast of characters, and much-needed LGBTQ+ representation made the first three seasons of the show a total blast to watch and re-watch. However, despite the great anticipation for the final season, fans were left disappointed when the credits rolled for the final time.
The fourth season was universally panned for bloated storylines, poor writing, and uninteresting plot twists that made watching the final batch of episodes a chore for fans new and old.
Most of all, people hated that the beloved actors from the first seasons of the show were not asked to return for the final season.
New Characters Were the Worst Part of Season 4
While it's obvious that the writers were simply trying to make the show feel fresh again, they really failed at creating new characters on the show, as none of them turned out to be interesting enough to really grab the fans' attention.
Instead of introducing new faces, the writers should have used old ones, some of whom were inexplicably written out of the show after last season. Most of all, fans missed Lily, a quirky teenager played by Tanya Reynolds. Lily's character arc was one of the best things about Season 3, and fans really wanted to see more of her, but the producers decided to let Tanya go in Season 4.
Bad Decision
While some fans were initially sure that Tanya had left the show of her own accord, simply choosing to move on for career opportunities, this turned out not to be the case.
Tanya was apparently ready to play Lily in the final season, but it looks like the writers decided to drop her character in favor of new ones.
'It's just the natural progression of these shows — when you have such big ensemble casts and so many characters, I think you have to let a few older characters go to make way for newer ones, which is absolutely the right thing, the way it should happen,' Reynolds said in a recent interview with Radio Times.
Although the actress tried to remain positive about her elimination for the final season, it is obvious that the writers made a huge mistake by not inviting her back.
Source: Radio Times.