Bad Education was a show that I grew up with, and you always worry when you hear that something so nostalgic to you is being revisited that it’s never going to hit the expectations it did to begin with because it’s no longer fresh and new and exciting. So I went into this reunion with a lot of concern in my mind, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was definitely a lot better than I expected.

Bad Education: The Reunion still sees Alfie Wickers working at the school while his girlfriend Rosie is off helping children in war-torn countries. The first of the kids to come back is Stephen, an out of work actor who now has to take a job at the school because he is not bringing any money in and cannot survive. But of course wanting to be this star-studded actor he finds this transition incredibly hard, especially as his old school mates start to return.

Joe hasn’t changed, he is his exact character that he always was but now seems to be a sugar baby to older women which he seems to enjoy. Chantelle is what seems to be a single mother, that isn’t confirmed, and has a daughter that she named Alphina, after her favourite teacher. Mitchell is his usual self, still wheeling and dealing and just having grown from the usual classroom to being more of a Del Boy type character, but the biggest change was Frank. Frank was the school bully who everyone, including the teachers, hated. He is now a born-again religious spiritual type that is all about karma and crystals and and all the wishy-washy stuff that seems to be very prominent in the 21st century.

I enjoyed these character developments and I enjoyed the fact that some of the characters had just grown up and so their personalities stayed the same but they have become more adult. As a whole this episode wasn’t incredible but did have quite a few laughs from me, but it did feel like it pandered to the more millennial, Gen Z demographic. It was still an enjoyable watch and I’m glad that it happened…

However after this reunion special came season four, the next in the the show series’, and I have no interest to watch it at all. I often feel when you have a reunion special they can add that nostalgia and rose tinted glasses that you had when you first watched the show, but trying to make it its own thing? That’s a step too far for me and it’s not something I’m interested in. I like when things are kept in their bubble that they always were, this is the same whether it’s Bad Education or The Inbetweeners or The IT Crowd. When they try to make a new show with new characters moulding with the old it just doesn’t work for me and I do not want it to ruin the happiness I have for the original.

So while I really enjoyed the reunion special I will not continue to watch the show and will happily just reminisce about what it used to be when these kids were still kids and they didn’t make me feel old with the fact that they are now fully formed adults.

What do you think of Bad Education: The Reunion?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding