BubbleUK: Season One Review “The Real History of Sex”

How does BBC Three’s web effort perform in bed? Find out in this review.

I’m guessing that most of you are still giggling at the name of what I’m reviewing. Once you’ve let it all out, we can maturely start this review like civil grown-ups, okay? That’s better, so “The Real History of Sex” is a series of animated internet shorts being aired on BBC3’s Youtube channel. Each episode features two characters in a hot tub discussing topics related to sexual history, frequently cutting to gags related to the facts being told.

The first thing you’ll notice about this show is its animation style, which uses warped photographic cut outs to make its characters, a bit like the Canadian children’s cartoon “Angela Anaconda”. Fabulous Frank, the studio behind the animation, proudly states that this is their signature animation style on their Vimeo page. It certainly makes for some rather terrifying uncanny valley visuals that’ll immediately turn off people in a heartbeat.

 

  

The show’s art style has a striking resemblance to the animated nightmare fuel “Angela Anaconda”

Despite the creepy animation, the show does manage to be mildly entertaining thanks to it’s many strange, funny and shocking facts related to sexual history. From early conceptions of contraception to outdated forms of birth control, it’s quite fascinating stuff and ends up feeling like a more naughty of “Horrible Histories”. Sure, many of this trivia can get a bit gross but what do you expect from such a topic?
The gags we cut to can be hit or miss, the weird animation can kill certain sketches but when a joke is funny, it’s laugh out loud funny. The snappier and quicker paced jokes work best, like a silly gag involving Mozart penning songs about anal – a gag that effectively amuses because it relies on Mozart’s childish energy. The problem is that some trivia doesn’t really warrant a sketch, which can lead to some pointless dragged out exercises in comedy.

Also, the series does have a very repetitive formula. Each episode is hosted by a Vlogger and a historian in a hot tub, they spout a bunch of cheeky trivia and then they quiz a random passer-by about sex history. It’s the same setup, same background and same structure for every episode. It can get quite boring after a while, I did find myself losing engagement by the third or fourth video but each episode is only 6 minutes long luckily.
What about the hosts themselves? Well, the historian’s slight discomfort about the subject and serious composure is kind of funny but the vlogger’s grating personality and forced British slang is a bit much, she talks like how older folks THINK the millennial generation speaks and it’s awkward. To be honest, I think the show would have worked better if it was JUST the historian because he’s kind of charming to watch.

To conclude, “The Real History of Sex” is certainly informative and educational but it’s comedy is a mixed bag, the main host can be obnoxious and the animation is quite the eye-sore. If you want to know facts about fetishes in Roman times or old fashioned intercourse traditions in Austria then this series is for you, but my best advice is to watch the show in doses because binge watching it can get boring. The video’s responses range from angry confusion to fun enjoyment, so it’s like the Marmite of BBC internet series.
The first season has recently ended and you can watch episodes made so far on BBC3’s Youtube Channel linked here.