Heartstopper - Season 1
“The kindness and warmth of Heartstopper’s female friendships provides a refreshing take to the cattiness other media tends to project onto teen girls.”
Title: Heartstopper
Episodes Reviewed: Season 1
Creator: Alice Oseman 🧑🏼🇬🇧🌈
Writer: Alice Oseman 🧑🏼🇬🇧🌈 (8 eps)
Reviewed by Mimi 👩🏻🇺🇸
—MILD SPOILERS AHEAD—
Technical: 4.5/5
Heartstopper serves up a charming and sweet take on teen romance, centering the experiences of queer characters. The series satisfyingly hits all the familiar rom-com beats—such as the meet-cute, or the friends-to-lovers trope—while pushing the genre forward with its contemporary sensibility.
At an all-boys school, soft-spoken Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) frequently eats lunch alone to avoid being bullied. But when he’s assigned to sit next to rugby jock Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) in class, their burgeoning friendship introduces both of them to new possibilities. The talented young actors bring an enjoyable balance of depth and lightness to their roles, and they’re supported by a delightful ensemble that includes Olivia Colman as Nick’s mom.
The Netflix adaptation remains faithful to creator Alice Oseman’s original webcomic, even incorporating adorable bits of animation to punctuate the characters’ emotions. As one might expect of today’s teens, much of their communication happens over their smartphones, which feels realistic. The indie pop soundtrack featuring acts like CHVRCHES, Rina Sawayama, and Chairlift stirs up an appropriately bubbly and youthful atmosphere.
Gender: 4/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
While the main storyline revolves around two boys, the show devotes a good amount of screen time to the friendships among girls. Transgender student Elle (Yasmin Finney) initially finds herself eating lunch alone after transferring to the all-girls school, until Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) take her under their wing. Their kindness, openness, and warmth with each other provides a refreshing take to the cattiness and competitiveness other media tends to project onto teen girls. And Oseman, who uses she/they pronouns, wrote all eight episodes in the first season.
Race: 4/5
The series doesn’t explicitly address issues of race but does normalize racial diversity through its inclusive casting. Both Elle and Tara are Black. Also part of Charlie and Elle’s friend group, Tao (William Gao) is Asian. We see his ethnically Chinese mother in a minor speaking role, and several of the teachers at both schools are played by actors of color.
LGBTQ: 5/5
Where Heartstopper excels most is in its nuanced depiction of how young queer characters choose to explore and express their gender identity and sexuality. Although Charlie has already come out as gay, his involvement with someone who’s closeted causes him a great deal of turmoil. Meanwhile, Nick’s growing confusion about his feelings for Charlie leads him on an emotional journey, in which he discovers he’s neither gay nor straight (spoiler: he’s bisexual).
Elle nurses a secret crush on Tao, who jokes about being the group’s token straight guy. And after debuting their relationship on social media, Tara and Darcy grapple with prejudice from their peers.
Oseman, who came out as aromantic asexual, has also hinted that a character’s asexuality will be the focus of the upcoming season.
Mediaversity Grade: B+ 4.38/5
Overall, the show treats young people with a great deal of empathy and tenderness (even if its audience doesn’t always do the same). Based on the webcomic’s later storylines, the series is poised to devote more time addressing mental health issues in its future episodes, as well. It seems especially important to provide representation that’s interested in supporting LGBTQ people at a time when they’re under attack in the UK and United States. Without ever feeling over-the-top, Heartstopper indulges in just enough joy and optimism to melt even the most hardened of hearts.
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