Heartstopper has become a hit for Netflix because it takes a look at teenage love from a mature standpoint. There’s drama, but it’s more real-life-type drama; more than anything else, there’s romantic stability among the couples in the show’s core friend group. Even the central couple, Charlie and Nick, are extraordinarily stable. But the show is anything but dull.
Opening Shot: A shot of items on the dresser of Tori Spring (Jenny Walser). We pan to her lying in bed, holding a fan to her face.
The Gist: Tori overhears her younger brother Charlie (Joe Locke) practicing how he’s going to tell his boyfriend Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) that he loves him. When she interrupts him, she finds out that Charlie is afraid to say the words, thinking that Nick won’t say it back. “He’s literally obsessed with you,” Tori tells Charlie about Nick. She encourages him to tell Nick that day, when their friend group goes to the beach before Nick goes on vacation for three weeks.
At the beach, we see the other couples in the friend group. Elle (Yasmin Finney) and Tao (William Gao) are officially together, and Tao wants to make this the most romantic summer ever, before Elle leaves for school. Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) are living together, but Tara is getting a bit uncomfortable with all the closeness, despite still being deeply in love with Darcy. Isaac (Tobie Donovan) tells Charlie that he thinks he’s asexual and aromantic, which he seems to be pretty OK with.
Isaac also encourages Charlie to tell Nick how he feels. Nick, though, has other concerns, as we see him encouraging Charlie to eat the fish and chips everyone got for lunch, and we see him do some internet searches in a flashback. Nick finally gets Charlie in the water, and Charlie is about to say those three little words, when Nick drops a bomb: He thinks Charlie has an eating disorder, something Charlie denies.
After the beach outing, Nick and Charlie stay on a romantic footing; Tara gently tells Darcy that she should live with her grandmother; Tao insists on cooking for Elle, when Elle would be content with a romantic dinner over takeout pizza.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Same as the first two seasons, Heartstopper reminds us of a more gentle version of Never Have I Ever.
Our Take: The most refreshing aspect of Heartstopper, created by Alice Oseman based on her graphic novel series, is that Nick and Charlie, the show’s central couple, are always solid in their feelings for each other. They don’t break up and get back together or suffer the same ups and downs as couples in other scripted romantic series. If there’s any conflict or tension, it has had more to do with Nick coming out or, in the case of this season, Nick’s concern over Charlie’s health. It’s a fascinating picture of young love that’s more stable than the picture of adult love we get in most scripted fare.
At this stage of the series, the romantic lives of the friend group have become as important as the Charlie-Nick pairing. It’s taken Tao two seasons to acknowledge his feelings for Elle, now he wants to go all out on the romance. And with Tara and Darcy, we’re seeing that the changing dynamic of their relationship doesn’t change how they feel for each other.
Watching couples stay solid through these kinds of changes and hardships is rare on television, especially amongst a group so young. In general, stability makes for boring stories. But Oseman has managed to take stability and use it to her advantage, showing how the small and big moments all contribute to building a relationship.
Sex and Skin: Nothing aside from Nick running around the beach with his shirt off and a scene of him in the shower.
Parting Shot: Charlie finds out he had nothing to worry about, and a barefoot Nick walks him home.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Tobie Donovan again, but now because Isaac is coming into his own as far as his own sexuality is concerned, though he’ll likely start to feel like an odd wheel when around this group.
Most Pilot-y Line: “We’re having a romantic, candlelit dinner,” Tao says to Elle after he messes up what he’s cooking. “So we can have a romantic, candlelit Domino’s,” she replies. Has anyone ever done anything romantic over Domino’s?
Our Call: STREAM IT. Heartstopper continues to revel in the small moments in relationships as well as the big ones, and seeing all of this romantic stability onscreen makes us feel good, which is the show’s objective.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.