If you’re in need of something saccharine sweet to watch this winter season, “Heartstopper” on Netflix is an ideal choice.
Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alice Osman, “Heartstopper” follows teen protagonist Charlie Spring (played by Joe Locke) as he navigates high school as the only out boy at his all boy’s school. While he is flanked by his two best friends, Tao (Willian Gao) and Isaac (Toby Donovan), school is overall rather unbearable.
Netflix
The “Heartstopper” crew marvel at their Parisian landscape
Despite his cheery disposition, Charlie finds himself struggling with depression while he wades through a pseudo-relationship with a closeted boy, Ben Hope (Sebastian Croft), who bullies him in public. This cognitive dissonance pummels Charlie’s self-esteem leading him to believe he is somehow inherently unlovable.
Enter Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), popular rugby player turned best friend to Charlie. Charlie and his friends all have to figure out who they are in this uplifting story about found family, love, and self-acceptance.
This show is filled with well-written representations of the LGBTQIA+ community. With gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, and transgender representation, this show is jam-packed with messages of love and kindness.
Whether it’s Charlie and Nick exploring the depths of their affection for one another or Tao’s difficulty at the thought of losing the friendship group he’s had for years, Elle’s (Yasmin Finney) navigation from an all boys to an all girls school, or the experience of going from friends to girlfriends for two of Elle’s friends, this show balances it all with grace and gentleness.
One of the more genius moves in this show is the way it interweaves aspects of the graphic novel visually into the show. For example, when Charlie and Nick almost hold hands little cartoon fireworks and sparks light up the space between their hands while the sound of fireworks threads into the score.
In fact, this is an adaptation that truly lives up to its mixed media format in more ways than just adding drawn elements into the real-life story. Even the way the episodes are shot are often homages to their paper counterparts. There is a scene where two of the characters kiss under an umbrella in the rain that is almost an exact replica of a graphic page of the same scene. This attention to detail makes it an undeniably wonderful adaptation.
This is the perfect show for anyone who loves love, understands the beauty in diversity, and wants to feel all the flutters of first love while living vicariously through fictional characters. And once you finish both seasons of the show, don’t worry, there’s plenty more content to consume via Alice Osman’s continuation of the story in graphic novel form.
