I've been having a stressful week, so when I finally had a chance to fire up the old Netflix machine, I was looking for something sweet and easy. I found it in the very charming new series Heartstopper, about a group of British teenagers navigating the complications of gender, orientation, and relationships.
Based on the book by Alice Oseman of the same name, Heartstopper follows Charlie (Joe Locke), a shy, dorky teen who was forcibly outed by bullies and is now the only out gay student at his all-boys school. In one of his classes, he's seated next to Nick (Kit Connor), a jock who is described as a golden retriever of a human being. They strike up a friendship, though neither of them quite knows what to do with these sparks between them. What this show does really well is capture the buzzy uncertainty that comes with young love. There's a sequence where Nick and Charlie almost hold hands that delightfully describes the tension of wanting to touch someone, you're not sure you should. There's also a nice supporting cast with their own issues to tackle. This shows serves as a nice example of the universality of the teenage experience. Whether they're gay, straight, trans, or whatever, the utter awkwardness of being around someone you like remains the same. Now, is the love story of two teenage boys enough to sustain a whole show? Not really. But that's kind of what's nice about it. It's gentle and thoughtful and there's a lot of montages of cute people being cute. (There's also one sequence with the worst fake snow I've ever seen, but I digress) It's eight episodes of about 30 minutes, so you could finish it in one squishy-feels night.
From first crushes to first-year college chaos... If you're in the mood for more lovable characters navigating the wonderfully awkward world of relationships, you'll want to add these HBO comedies to your watchlist. Read more!
What’s your favorite YA romance? Let me know at lilycahillwrites@gmail.com.