The first season of Heartstopper really struck a chord with the entire LGBTQ+ community around the world. A teen dramady about the innocence of your first true love and discovering your sexuality. For a lot of people in the queer community it was something they thought they would never see, and something they wish they had growing up. For me it also carried a little bit of personal pride with it as my hometown was prominently featured in the show. So, the second season was appropriately highly anticipated, and now it’s here how does it fare?
Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) are officially dating, but Nick isn’t yet ready to come out publicly which causes rifts at home when his homophobic older brother, David (Jack Barton) returns from university. Their relationship puts pressure on Charlie’s studies, and the prospect of going on the school trip to Paris together is put in jeopardy.
Meanwhile Tao (William Gao) is trying to pluck up the courage to ask Elle (Yasmin Finney) out, but is feeling abandoned by her following her application to a prestigious art college and new set of friends.
Tara (Corrina Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) are planning the school prom, but Darcy’s family life seems to be getting in the way of their relationship.
A while Isaac (Tobie Donovan) is coming to terms with his sexual preferences, or more accurately a lack thereof.
If you liked the first season of Heartstopper then you’re going to like the second. It’s more of the same and considering how refreshingly original season one was, that’s no bad thing. The performances remain strong, and the story is as engaging as ever. But overall season two isn’t quite as strong, mostly because of a few small things.
Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) are officially dating, but Nick isn’t yet ready to come out publicly which causes rifts at home when his homophobic older brother, David (Jack Barton) returns from university. Their relationship puts pressure on Charlie’s studies, and the prospect of going on the school trip to Paris together is put in jeopardy.
Meanwhile Tao (William Gao) is trying to pluck up the courage to ask Elle (Yasmin Finney) out, but is feeling abandoned by her following her application to a prestigious art college and new set of friends.
Tara (Corrina Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) are planning the school prom, but Darcy’s family life seems to be getting in the way of their relationship.
A while Isaac (Tobie Donovan) is coming to terms with his sexual preferences, or more accurately a lack thereof.
If you liked the first season of Heartstopper then you’re going to like the second. It’s more of the same and considering how refreshingly original season one was, that’s no bad thing. The performances remain strong, and the story is as engaging as ever. But overall season two isn’t quite as strong, mostly because of a few small things.
First up, is everyone in this show gay? It sounds like a silly thing to say about an LGBTQ+ show, but where the first season had a handful of straight characters, they’re almost entirely absent in this season. Season two has a habit of turning some of the straight characters gay, and the few remaining straight characters come season’s end are all awful people. It’s gotten to a point where there are no gay allies in the show, you’re either one of them or you’re homophobic, and that’s a really damaging dynamic to have. It’s sends out completely the wrong message to young people, essentially telling them they either need to be queer or homophobic. It’s a dynamic I didn’t expect from Heartstopper and I hope they course correct in season three to introduce more allies.
Charlie was also getting on my nerves a bit this season, having quickly become the insufferable boyfriend. Nick seems to be up for it so I’ll let it slide somewhat, but Charlie’s entire life revolves around spending time with Nick, and that’s why his grades start to slip. All he talks about is Nick, and all he actually cares about is Nick. Charlie seemed like a level headed guy in season one, head over heels for the boy he fancied of course, but he wasn’t stupid. Here he’s just blinded by love, and kind of becomes a crap friend at points because he can’t be apart from Nick for longer than five minutes; even going so far as to sneaking into one of Nick’s GCSE exams just to say hi and that he loves him, which I think was borderline character assassination.
I did love the focus on Tao, Elle, and Isaac though. In season one Tao was an insufferable know it all that often saw himself as superior to his friends, and I hated him. Here in season two, that does continue to an extent. He begins to grow and realise that a lot of his crappy personality traits are what’s stopping him and Elle getting together, and he makes a concerted effort to change for her. The relationship they share is so cute, filled with all kids of ups and downs, and I was totally here for it.
I also was so happy to see Isaac get given a bigger part this season. I still think it’s a bit weird (and rude) that he’s just always reading no matter where they are, even if it’s somewhere he really shouldn’t be reading. Anyway, it’s so rare to see asexual characters in film and TV so it was great that time was dedicated to see him go through that process of trying to understand himself, the same way Nick did in season one.
As I said before, if you liked Season One then you’ll like Season Two. It’s not without its faults but they are small gripes I have with the show. Overall it’s not as strong as Season One but the dip in quality is so marginal that for most it won’t even matter.
Heartstopper Season Two is great, and I can’t wait to see what comes of Season Three.
Charlie was also getting on my nerves a bit this season, having quickly become the insufferable boyfriend. Nick seems to be up for it so I’ll let it slide somewhat, but Charlie’s entire life revolves around spending time with Nick, and that’s why his grades start to slip. All he talks about is Nick, and all he actually cares about is Nick. Charlie seemed like a level headed guy in season one, head over heels for the boy he fancied of course, but he wasn’t stupid. Here he’s just blinded by love, and kind of becomes a crap friend at points because he can’t be apart from Nick for longer than five minutes; even going so far as to sneaking into one of Nick’s GCSE exams just to say hi and that he loves him, which I think was borderline character assassination.
I did love the focus on Tao, Elle, and Isaac though. In season one Tao was an insufferable know it all that often saw himself as superior to his friends, and I hated him. Here in season two, that does continue to an extent. He begins to grow and realise that a lot of his crappy personality traits are what’s stopping him and Elle getting together, and he makes a concerted effort to change for her. The relationship they share is so cute, filled with all kids of ups and downs, and I was totally here for it.
I also was so happy to see Isaac get given a bigger part this season. I still think it’s a bit weird (and rude) that he’s just always reading no matter where they are, even if it’s somewhere he really shouldn’t be reading. Anyway, it’s so rare to see asexual characters in film and TV so it was great that time was dedicated to see him go through that process of trying to understand himself, the same way Nick did in season one.
As I said before, if you liked Season One then you’ll like Season Two. It’s not without its faults but they are small gripes I have with the show. Overall it’s not as strong as Season One but the dip in quality is so marginal that for most it won’t even matter.
Heartstopper Season Two is great, and I can’t wait to see what comes of Season Three.