Analysis: How “Heartstopper” became a coming-of-age phenomenon

Nothing particularly dramatic happens during “Heartstopper” British teen drama that returns to Netflix for its second season this Thursday (3).

That alone, strangely enough, makes the show – which the San Francisco Chronicle rightly dubbed “the anti-‘Euphoria’” – seem somehow revolutionary, even a year after its US debut.

The first season of the series, adapted by the director euro lyn and by comic book writer Alice Oseman, it centered primarily on the romance between Charlie (Joe Locke), a shy, openly gay boy; and Nick (Kit Connor), a rugby star who is coming to terms with his sexuality.

What differentiated “Heartstopper” however, was as much about what it wasn’t as it was, with an emphasis on quiet moments, the uncertainty of first love, and a generally accepting attitude toward its LGBTQ characters, including fathers who embrace and support their parents. gay kids.

To the extent that the first season was about Charlie and Nick falling in love, the second feels more noticeably dull. They’re together, but in secret, except for a few close friends who know about the romance, while Nick struggles to come out not only at school, but also to his relatives, who aren’t as enlightened as his caring mother (Olivia Colman).

The new season also continues with an argument involving movie-obsessed Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney), a transgender girl who thinks of a promising acting career beyond her high school days.

Longtime friends, both harbored secret feelings for each other, but the bridge between friendship and courtship plays out with the kind of sweet, tentative awkwardness that largely defines and distinguishes the series.

As noted, “Heartstopper” stands out in part by veering towards light as opposed to dark. In doing so, the British production found a clear path between the froth of most Disney Channel dishes and the dark and brutal images of teenage life that attracted “Euphoria a disproportionate amount of media attention.

The irony is that an increasingly strident discussion around the gay rights movement has “Heartstopper” seemed to be leaning into a cultural debate simply by tackling young love in such a tender and down-to-earth way.

The series, however, struck a receptive chord when it debuted, in part because it’s so unabashed about the buoyancy of these youthful experiences, deftly using music and animation to illustrate the explosions inside the characters’ heads.

After the first season, Collider suggested that the show had “dismantled” stereotypes just by dispensing with what we’ve come to associate with LBGTQ stories.

Katia Hetter, da CNN called it “the queer teen love story I didn’t know I needed”, noting that, having come out in the 1990s, “it’s an innocent love story that many of my peers and I wish we’d grown up with”.

In an age when being provocative is often considered the quickest and easiest way to get noticed, nothing about “Heartstopper it’s explicit or even daring, plus a good amount of making out.

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