Netflix: “Heartstoppers” Season 1 (2022)
We’re usually the first people to see a play—years before it gets to Broadway. We visited Turkey and Costa Rica decades before anyone else did. So why are we the last couple on Earth to watch “Heartstoppers” on Netflix?
For those who are as clueless as we were, “HS” is a story about puppy love between middle-schoolers in England. Only the romance in question is between two young lads—Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor).
Charlie is openly gay in an all-boys school and suffers the bullying many gay teenagers endure. He feels safer in the company of his fellow nerds Tao (William Gao) and chubby Isaac (Tobie Donovan). Things starts to change, though, when he’s assigned a seat next to Nick in homeroom.
Nick is handsome, muscular and a star on the rugby team. Charlie is smitten—and so, it turns out, is Nick who is surprised and confused about his growing attraction to Charlie.
Meanwhile, Charlie and Tao’s friend Elle (the supermodel-beautiful Jasmine Finney), having transitioned from male to female, now attends the nearby all-girl school. (No coed schools in this part of England, apparently.) She is friendless until she meets two other outcast girls—Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kit Edgell) who it turns out are lesbians.
This is altogether a far more interesting set of issues than those facing the shallow high schoolers in “Gossip Girl.” But what really makes the series worth watching is the acting. Connor and Locke are so genuinely affectionate toward each other (and btw chaste; after all, they are only 15) you root for them openly to succeed as a couple. Love is love is love, as we all know.
“Heartstoppers” is based on the graphic novels penned by the British YA author Alice Mae Oseman. She’s already published four featuring Nick and Charlie, and a fifth is in the works. I can’t wait to see where this is going in future seasons. And this time I plan to take my head out of the sand and accompany them every step of the way.