If you’ve been dying to know what the situation is with Charlie, Nick, and the gang in the world’s favourite YA LGBTQI romantic drama, your wait is over. Heartstopper season 2 has arrived in Australia and is now streaming on Netflix.
Created by Alice Oseman, and based on her comics of the same name, Heartstopper tells the touching tale of Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), a gay teen who falls in love with classmate Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), a star rugby player at their school. Much to his own surprise, Nick finds himself reciprocating Charlie’s feelings. The first season of eight episodes largely followed their nascent romance as Nick wrestled with his sexuality.
When season two picks up the narrative thread, Nick has just come out to his mother, Sarah (the always fantastic Olivia Coleman), but the process of coming out to his extended friend circle is daunting. Charlie’s overprotective best friend, Tao Xu (William Gao) has a budding relationship with Elle Argent (Yasmin Finney), a trans girl. Plus there’s all the usual school day dramas to contend with, albeit filtered through a queer lens. It’s a bit like Grange Hill with more experimentation.
Actually, perhaps the best way to think of Heartstopper is as a PG riff on Sex Education. As our own critic noted in her review of season one: “While Sex Education offers often frank, queer-inclusive sexual health advice, its 18 certificate asserts that it’s not appropriate for teenagers (because teenagers, famously, have no interest in sex!). Heartstopper is the softcore alternative: characters have sexualities, but they do not have or show interest in sexual activity.”
But don’t take our word for it. When it debuted, Heartstopper became one of the 10 most-watched Netflix programs within two days of release, and a third season has already been greenlit. So if your TV diet is lacking in sweet-natured queer YA romance, now’s a perfect time to jump in.
