Alice Oseman does her queer teen webcomic a sweet service

From beloved webcomic to graphic novel to Netflix series, Heartstopper is a truly sweet teen romance that will steal your heart. English writer and illustrator Alice Oseman has extracted the characters of her Tapas/Webtoon/Tumblr hit 2016 webcomic and found real-life ambassadors for them in the screen adaptation directed by Euros Lyn.

Heartstopper lies on the sugary sweet end of the teen dramedy series spectrum, worlds apart from Euphoria and Skins, younger but just as delightful as Sex Education, with a new gay love story akin to Love, Viktor. But it doesn’t shy away from a poignant examination of queer identity amid steadfast heteronormativity.

The series starts with Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), an anxious 14-year-old Year 10 at Truham Boys School who’s into The Strokes and — unfortunately — a toxic, closeted classmate. Ben Hope (Sebastian Croft) wants to keep his dalliance with Charlie a secret. But Charlie has got a supportive art teacher (Fisayo Akinade), cool and deadpan sister Tori (Jenny Walser), and Tao and Isaac (William Gao and Tobie Donovan), “borderline outcasts” who are the best friends anyone could ask for. All three desperately miss their friend Elle (Yasmin Finney), who transferred to Higgs Girls School after experiencing merciless transphobic bullying. Having come out the year before, Charlie is recovering from homophobic abuse suffered at his school.

Charlie’s bedroom is *exactly* the same in the comic.
Credit: Netflix

Newcomer Joe Locke is enchanting as Charlie. At first, he’s constantly looking like he’d rather the world swallow him up on the spot, but then he finds a glimmer of self-love and confidence amid the support of his friends and blossoming romance. In the comic, Charlie is in a permanent state of blushing and looks like he’s about to combust with social anxiety (a relatable mode), and Locke channels this energy. Charlie often spirals into self-doubt and apology. As Tao says, “He’s always had a tendency to believe him just existing is annoying for other people.” Constantly “used to” being mistreated by jerks but giving them all the patience in the world, Charlie tells Tori that he wants someone “who is nice, and kind, and likes being with me,” which is the very lowest bar someone deserves in a relationship.

Then, in a vertical form group, which throws students from multiple years together, he’s sat next to Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), a 16-year-old Year 11 “rugby king,” who runs with the football crowd and hangers-on at an all-boys school. As sparks fly between him and Charlie, Nick starts to question his sexuality — and his friends.

Connor truly delivers on Nick’s awkward, stoic sweetness, conflicted by the toxic, heteronormative masculinity he’s surrounded by at school, and his developing feelings for his friend. (An aside, if you recognise his voice, Connor played Lyra’s daemon Pantalaimon in His Dark Materials. Cool fact.) Though he’s got a truly supportive mum (played by a Very Famous Person we cannot name), he’s grown up around menacing homophobic bullies like Harry Greene (Cormac Hyde-Corrin) and his enabling cohorts of sporting lads. And well, if you didn’t go to school with a Harry Greene, good for you.

“Hi.”
Credit: Netflix

And then there’s Ben. Played with villainous Malfoy energy by Croft, Ben is the sheer embodiment of a toxic, abusive person channeling self-loathing into manipulation and bullying. Ben’s power over Charlie doesn’t stop at demanded secrecy. He threatens him physically and emotionally, and even crosses lines of consent.

Heartstopper declares loud and clear that friendship is the basis of any strong, healthy relationship, without exception. This is explored by expanding on the stories of characters who were included in the mini-comics, like Tara and Darcy, and Tao and Elle. When he’s not throwing a protective barrier around Charlie, demanding his film night tradition, and mourning changes in his friendship group, Tao (the exceptional, high-drama Gao) spends his days completely unaware of his own feelings for Elle (the wonderfully measured Finney). The sparks between Elle and Tao channel that terrifying magic of longtime friendships that develop into something more through really tiny moments. Yet neither want to call it out and ruin the friendship!? Doom! Peril!

These two! You’re right there! 🤩
Credit: Netflix

Meanwhile, Elle is both trying to come to terms with being in love with her best friend and finding her feet at her new all-girls school after enduring transphobia at Truham. Luckily, she finds the marvelous Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), who like Nick and Charlie, spend their days keeping everyone thinking they’re platonic best friends. Their journey to living out and free together as lesbians, amid unchecked homophobia, is powerful to watch.

Tara and Darcy 4 eva 💘
Credit: Netflix

Heartstopper‘s sweetness isn’t left entirely to the actors, though they deliver it in heaped spoonfuls — almost literally in a scene involving a triple date with milkshakes served in a bunting-clad park pop-up that is too offensively lovely and twee to ever actually exist. Paying homage to the series’ comic beginnings, the series is almost frame-for-frame like the first two graphic novels. Charlie’s bedroom is exactly as it’s drawn, down to the electric drum kit, Strokes poster, and neon “MUSIC” light. In sweet animated Extraordinary You-level detail, hand drawn leaves float through scenes. Charlie’s fantasised versions of events are exactly like the comic’s thought bubbles, and literal sparks fly around hovering hands.

Yes, it’s corny. Yes, I love it.

There are more than a few classic teen crush touchpoints in the series: sequences of furiously scrolling through each others’ social media pages, strategic use of pouring rain for unexpected cute moments, copious amounts of montages — and I mean, a lot of montages here. The art of the text messaging sequence is rather important. Heartstopper leans on it throughout the series: the universal stress of typing dots, the multiple drafts backspaced, the unsteady wave of excitement that comes from an even slightly flirty tone.

While the show includes quite a plethora of montages due to its graphic novel beginnings, it’s worth it for the soundtrack. Following in the footsteps of extremely well-playlisted teen series like Love, Viktor, Never Have I Ever, Sex Education, and the To All the Boys… films, Heartstopper drops the needle on every last indie star in the book, with a dreamy, floaty, electronic playlist full of Wolf Alice, Maggie Rogers, Girl In Red, beabadoobee, CHVRCHES, Orla Gartland, Baby Queen, Montaigne, Chairlift — you get it.

More than optimistic montage pop, score-wise, however, the show shares a lot with Love, Viktor, Hulu’s teen drama spinoff from Love, Simon. Love, Viktor covers a lot of the same ground — a delightful gay love story that Mashable’s Alexis Nedd describes as “equal parts squee-inducing romance and thoughtful interrogation of queer identity.” Like Viktor, Nick is a closeted teen figuring it all out in a modern realm that continues to assume straightness as default, where discriminatory comments are brushed off as locker room “banter.”

Heartstopper is a truly comforting, uplifting teen dramedy that’s so loaded up on subtle moments of friendship and romance that your ticker will likely cease functioning at points. It does what it says on the label.

Heartstopper Season 1 premieres on Netflix on April 22.