(courtesy IMP Awards)
SNAPSHOT
Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) navigate their new relationship, Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) face unforeseen challenges, and Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney) work out if they can ever be more than just friends. With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to plan, the gang has a lot to juggle as they journey through the next stages of life, love and friendship.But at the root of it all, Heartstopper is about ‘exploring real, serious issues that can be dark, but trying to balance that with that feeling of hope that things can and will get better,’ said Oseman. ‘From a writing perspective, that can be really difficult to achieve without making it too dark or without skimming over the darker elements of the story. But striving for that balance is the point of Heartstopper.’ (courtesy TUDUM)
When I was growing up as a young gay man in the 1970s, the idea that one day, robustly lingering homophobia notwithstanding (thankfully far less virulent than it used to be) that LGBTQIA+ people could be accepted and love each other with the freedom of straight people seemed like the stuff of myth and legend.
Enmeshed in a church that told me I was broken and sinful, and a society that happily chirped that I was perverted, twisted and wrong, i simply couldn’t conceive that times could change.
But change they have, and part of that vanguard of love is love wonderfulness is Heartstopper, first a series of graphic novels by Alice Oseman – the fifth volume is due sometime in December – and now a super successful Netflix series entering its second season, the full trailer for which dropped a little earlier this week.
The bliss and joy of this wholly lovely series is that it shows us what can happen when people drop prejudice and bigotry and hand themselves over instead to the better, more beautiful angels our humanity’s collective nature and just love in all its beautiful forms runs its course.
To say this new season is waited for with baited breath would be a massive understatement; no doubt there will be some serious episode watching marathons happening in a week’s time!
The full second season of Heartstopper releases on Netflix on 3 August.