#heartstopper review

[cherrie-teaa]

no because it’s so important to me that the rest of the group is hyping nick up to come out to imogen!! even if you know that the other person will be supportive, baring your soul like that is still such a nerve wracking experience and it means the world to me that nick has friends by his side to help. this show is just so good at queer friendships

[awardswatcherik]

'Heartstopper' Season 2 Review: Bi, Actually

[khumomarkham]

Heartstopper Season 3 Review out now!!! I’m already impatient for season 4.

[assembledpress]

I binged Heartstopper and now I can't stop crying 🍂

After a recommendation from a friend, I started Heartstopper. When I started the first episode, I expected to discover a fun binge-watch with cute characters. What I didn’t expect was a series that would consume my entire weekend and lead to an emotional breakdown on a Saturday evening. 

For those unaware, Heartstopper tells the love story between Nick and Charlie, two teenage boys who are learning to navigate school, friendships, and love. While the first season of the show came out last spring, I was too distracted by Bridgerton’s second season. As a former teenager myself, I have long been a fan of teen dramas of all different varieties; from The Vampire Diaries to High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (HSMTMTS) to Never Have I Ever to The Summer I Turned Pretty to Euphoria. I love the music montages, the fashion, and often, the drama. However, after season three of HSMTMTS, I found myself a bit disillusioned, as the show felt in many ways to be throwing random storylines to the wall to see what might stick. It ended up leaving a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for the entire genre.

But then, my trusted friend’s recommendation of Heartstopper led me to sit for nearly eight hours straight in my papasan chair wondering how I functioned for so long not having this show, its characters, and its storylines in my life. You may be thinking “So you found a show you really liked that is quite popular right now and had a proper binge of it. So what?”. 

For context, I’m a woman nearly two years post-grad who recently married her high school sweetheart, and therefore, I find myself at a point in life where I greatly miss my college friends and am super sensitive to any trope or story about first love or high school romance. What do you mean Peter Parker doesn’t stay with Gwen Stacey forever? In my head, she survives that fall and no one ever mentions MJ. Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez? Definitely happily married living in the suburbs with their athletic singing kiddos. Despite that hopeful romantic side of me, I’ve been informed throughout most of my life by almost all media and a variety of different statistics that first love doesn’t last. During the first several years of my relationship, I felt like people around me were waiting for the other shoe to drop, wondering how long we’d last before breaking up. Needless to say, I approached Heartstopper with a pocketful of caution and an expectation for the show to be just like any other melodramatic teen soap I’d seen before. 

Boy was I wrong. Heartstopper approaches its main relationship with the utmost respect for how genuine those teenage butterflies are. It builds slowly, allowing time to focus on the sparks felt when your finger touches your crush’s at lunch, or when you brush shoulders in the hallway. It never takes the cheap way out, never having a character reconnect with a toxic ex, or forcing a drawn-out love triangle. Instead, the show opts to dissect the wholesome nature of a crush turning into an early relationship and eventually, through commitment and care, evolving into a deep love.

Almost as importantly though, Heartstopper emphasizes the love not just in Nick and Charlie’s romantic relationship, but within their friend group. Charlie and Tao’s deep friendship spans years and has equally as deep ups and downs, and the two friends, despite never having any romantic connection, talk about their feelings openly, never being afraid to say “I love you” to one another. 

And thus, my emotional breakdown. I realized through the show’s supportive and loving friend group how much I missed the people who know me best. I found myself reminiscing over the early days of my relationship rather than being present over dinner with the same person. Piled on with the nostalgia and butterflies, I found myself crying with the littlest of provocation, and just feeling in a funk. 

It wasn’t until I finished my first re-watch of the show that I properly processed that it was okay if the show deeply impacted me, and I didn’t need to feel guilty for feeling all those emotions. Despite there being a near-infinite amount of quality content available at my fingertips, this show spoke to my heart, which is an undeniably special thing. Further, Heartstopper is the first show in a while that has prompted me to want to create - to create videos, sketches, paintings, short-form content, playlists, and this written piece. 

To be fair, maybe I’m biased toward the show because my compulsive nature led me to read all the graphic novels and research everything I could about the cast and creator to learn that *spoiler* Nick and Charlie canonically stay together forever. It feels comfortable and safe and representative to me to see a relationship start with a first glance in a classroom and end with 'til death do us part. Regardless, I feel that the show exists to honor how pure first love is, and how much that can impact and shape a person for the rest of their life. Whether it lasts decades or only a few months, first love has a way of irrevocably changing you. It’s something I’ve experienced firsthand and something Heartstopper reminded me of - for that, I couldn’t be more grateful.

[heartsofhorrors]

heartstopper vol 5 (review) 🍂✨📚

⚠️ spoilers ⚠️

speaking of the characters!! not specifically just about volume 5 but i need to gush for a second. charlie is just so incredibly relatable for me. his struggles feel so personal and intimate it can be hard to read but i just feel so so so seen by him. the way nick loves and cares about him is almost healing for me, weirdly enough. the entire friend group and how much they truly care so deeply for each person has healed a piece of me that has felt broken for a long time. they’re not even a real friend group but they really feel like my friends.

tao and elle once again being the most lovely supportive besties and are also so in love!!! tara and elle are such great supports for nick it’s so sweet to watch. and oh my little baby aled!!!!! i missed my boy so much!!! with him not being in the show i feel like i’ve neglected my appreciation for him as a character but i truly adore him so much and i was so happy to see him more in this volume!

tori!!!!!!! michael!!!!!!! tori and michael not being straight!!!!! oh my god!!!!!! ok sorry this was the one page i had seen on tumblr when the webtoon came out and everyone was freaking tf out haha this makes me so incredibly happy! tori is my favourite character forever and im so happy to see her and michael progressing and growing in this. also every interaction of tori and charlie makes me cry :)

the teachers are also just so incredibly sweet and really thriving and i love that for them!! i still think charlie’s mom hardcore sucks though sry. his dad is ok but like sir please tell your wife to chill more.

overall, shocker it was a 5 star read for me! alice never misses and i would die for these characters ✨

ps i tried out something new with making the collage and it was soooo fun!! i used to love making collages so that really made me feel nostalgic to make

[thequeereview]

TV Review: Heartstopper season 2 ★★★★

Padam. The gently groundbreaking Heartstopper returns to our screens this week to make our hearts skip a beat, launching globally on Netflix on Thursday, August 3rd. Joe Locke as Charlie and Kit Connor as Nick. Heartstopper. Courtesy of Netflix. As the eight-episode second season of the BAFTA-nominated and GALECA Dorian Award-winning series opens, we’re reunited with adorable teen boyfriends…

[ultimateblreview]

Heartstopper-2022 British

This cute British story of teen gay romance has broke into the mainstream and with season two of the series just been released it seems everyone is talking about heartstopper right now!

Both the graphic novel series created by Alice Oseman and the Netflix series that it’s based from are definitely worth reading/watching. The main characters are Charlie played by Joe Locke an openly gay secondary student and Nick played by Kit Connor a Student in the year above Charlie who likes playing Rugby and doesn’t know he’s bi.

It a classic story of friends to lovers with some wonderfully sweet moments and a genuine feeling coming of age journey for both the characters. They make a realistic couple and the relationship is believable and extremely cute.

Overall I really enjoyed reading the graphic novels and watching the series and would highly recommend both!

Series rating: 5/5

Where to watch: Netflix

Graphic novel rating: 5/5

Pre Order volume 5 on Amazon!

[hollywoodhandle]

‘Heartstopper’ Season 2 Review: Continuing To Be The Loveliest Series Around

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist. Continuing on from Season 1, Nick and Charlie navigate their new relationship; Tara and Darcy face unforeseen challenges and Tao and Elle work out if they can ever be more than just friends & with exams on the horizon, a…

[toneelspeelster]

heartstopper’s secret weapon is hugs by david opie (x)

[fandom]

Life, it never die. Nick Nelson is our favorite guy.

The second season of Heartstopper dropped on Netflix and has all of us wishing for a love like Nick and Charlie's. Conversation around the latest season of Good Omens shows no signs of slowing, and creator Neil Gaiman is at the head of it all. Hoyoverse has finally revealed the region of Fontaine as part of their upcoming update for Genshin Impact. DJ Crazy Times newest single Planet of the Bass reignited everyone's nostalgia for 90s European dance music, even those of us who weren't alive yet. This is Tumblr's Week in Review.

Good Omens

Heartstopper

Ineffable Husbands | Aziraphale & Crowley, Good Omens

Crowley | Good Omens

Aziraphale | Good Omens

Baldur's Gate 3

Artists on Tumblr

Barbie

David Tennant

DJ Crazy Times

Michael Sheen

Five Nights at Freddy's

Neil Gaiman

One Piece

Jujutsu Kaisen

Bungou Stray Dogs

Critical Role

Ineffable Bureaucracy | Archangel Gabriel & Beelzebub, Good Omens

Genshin Impact

Red, White & Royal Blue

[nnicknnelsonn]

The New York Times Review:

The Broadway revival of “Romeo + Juliet” plays to the TikTok crowd. But maybe that’s a good thing.

Source: New York Times Oct 24, 2024 (X)

Mostly positive, which is impressive from the NYT! Hopefully offsets the negative reviews. (X)

Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler and a viral pull-up

…Connor needs no help in keeping and maintaining the emotional temperature, easily enlarging the tenderness and obliviousness of his Nick on “Heartstopper” to fit the stage. When he looks into Juliet’s eyes, you see what he wants and how seriously he wants it; when he walks among his riotous peers, as they hump Teddy bears and sniff out insults, you see how little that means to him now.

Connor is also a very physical actor, or at any rate his recently beefed-up, often tank-topped body is given a workout. Instead of just climbing to Juliet’s balcony — represented by the design collective dots as a flowery bed that descends from the heavens — he does a leaping pull-up from the ground to get there, then lifts himself farther to achieve full face time. This is a lover with lats.

But a manly Romeo and a tiny Juliet — Connor is nearly a foot taller than Zegler — creates, or reinforces, a problem. It’s disturbing enough in the Shakespeare when Lady Capulet tells her 13-year-old daughter that “ladies of esteem” her age are “already made mothers.” With an actor who, despite his baby face, looks much older than his years (Connor is 20) and an actress who looks much younger than hers (Zegler is 23) you’re left in an indeterminate space between ancient and current levels of ick.

It’s wise, then, that despite the supercharged sexuality of the staging otherwise, Gold limits the pair’s lovemaking to gropes and kisses.

…Gold’s staging is perhaps the busiest and funniest I’ve seen, a lot of the humor coming from the dotty nurse, whom Shakespeare designed for that purpose. (She is played with Valley Girl snark by Tommy Dorfman, who also plays Tybalt.) And though there is, of course, violence, it is broadly mimed and deliberately mild. What the production emphasizes instead is unfairness, as teenagers tend to do as well, wanting limits to excuse their whining.

The play is thus less terrifying than teenifying — hence the plus sign instead of the “and” in the title. The lobby, lit like a junior high school prom, offers not just the expected merch and specialty mocktails but a table where ticket holders can learn about registering to vote. The choreography by Sonya Tayeh lands perfectly in the zone between professional movement and what a nerd might do in front of a mirror. Fangirling and fanboying are strongly encouraged. There is nothing unlikable about any of this.

It’s a little slick, though, at least for seen-that adults. The play’s twisty language, expressive of twisty thoughts, is largely untangled but, in the process, flattened. (Gold’s edit brings the running time, not counting intermission, to “the two hours’ traffic of the stage” Shakespeare mentions, but some of that traffic is stop-and-go.) I smiled a lot but never came close to crying.

Is that a reasonable response to aim for when staging the world’s most famous weepie? For me, seeing so many young people engaged, it is. Perhaps, as Shakespeare commands in the play’s closing speech, they will “Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.” And so what if the production achieves that goal by protecting them from too much unruly feeling, just as the Capulets aimed to protect Juliet? Probably, the Capulets were right.

[khumomarkham]

Heartstopper review, go check it out

[chxrrymwah]

ok i finished solitaire and while i didn’t cry (surprisingly) i think the main reason it stuck to me is because of the way tori narrates. no spoilers but the writing makes it seem like you are genuinely in her head, hearing her thoughts while in a lot of other books, even though you you do get the main character(s) thoughts, they aren’t as genuine as tori’s are here and i really like that

amazing book, would read again

[yikes077]

Happy Pride! Remember to catch all of your favorite queer shows this month, with all of your favorite queer characters! Shows such as canceled, canceled, canceled, canceled, canceled, canceled, canceled, canceled, canceled, and rupaul’s drag race!!! 

[crankpit]

HEARTSTOPPER HIGHLIGHTS because i need to write them down to keep them from spinning in my brain all night (they will anyway)

- DARCY 😭🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 “i don’t care i hate gender”

- AROMANTICISM IN A REALLY POPULAR TV SHOW EVERYONE CHEERED. watch and learn everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

- the i love you scene 🥺 kit is SUCH A HEARTTHROB i’m going to SCREAM. “no, no S-word!!”

- THE HALLOWEEN PARTY got me soooo anxious holy shit that was so well done actually

- can you kiss me please 😭😭🫶🏻

- TAO’S VIDEO FOR CHARLIE WAS SO FUCKING FUNNY AND SWEET esp isaac’s part 😭 TAO IS THE BEST CHARACTER EVER ACTUALLY

- spring siblings meeting their grandparents at christmas I CACKLED. it is exactly like that 😭 charlie and tori being hit with a Wave of negativity the second they stepped thru the door to the point where they both physically recoiled 😭 so true

- stop flirting in the group chat please

- the “where’s your coat” scene WAS INCREDIBLE. BEST SCENE IN THE SHOW AND I AM BEING SERIOUS. charlie opening the door to see nick surrounded by GOLDEN LIGHT because that’s what he IS. coming in from the rain to full-on sunlight, coming from his icky family vibes to pure love and acceptance. the song is so beautiful too im gonna listen to it on repeat

- taoelle making out to wasuremono. elle in the green/pink sweater. yaz is the prettiest girl in the World like fr

- TORIIII IS SO GREAT THIS SEASON kmfaooo her subtle comedic timing is genius

- “i know, but… i /am/ trans. its a big part of me” ……. oh my gawd she’s amazing

- “lucky me” kit is FLAUNTING his charm at this point

- TARA’S NEW YEARS MAKEUP

- tao and isaac talking to charlie about sex 😭😭😭😭😭😭 “spare me the details” vs. “no i want all the details!!!” that’s ace representation right there thank you alice oseman

- I LOVE MICHAEL IMMEDIATELY

- the “yeah” after “can i get a birthday kiss?” oh my GAWD KIT

- A YOUNG UNDERSTANDING BY SUNDARA KARMA AT CHARLIE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY UHHHH i’ve been shot in the chest

- sahar and imogen r rep and lover

- drunk nick SMILEY DRUNK NICK

- “you had SEX AT SCHOOL?!”

- tao’s video for elle i actually cried and i never cry

- “but i’ll try… i’ll always try” 🫶🏻🥺

- didn’t think del water gap could fit in a sex scene but it worked LMAO

- “oh, weird? okay!” 😭😭😭😭

- the soundtrack SLAYED as per usual like

- nick on the girls’ trip JSJDJDBDHDHDH i love my golden retriever

- tori and charlie got that scorpio and taurus bond…. so true

- and, as always, the way this show is such a beautiful celebration of adolescence and all its ups and downs I LOVE IT SO MUCH and the way it emphasizes the importance of platonic love and the way it sheds light on every aspect of queerness and the way it unpacks mental illness and and and and and and

[thetypedwriter]

Solitaire Book Review

Solitaire Book Review by Alice Oseman 

I’ve loved every book I’ve ever read by Alice Oseman. Granted, that’s only been Loveless and Radio Silence, but both of those books were fantastic. I never read Oseman’s infinitely popular graphic novel series Hearstopper, but I did watch the first season on Netflix and really enjoyed that too. 

So going into Oseman’s book Solitaire, had me filled with high expectations and eager anticipation. Unfortunately those expectations and excitement dwindled to something I’ve never experienced with Oseman before: disappointment. 

Apparently, Alice Oseman wrote Solitaire when she was seventeen-years-old. I’m a little confused on the history, but I’m assuming she wrote Heartstopper first and then Solitaire as a follow-up side novel.

Again, I didn’t look into the details. All I know is that she wrote this book twelve years ago, that it was her debut novel, and that it shows. 

Instead of focusing on Nick and Charlie, Solitaire focuses on Charlie’s sister, Victoria Spring. The best way I can describe Tori is that she is Wednesday Addams embodied, which is ironic seeing as Tori dresses up like Wednesday for Halloween in the novel (very on the nose, Alice). 

However, people seem to like Wednesday Addams’ despondent and cynical attitude (I don’t get it, for the record). I abhor Tori Spring. Maybe abhor is too strong of a word, but she was not a likable narrator. She’s pessimistic, apathetic, rude, judgmental, callous, and mean. 

Her whole schtick is that she thinks other people are “fake” and dislikes that people don’t act in the world, allowing the world to happen to them and only being bystanders to violence, hate, and toxicity. 

And yet…Tori does nothing? The entire novel? The person she supposedly hates the most describes the person Tori is herself.

Which I guess is fitting because Tori seems to despise herself more than anyone. You think as a reader that Tori will grow out of her depression by the end of the novel and come to some sort of understanding or epiphany. 

Spoiler alert: she doesn't. 

If anything, she spirals worse and worse, becoming increasingly sleep-deprived, paranoid, despondent, and obsessive. I get that Oseman wanted a more realistic portrayal of mental health perhaps, or maybe she didn’t think it was realistic for Tori to have a happy ending. 

However, she didn't really get any ending at all. 

Before I get to the conclusion of the story, I guess I should actually explain what the novel is about. 

Tori’s childhood best friend, Lucas, suddenly reappears in her life years later. Around the same time, mysterious pranks start occurring around Higgs, Tori’s school.

Harmless at first, the pranks pulled by the anonymous group Solitaire continuously grow in popularity and in danger, eventually leading to a boy getting beat up, Tori getting hurt by a firework exploding near her, and then, at the end of the novel, Higgs burning down. 

You might ask: why did the school burn down?

I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. 

Apparently, Lucas was in charge of Solitaire and was doing it all to impress Tori and to bring some “joy” back into her life before the jokes spiraled out of control.

However, Lucas comes to understand that Tori is no longer the girl he knew back in primary school and that she’s drastically changed. He did it because he was in “love” with her, but then admits at the end that he was more in love with the idea of her. 

Okayyyyyy. 

Then, for some inexplicable reason, other people are at Higgs at 5am, including one Michael Holden, Tori’s new fiend and resident “weirdo.”

The ending of the novel then churns out nonsense after nonsense. Tori and her ex-best friend Becky confront Solitaire and persuade them to not burn down the school.

But then, inexplicably, Tori walks out of the room and a classroom is on fire. How? Why? I don’t know. 

I’m unsure if the insinuation is that Michael did it or if Lucas or Solitaire still managed to do it, but all I know is that I was confused. 

Instead of getting better it gets decidedly worse. 

Somehow, Tori thinks she’s going to put out a raging inferno with a single fire extinguisher and chooses now to act instead of evacating a burning building, is lead to believe that Michael is dead from the fire, and then decides to go up to the roof to contemplate suicide. 

Somehow, though, her brother Charlie, Nick, and some other people are outside telling her not to jump. Why are they out there? Some kind of reason.

Apparently Lucas tweeted about it or blogged about the fire so the whole student body is there at 5am to witness the school burning down and see Tori standing on the roof. 

But no fire trucks, police, or authority were there originally, because that would be too logical. 

Alas, Michael is not dead and shows up on the roof to tell Tori that she’s his best friend, they kiss out of left-field, and Tori is convinced not to kill herself. 

The novel ends with them driving to the hospital and with Tori realizing she’s not alone. 

….what? 

The ending was such a jumbled catastrophe that I don’t understand what really happened. It was too climactic and intense in a way that was completely at odds with the tone and plot of the story.

You don’t get any kind of meaningful resolution with Tori other than realizing that she needs a lot of help and care. 

This book was a mess. 

Tori was unlikeable, has no discernible growth as a character, and other people weren incomprehensibly drawn to her and wanted to be friends with her, despite her flat out ignoring them, blowing them off, or being uncommunicative. 

The plot involving Solitaire was ridiculous and uninteresting, culminating in an ending that made no discernible sense and lacked purpose and logic. 

I know people love Heartstopper and Alice Oseman (myself included), but this book is not it. If they decided to publish this novel written twelve years ago simply because the show is popular and they said, “Hey, why not?” they chose wrong. 

I know publishers these days have the mentality of milking a series for all its worth, but this book didn’t add anything of substance, purpose, or heart. 

If anything, it detracts from the Heartstopper universe and makes me appreciate how much Oseman has grown as a writer. The Heartstopper universe is doing just fine on its own. It doesn't need side novels about Tori or about any other character.

Leave it alone, please, I beg of you. 

Recommendation: Solitaire is a poor man’s crappy version of Catcher in the Rye—a book Alice Oseman herself mentions at the end of the novel, stating that none of her characters have read it. Well, they probably should have. It’s a much better story than Solitaire.

Score: 4/10