I Watched Heartstopper

 

Heartstopper Great Representation:

Heartstopper is a well-loved story about two school boys with different social circles that fall in love with each other, the typical love story of the nerd and the jock. I have never read the Webtoon that originated the story or the serialization of the book, but I remember seeing the latter around as a well selling book on my local libraries. So when it was announced that Netflix would be releasing a TV show, I was very curious about it, adding it to my watch list immediately. 

My younger sister started the show much earlier than me, which knowing myself is not surprising, and immediately started to weave thousands of compliments about it, some of my friends too had told me about how they loved the show, so by the time I sat down on the couch to watch, I was pretty hype. Usually I hate being hype about stuff because it's a step closer to end up in disappointment, but with this production I'm glad to say my expectation were met. 

Heartstopper is a lovely story with great representation from all perspectives, presenting many clichés in a compelling way without creating unnecessary drama. I would like to point out some of my opinions on the various themes of the show to which I will be revealing some spoilers so be careful, if you haven't watched the show I highly recommend you doing it and then maybe give my baka thoughts a read.

I guess we can start by acknowledging the great queer representation on the show, not only do we have different perspectives from different types of kids dealing with their sexuality, we also have beautiful and healthy relationships, I'm so envious of everyone growing up with such marvelous showcases of gay love. In the form of the protagonists, we can see two individuals who respect each other's boundaries, I found it really sweet how Charlie never pressured Nick to come out and even asked if he could kiss him on their first kiss. In many shows, the first kiss would lead to some drama about Nick not being ready to accept his sexuality and maybe lash out at poor Charlie, but here we saw two respectful kids navigating their feeling with consent. It was also really nice to see Charlie navigating his doubts about being gay or bisexual, these are real emotions that many of us feel, and it was extremely relatable seeing him do all that research on Google. 

Now, with Tara and Darcy, we see a more secure couple, one that already feels comfortable coming out and more openly expressing themselves without the fear of judgment, and even though they are always showcased happily in love, I found it really important that they showed how the opinions of others can affect us even if we try our best to not care about them. In them, we see how different people react differently, to Darcy those comments are insignificant but to Tara they were extremely painful.

The show doesn't only show the good part of dating, though, as we can see in the beginning with Charlie and Ben. Ben is the example of someone that deals with his sexuality in the wrong way, caring only about his reputation and not so much about his own feelings or those of someone else. He constantly uses Charlie for his own good, using him as a punching bag for his insecurities. All these examples are good, because it's so common to have a single person or couple represent the LGBT community making the surrounding discussions very limited, here we have a vast selection of couples that represent a variety of complex emotions and actions, allowing us to have good and bad examples. 

Another aspect that really warmed my heart and broke the usual expectations was the support of their families, Charlie constantly has his father looking out for him, making sure that he is okay and ready to stand up and defend him if he ever needs, his own sister is seen many times looking out for him and happily helping him with his crush. The biggest surprise, though, came with Nicks mother, I was ready to have a drama where she would be cruel to her son but all she did was give him a hug and tell him she loves him. Coming out to our parents it's probably one of the biggest fears of any queer kid, and it's very common for shows to create drama with that, seeing two families completely okay with their kids sexualities and ready to support them was definitely the best part of the show. 

Talking about the show reverting expectations, Nicks whole character was an enjoyable surprise. In the beginning I said this was a typical jock x nerd story, but it's so much more than that and that's all thanks to the characterization of our ginger protagonist. Even though Nick is a jock and hangs out with some really idiot friends, in no way he is shown on board with his friend's actions, always being polite to Charlie and his friends way before they started dating. Even when he acted wrong in accepting the other girl's date invite, he still resolved the situations politely and without unnecessary dramas, admitting to his mistakes right away. Nick is just a good, adorable boy. 

Moving the topic to another part I really enjoyed, in the beginning Elle, Charlie's best friend, was really nervous about starting life in a new school, too afraid to make friends. What I particularly enjoy in these scenes was that the solution to her problem was to simply talk, as someone with severe anxiety and who had to deal with this recently as I joined Karate, it's really that simple, sometimes smiling and letting yourself be approachable makes a whole difference and the situation ends up being way less scary than it seems.

In the end, this show was fantastic and one of the best things I had the pleasure of watching this year. If you read all the way to here, thank you very much, and I'm sorry if I said anything too dumb, It's Katie The Baka after all. xD But yeah, tell me what you thought of Heartstopper and have a great day, you're amazing!!