Brash, angsty and reckless, those are some of the most potent ingredients of a coming-of-age series. But the characters in Heartstopper, in its near-idealistic world of wholesomeness, love, reciprocal solidarity, try to find their own way towards a sense of acknowledgement and acceptance that they are replete with. This Kit Conner and Joe Locke starrer teen-romantic drama has the pacifying essence of Spring but the weather changes to a simmering summer, followed by rainfall of respite. Unlike Season 1, that focussed more on establishing who these characters are, Season 2 takes it a notch higher by delving deep into the nook and crannies of their sexual identity and the stigmatisation that comes with it. It’s subliminally political but entertains you. It grows on you like mushrooms and emits a mild fragrance akin to lemongrass. For some, it’s a guilty pleasure and for others, it’s a mirror.
For starters, the second season begins with a rather furtive affair between Nick and Charlie (Kit Conor and Joe Locke), away from the judgemental glances of their school-mates. Across the corridors, Nick holds Charlie close as he kisses him, and Charlie assures him that he doesn’t have to come out as long as he is not comfortable. And that’s exactly the case he deals with, by taking baby steps. Bargaining between accepting Charlie in public and getting plowed down by his Rugby team-mates over his bisexual identity. There are a lot of hiccups that they encounter and a tonne of beautiful memories as compensation. But even their dynamic is not as peculiar as those in their ‘unfit’ friend group, since each individual is bereft of self-acceptance and acceptance from others. A battle they have all been fighting within themselves.
For instance, Elle is head over heels for Tao but Tao is too hesitant to come to terms with his emotions, partly confused, partly scared about whether he’ll lose a special friend amidst all the perplexing conundrums. The two take a journey through Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom screening, in a liliputian vintage movie theatre to a spectacular setting of the Louvre in Paris. Whether they unlock that vulnerable and malleable part of accepting love is for the viewers to find out. Darcy and Tara are in another soppy mess. Tara loves Darcy and is open about it but Tara hesitates to reciprocate. But her reasons might not be as straightforward as rolling a dice for a board game. Whether the two love-birds find their way to each other is anybody’s guess. Issac is the misfit among the misfits because he is the lone-wolf with no mate in sight. He struggles to form a romantic connection with a person that he believes he likes.
And amid all this pandemonium related to their identity and feelings, the show also offers characters like Imogen, who is an ally to everyone in her friends group, a selfless and unconditional lover, but one who doesn’t bow down to disrespect and neglect by her boyfriend Ben, who was also Charlie’s abusive secret boyfriend in the first season. Ben’s envy knows no bound to see Charlie peppering Nick with affection and love, something that he couldn’t give to Charlie and now the remorse started to settle. You also get a cute love track between two teachers, a stern but innately soft Youssef Farouk and Nathan Akayi, the art teacher that helped Charlie through his tumultuous phases of bullying.
The best thing about Heartstopper is that it will end up surprising you, by not employing certain involuntary tropes from most teen-romantic dramas. For a close-knit group like that of Charlie and Nick’s, one could smell skirmishes and drama lurking around, but most of that drama constitutes their own inner-battles, with themselves, with those that they call their kin. Nothing about this set of characters scream ‘tacky’, ‘cringeworthy’ or ‘over-the-top’. Among them, there is empathy, understanding and most importantly camaraderie to face the glaring stares of society. From an objectively, queer lens, the show doesn’t dilute the profundity of these LGBTQIA+ characters by reducing them to mere placeholders in the story. Quite the contrary, these characters take the reign and pivot the series forward by also subtly touching on aspects like bullying, homophobia, the importance of coming out when a person is wilfully ready, the wave of reluctance and abhorrence from the society, that they get hit by quite often. The journey these characters take in this season to unearth themselves adds a unique and palatable flavour to the series.
On the acting front, Joe Locke as Charlie Spring and Kit Connor as Nick Nelson are out-and-out brilliant actors. The intense chemistry that these two share is palpable, which instantly makes you root for them the most. Joe embodies Charlie and puts forth a more effacing, gentle and understanding demeanour for the viewers. William Gao as Tao Xu and Yasmin Finney as Elle Argent are phenomenally brilliant. There is a tinge of maturity in the way they approach their respective characters. Corinna Brown as Tara Jones and Kizzy Edgell as Darcy Olsson exude passion but not in a sexual way. Tobie Donovan as Isaac Henderson,
Jenny Walser as Tori Spring, Sebastian Croft as Ben Hope and Rhea Norwood as Imogen Heaney are each tailor made for the story.
To sum everything up, Heartstopper Season 2 is more than your average teen-romantic drama. It is not preachy and yet it sends its message across, loud and clear, neatly wrapped with charismatic characters, conflicts devoid of clichés but most importantly, an attempt to normalise relationships viewed with a conventional lens. It entertains you but also makes you ponder. It compels you to gush in-between dialogues and yet acquaint you to their plights. Barring the open-ended climax, the show really opens up a world where realism has a lot of space to breathe in.
Comments
0 comment