Must Watch reviews Heartstopper
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review Heartstopper on Netflix.
Based on the webcomic by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper follows teenagers Charlie and Nick who discover their unlikely friendship might be something more. Olivia Coleman guest stars.
Scott says: "This show has left an impact on me in a huge way"
"It’s a Must Watch. This show has left an impact on me in a huge way. I read the webcomics but seeing it on TV was hugely important because this was a show that I felt that I wish I could’ve seen when I was 14. No question. The representation here with young LGBTQ+ characters living their lives would’ve helped me a great deal, because even though I had friends and family who were accepting of me, I came out when I was 14, having that media representation was lacking.
"I never really saw myself on TV, unless of course there were roles particularly in soaps but it was always kind of late in the evening. So to see this ordinary experience of young people finding out where they are in the world and seeing that world reflected for you is so important. I think the chemistry between the characters is absolutely unbelievable. I think having that representation in terms of there being a young trans woman represented on screen, at a time when their lives are so heavily debated in the media at the moment, is so important too. She'll be such a role model to young viewers.
“This show manages to take everything that was so great in Alice’s book into the TV show itself, and there are scenes in which you sense the butterflies that the characters have when they’re falling for each other, and you see literal sparks coming up onto the screen, and it’s like you can feel that energy.
“There are so many scenes that will stick with me for such a long time, and I’ll try not to go into spoilers. But there’s a scene in which there are two girls who are deeply in love and they’re kissing at a party and then one of the other characters who’s working out his sexuality and also sort of falling for another guy, sees them across the room and sees how happy they are at being in love, and looks at them and silently supports them, and then he realises that he could have the same thing if he follows where he’s going with this guy. That scene, which is one of the most joyful liberating heart-warming scenes of just queer joy, that’s what it is, it’s utter queer youth joy, left such an impact. I was watching this with my flatmate and he was a mess, I was a mess, I’m kind of a mess thinking about it now.
"When I’ve spoken to friends who have seen the show, there is a weird melancholy after you finish watching this. That melancholy is evident because I think for some people in their 30s, or in their 20s, or who aren’t in school any more, they never had this, they never had those relationships when they were younger, they also might’ve experienced a lot of homophobia, I certainly did, they also might’ve felt very left out, and here is that world in which could seem so different to what it was for so many people including myself on screen, and that can leave a hollow feeling. Then I went through a stage of feeling quite angry because I was a bit like, ‘well, I didn’t have this in school and it’s a shame that I didn’t have this programme’. Then I was chatting to my mate Ben Norris, who’s a poet and a brilliant actor. I was talking about the anger that I was facing and he said ‘Well, you know, our generation is making the shows that we wished we could’ve watched when we were younger.’
"And I think that just really stuck with me because it’s true, because it is. So yes, it is, unsurprisingly, a Must Watch from me."
Hayley says: "I'm very glad it exists"
“I agree with everything Scott said. It’s not personally a Must Watch for me, simply because I’m 36 and it’s aimed at a much younger audience so the fact that I don’t love it is not a fault of the show at all. I’m very glad it exists though: it’s important, and it’s a huge thing that it exists at all. And like Scott said, if you do watch it as an adult you’ll spend the whole time wishing this show existed when you were a kid.
“In terms of the show itself, it feels more like an afterschool show in the way that it’s written, and that's as it should be, that’s where this kind of thing should be placed. A lot of the scenes were more instructive than realistic drama, in that they might help a teenager figure out how to navigate a real life situation.”
Heartstopper is available now on Netflix.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds and all other good podcast providers.
This week, the team hear from Masali Baduza about series 2 of Noughts and Crosses on BBC One. Plus, reviews of Chivalry on Channel 4 and Ten Percent on Amazon Prime Video.
