BLISS RATING: ★★★★
“I think it surprised me how homophobic people were. I thought things were better nowadays.” – Quote from Heartstopper 2
For me, the second season of this series was a complete letdown. It was drab, boring, and so saccharin sweet that I honestly had a hard time finishing it. It literally went nowhere for 7 episodes and then burst onto the scene in the last episode. I became so disenchanted by it. I felt let down and I also felt as if they held back not only in the acting potency but also in the story line. Perhaps I am in a minority here, but I did not see the chemistry that everyone talks about between Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor). To be sure, there is great ‘acting’ and dedication to their respective roles, but something always felt estranged to me. The ‘magic’ I saw and felt in the first season was missing.
I just did not get a sense of a strong connection between them until the end of the series and only then for a few precious moments. To be sure, Nick struggling with completely coming out as gay (or bisexual as he calls it) is real, but that should not make it feel strained when the two of them are together. Yet it felt constricted. I know this is a taboo subject, but I never got any sense that there was a sexual tension between the two of them. How can there not be? Teenage boys? First love? Repressed feelings? Sure, they have affection for each other but something beyond that, no. They acted and sounded more like constrained adults, and I had a difficult time sometime seeing them as teenage boys.
The story spins around and around between the fatuous notion of Nick’s anxiety about making it official. While I understand that, who did not really know anyway? There was so much more that this series could have delved into that was missed and that is what I felt cheated the audience. For example, Charlie was a cutter as well as anorexic. These are some serious and major issues as a result of him being bullied, among other emotional conditions, that are merely glossed over throughout. I get very upset when you have significant and major emotional issues inlaid with characters in what I am presuming is a rom-com and no clear path to resolution except as a set up for another Season. Why would you include the fact that Charlie was a cutter in the last episode and overlay that with his anorexia? Why wait until the last episode to tell us that Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) has a mother from hell when we deduced that already?
What a story all of that would and could have been if all of this had been a part of the storyline from the beginning of Season 2 rather than all the moonbeams and unicorns that were presented. We KNOW this could have been done because the conclusion between Charlie and Ben (Sebastain Croft) was handled smartly, intelligently, and with great emotional fortitude. It presented a chapter in Charlie’s life that was unpleasant, bullied by an abuser, and resolved with a sense of emotional closure for Charlie that was befitting and also sad. And profoundly real. This story needed to be that throughout to be more impactful.
So much time was spent on the development of interactions of couples that I honestly did not care about. While the coupling between Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney) was cute and certainly ground-breaking, it was frankly dull. That relationship had been established in Season 1. One or two references to their romantic connection would have been more than enough ‘icing on the cake’. Their time would have been better spent on looking at the difficulties of a straight male-trans female couple, rather than all that light fluff.
Same with Darce and her girlfriend, Tara (Corinna Brown). Overblown and overdone. Again, as with Charlie and Nick, they only got interesting in the last episode.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? So many of the supporting cast did. Starting with the enigmatic, somewhat isolated yet desperate to be a part of the group, Isaac (Tobie Donovan). He is such a fascinating and mysterious individual who seems on the peripheral yet still is wanting to belong, at least in spirit. He actually ‘develops’ a lot before our eyes, even if we do not see it. Constantly and I do mean constantly, reading, he buries himself in his books, yet not enough to be so isolated that he is thought of as a nerd or even odd. He concluded that perhaps all this sexual stuff is just not for him or who he is or actually what he wants. When he realizes that, there is a sense of relief that envelops him. He is by far one of the most fascinating and interesting characters in this series. And then there is Ben who tries to make amends but is unsuccessful. His behavior is just so toxic, and bullying is how he copes with his personality deficiencies. Unfortunately, he only realizes it after he has burned all his bridges to humanity. A sad figure, really. His redeemability is questionable and as Charlie stated he does not want to be around to see if it happens. A somber reality for a pathetic figure. As in Heartstopper 1, Jenney Walser as Charile’s older sister, is a force to be reckoned with. While not as visible or as macabre as in the first season, she is unabashedly loyal to her brother and a fierce defender of his choices in life. One learns quickly not to cross her. And finally, as the antagonist of epic proportions is the older brother of Nick. David (Jack Barton) is an epic character of instigation and pomposity, arrogance, and an attitude of know-it-all. His smugness is so toxic that he manages to even create further rifts between Nick and his father that will no doubt be irreparable.
This is a good series, simply not a great one this time around. It seemed to play it ‘safe’ which thus allowed the supporting cast to outshine the main characters. It is a cute, pedestrian story that went nowhere with the only meat on the bones coming in the last episode. The first season took a risk. This played it wholesome and therefore the acting got formulaic and comfortable, and I felt no sense of intimacy in any of the main couples.
I was disappointed and felt robbed as I know this series was capable of doing so much more. Not just with the storyline but with the enormous talent of its performers.
It needed to push the envelope and make a point. For me, I was not even that entertained by Season 2.
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