Thank you for your words about Heartstopper and about queer content in general, Myles. It's very encouraging to see critics committing to giving space to shows like this that would probably be lost between the non-stopping barrage of content (and still might, but one more voice discussing its merits is worth a lot).
I'm planning on watching this show because, I'll be honest, thanks to how starved I was myself for queer content in my teen years (and I had it way better in the aughts than other people had it in the nineties, eighties and before!), I've come to a point where having it will usually increase my estimation of a piece of media by at least a little bit (and usually more than a little bit). I'm predisposed to liking it, basically. And even now, with all the progress that has been made, it still feels like it's hard to find content that isn't rooted in the fundamental misery of being queer. A fundamentally positive but true-to-life TV show about queer love sounds like the exact antidote that I need for that type of mindset.
Now the big question that I need to answer is if I should read the comics before watching the show. I usually don't bother (and only consider going to the source material *after* I watch the thing, because I'm terrible like that), but your reviews being informed by them being adaptations sounds like an extremely interesting perspective that I would enjoy sharing.
RIP Grand Army, which destroyed all the other better teen shows (probably like Heartstopper) for me because now I’m simply no longer able to watch teens who DON’T do insane things like purel their genitals or shove their whole forearm into a friend to detach a rogue tampon from her cervix. (Yes, I’m retaliating against you.)
Myles: Your disappointment with Love ,Victor season 1 is well documented. What did you think of season 2?
Thank you for your words about Heartstopper and about queer content in general, Myles. It's very encouraging to see critics committing to giving space to shows like this that would probably be lost between the non-stopping barrage of content (and still might, but one more voice discussing its merits is worth a lot).
I'm planning on watching this show because, I'll be honest, thanks to how starved I was myself for queer content in my teen years (and I had it way better in the aughts than other people had it in the nineties, eighties and before!), I've come to a point where having it will usually increase my estimation of a piece of media by at least a little bit (and usually more than a little bit). I'm predisposed to liking it, basically. And even now, with all the progress that has been made, it still feels like it's hard to find content that isn't rooted in the fundamental misery of being queer. A fundamentally positive but true-to-life TV show about queer love sounds like the exact antidote that I need for that type of mindset.
Now the big question that I need to answer is if I should read the comics before watching the show. I usually don't bother (and only consider going to the source material *after* I watch the thing, because I'm terrible like that), but your reviews being informed by them being adaptations sounds like an extremely interesting perspective that I would enjoy sharing.
RIP Grand Army, which destroyed all the other better teen shows (probably like Heartstopper) for me because now I’m simply no longer able to watch teens who DON’T do insane things like purel their genitals or shove their whole forearm into a friend to detach a rogue tampon from her cervix. (Yes, I’m retaliating against you.)