You really nailed all my feelings about LV. I was already quite cool on it, but watching S3 after Heartstopper was like eating a fine Swiss gruyere and then having Disney slap a stack of Kraft singles on the table and walk away.
I don't know if Benji was just bad casting or bad writing (probably both), but I never cared one iota about his relationship with Victor. Certainly by the end I was actively opposing them being together, merely out of spite. I was frustrated when I thought the Felix/Lake/Pilar/Lucy storyline was going to be treated well and then--they all just broke up for no good reason. Also at one point I realized most of the characters are just loaded, like filthy rich. Andrew, Benji, Mia, Lake, the new hookup guy from this season. Definitely seemd like a betrayal of the original intent to focus on a less wealthy family.
Fully support a Love Rahim college spinoff though. They won't do it but kudos to Anthony Keyvan for turning lemons into lemonade.
As someone who's watched way too many CW shows, I don't really disagree with any of your conclusions, but really liked the show despite its issues.
Since 2020 when LV premiered, shows like Heartstopper and Young Royals have premiered and easily surpassed it in terms of quality, but there still aren't very many shows really centered on a gay male protagonist. Watching Victor and Benji get the bigger, more dramatic storylines and the climactic moments while Felix and Mia were shuffled off to underdeveloped B storylines was nice after all the shows that have done the reverse.
My biggest annoyance in this season was the complete 180 of Nick's character between his appearances. His first appearance was a fine way for Victor to meet someone who wasn't interested in a relationship and experience casual sex for himself. But then for the character to return with basically his only notable character trait completely flipped just to manufacture some artificial drama for the finale was really dumb.
I do think Rahim could carry a spinoff and would love to see them set something in college where there's less of a need to try and bridge teen and adult storytelling.
(Slightly recycling some of my comments from a discussion on another site.)
I think its fair to describe Love, Victor as a teen show with queer characters rather than a queer teen show, although I don't know what it actually takes to qualify for the latter category. I guess the place where the series ends, with six established gay male teen characters with various histories and entanglements could make a good starting point for such a series. But honestly the distinction doesn't bother me that much. Love, Victor was a pretty good teen soap (even if the last season was sloppy) that does deserves some points for the ground it tilled even if it didn't actually break it.
The biggest failing of the show for me was that I just ended up not being very excited about Victor and Benji as endgame. Benji was kind of charming in the first season and then a complete tool in the second. They got him back to neutral in the third, but I still would have preferred to have seen Victor paired with any of the other three guys who showed an interest in him. And that would have been fine - Victor on the ferris wheel next to Rahim (or Nick or Liam), waving and sharing a smile with Benji on the ground before the latter turns to walk away would have been a perfectly cromulent ending.
Now, to quote Josiah Bartlet: What's next? You can show teenage boys kissing (and, er, more) on Disney+ now. Great. Show us some more. Let Carlos and Seb swap some spit between songs. Let Cyrus and TJ move to Creekwood and lead the GSA with Rahim. Do The Fosters: The Next Generation. Adapt a a bunch of the LGBT+ YA/MG novels that have come out lately. There one I just read called The Civil War of Amos Abernathy about a gay kid who volunteers at a historical park that would make a great D+ series. Keep telling these stories. If you do enough of them it doesn't matter if some of them are dumb or lame.
Stray Observations
* I don't know if the best possible version of Love, Victor would have starred Michael Cimino, but he was perfect for this version. I'm not sure if it grammatically possible to describe his eyes as anything other than soulful.
* Their characters bored me to tears, but I have to acknowledge that Rachel Hilson and Mason Gooding are very charming actors, even if Gooding looks old enough to run for president.
* Based on the chemistry he and Cimino had in the movie Senior Year, I actually joked the day before season three dropped about Joshua Colley showing up to take Victor away, so it was a pleasant surprise when I realized that's who was playing Liam. I wish they had done more with that plot.
* The scene I most regret not getting (last season) was one where Victor comes out to his younger brother one on one. That could be very moving if it were written well.
* They let Lake's toxic mother off the hook way too easily.
* Felix was not being a bad boyfriend for not wanting to sneak around behind Pilar's parents' backs.
Did you happen to watch the filmed version of Trevor: The Musical that premiered on Disney+ this week?
You really nailed all my feelings about LV. I was already quite cool on it, but watching S3 after Heartstopper was like eating a fine Swiss gruyere and then having Disney slap a stack of Kraft singles on the table and walk away.
I don't know if Benji was just bad casting or bad writing (probably both), but I never cared one iota about his relationship with Victor. Certainly by the end I was actively opposing them being together, merely out of spite. I was frustrated when I thought the Felix/Lake/Pilar/Lucy storyline was going to be treated well and then--they all just broke up for no good reason. Also at one point I realized most of the characters are just loaded, like filthy rich. Andrew, Benji, Mia, Lake, the new hookup guy from this season. Definitely seemd like a betrayal of the original intent to focus on a less wealthy family.
Fully support a Love Rahim college spinoff though. They won't do it but kudos to Anthony Keyvan for turning lemons into lemonade.
As someone who's watched way too many CW shows, I don't really disagree with any of your conclusions, but really liked the show despite its issues.
Since 2020 when LV premiered, shows like Heartstopper and Young Royals have premiered and easily surpassed it in terms of quality, but there still aren't very many shows really centered on a gay male protagonist. Watching Victor and Benji get the bigger, more dramatic storylines and the climactic moments while Felix and Mia were shuffled off to underdeveloped B storylines was nice after all the shows that have done the reverse.
My biggest annoyance in this season was the complete 180 of Nick's character between his appearances. His first appearance was a fine way for Victor to meet someone who wasn't interested in a relationship and experience casual sex for himself. But then for the character to return with basically his only notable character trait completely flipped just to manufacture some artificial drama for the finale was really dumb.
I do think Rahim could carry a spinoff and would love to see them set something in college where there's less of a need to try and bridge teen and adult storytelling.
(Slightly recycling some of my comments from a discussion on another site.)
I think its fair to describe Love, Victor as a teen show with queer characters rather than a queer teen show, although I don't know what it actually takes to qualify for the latter category. I guess the place where the series ends, with six established gay male teen characters with various histories and entanglements could make a good starting point for such a series. But honestly the distinction doesn't bother me that much. Love, Victor was a pretty good teen soap (even if the last season was sloppy) that does deserves some points for the ground it tilled even if it didn't actually break it.
The biggest failing of the show for me was that I just ended up not being very excited about Victor and Benji as endgame. Benji was kind of charming in the first season and then a complete tool in the second. They got him back to neutral in the third, but I still would have preferred to have seen Victor paired with any of the other three guys who showed an interest in him. And that would have been fine - Victor on the ferris wheel next to Rahim (or Nick or Liam), waving and sharing a smile with Benji on the ground before the latter turns to walk away would have been a perfectly cromulent ending.
Now, to quote Josiah Bartlet: What's next? You can show teenage boys kissing (and, er, more) on Disney+ now. Great. Show us some more. Let Carlos and Seb swap some spit between songs. Let Cyrus and TJ move to Creekwood and lead the GSA with Rahim. Do The Fosters: The Next Generation. Adapt a a bunch of the LGBT+ YA/MG novels that have come out lately. There one I just read called The Civil War of Amos Abernathy about a gay kid who volunteers at a historical park that would make a great D+ series. Keep telling these stories. If you do enough of them it doesn't matter if some of them are dumb or lame.
Stray Observations
* I don't know if the best possible version of Love, Victor would have starred Michael Cimino, but he was perfect for this version. I'm not sure if it grammatically possible to describe his eyes as anything other than soulful.
* Their characters bored me to tears, but I have to acknowledge that Rachel Hilson and Mason Gooding are very charming actors, even if Gooding looks old enough to run for president.
* Based on the chemistry he and Cimino had in the movie Senior Year, I actually joked the day before season three dropped about Joshua Colley showing up to take Victor away, so it was a pleasant surprise when I realized that's who was playing Liam. I wish they had done more with that plot.
* The scene I most regret not getting (last season) was one where Victor comes out to his younger brother one on one. That could be very moving if it were written well.
* They let Lake's toxic mother off the hook way too easily.
* Felix was not being a bad boyfriend for not wanting to sneak around behind Pilar's parents' backs.