We all knew the third installment of Alice Oseman’s hit LGBT story would be good, but somehow Heartstopper Season 3 has continued to build on its own beacon of representation.
Let’s get the most-anticipated news out of the way first… Heartstopper Season 3 is *great*. All of those cozy, heartwarming vibes wrapped up in a package of friendship and love are back and bolder than ever before. Our gang is growing up – and so are their issues – but that core magic remains throughout.
However, to think new episodes of the binge-worthy TV show are more of the same is to be naive. Sure, Heartstopper hasn’t exactly shied away from difficult subjects since it first aired, but Season 3 takes things up a notch. Nick and Charlie are getting frisky (and they’re not the only ones), but also have a mountain ahead of them to climb as Charlie gets diagnosed with an eating disorder.
It takes special skill to weave sensitive subject matter into a warm, loving hug, and then create a truly ensemble piece on top of that. Despite the challenge, creator Alice Oseman pulls it all off with ease, and Netflix is lucky to have them.
“Love can’t cure a mental illness”
Arguably, Heartstopper Season 3 is divided into two halves, except it’s skipped the annoying trend of the streaming service releasing them in separate batches. Our first half is anchored by Charlie’s journey to get a diagnosis for his eating disorder. Where the series arguably shines a romantic light on love itself (and why shouldn’t it? Teen love is the most beautifully gooey sensation known to man), it makes mental health rightfully uncomfortable.
Nothing about Charlie’s journey is easy, whether that’s his process of realization, acceptance, and progress, or us watching it. We see a nastier side of him that’s starved of energy and nourishment, but just as we’d expect, neither Nick nor his friends waver in their support. Together with the Heartstopper cast and Oseman, a flawless, accessible tapestry is formed.
I was particularly struck by a scene where Charlie first tells his parents about his eating problems. He writes down exactly what he wants to say, reading it aloud while they look on, bewildered that they’ve missed something so major within their child. It was then I realized this was likely the first time kids would have seen representation in this way, and Heartstopper excels in making mental health visibility just as important as LGBTQIA+ storylines.
We are very quick to give kids an unnecessarily hard time (and trust me, I’m as guilty as the best) and sometimes it takes a balance of of sweet-seriousness to see what’s right in front of us. The old adage is right – kids these days have so much on their shoulders, and Heartstopper makes that hard to miss.
It’s also teaching us all, regardless of age, a valuable lesson. Everything would be an awful lot easier if we just talked about it. By watching Charlie address his eating, Isaac confronting his friends about being left out, and Elle examining her ongoing body dysmorphia, the world around them gets that little bit smaller, and that little bit safer. If anything, we can look at Heartstopper like a modern-day fairytale – enjoy the whimsy, and take the lessons from it you need to.
Queer sex without the sexualization (finally)
The second half of Heartstopper Season 3 is a total tonal shift – the gang (bar one) is getting frisky, and they’re all hooking up for the very first time.
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There’s a general rule that sex isn’t a subject that should be broached – or watched – with family, but new episodes are best viewed as a cultural conversation starter. The cast might have found them intense to film, but sex scenes here aren’t exactly 9 1/2 Weeks. Even their group’s horniness is gentile… and while you could argue it’s a safe and sensible approach, it’s actually refreshing.
When I was 14 and not yet out, my only visual guidance for women sleeping with other women was through The L Word, random YouTube videos, or those sites. The former is a stalwart of the queer genre (and I will celebrate it for years to come), but it has always been incredibly sexually charged in an overly adult way. There’s both need and space for that, but it’s not the best entry point.
Here, Heartstopper essentially takes the sexualization out of sex itself, and we’re completely focused on connection and meaning. Each intimate scene does indeed further the plot of the narrative and are just as educational as it is endearing.
If anything, the show’s new dalliance with sex creates a more wholesome sense of yearning. Perhaps it’s because I’m the most single I’ve ever been in my almost 30 years of living, but while watching Season 3, I missed being loved without limits. I missed having someone who thought the world of me in spite of it all, and having a world of options at the end of my fingertips.
We’re grateful to experience this fictitious kind… and maybe it’s the hope we need as well.
Heartstopper Season 3 review score: 4/5
Love might not cure mental illness, but it will always prevail. Delivering on the expectations we had in place – and then some – Heartstopper Season 3 easily matches its prior outings, if not betters them with a smattering of seriousness.
Why am I an almost 30-year-old woman crying over two teenage boys telling the other they love them? Because that’s the magic of Alice Oseman’s stories. Everyone is so deliciously comfortable in their roles, turning the cogs of something much bigger than the individual.
It’s thanks to this effortlessness that the show can continue to inspire, grow, and love more loudly than ever before.
Heartstopper Season 3 is available on Netflix from October 3. In the meantime, check out the scenes we’ve been most excited for, why Ben isn’t in new episodes, and more TV shows streaming this month.
