By David T. Valentin
The long-awaited Season Two of Alice Oseman’s Web-comic series Netflix adaptation Heartstopper is finally here! The Second Season premiered on August 3rd, Thursday of last weekend, and all throughout the weekend social media has been nothing but Heartstopper and rightfully so.
Season Two follows up with the original cast from Season One—Nick Nelson, Charlie Spring, Tao Xu, Elle Argent, Darcy Olson, Tara Jones, and Isaac Henderson—along with bringing some side characters more into the spotlight with some newly introduced characters as well.
As Charlie and Nick’s relationship blossom further, they face the conflict of what it means to be an openly gay couple in their mid-teens. Nick struggles with coming out to his friends, and Charlie begins his slow spiral into giving in to his mental health issues. Meanwhile, Tao and Elle play a little will they/won’t they, Darcy begins to open up a bit more to Tara and even Isaac gets his very own romance as well with a spice of some Asexual representation (yay!).
So far I’ve only watched four episodes (curse adult life and not being able to binge gay romance TV shows!), but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far.
I think what I really love to see is each actor’s growth since Season One. With Kit Connor becoming the new “It” up-and-coming actor for the new generation of LGBTQ+ community and Joe Locke rumored to be playing The Scarlet Witch’s son, Billy Kaplan, they’ve had a lot of growth acting-wise, as well as more opportunity to all get to know each other off-screen as well.
Given their friendship off screen and how close the cast is, it really shines through on the screen. Joe (Charlie) and Kit (Nick) have a chemistry that makes the romance feel less stiff, less orchestrated and much more fluid. While Kit Connor’s acting in the first season was great, Joe Locke’s was lacking. He was, after all, very new to acting in Season One. However, in Season Two he’s really grown into his acting shoes and his fame. Between him and Kit, the romance is absolutely adorable to see their on-screen relationship grow. Makes me very excited for Season Three already!
But they’re not the only one’s shining in their performances. Each and every actor has really improved in their craft as they’re given more of a spotlight and more nuanced storylines to tell on screen. When last season I was really only looking forward to seeing Joe Locke and Kit Connor and their developing talent, this season I’m really invested in every character’s storyline. Even terrible Ben’s too, because Sebastian Cross is just such a gem.
Comentarios