The beginning of the recordings for Heartstopper completed exactly two years on April 5th. Based on the graphic novel written by Alice Oseman, the series tells the story of Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) and Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) who, after sitting side by side at school, begin to develop a beautiful and intense friendship. Over time, the feelings between the two boys turn into a secret romance that teaches them that the purest love can emerge in the most unique and surprising ways.
Even though it’s been a year since the show premiered on Netflix, it’s still important to reflect about queer representation in the media.
The history behind the queer scene in TV and cinema
Rejecting heteronormativity and going in the opposite direction of the cinematographic ideology established until then, the independent New Queer Cinema movement emerged in the early 1990’s with the aim of making more films with LGBTQIAP+ themes. In the last few years, the representation of these minorities, previously marginalized and forgotten by society, has gained more and more space on screens. The narratives slowly began to detach themselves from the stereotyped and tragic view, when it comes to approaching homoaffective relationships, and started to focus on everyday and universal events that recur in everyone’s life, such as school, work and family.
Although there is still a long way to go, this type of themes has proven to be fundamental for representing the LGBTQIAP+ community, precisely because it gives voice to groups that have long been neglected and whose freedom has been “swept under the rug”. Thus, Heartstopper deserves special attention for showing that it is possible to portray important issues – such as sexuality and self-knowledge – in a light and mature way, without necessarily making these points the only focus in the lives of these characters.
TV series X Webtoon: the achievement of a “happily ever after”
The adaptation is very similar to the webtoons and has a cast that certainly does not appeal to inappropriate adultification – which is pretty common in juvenile audiovisual content. In fact, it’s quite the contrary: the series works with actors with similar ages to the characters in the story who, in turn, dialogue with the community and the daily challenges present in adolescence.
These personas are developed and quite diverse, focusing both on the main couple and on parallel stories that give visibility to lesbians, asexuals and transgenders. Despite addressing the setbacks faced by the LGBTQIA+ community, the plot is far from focusing only on the prejudice that, unfortunately, is still present in the lives of many queer people.
With this, Heartstopper becomes a great reference for being a story about identification and self-knowledge, which abdicates the narrative of pain that permeated queer cinema for years, long enough to create even more stereotypes about this subject. Alice Oseman’s work manages to portray very well the nervousness when chatting, exchanging glances, at first dates and kisses and especially the acceptance of family, friends and your own. The setting of “happily ever after” for any type of couple serves as a tool for normalizing diversity and stimulating the creation of equality policies within a society based on rights.
Recent news and exciting announcements!
On the same day the series recording completed its two-year anniversary, Oseman announced on their socials the publication date of the fifth volume of Heartstopper. It is expected to be launched on November 9th in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The author explains that the idea was for the story to end with five books – however, for reasons of development and content, they chose to write a sixth volume with no established publication date yet.
“I was trying to fit too much into volume 5 and the story would have a better ending if I split it into two books.”
In honor of the one year since the release of Heartstopper on Netflix, it was announced that the next season will premiere on August 3rd. With a completely different vibe from the first, incredible scripts and greater character development, the new journey of Alice Oseman’s comics promises to focus on volume 3 of the books, in which issues such as mental health and maturation are developed and worked deeper.
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The article above was edited by Alice Nakao.
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