Heartbreak High recently launched on Netflix on September 14th, 2022. It’s one of those shows that you put on, meaning for it to be background noise, but you eventually find yourself completely engrossed. It centers around a diverse, multicultural group of students at Hartley High who are forced into “Sexual Literacy Tutorials” or “SLT”, which they pronounce as “sluts” after a map stating their sexual actives with one another is found.
Heartbreak High is a reboot of another show from the 90s that has the same name. Some characters from the original program are a part of the new version. One of them, Peter Rivers, portrayed by Scott Majors, is the father of one of the new characters, Darren. In my 19 years of life, I’ve watched a lot of TV, specifically teen dramas, and I feel that Heartbreak High is one of the best. And I’m gladly going to explain why.
Plot
Heartbreak High follows the life of a young Indian-Australian girl named Amerie and the demise of her social life after the fallout of a “sex map” she made with her ex-best friend Harper. Amerie and Harper liked to listen to and “watch” other people, and the map was born through the information that they gained from snooping. The map is a detailed description of the hookups of every person in their grade. Though the map was both Amerie and Harper’s doing, Amerie is the only one held responsible and is dropped by her friend group and her whole grade.
The principal of Hartley High, in an attempt to deal with the embarrassment, and in hopes of stopping these kids from having more sex with each other, decides to put everyone on the map in a mandatory sex ed class. The series follows the kids in “SLT” and the growth of their relationships with each other. Another important plot line in Heartbreak High is the destruction of Amerie and Harper’s friendship and figuring out the reason why Harper decided to stop being friends with Amerie.
Diversity
Growing up and watching TV, I didn’t feel like I could see any part of myself in characters. Everyone was white, no matter what show I watched or what channel I turned on. Now that I’m older, I still feel the same. Things may have progressed since I was a kid, but I wish that casts could be a bit more diverse.
Heartbreak High is a show where I didn’t find myself having those thoughts. It’s a show where everyone, and I mean everyone, has a character that they can relate to and is a part of their community. Whether you’re a woman and/or a person of color, gay, asexual, or neurodivergent, we all have someone to look to in this show and see ourselves in.
For those a part of underrepresented communities, when you’re watching movies or TV shows, it feels like certain characters were added to teach those at home a lesson on topics like racism or even to seem “woke” or “with the times.” Heartbreak High features characters who are people of color, gay, and/or neurodivergent just being regular human beings, which they are. And when the show features tough moments about topics like racism and police brutality, they’re meaningful and thoughtfully done. I wish other shows dealt with diversity and race the same way.
Gen z
Do you ever get that feeling when you’re watching a show centered around teens that the people creating the show know nothing about teenagers? Or when certain characters are speaking, you start to cringe because you know that’s not how teens talk. Portraying teenagers accurately is another area where Heartbreak High excelled.
The way the characters on Heartbreak High spoke is what first got me interested in the show. I was introduced to the show when I saw multiple clips on TikTok of a certain character, Darren, that had gone viral. Darren’s character does not care about what other people think. A lot of this is evident in the way they dress and most importantly, in the way they speak.
The first clip of Darren I watched was when Amerie was found to be responsible for the map and was ostracized by her peers. She channeled her feelings but cutting her hair and giving herself bangs, which many people can relate to. Darren was the first character to see Amerie in this state and decided to record her new hair while singing a very popular TikTok sound (“Not the bayang, the bayang, oh oh woah woah”). The sound is from TikToker ItsJustNyissa. It was then I knew Heartbreak High hit a new level. It was the first show I’d seen in the past couple of years where the characters acted and talked like teenagers, specifically Gen Z. It made cultural references that we would get and understand. It’s clear that the creators of Heartbreak High took the time to learn about this generation of teens, and their hard work is reflected in the show.
concluding thoughts
Heartbreak High received a 7.7/10 on IMDb, and in my opinion, it deserves more than that. It’s a show that can stand the test of time, and its message is meaningful. Though the show is a comedy, it teaches real lessons on topics that are still hard to talk about in our society like racism, police brutality, sex, and gender identity. It’s a show that I’m happy that our generation and the next have. If you haven’t watched Heartbreak High before this article, I hope I persuaded you enough to do so.