I’m not sure it’s ever been done to this extent before.” It can be watched by kids who are 10 or 11. They have sex in them, swearing and drinking. “I think a lot of queer stories in teen shows are more adult. “We wanted it to be a queer story that young people could watch, either by themselves or with their families,” says Oseman. Excitingly, Olivia Colman plays Nick’s mother, a secret that was kept quiet even from the cast. His friendship group is made up of LGBTQ+ people, such as lesbian couple Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) and Tara (Corinna Brown), and trans teenager Elle (Yasmin Finney), who shares a flirtation with Tao (William Gao), the only cisgender, hetrosexual person in the gang. It follows Charlie (Joe Locke), an out gay teen, and his burgeoning relationship with Nick (Kit Connor), a rugby player who is unsure about his sexuality.
TV has always honed in on the teenage experience to various degrees of authenticity, angst and explicitness, but Heartstopper is a different breed of teen drama: one crafted specifically for a young LGBTQ+ audience. Based on the popular web comic and graphic novel series by British writer Alice Oseman, it’s a queer coming-of-age drama about first love and finding yourself as a teenager. Netflix’s Heartstopper might just be the boldest TV show of 2022.
