Elle connected greatly with me as a trans girl. Her nervousness and unwillingness to assert herself feels like a realistic response to the rejection of trans existence, and i really connected with it

heartstopper dragged me out of 2 years of convincing myself i was straight or a lesbian and there was no in between because NO it's fine i am bi THAT IS OKAY

I love in season 2 how it shows isaac possibly liking James possibly not and not knowing at all until the very end realising he's ace which I rlly hope will be explored in season 3 cos I rlly want more ace representation

I enjoyed your commentary on the series. I am a geezer (50s) and this show made me feel such joy and I am so glad that it exists not only for the next generation of LGBTIA+ kids, but for folx like me who grew up watching movies about all our friends dying from AIDS or too-frequently, ending up alone.

Technically there is already aroace representation (Isaac as confirmed by Alice Oseman) but I too hope it will be featured more prominently in the next seasons. Excellent, and very entertaining analysis!

Seeing a show with such excellent representation made for teenagers makes me so jealous. all I had was glee and tumblr shipping and we all know how that was. just seeing the queer joy in heartstopper makes it so valuable to queer youth.

"Its Nick Nelsons world and how humbled we are to get to live in it" - orowen

As a fellow Tumblr bisexual millennial who lived through the SuperWhoLock era this video speaks to me on a spiritual level. So well done; I guffawed watching it. Seriously tho Heartstopper is such an important show and so sweet and so relatable and like you said, NICE. Can’t wait for s02 and s03.

Love that they introduced the term proper full on gay crisis to our culture. Iconic. Helps people understand themselves and each other

I'm 40 years older than you and I wept regularly during season 1 of Heartstopper. (Less so during seasonn2.) It reminded me over and about how much better life would have been if had images like these when I was a teen. What an amazing show.

9:55 love your input here about how bigotted men react differently to homosexuality in men or women. It basically interconnect with their mysoginy.

I 100% agree with you! I was sceptical at first, too, because I was concerning it would be too ‘preachy’ or ‘forcefully feeding the audience’. But none of the happened. It feels so natural, even though the lighting and set up is unrealistic (to match the comic book). We are so used to over dramatised and sexualised tv series for decades with very poor production, and Heartstopper is just some fresh air that we need.

Great review. You've done a great job articulating many of the things so many of us love about the show.

There was an implication in this video that Kit Connor has brown hair. He's a redhead. This is a great video essay but I have an almost physical inability to let a fact go unchecked. Also, my grandson has the exact same shade of red (auburn) hair. #stopgingererasure :D Lastly, I crack up at all these reaction videos where the person is *maybe* in their early 30's and they talk as if they're ancient. My youngest child is going to be 33 this year.

Why did the algorithm only suggest this to me now?! I've been obsessing over this show for months! Hilarious and insightful video, instant sub.

amazing video essay and the thumbnail is just the cherry on top

I was not familiar with the source material before watching Heartstopper, so I was pleasantly surprised when I realized it was about a bisexual romantic lead. As a fellow bi+ person, I, too, have been frustrated by the lack of good bi+ representation for decades (I realized I was bi+ when I was about 16 years old, way, way back in 1992, when it was a miracle I had ever even heard the word "bisexual", let alone having any actual bi+ representation to see myself in). Nick Nelson is the bi icon I feel like we've always been waiting for. And that he is a bi male character is even more revolutionary. After I binged the entire season in one evening, I then read the entire graphic novel series that same night (I was not yet aware of the web comics, so I bought the Kindle versions to be able to read them immediately - and I regret nothing, Alice Oseman deserves my money). I'm now completely caught up on the web comics as well. This is pure queer joy, pure bi joy, and we get to see our bi character with one person of one gender without it invalidating his bi identity. I love Nick Nelson. And I love that we got this amazing series about a bisexual romantic lead character. And I thank everyone involved in creating this masterpiece of a series that we all needed right now. I live in Florida, where our government is attacking the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans youth, with new attacks just about every single day right now, and Heartstopper is my happy place when I need to take a break from it all. I love it so much.

how do i send this video to my family without sending it to them but like seriously this show has so good representation and i can’t explain this without bursting into tears so i may just send it to my mom and hope she’ll understand

I love this show and I loved this video. Well said 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🥰 I spent my teens and 20s as a bi woman( now at 37 i identify as pan). I wish I had this representation as a kid.

Okay that ending clip about our flag means death personally attacked me because I was about to comment about it. And yes, WE GET SEASON TWO

I'm 40 and cannot remember a single time I saw Bi representation when I was growing up, and I figured that out YOUNG. I was about 12/13 and was watching The Flintstones (a live-action film) and absolutely fell in love with Halle Berry (still in love with her, I'd leave my wife for her and she knows it), before that I was in love with Billy Cranston from the Power rangers. However, I also grew up in a hugely homophobic environment and never told anyone because I didn't want to be judged. I would literally just tell people I was an ally. It wasn't until my wife came out to me as trans that I admitted that I was to anyone and I was 33 at the time. I didn't plan on telling any more people, just because I didn't feel they needed to know, but there were so many people who would just badger me about why I was staying with my wife that I ended up being pretty much forced out of the closet. Now I'm fine, but it was really hard during that time. Watching Heartstopper was so cathartic for me and made me wish there was something, just one thing, that could have represented me on film. I have 4 kids, two of whom are part of the rainbow family too and I LOVE that they have this representation. It is something that is so desperately needed.

LOVED your analysis! It was insightful and hilarious and relatable and just damn good. I am bi, too, and I felt everything you said except the representation. I’m Gen X, so the representation you disparaged was a giant leap in my eyes. Heartstopper has meant a lot to me, but the thing it has helped me with the most is connecting with other members of the queer community and having my own experiences validated. For me, the most hurtful and intense biphobia has come from WITHIN the queer community, so seeing SO many bi people react to Heartstopper let me know how much more numerous we are, and seeing so many gay and straight people praise the bi representation has been incredibly healing. I just attended my first Pride event and have officially joined our regional LGBT organization to, among other things, strategize push back to rampant LGBT legislation. Thanks for being awesome!

I'm 32 and this show made me realize, in a beautiful but also kind of painful way, how much of an impact a show like this would've made back when I was a closeted young man. Representation in media is one of the best ways we're going to make cishet people understand what it means to be LGBT+, but that's also why it's so important that it's actually good and accurate representation. Shows like this really make me hopeful for the future of LGBT+ representation in media. Really good video, thank you.

still have the fear because of that 13rw scene

Absolutely loved watching this. Biting humor, surprising insights, engaging delivery---it has everything a video essay needs to inform and to entertain. Thanks so much for sharing.

Ok I've been convinced and I'm not even halfway through that I'll watch it Edit : it was great, thank you

I'm Gen X. 1980s is when I was the age of the Heartstopper kids. You want scars? How much time you got? Anyhow, I loved this. You're sooooo right on with your commentary. I'm so glad how far we've come! I've watched Heartstopper so many times. It's my happy place. Liked & subscribed. 💜

Seriously though, that was a most insightful summation of a thoroughly lovely tv series.

ALL of this is thanks to the absolute genius of Alice Oseman, and Euros Lyn....and of course the rest of the cast and crew. The casting in this production was phenomenal. (Kit Connor as Nick, and Joe Locke, and Yaz as Elle, etc...just brilliant!) I am one of those queer people you mentioned about remembering even further back. The closest we had prior to the 2010s was a little movie back in 1996 called "Beautiful Thing" which ONLY centered on gay teens and none of the other alphabets of queer community, and 1998 "Get Real" which was another one that focused on gay only, none of the other queer community either on this one, BUT both were British based stories..imagine that...despite the UK and other EU countries still not having a perfect atmosphere for LGBTQIA+ people, they still managed to at least have some representation of any of the queer community, as opposed to the USA which due to its Christian Nationalist Fundamentalists is even harder to have/get LGBTQIA+ representation without the negativity...always high drama, queers cannot ever be happy, someone dies at end, always has to be a sad ending slog that we get fed by mainstream media a LOT. But I wholeheartedly agree with your entire assessment! Thank you for posting my exact sentiments to let me know there is at least one other person out there with same feelings on the matter as i do.....now I believe you fall on the B part of the queer community I happen to fall on the G part....well, if you mixed half Charlie, and half Nick that kinda resembles me...unapologetic-ally gay, yet not afraid to get my hands dirty, repair my own car (breaks, etc), or play football (american, i was on school teams), etc.....thanks again to a man with wit, and intelligence who said it quite perfectly....a twin in spirit, you sir ROCK!...Brian Keith Matthews posted 06/06/2022

Captain Jack Harkness is canonically omnisexual, which is said in his introductory episode, if not by the character himself, definitely by The Doctor.

You’re flipping delightful.

What amazing and fun analysis! Cheers from Brazil!

You’ve said everything I love about heartstopper in 21:11 I love you 😂❤️

Isaac is cannon ace aro according to the writer for the show. Eventually Tori may come out as ace as well.

Wow I’ve been British this whole time, I never knew. All honesty though I binged this show in a day the other month and it made me want to die with just how cute it was *chefs kiss*

I found your channel thanks to a massive Dr Who kick I've been going through thanks to Magic the Gathering reminding me how much I love that terrible show, so that sums up the kinda dweeb I am. Anyways I've found your channel now I've chosen to latch onto this channel like some gross little leech man and you're stuck with me now. Very enjoyable videos talking about a lot of things I've felt and not known how to put into words for ages, not to mention I feel like it's uncommon I find a KZfaqr who actively makes me laugh still throughout the video

Great observations, loved how you broke it down. Thank you 😊

As someone who is marginally worse than you for having watched SPN and spent a regretful amount of time in Super Giga Epic Hell that I will now never get back, thanks for the shoutout. Praise this show for giving us what we've been looking for and disappointed we didn't get. Great video!!

5:35 literally me

Great video. You’ve earned yourself a subscription

Great essay

Glad I found this channel

Haha - I see you showed a clip of Lucas Cruikshank's (aka Fred Figglehorn - aah, those were the days!) younger brother Jacob Cruikshank.

sat here with my deanxcastiep tattoo while you bully me

loved the video, as a 20-something that grew up with tumblr and shipping straight characters as if they were gay, yeah, feels like a massive improvement and yet it's only the beginning! btw our flag means death is about pirates which legally means you are allowed to pirate it

Read the graphic novel! 😭

Mmm very good 👍

1:32 HASAN LMAOO

Oh no, why did i watch this... Now I desperately need to rewatch Heartstopper again. Oops, oh well 😁

thank you thank you thank you this is comforting and good and i cherish this i cant wait to watch it waaa

season two now?

and we got scarred 🥺

Mystrade (or as the French say Lecroft) is the only gay rep I need

that's the beauty of queer joy baby

Did you ever watch "Legends of Tomorrow?" There are 2 bisexual characters n it.

Both Isaac and Tori are confirmed to be aro/ace. Would be great to see that in the show in the next seasons. Slight spoiler for the comic: When Charlie tells his parents that he and Nick are boyfriends, Tori appears only to comment that their parents won't be grandchild-less after all.

Okay okay you got me, I’m subscribing. Hopefully you can watch, and rant about, our flag means death soon!

Beaaaahahaha... someone in my class got suspended for having a not-so-crafty you know what during the human reproduction section in science too. God save us from 13 yr old boys!

I don’t discriminate against you because you’re British or bisexual. I discriminate against you because of that horrid wallpaper in your room.

Re: 2010s bi rep, how can you forget Remy Hadley aka Thirteen from House who was openly bisexual? I mean, sure her attraction to women was often hyper sexualised, played for laughs or used as a thinly veiled excuse to have Olivia Wilde make out with other hot women. And, okay, the only long-term relationship we actually see her in on screen is with a man and yes, her main overarching storyline is about the fact she has an incurable genetic illness that will eventually kill her but like...they say the term bisexual on screen...more than once. And we don't actually see her die... We just know that she has a degenerative illness she's already showing symptoms off and that she will die of...which is totally fine /s (I do think Thirteen being bisexual was important representation at a time when, as you say, most bi characters were not being called bi. However looking back on it as an adult her character hasn't aged particularly well...even if I do enjoy seeing Olivia Wilde taking a shot from a woman's cleavage)

I feel like Heartstopper (the series) kind of romanticises being queer. The, comparative to irl, lack of homophobia feels like its downplaying the social issues surrounding the lgbtq community.

I thought the show was just okay. There has been a lot of positive lgbt media lately. I think a lot of old queer media was depressing because queer lives were depressing.

(Queer representation) "led to misery, isolation and death" Idk man sounds pretty accurate to the queer experience IRL