Heartstopper season 3 spoilers follow.
When Nick and Charlie first bounded into our lives with all the verve of a golden retriever, their growing love story resonated precisely because of how sweet and wholesome it was.
In a world where everything from Skins to Euphoria emphasised the debauchery of teen party life, an entertaining reality for sure, there was something unique and special about the way Heartstopper explored sparks of a more innocent nature.
An adorable glance here, some tentative hand-holding there... These gestures are just as real and even more emotionally resonant than the drunken fumbles and backseat hookups we're used to seeing on screen. And that's especially true when it comes to queer teen love.
While straight people can see their desires reflected on screen in just about every way possible, from a chaste Disney kiss to full-blown sex, queer love of any kind remains far more limited, particularly in the mainstream.
What those early seasons of Heartstopper did with their pure depiction of young gay love was nothing short of revolutionary. Or at least, in a mainstream sense. BL (Boy's Love) shows have been popular among gay audiences in Asia especially for some time, but even there, these stories are rarely given the wider spotlight they deserve.
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Yet that didn't stop some detractors from complaining that Heartstopper was too innocent, that the sweet-natured kisses between Nick and Charlie, you know, the ones that lit up the screen and captured our hearts, were too unrealistic. But that was reductive to say the least.
Just as some teens go to parties and take drugs and shag until their hearts actually risk stopping for good, there are also many who aren't like that at all, regardless of how they identify.
What Heartstopper did is prove that the latter can be just as entertaining in their own way, that there's something adorably precious about rooting for two boys to pluck up the courage and love each other.
But even so, there comes a time when even the most innocent relationship ventures into more adult territory. You can only kiss for so long, after all. When it comes to Nick and Charlie, that moment finally arrives in season three with a slow, gradual build-up following Charlie's release from the clinic where his eating disorder was treated.
All that time apart inevitably made the boys more horny for each other than ever, which we see at the start of episode six when more sparks physically fly between them in the shape of a cute graphic that appears on screen.
During a subsequent chat with his mates, Charlie reveals that the couple have only been handsy over the clothes with each other. He's scared Nick's not ready and he's also scared that his own body dysmorphia will hold him back from being intimate too. That is, until Charlie suddenly drinks too much at a party and broaches the topic of sex with Nick.
The next day, they discuss it further, with Charlie revealing that he's nervous to take the next step. He's worried about his self-harm scars and that he doesn't have a six-pack like Jonathan Bailey's Jack Maddox. Nick doesn't care though, reassuring him that Charlie is in fact extremely sexy to him. As he should!
These kind of talks, including one Charlie has with his therapist later about his body size and feelings of self-worth, are arguably more important than the sex itself. As is befitting of a show named Heartstopper, the focus here is very much on the emotions that come with sex rather than the physical act.
Each conversation around this topic is imbued with the kind of heartfelt honesty that will surely help younger viewers who are navigating their own feelings towards sex and relationships in a similar way to the boys.
It's not just Nick and Charlie who are matching each other's freak this year either. Tara and Darcy continue to hook up, but they are talking about it more openly now in season three. And then there's Elle and Tao, whose journey together adds an extra, much-needed dimension to discussions around queer love.
Early on, the pair get a bit friskier than usual in the bedroom, with Tao touching Elle in places he's never touched her before. Elle jumps up, startled by what's just happened.
"When you put your hand there, all my dysphoria just hit me," explains Elle. "It made me feel like my body wasn't my body, like I wasn't there at all. I'm sorry."
As Tao rightly points out, Elle has no reason to be sorry. These are complicated feelings for anyone, let alone someone like Elle who's navigating sex and sexuality as a young trans woman.
What follows is a gorgeous scene where Elle confides in her trans friends who reassure her that she doesn't have to do anything she's not ready for, but that if she trusts and loves Tao as much as it seems, then she should just go for it.
During a New Year's party shortly after, Elle does exactly that, although we're only privy to the start as explosions of a different kind take place in the sky overhead. That's also true of the long-awaited moment when Nick and Charlie finally have sex at the end of episode seven.
They don't just fall into each other's arms and rip each other's clothes off. The moment in question happens after the pair open up to each other about their fears, how hard it's been for Charlie to deal with his eating disorder, but also how hard it's been for Nick to find himself as a young bisexual teen who doesn't quite know what he wants.
One thing he does want though, the thing he wants most, in fact, is Charlie. And it's through this intimacy and openness that the pair open up to each other physically as well.
By approaching the sex in this way, Heartstopper successfully brings this pivotal moment to life without ever betraying the show's wholesome signature vibe. It doesn't matter that we don't see them actually get it on, that the camera pans up and the credits roll after they start making out, because it feels incredibly real to us regardless. More real than most sex scenes, in fact.
Some detractors might continue to criticise Heartstopper for taking this approach, perhaps arguing that they've neutered this storyline by cutting away from the physicality of it all. But they'd be wrong. Not every show has to portray the (literal) ins-and-outs of sex to convey the intimacy that comes with it.
And if Heartstopper had, then it wouldn't have felt like Heartstopper anymore.
Heartstopper is available on Netflix.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
