On April 22, 2022, Netflix’s T.V. adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novel Heartstopper was released. The show tells the story of newly out gay kid Charlie Spring as he tries to navigate his feeling towards his new friend Nick Nelson. During this Nick starts to develop new and unknown feeling towards Charlie as he struggles to come to terms with who he is.

As someone who had read the comic before watching the show, I thought that the writers and directors did a great job with the adaptation. Also having Oseman on set giving her input must have really helped them out when putting the show together. Throughout the entire series there are a lot of parallels that are shown that are a staple for the “Heartstopper” series. As someone who has read the comic before watching the show, it was really comforting to see that the majority of the major points in the story stayed the same in the show and that they were not changed. One of my favorite parallels from the show that I am very glad was not changed is the final scene in the last episode. Nick and Charlie are at the beach and they finally establish that they are boyfriends and Nick screams it at the top of his lungs. It’s a really important scene because it marks a huge turning point in their relationship and sets up the rest of the series for (hopefully) upcoming seasons.

The show overall is a huge step towards more mainstream representation of LGBTQ+ relationships in high school. I think that it is a great representation because it shows a normal teengager’s life. Their inner thoughts, challenges with relationships, both platonic and romantic, along with some deeper topics that are hinted at in the show and are addressed further into the series. Because of these things, teenagers are able to relate to it more and I think that Oseman does a great job on shedding light on more serious or less talked about topics in an easy manner.