Dear Gossips,
I am two-and-a-half episodes into Heartstopper and I had to force myself to slowwwwww down. Heartstopper is based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novel (they also scripted the series), a queer teen rom-com, a story about crushes and friendship and identity and rugby, lol, and it’s sweet and funny and relatable, not just for adolescents and I wish we didn’t have to keep doing these disclaimers for YA content but, you know, there are still people out there who insist on cultural hierarchies for content. The truth is, shows like Never Have I Ever don’t just appeal to people in high school and, frankly, they wouldn’t be successful if the audience was that limited. It’s the same with Heartstopper as The Guardian just called it “possibly the loveliest show on TV”, not the kind of description that comes with an age boundary.
Never Have I Ever made Maitreyi Ramakrishnan a star. And Heartstopper will do the same for its cast. It’s only been 24 hours but I’m already obsessed with Yasmin Finney who plays Elle. This is her first ever acting role but she’d already established a presence on social media and is now, in less than two weeks, Netflix famous which means, well, she’s famous.
Heartstopper’s momentum has really been picking up over the last few days. And as more and more people discover it, that hype will only keep building. It’s all I can do to get through the day so I can go home and watch more, while trying to hold myself back from watching it all. If you haven’t already, can you please start so we can talk about it without me spoiling what happens?!?
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
