Heartstopper Season 3, Netflix review: just lovely

‘Lovely.’

Casting my eye over the notes I’ve jotted down for the eight-episode run of adorably queer Netflix hit Heartstopper’s third season, the word ricochets around the page.  

Revolving around sweet-sixteen high school boyfriends Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor), their flourishing relationship, and those of the wonderful mates around them, continue to glimmer in the most wholesome ways.

It’s lovely when rugby lad Nick’s on holiday in Menorca with his aunt Diane (Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell, stepping in for a sadly absent Olivia Coleman, who usually plays his mum) and she doesn’t bat an eyelid when he tells her about dating Charlie. Instead, she wants all the goss over ‘a glass of red wine and breadsticks’.

Watch the Heartstopper Season 3 trailer.

When Diane offers sound advice about this season’s major dramatic arc – Nick’s concerned that Charlie might have an eating disorder and is unsure how best to broach it, let alone support his beloved boyfriend – it’s also lovely. She’s ever so careful with his tender heart, presenting clear and simple steps that will help untold amounts of viewers.

As the gang rapidly approaches the paradigm shift of uni (or not) years, their unsure approach to the big questions keeps the story engine revving. Sometimes they’re even sweating the obvious, like Charlie second-guessing himself while attempting to say the L-word to Nick, despite all his mates being ‘duh’. When the big moment comes, it’s also lovely, replete with the show’s fluttering animated flourishes, though ominous scratches creep around the edges of Charlie’s fantasies.

ScreenHub: Heartstopper is the queer TV show we need right now

Corinna Brown, a low-key fave, continues to circle closer to the centre of the story as Tara, navigating how best to shore up her love for recently homeless partner Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) whilst also carving out personal space. So it’s lovely when she reminds Nick that they need to look after themselves, too.

And as Elle (Yasmin Finney, Doctor Who) struggles with the brutal impact of a ‘casual’ but undoubtedly traumatic transphobic incident, besotted boyfriend Tao (William Gao) holds her up in truly lovely ways. Their heart-to-hearts are so beautifully drawn.

Heartstopper: joyous high

All this loveliness and more abounds, and yet writer and showrunner Alice Oseman – who created the original graphic novel the series sprung from – miraculously keeps the joyous high from overdosing us, a fear I’d needlessly harboured going into Season 2.

One of the loveliest aspects of season three is its understated acknowledgment that the LGBTQIA+ umbrella is a spectrum and that finding your place in that jumble can take a bit of time or remain assuredly in flux.

Tobie Donovan continues to excel as bookworm Isaac, copping his friendship group’s couples’ drama left, right and centre, beginning to be a bit exasperated by how he’s often sidelined. That comes through in brilliant comic timing when Isaac’s asked to elaborate on being asexual and aromantic. ‘You can google it later … I don’t really want to give everyone a vocab lesson.’

ScreenHub: Heartstopper Season 2 review

It’s a telling moment outlining how Oseman and new director Andy Newberry are carefully sketching a world of difference that details several of the logical family’s teenagers shuffling along the letters from one place to the next, assuredly embedding it as no big deal.

Darcy’s trying out they/them pronouns and a new look, tentatively testing the corners of their identity in this rapidly shifting world. Even ditzy Imogen (Rhea Norwood) is beginning to figure out that how we want to be seen doesn’t necessarily equate to who we want to be.

Beyond sexual or gender identity questions – including a genuinely luminous moment as Elle faces down dysphoria head-on that showcases exactly what Finney can do – other labels get unpicked.

Like why there’s so much fuss about defining relationships. Charlie’s straight and straight-shooting big sister Tori (Jenny Walser) is properly irked by him bothering her about her connection with boundary-breaking cheery Michael (Darragh Hand), another welcome addition to the cast alongside the delightful Eddie Marsan as Charlie’s therapist Geoff.

Heartstopper: grown-ups

Coleman may be missing in action (as is Stephen Fry’s vocal talent as Headmaster Barnes), but there’s still time for the grown-ups. While they’re used sparingly, Nima Taleghani and Fisayo Akinade continue to be utterly adorkable as secret crush teachers Mr Farouk and Mr Ajayi, wisely keeping their relationship from the kids (who are slowly catching on).

Charlie’s highly-strung mum, Jane (Georgina Rich), has more to do as she wrestles with cutting her son some slack over taking things to the next level with Nick and her fears for Charlie’s mental health and impending GCSE exams. Teenagers do not corner the market on self-doubt.

Facing demons

As Heartstopper addresses Charlie’s inner demons unflinchingly, Lock’s performance is truly remarkable, underlining that you can be loved in abundance and still face terrifying trials in your head, emerging as very real scars. The simple thread of a T-shirt staying on when in Nick’s burly arms, in the sea or in bed, stitches so much heartache into what’s unsaid.

Connor is magnificent in the quieter role – still gently reminding everyone he’s bisexual, actually – requiring him to be both a buttress and hold anxiety in his bones. When they consider having sex, there’s such understated love in his insistence they can be ‘nervous together’.

For all the heavy stuff this season, the show remains impishly funny. When a sex ed class has the boys popping condoms on cucumbers, Charlie texts Nick about it. Receiving the response, ‘Maybe you should try it not on a cucumber sometime,’ only to reply ‘Gay’ incurs the sassy burn of Tao, looking over his shoulder:  ‘The way you two flirt is so weird.’

Backchat and cheerleading alike, Heartstopper continues to be unfailingly lovely. Perhaps that’s exactly what we need right now?

Heartstopper Season 3 premieres on Netflix on 3 October 2024.