Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
October 3rd 2024 was not only Mean Girls day, but also the release day of the highly anticipated season 3 of Heartstopper. The show follows the graphic novel series written and drawn by Alice Oseman and each season follows a different book in the series.
The show itself is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It follows Nick and Charlie and how they go from being friends to boyfriends. It also follows their friend group and their respective journeys relating to love and sexuality. Nick is bisexual, Charlie is gay. Elle is transgender, Issac is aromantic and asexual, Tara and Darcy are lesbians. The show added a character named Imogen who isn’t in the book and neither is Issac.
Now consider this your spoiler warning and your trigger warning for season three. Season three is an emotional minefield with Charlie coming to terms with and getting help for his anorexia and getting an OCD diagnosis and Elle has to deal with a transphobic radio interview because of her art becoming famous on Instagram. We also saw the introduction of two new cast members: Hayley Atwell playing Nick’s Aunt Diane and Jonathan Bailey playing Jack Maddox, an Instagram famous historian Charlie’s obsessed with. Tara has a panic attack due to the stress and expectations put on her by others and Charlie helps her through it like an expert.
Charlie helping Tara through her panic attack is one of my favorite parts of the season overall. We get to see him use what he has learned in therapy and his own mental health experiences to help Tara through her own. In the scene Nick is standing in the doorway watching Charlie and Tara without getting involved. It shows that Nick is letting Charlie have space to help Tara through her panic attack but that he’s there if they need him.
Another great moment of season three is the last episode where Charlie has a massive surge of confidence when he wears a t-shirt and shows his scars while performing with Sahar and her band at a summer party and letting Nick take his shirt off at the end of the episode. Those two moments of confidence show how far Charlie has come in his journey and that he isn’t letting it define him anymore.
There’s a newfound maturity to him and to Nick this season because Nick does what he can, but also comes to understand (thanks to Aunt Diane) that he can only do so much. The fourth episode of the season takes us through Charlie’s journey in his and Nick’s eyes. It’s fantastic to see how their perspectives are different and similar at the same time adding another layer to the episode.
Heartstopper is a great watch and extremely inclusive of different LGBTQIA+ identities and sexualities as well as disabilities, cultures and races. If you’re looking for an inclusive show that is both heartwarming and emotional then Heartstopper is for you.
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