The first graphic novel, published in 2019, has sold over a million copies.
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It originated as a comic series on blogging platform Tumblr in 2016 and has since amassed over over 52.1 million views. It’s this very approach that has turned Oseman’s creation into a global phenomenon. Instead, Walters wanted to “deliver a piece of queer representation that felt joyful, young and completely free of shame”. While Heartstopper touches on coming out, it is not just another queer teen drama about people struggling with their sexuality. “It was a love story that really touched me and that is a rare thing.” “It was just refreshing in how emotional it was,” Walters says.
Its creation was a joint effort with excecutive producer Patrick Walters who read the comic in 2018 and fell in love. Oseman was involved on an almost granular level with the adaptation from development to writing all the scripts. Instead, these teens go bowling, partake in school activities, party without alcohol and, most shocking of all, confide in their parents. Unlike the extreme teenage debauchery of Euphoria, Heartstopper offers a non-threatening portrait of adolescence, one in which its characters aren’t found necking beers, smoking cigarettes, bonking everything that moves or dabbling in narcotics. I’m not sure it’s ever been done to this extent before.” It can be watched by kids who are 10 or 11. They have sex in them, swearing and drinking. “I think a lot of queer stories in teen shows are more adult. “We wanted it to be a queer story that young people could watch, either by themselves or with their families,” says Oseman. Excitingly, Olivia Colman plays Nick’s mother, a secret that was kept quiet even from the cast. His friendship group is made up of LGBTQ+ people, such as lesbian couple Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) and Tara (Corinna Brown), and trans teenager Elle (Yasmin Finney), who shares a flirtation with Tao (William Gao), the only cisgender, hetrosexual person in the gang.
It follows Charlie (Joe Locke), an out gay teen, and his burgeoning relationship with Nick (Kit Connor), a rugby player who is unsure about his sexuality.
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TV has always honed in on the teenage experience to various degrees of authenticity, angst and explicitness, but Heartstopper is a different breed of teen drama: one crafted specifically for a young LGBTQ+ audience. Based on the popular web comic and graphic novel series by British writer Alice Oseman, it’s a queer coming-of-age drama about first love and finding yourself as a teenager. Netflix’s Heartstopper might just be the boldest TV show of 2022.