Review: 'Heartstopper' Grows Up but Stays Sweet in Season 3

Alice Oseman's global hit graphic novel remains a global hit as a TV show on Netflix, and for good reason: The series features a young and diverse cast of characters who struggle with real-world problems, but in the kind of peer support network that queer youth often can only dream about. Who wouldn't want friends that celebrate you even if you need to seek in-residence mental health treatment for four months, or parents who unhesitatingly profess their love even as they learn to give you room to figure things out?

Always restrained, always tasteful, and always sweetly sunny, "Heartstopper" grapples with that sort of serious stuff while getting a little sexy in Season 3. The various couples represent not only subsets of the human sexuality, but the array of combinations in which people find love; Straight guy Tao (Willian Gao) and his transgender girlfriend Elle (Yasmin Finney), like another teen couple, are faced with challenges and choices as Elle contemplates art school and launches a presence in the social media space. Lesbian couple Tara and Darcy find themselves in a cozy (perhaps too cozy) domestic arrangement when Darcy is thrown out of the house; things get even more interesting as Darcy begins to use they/them pronouns. Tori (Jenny Walser), finds romance with a slightly awkward fellow named Michael (Darragh Hand), but that doesn't mean she'll completely shed her dour outlook. Even bookworm Isaac starts to be able to say who he is and what he wants, and it's not sex or romance.

In the midst of it all, anchoring the show and the story, are Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor). Charlie has long been out at school, and he's been traumatized by bullying; Nick, a popular athlete, identifies as bisexual, but it's Charlie who causes his heart to stutter. As Season Two ended, Nick realized that Charlie suffers from an eating disorder; the show leans into that arc, allowing the story to play out in episodes that skip quickly through the next eight or nine months as the two lovebirds at the center of it all... seemingly the only pairing not to be having sex... gradually approach the next stage of their relationship, taking things as slowly as they need to (until, finally, they don't need to take things slowly any more).

It's a natural and inevitable evolution. As Oseman herself has said, the characters are growing up, and so are the actors who play them. (Connor, in particular, has blossomed: Still babyfaced, the 20-year-old has clearly been spending serious time at the gym and he's got a man's physique – a fact the show isn't shy about pointing up with various shirtless scenes.) Arresting their development would be a disservice to the show's core tenet, which is all about the natural and healthy variability of sexuality's spectrum.

While "Heartstopper" will never be "Euphoria" (and thank god for that), growing up also means some drinking, some swearing, and some harsh encounters with the world. One character naively agrees to be interviewed on a radio program, only to be blindsided by unwelcome political talk; elsewhere, a pair of siblings get so heated that the F-word flies. More than anything, this season is about mental health, which, in the real world, is a growing concern when it comes to the younger generation. Though some scenes come close to straying into PSA territory, the scripting and acting keeps things feeling genuine.

None of the show's dramatic beats are taken to extremes, and they don't need to be. Oseman is a master of rooting the story's drama, romance, and humor at the level and intensity of the real world, even as she paints a gauzy picture of the social circle the characters create amongst themselves.

There's a lot to love about these eight episodes (each of which has a one-word title: "Love," "Home," and "Body" are apt examples). Maybe the best thing about Season 3 is seeing how the show grows into itself, remaining true to the things that make it so beloved while constantly charting new territory – a rarity for TV.

"Heartstopper," Season 3 premieres on Netflix October 3.