Photo courtesy of Netflix

Heartstopper is the latest offering from Netflix in the rom-com category and this one feels extra special. It’s almost an anti-Euphoria while still giving the audience a euphoric feeling without sex, drugs, swearing, or booze.

What Heartstopper gets very right is the intensity of young love! For many, that is a time in life when everything feels like it can kill you and each text message matters as much as anything. These are young people who put the utmost value on friendships and who already seem wise beyond their years.

Here are 5 screenwriting takeaways from Heartstopper.

1. Comic Book to Screenplay

 ‘Heartstopper’ does a lovely job of keeping a lot of the feeling of Alice Oseman’s original comic book, likely because she also wrote the television show. The writing also feels deeply true to the young teenage group.

Oseman got her first publishing deal at just 17 and is now the ripe old age of 27 and, as one of her other novels espouses, it truly seems she was born to make this kind of content. Heartstopper’s humble Tumblr® origins are still live and one can look back to see how the story has evolved and how Oseman cleverly ensured her animation style was included in the live-action show.

2. A Love Story for Now

Heartstopper does not shy away from tough issues like bullying, homophobia, neurodiversity, and more. It also uses group text as a major way to convey story, not to mention sweet and meticulously written messages between the main characters Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor). The film very much feels like a love story for the now, but in the best way. These are young characters who know exactly what they want, and even as they grapple with those desires, they maintain refreshing confidence in who they are.

3. Other Couples

While Charlie and Nick steal most of the limelight on this show (they are magnetic on-screen together), there are other incredible couples to watch here too. There’s the sweet lesbian couple Tara and Darcy who welcome Elle with open arms to their girls’ school. What's more, they have decided to attend parties in an open and free fashion, so much so that their love inspires Nick to embrace his own desires.

Then there’s the romantic tension between Elle (Yasmin Finney) and Tao (William Gao), two friends who are afraid to mention that they might be more than that because their friendship matters so much. The relationships in Heartstopper are in various states and dynamic enough to keep audiences watching to see how they might flourish. It feels good to root for love here in every form.

4. The Simplicity of Romance

Pure, unadulterated romance, again with no struggles of addiction or extreme escapism that so many other teen shows have presented in recent years, is striking here.

A scene with characters playing in the snow or enjoying the beach feels powerful because sometimes that’s all you need in life, to have (as Nick says), “the best day of my life.” Here, a kiss in the rain even feels fresh and new because audiences haven’t been gifted something so pure for so long.

5. Ah, The Music

Heartstopper is all-in on rom-com-ness with a killer soundtrack of indie-giving life force, perhaps because the talented Charlie plays electronic drums like a boss, sports a neon sign that reads ‘Music’ in his room, and has the excellent taste to put up a Strokes poster. Hear the likes of killer needle drops from Wolf Alice, Maggie Rogers, Girl In Red, beabadoobee, CHVRCHES, Orla Gartland, Baby Queen, Montaigne, etc. This whole show loves everything about a rom-com and it is not afraid of who knows it.

Final Takeaway

If you need a pick-me-up in life, if you love a great rom-com, or if you are simply thrilled by how far LGBTQI+ representation has finally come in mainstream media, this show is for you. Heartstopper is a genuine heartwarmer, available now on Netflix.