‘Heartstopper’ Review: Netflix’s Transcendent Gay Rom-Com Delivers a Perfect First Season

Do you remember the first time you fell in love? Not a crush, not infatuation, but full on, heart-throbbing, pulsating, every nerve in your body tingling, capital “L” Love? Whether you’ve forgotten that feeling, are currently feeling it, or even have never felt it before, you will be infused with that raw emotion in nearly every frame of Netflix’s transcendent Heartstopper, adapted from the graphic novels by Alice Oseman.

Pushing the hyperbolic (but entirely appropriate) praise away for the moment, a little bit about the plot. Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) is an out, gay student at an English boys school who is stuck in a dead-end romance with a closeted boy who doesn’t even seem to like him. He’s pretty much resigned to never finding real, honest love when he’s assigned a desk next to Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), a student a year older than him.

At first, Charlie and Nick couldn’t seem to be less alike. Charlie is a nerdy outcast who loves playing the drums and watching bad movies with his friends. Nick is a popular rugby player who everyone likes, actually gets invited to parties, and seems to have everything going for him. But from the happenstance of seating, the two form an immediate bond, leading to Nick — after seeing that Charlie can actually run pretty fast — asking the younger boy to play rugby. And to sweeten the deal, Nick offers to train him in the sport.

You can probably see where this is going, with the major complication of: Nick is seemingly straight. Does Charlie have yet another impossible crush? Or is there something more he’s feeling from Nick?