Heartstopper Forever means everything to me
High school can't last forever, but Heartstopper will in spirit, with the beloved teen Netflix series taking a wholehearted victory lap with its final chapter.
And reader, it's been a wonderful ride.
After three sublime seasons, the series says its last "hi" with a joyous and moving 90-minute film that sends Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), and their friends into their awaiting futures. So, how does Heartstopper Forever leave the Paris Crew, and how far have we come since we first arrived at Truham Boys School?
It's been four glorious years for Heartstopper, one that's seen each season arrive with its signature leaf illustrations swirling back into fans' hearts. The first season hit Netflix in 2022, based on English writer and illustrator Alice Oseman's Tapas/Webtoon/Tumblr hit 2016 webcomic. Fans of Oseman's work found their beloved characters brought to life by Connor, Locke, and the crew, with the actors now synonymous with the series. "We built it, and it built us," William Gao's Tao says in the film, and it's accurate on many levels.
When I reviewed the first season of Heartstopper, I compared it to its teen show brethren, writing, "Heartstopper lies on the sugary sweet end of the teen dramedy series spectrum, worlds apart from Euphoria and Skins, younger but just as delightful as Sex Education, with a new gay love story akin to Love, Victor. But it doesn’t shy away from a poignant examination of queer identity amid steadfast heteronormativity." Of course, the show has evolved by Heartstopper Forever as its protagonists (and cast members) have grown up; however, it remains true to this curious and compassionate core.
The film, based on the sixth and final graphic novel and set over one final year of high school, is a joyous, heartbreaking, and true-to-form final hurrah, with a teen love story for the ages right at its heart.
Nick and Charlie have been through it.
Credit: Samuel Dore / Netflix
In Season 1, we met anxious 14-year-old student Charlie Spring (Locke), who was into The Strokes and his toxic, manipulative, closeted classmate, Ben Hope (Sebastian Croft). At the time, he was in a constant state of self-doubt, an experience that intensified over Seasons 2 and 3, with the latter an immensely challenging time in Charlie's struggle with anorexia, self-harm, anxiety, and body dysmorphia, with Locke giving sensitive insight into this very interior struggle. In Heartstopper Forever, Charlie is still managing this, but he's campaigning to make school a safer place for young queer students, where constant bullying made his life hell. Essentially, Charlie has become the person he needed.
We also met 16-year-old "rugby king" Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), who started to question his sexuality — and his friends — when sparks flew between him and Charlie. Season 2 saw a tremendous performance from Connor, as Nick dealt with the complexities of exploring his bisexuality and coming out, with the show also acknowledging biphobia, bi-erasure, and the anxiety of not feeling "queer enough." Nick's experience in this season resonated with me deeply, with Charlie clarifying the complication in one quote: "I think there's this idea that when you're not straight, you have to tell all your friends and family immediately. Like you owe it to them. But you don't." The season was reminiscent of Connor's own experience, who said he felt forced to publicly discuss his sexuality after fan pressure.
By Heartstopper Forever, Nick has fallen head over heels for Charlie, become proud and curious about his sexuality, and dealt with the complexities of caring for someone you love who has an eating disorder. In the film, however, Nick's not doing well, with his dependence on Charlie and fear for his boyfriend's well-being making the future apart seem an excruciating fate. Reader, I absolutely connected with Nick in Heartstopper Forever, like facing a brutal mirror of my adolescent drama. Nick getting messy drunk and not dealing with his feelings? Yeesh, relate. Nick getting jealous over Charlie being flirted with and becoming deeply possessive? Shit. Nick spewing up his guts while yelling at someone he loves? GET OUT OF MY HEAD.
Heartstopper Forever sees Nick and Charlie dreaming of privacy and their own place, free from interruption. But they are also learning they will be OK without each other, a lesson not easy to learn when you're 18. Or 25. Or 40.
Heartstopper Forever sees the Paris Crew all grown-up.
Credit: Samuel Dore / Netflix
Of course, Heartstopper has spent as much time developing its supporting characters as it has its leads. Charlie's best friends Tao (William Gao), Elle (Yasmin Finney), and Isaac (Tobie Donovan) have all explored their sense of identity, dreams, and terrifying confessions of love.
An always-measured Finney has seen Elle keep her head up amid gender dysphoria and anti-trans hate, finding her own path through artistic self-expression. "It feels like the whole world is against me," she told Tao in Season 3, reflecting the very real abuse, harassment, and discrimination young trans people face on a daily basis in the UK. In Heartstopper Forever, Elle is still burdened by this topical bigotry, asking her friends to show up to Pride for her, saying, "I just wanna be myself, to be free, to be happy." Is it too much to ask?
Credit: Samuel Dore / Netflix
When he hasn't been sacrificing himself on the altar of dignity to win his best friend Elle's heart, Tao has kept his friends above water, with Gao's frantic energy a welcome buoy through the series' more serious moments. And the quiet legend of the series, the book-loving Isaac, realised his asexuality in Season 2 and experienced loneliness among his coupled-up friends.
Charlie's cool and deadpan sister Tori (Jenny Walser), the protagonist of Oseman's first novel Solitaire, has become Heartstopper's moral compass and supreme "look after him or you die" pep-talk queen. Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) living out and free together as a couple, not "GOOD MATES" as everyone first assumed, has been powerful to watch. Darcy explored their gender identity and tried new pronouns in Season 3, while dealing with an unsupportive family life.
And Imogen (Rhea Norwood) has had a similar arc to Nick, as a straight-passing, popular jock hesitant to explore her own sexuality. By Heartstopper Forever, seeing Imogen's love for herself as a lesbian is a delight.
Heartstopper remains one of TV's best spaces for compassionate conversation.
Credit: Samuel Dore / Netflix
I'll be honest with you. Heartstopper has always made friendship, teenage vulnerability, and questions of identity its horizon, and it's always shocked me, the maturity and compassion that these teen characters have. The audacity, to have emotionally healthy conversations with each other in late adolescence! Growing up, I didn't have the vocabulary to talk to my friends about identity, queerness, and mental health, which meant watching Heartstopper as an adult honestly felt like a fantasy series. It's the show I wish I'd had as a teenager, when heteronormativity made me bury myself.
Heartstopper has never been about over-the-top twists, instead making cinematic moments of friendship and found family, the power of showing up for each other, of feeling included, seen, and loved. Despite Charlie suggesting they might be "too old for this cringy stuff," there's plenty of sweet scenes involving DIY bedroom forts, hidden notes in photo prints, and impromptu pasta-fuelled sleepovers. For fans, there are flashbacks to Nick and Charlie's first class together, the famous snowball scene, and a return to the room where Heartstopper's pivotal pash happened. "They should put a plaque on the wall: This is where Nick and Charlie had their first kiss," Charlie says.
Credit: Samuel Dore / Netflix
Heartstopper has long relished the joy, terror, and fireworks of new love and hormones. The show has matured over the seasons, going from innocent games of spin the bottle and dancing around to Julia Jacklin, Wolf Alice, or Maggie Rogers in the living room, to the apprehension, awkwardness, and chemistry of first sexual experiences and the world-ending devastation of first real heartbreaks.
But what makes Heartstopper a defiant show is its insistence on care, of characters turning up for each other, making mistakes, and showing compassion. It's the kind of gentle space viewers deserve, where characters explore their sexuality and identity, experience first love, and build friendships that celebrate their truest selves.
I haven't just loved Heartstopper. I've needed it.
Heartstopper Forever is now streaming on Netflix.
If you feel like you'd like to talk to someone about your eating behavior, in the U.S. you can call the National Eating Disorder Association's helpline at 800-931-2237. You can also text "NEDA" to 741-741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line or visit the nonprofit's website for more information.
In the UK, you can contact Beat through webchat, email, or phone — England (0808 801 0677), Scotland (0808 801 0432), Wales (0808 801 0433) Northern Ireland (0808 801 0434). The helplines are open 3 p.m. to 8 p.m, Monday to Friday.
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