by Douglas Messerli
Alice Oseman (screenplay), Andy Newbery (director) Heartstopper
(Season 3) / 2024
After two seasons
of wonderful introductions of the characters to one another which resulted in
love and the discovery of the possibilities that it represented, suddenly in
Season 3, we meet up, just a little, with reality.
The first episode of the season appeared to
be the perfect opportunity for love to be promoted, all the central characters let
loose on a day-trip to the beach. Elle and Tao can hardly keep their hands off
one another, but even that seems slightly troubling to the transgender woman
who realizes that Tao’s love is obviously obsessive. Ever since Darcy has moved
in with Tara, it’s been a full-time chore to not only live up to their
expectations of their relationship, but to deal with the daily existence of another
in your life at 17 or 18, not quite what you might have expected at such at
such early age, and Tara wonders how she might make it clear to her lover that
it might be better to move in with her open-minded and totally receptive aunt,
particularly given Darcy’s mother’s absolute rejection.
Charlie is determined, but as always
terrified in the process, to express to Nick that he truly loves him, fearing—obviously
terrified of the reception of any such expression—that he might again be rejected.
This is the cycle that Charlie cannot escape, a constant fear of rejection.
When Nick finally convinces Charlie, after long hours of his remaining behind
like a lost fish out of water, to join him in the ocean, Charlie admits he has
something he wants to talk about, as does Nick. But Charlie always afraid to go
first with his confession, allows Nick to express what he hopes will be the
commitment to their relationship.
Although Nick is totally committed to
Charlie, the boy can’t even grasp his love, when he admits his fear is that his
lover has an eating disorder, the fact of which Charlie immediately rejects,
hurt, moveover, by his realizing that he now can’t now possibly express he
needs for a declaration of love.
Finally, in Nick’s bedroom, Nick having
gone off to shower off the sand of their outing, does Charlie take the opportunity,
through a closed door, to dare to tell the truth: what he really wants is an
expression of love.
But
in this third year, problems are the issue of the day. Nick, with his family,
is forced into isolation in Menorca, while Nick suffering at home begins to
realize, through his computer peeping that he is anorexic and having eating
disorders, punishing his body for his own neglect. Even his sister Tori,
without any love of her own, turns her dark passion on her brother, notifying
Nick that Charlie is suffering in his absence. In a distant phone call to Nick,
Charlie finally admits to his eating disorder, and Nick feels helpless as he
turns to his sympathetic and knowledgeable aunt Diane (Hayley Atwell), who
explains that he cannot be responsible for Charlie’s illness, and must
encourage him to get professional help.
But Nick and Charlie are not the only in
this season with complaints. Isaac, now realizing that he is asexual and
aromantic feels left out, naturally, with Charlie’s infatuation with Nick and
his increasing distancing of himself from his old friends, along with Tao’s
full commitment to Elle. Although Nick returns, the Charlie he finds is becoming
increasingly weak and lethargic, even though he plans a special birthday for
his boyfriend at the zoo, where finally Isaac becomes brave enough to express
his hurt, and Elle, realizing that Tao is pushing all his fears of abandonment from
his father’s death upon his love for her, attempts to wake him up to his
neglect of both Isaac and Charlie.
Tao and Elle have previously done so, but also
with great trepidation, particularly given the fact that Elle is still quite
sensitive about her female transformation. But even more painful, given that
she has become a rather noted on-line artist, a TV interview pretending to
discuss her art puts the young teenager in a position of supporting transgender
affirmation. The pain of being seen as a figure of representation instead of a
human being with a gift is transforming, even if it results in tears and deep
contemplation. Perhaps only Elle realizes just how important of a choice she
has made and the consequences she will soon have to face, particularly given
the fact that the US president elect has just declared that we are a nation now
of only two genders.
The
intellects of this world, Nick, Tara, Elle, and Imogen (Nick’s former
girlfriend who now identifies as non-gender) take a trip to the colleges and
universities trying to attract them. The local university Nick though he might
attend, is not nearly as appealing as the University of Leeds, where he can get
a good education and an open scholarship for his rugby expertise. Tara hates
Oxford, and seeks somewhere else, and Elle decides she really wants to go to
Paris or Berlin to study art. Imogen is still quite confused about here
identity, let alone her educational opportunities.
But what is clear for the new Season 4 we
are now promised is that the distances these lovers will obviously move away
from their youthful loved ones will be problematic and in some cases
devastating.
Yet Charlie, terrified of playing drums
for a local rock group is able to go on and perform quite effectively, even
when Nick, stuck in traffic, cannot get the concert in time to support him. Tao
is already wondering if he might not get an extra job to help make enough money
to travel back and forth to Paris or Berlin. Nick has planned out the four-hour
train ride from Truham to Leeds, although he shutters at the distance; he too,
as Imogen and Elle advise him, must now look to his own well-being. Even Tori
finds another boy, Michael, to who she might offer up the deep love she has
saved up for her brother.
Perhaps given all the turmoil these young
lovers have now had to face in their lives a new director such as Newbery was
necessary. Tears still welled into my eyes, perhaps even moreso since I
recognized these simple characters were now undergoing more complex dilemmas. Even
though they are all sexual perverts and sinners in the eyes of the religious
establishment, these babies are still suffering over the most overwhelming and miraculous
experiences they will probably ever have in their lives. Perhaps only the
elderly luncheon dates of Mr Ajayi and Mr Farouk might provide these youth
lovers with another alternative. But even they, surely, would give up their
elder romance for such delightful misadventures of youth. To two men nominate
Charlie to become head master to the younger men in his school. We in the US
don’t have such mentors; but I might have wished there was a Charlie to guide me through
my early years.
Los Angeles,
December 23, 2024
Reprinted from My
World Cinema (December 2024).
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