Heartstopper Season 3 Review: Life Isn’t Always Sunshine and Rainbows

It’s finally here! With Heartstopper Season 3, we return with our favorite characters to Truham, Higgs, and Lambert, for another school year. 

This time, the season spans an entire school term from September to June. The characters experience so much, both individually and together.

None more so than Charlie Spring, but luckily, he isn’t alone. His friends, family, and boyfriend all show him exactly what it means to have a support system.

Charlie and Nick’s Relationship Gets Tested

The start of Heartstopper Season 3 focuses entirely on Charlie’s anxiety and lack of eating. We start just a few weeks after their trip to Paris from last season, so it is still the middle of summer, and no one wants to think about serious topics.

However, Charlie wants to focus on telling Nick he loves him to avoid the deeper troubles on his mind, while Nick is more focused on getting Charlie the help he knows his boyfriend needs for his eating disorder.

Kit Conner really pulls out all the emotional stops for this season. Between his heartbreaking, sob-filled conversation with his aunt (Hayley Atwell) and his stoic support throughout the season, Nick is spiraling almost as much as Charlie is, but in different ways.

Luckily for the two, Charlie’s parents and Tori and Nick’s aunt support them once the boys confess that Charlie has a problem. As the show slips from summer to fall and even winter, the sunshine and happiness also leave Nick and Charlie’s relationship due to Charlie needing to enter a treatment program.

One of the most beautiful things to come out of Charlie’s three-month stint in an eating disorder inpatient facility is the relationship between Tori and Nick. These two are Charlie’s strongest supporters, and in his absence, they find themselves leaning on each other more and more to talk out the really difficult things the friend group doesn’t want to address.

Hearstopper fans have been anxious to see how Charlie’s OCD, anxiety, and eating disorder would be translated from book to screen. Not surprisingly, considering how involved Alice Oseman is with the project, the translation is not only respectfully done but also handled in a way that encourages audiences to stop and talk should they need to.

Through all their trials and tribulations this season, Nick and Charlie emerge stronger than ever. Nick finds his voice and the confidence to do things for himself despite Charlie’s vulnerability, and Charlie learns how to express his needs to his parents more directly.

At the end of the day, Charlie and Nick respect each other enough to hold onto each other even tighter when life isn’t so cheery.

Elle’s Struggles Create a Stumbling Block, But Tao Changes the Tide

One of the best aspects of Heartstopper Season 2 was the focus on Elle’s trans journey and her increased confidence in herself. Season 3 does a fantastic job of picking up those threads and expanding on them to show how much of a give-and-take any identity journey can be.

We start off getting to see Elle and Tao in the midst of their summer of love. That is until Tao’s insecurities get the better of him, and he overcompensates much to the chagrin of Elle and the amusement of his friends.

Much like in previous seasons, William Gao brings a level of vulnerability to Tao that can’t be replicated by anyone else. This vulnerability is even more present this season as Tao finally discusses his father’s absence and how he wishes he had a way to connect with him.

Elle finds out Tao’s father used to love to create things, so she encourages Tao to pursue his photography and amateur filmmaking pursuits. Using his father’s old recorder, Tao manages to create videos for his friends during their struggles throughout the year.

It’s a side of Tao we’ve seen present in other ways previously, such as buying Elle’s juice all the time despite her absence or doing everything he can to help Charlie overcome his insecurities about Ben. Now, Tao finds himself able to better present this love to his friends in a way that is unique to him and speaks to how much he sees and loves them.

The video for Charlie while he’s in inpatient treatment is just the beginning. When Elle starts to doubt herself because of transphobia during an interview, Tao realizes the best way to encourage her and show his love is through a video of how he sees her and her art.

While Elle struggles with her own body and how that plays into being intimate with Tao, she knows she can rely on Tao as her friend and her partner all in one. Their relationship is at a level they’ve never had before, and the strength of their love is proven when Elle is at her lowest.

Ultimately, Heartstopper Season 3 is a perfect analysis of just how much Elle and Tao mean to each other and how their strengths complement one another.

Isaac Feels Like the Third Wheel

As everyone recalls, Hearstopper Season 2 was a big one for Isaac, with him understanding he wasn’t broken, just asexual. Meanwhile, this season focuses on Isaac gaining enough confidence in his identity to share it with all of his friends. 

At first, he’s only comfortable telling Charlie, who responds by doing research to better understand what aromanticism and asexuality mean. On the surface, it seems casual enough. The deeper we look at it, we can see what Isaac is actually hoping by telling Charlie.

During an early scene, Isaac shows just how much he notices about Charlie in the absence of a relationship to focus on. From the beginning, Isaac has always been the quiet but observant friend who notices things Tao or Charlie might want to keep hidden.

As Charlie falls deeper into his mental illness, we see Isaac use his own experiences to attempt to get Charlie to talk to him. Then, when Charlie is hospitalized, Isaac struggles almost as much as Nick does because he’s such a strong empath for his friends.

He also has to juggle his feelings of being the odd man out at all the get-togethers since everyone is paired up except him. Isaac isn’t one to call his friends out for being obtuse, but when he finally does this season, it’s so satisfying.

Heartstopper Season 3 doesn’t shy away from showing each character displaying major moments of growth, and Isaac is no different. It’s so wonderful to see him finally tell all his friends that he feels left out because they center all their conversations on romantic relationships.

It’s an emotionally mature move for him, and it shows that Isaac wants people to understand he’s not an outsider just because he’s not interested in love or romance for himself.

Tara and Darcy Show Their Insecurities

Finally, Heartstopper Season 3 reminds us that Darcy and Tara face their own struggles despite trying to be nothing but happy in front of their friends. On one hand, we see Tara struggling with the pressure her parents and teachers put on her due to her academic excellence.

This struggle is one that Tara faces in silence for the whole of the season until she’s on a college visit and Nick calls her on it. This means that for the first time ever, we see Tara as more than the confident, driven person she’s always presented in prior seasons.

It helps remind viewers that what we see with our friends on the surface isn’t always what’s true. We know Tara is on the right track toward regaining her confidence, but she still has some things she needs to figure out in the final season.

Meanwhile, Darcy shows their more insecure side as they also start to question their gender. It goes so far as Darcy cutting their hair short and asking their friends to respect their new pronouns. 

At the end of the day, it’s a move that reflects Kizzy Edgell’s own personal journey and proves that Heartstopper is more than happy to give representation its fair shot. There is no fanfare around Darcy’s announcement, just love and support. 

Once Darcy is able to reconcile how they feel about their gender, so much of their remaining insecurities start to fall away. They move in with their grandmother, and their relationship with Tara deepens and extends to include an emotional intimacy they’ve not had in a while.

Stray Thoughts:

• Mr. Farouk and Mr. Ajaya are the cutest adults on the planet. These guys are truly relationship goals and will prove to be a strong support system for each of our struggling teens this season.
• Tori meeting Michael is the loveliness she’s always deserved. Michael is a ball of autism tendencies that comes out in very relatable and endearing ways.
• I’ve never been a fan of Charlie’s mom, and trust me, her behavior at the start of the season doesn’t help. However, by the end, I can see she’s trying her best; she’s just overwhelmed.
• I worried that Olivia Colman’s absence this season would be very obvious, especially considering what I knew was coming for Nick. However, Hayley Atwell does a phenomenal job of taking on those moments and nailing every emotional note.
• Jonathan Bailey as Jack Maddox…I mean…do I really need to say anything else? He’s *chef’s kiss*
• Imogen having a gay crisis this season was not on my bingo card. 

 

What did you think of this season of Heartstopper? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Heartstopper is now streaming on Netflix.

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