'Heartstopper' Season 3 is Growing Up & Growing Into Tough Conversations

Once a bestower of queer joy the world over, Netflix’s Heartstopper is growing up and growing out of its cozy beginnings in its third season, which arrived in full on Netflix on Thursday, October 3, 2024. It is, candidly, an extremely rough watch. This season will no doubt hit home for anyone who is or has ever loved someone with mental illness and anyone who is or has ever been a queer teenager. But much like the characters’ hardships are worth enduring, this season of Heartstopper is worth watching for the catharsis it brings.

Based on the wildly successful webcomic by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper began as the unlikely love story between artsy nerd Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and jock Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), two boys discovering themselves and growing together. Friends surround them, each on their own journeys of self-discovery. It’s an utterly Gen Z story, one that simply wouldn’t have existed on mainstream television a decade ago, but one that has drawn in audiences of all ages, many who look to redress their own teenage years through the show’s sunny depiction of queer love and friendship.

When its first season aired in 2022, Heartstopper was a source of comfort for many and saccharine to others. The second season saw the characters grapple with slightly more serious issues but largely kept things cheerful. The third season begins with something set up in Season 2: A four-letter word starting with L and ending with E exchanged between Nick and Charlie.