Guardian reviewer Rebecca Nicholson on Heartstopper:
The reactions have broadly appeared along two lines. One is that older LGBTQ+ viewers are so glad that it exists at all, for the generations that have come after them. To see something so honest about teenagers figuring out who they fancy, and what that means for them, is such a relief. If it helps even a handful of kids not to hate themselves for who they are, then it is a marvel.
But there is a kind of sadness that we didn’t have that experience as teenagers. “Can you imagine that being on TV when we were younger?” is what I keep hearing, the gratitude ever so slightly tinged with grief for what we did not have. These days, there are more queer characters on screen than I can recall, but many millennials were starved of “representation”, the idea that it matters for viewers to see characters who might be going through what they were going through.
