Beloved webcomic turned show-stopping Netflix series Heartstopper’s final season is scheduled
for release later this year and in celebration of its massive global success and the story coming to
a close both in its webcomic and television forms, I thought I’d take a deep dive into how the
show was adapted from one source of media to another and the consensus from fans
regarding the television adaptation.
Whenever a treasured book or comic is adapted to the big or small screen alike, fans of the media
are always the first to cast doubt and fear onto the project for whether it will live up to its glory in
its prior form.
Heartstopper passes this test with flying colours for me, personally, as well as a massive number of webcomic fans. This mainly has to do with the author’s – Alice Oseman – involvement with the Netflix series by writing the script, adapting all of the comic’s key moments to the screen perfectly, and doing so with the utmost care.
Another huge factor as to why the adaptation is so beloved is because of its young LGBTQ+ and ally cast. The cast – very close in age to the actual characters, so much so that they were completing their A-Levels at the time of the first season’s initial release, put so much care and passion into portraying Oseman’s characters. Whilst the TV adaptation certainly has its differences from the source material, it doesn’t serve as some sort of missed-out regretfully or stupid change, instead, the TV show feels like an expansion
into the Heartstopper universe, another piece alongside the original.
So, how was the comic adapted into the TV show we have today?
Well, Oseman expressed that since Netflix was offering a three-season run for Heartstopper, they would try to adapt the story into three separate chunks – season one portraying the majority of volumes one and two of the comic, season two depicting that of volumes three and four, whilst the final season covers the remaining two volumes of the comic.
This was a rough guideline as some parts of the overarching narrative of the webcomic would not serve that of a television dramatic narrative in the same way. Ensuring that first-time viewers would want to return, some key narrative points from volume three of the comic had to be put into the first season, too. Whilst this did make for dramatic and engaging television, I miss the mostly relaxed and meandering storyline and approach from the webcomic. However, I can appreciate those changes and why they were made as for the format of television that sort of more laidback approach would not interesting and gripping television make.
Some major changes that I noticed:
Charlie no longer has a younger brother. In the comics, Charlie’s younger brother, Oliver, is a big part, just like his older sister Tori, in his home dynamic. So, I wonder why they decided to cut him from the script.
Expanding on the prior point: Charlie’s home life is a lot different. At least, to begin with, that is. In the television adaptation, there’s less drama between Charlie and his mom. In the comic this is highlighted more, I feel, as their relationship strain is something that affects Charlie’s mental health greatly and is an important theme to explore, in my opinion. I’m unsure as to why they didn’t include this as I feel this could have been particularly interesting to adapt onscreen. Whilst in the second series it is more present, it still doesn’t feel the same as it did in the comic, for me. Perhaps the decision to make this a less prominent plot line was because it meant too much time spent on just Charlie and not enough on the ensemble cast who play a larger role in the television adaptation.
Another change I found interesting was that Tao finds out about Nick and Charlie’s relationship in the first series during school time and not whilst they’re on their GCSE trip to Paris. This led to a very interesting change in dynamic for that trip as one of the main points of strain in the comics was the fact that Tao, Nick, Charlie, and their friend Aled – who is also removed from the TV adaptation and instead a new character, Isaac, essentially takes his place – must share a hotel room whilst Nick and Charlie must keep their relationship hidden from Tao due to Charlie’s anxiety over telling his best friend. I personally prefer the comic’s approach to this section of the story as it puts a spin on the classic having to hide a queer relationship trope. The boys hide their relationship, not for fear of homophobia from Tao, but because they’re worried he’ll accidentally tell the rest of the school and that he won’t approve of Nick being Charlie’s boyfriend since he’s one of the popular boys.
A couple of other things I noticed:
Elle and Tao’s romance subplot was changed to include a lot more angst and miscommunication. I understood why they did this as the two characters needed a longer plot for the storyline as having something solved right away in one episode rather than spanning the length of the series, for example, does not have as satisfying of a payoff, but I didn’t like it. I’m not a fan of miscommunication tropes, so maybe it was a me problem and some do like this change.
I also noticed more angst and tension between Tara and Darcy in the second series, similar to that of Elle and Tao. I feel here they also had to make a more prominent conflict between the two characters to make it a satisfying payoff for a television audience, but once again, I didn’t like it and thought it wasn’t needed.
Overall, the show is still very much enjoyable and true to the source material and what made it so loveable in the first place, the major to minor changes don’t affect this at all. At least for me and many other Heartstopper fans. I am curious to know if any fans still prefer the comics or if some prefer the television adaptation. I suppose we’ll only know for certain once Netflix releases the final season and rounds off the story.
