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Primetime Picks… 6/17/20

Jun 17, 2020 Posted by in Features | Comments

Today Hulu has released all 10 episodes of the first season of Love, Victor, a couple days earlier than they first announced. The series is a sequel to the feature film Love, Simon, where Creekwood High School senior Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) was outed as gay and then made his epic Ferris Wheel proclamation of love. It’s been one year since the events of the movie, and nearly 16-year-old Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino, Annabelle Comes Home) and his family have just uprooted their lives, moving from Texas to Atlanta. Even in Texas, Victor had heard about Simon’s exploits, and now he’s excited to embrace this opportunity to reinvent himself, as a sophomore at the same high school that Simon had attended.

Like Simon, Victor is on his own voyage of self discovery, questioning his sexuality, trying to figure out who he is, and who he is attracted to. Victor is not sure how his parents Armando (James Martinez, One Day at a Time) and Isabel (Ana Ortiz, Ugly Betty, Devious Maids) would react to the news that he might be gay—he’s seen the gestures and heard the comments his conservative grandfather makes whenever he sees his 7-year-old grandson Adrian waving a wand pretending to be Elsa from Frozen. Little does Victor know that his parents are harboring their own secret—and the real reason the family had to move. His slightly younger sister, Pilar (Isabella Ferreira, Orange Is the New Black), also has her own issues—she was forced to leave her boyfriend behind, and this movie has caused her become all angsty and angry and act out.

As soon as the Salazars arrive at their new home, Victor is greeted by wild, talkative upstairs neighbor Felix (Anthony Turpel, No Good Nick), who immediately declares himself Victor’s new best friend and takes him under his wing. At school, Victor catches the eye of popular girl Mia (Rachel Hilson, This Is Us), and thinks that maybe he should try to live a “normal” life. However, there are other feelings he can’t deny, like when openly gay Benji (George Sear, Alex Rider) walks by him in the corridor, and he can’t look away as his heart starts pounding. So Victor turns to the only person he knows who can help, and starts texting Simon with questions about his dilemma and giving progress reports on his voyage of self-discovery. Meanwhile, Felix is open and honest about his attraction to Mia’s best friend, Lake (Bebe Wood, The Real O’Neals), who’s constantly posting stories on the school’s gossip web site, but she would never give a dorky guy like him the time of day.

Love, Simon does an excellent job of recapturing the same tone and spirit of the film, while telling a very different coming (out)-of-age story. Where the film found Simon having heartfelt discussions with “Blue” via emails, in this series Victor opens up to Simon via DMs. While Simon explored the question of “Who is Blue?”, Victor faces the question of who he is attracted to—is it Mia, Benji, or someone else? And while Simon was being blackmailed by Martin, the thorn in Victor’s side is jock/bully Andrew (Mason Gooding, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay), who is jealous of Victor—not only because he’s a great basketball player, but also because his crush Mia seems to like him instead.

The writers have done an excellent job of fleshing out these characters, giving each of them interesting, real issues to deal with in their personal and home lives. The series tackles some serious issues, but never feels preachy or like an After-school Special. The show makes you care about each of the relationships between these characters—I found myself constantly torn as to how I wanted things to turn out for Victor. The series also finds a perfect balance between the humor and drama such that the while the story feels grounded and real, things never feel overly bleak or overwhelming. Much like another recent Nefllix series, Never Have I Ever, this series starts off as much more of a comedy, but gradually amping up the drama as family secrets comes to light, and Victor starts to feel the pressure of his situation. And by the time the eighth episode rolls around, the series hits some really emotional highs (though still with plenty of laughs).

I thoroughly enjoyed this first season of the series. Each episode is only 30-minutes, which makes it an easy binge, and by the time you finish all ten episodes, you will be eager for Hulu to announce a second season! For those who haven’t yet seen Love, Simon, I would suggest watching it first. While it isn’t necessarily required watching in order to enjoy this series, it’s a great film, and the identity of “Blue” will be spoiled if you check out the series first.

Tonight, I’ll also be watching/recording Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The 100 and Bollyweird.