Love, Victor

I watched a couple of episodes, but there was nothing there to keep me interested. It's basically "Gay Kid in High School" 101, bland, rudimentary, and not smartly written. It really does belong on Disney Plus. Sex Education is an infinitely better coming-of-age show, with a more compelling gay storyline.

The reviews have not been very good.

TV guide said that Love Simon was much better.

I actually liked this. I think a lot of people have higher expectations on how exactly they want queer content to be, but I actually think Love Simon/ Love Victor do a good job as a LGBT alternative to your typical teen romcom (clichés and all). I wasn't really feeling it in the first few episodes, but I think episode 5 is when I really started getting into it and got curious to see what would happen next. It got gradually better from there, even though you could definitely see that they pushed back on a number of situations to stay within the Disney brand "restrictions". I actually disagree with you all on the lead... I actually thing he did a pretty great job. It's definitely a "quiet" performance, but I think he's super charming in the role and his chemistry with the rest of the cast was wonderful. Overall, it is full of cliches (like I would expect from a teen show), but it was fun escapism during these crazy times... I would definitely watch a season 2, especially with them being on Hulu and having more control over how they tell this story.

Updated On: 6/22/20 at 09:34 AM

SmoothLover said: "The reviews have not been very good."

It has a 91% on rotten tomatoes dude

The last half of the season was much better than the first, and if it is renewed, the creators did say they would do more adult material since now it's on Hulu. It was perfect for a Disney audience, which was never where it should have been in the first place.

Possible spoilers here.

I really enjoyed it. I'm hoping for a season 2. It did sort of feel like they were spending quite a bit of time with Victor's parents and his straight friends, but as mentioned above it was originally conceived for Disney+ so hopefully we'll get more of Victor and Benji in season 2. I don't know at what point Disney passed on it, but if it was later in the process, I suspect the scene with two high school boys alone in a hotel room together might have been the step too far for Disney+. But Disney owns Hulu so it's really just a matter of deciding which streaming platform is right for the show and I think Hulu is likely the better choice. It is unfortunate since Disney+ could have potentially reached more young people who would benefit from seeing themselves represented on screen.

I particularly enjoyed episode 3 with the bonding moment between Victor and Benji over "Call Me Maybe" and then Benji's acoustic cover of "Call Me Maybe" later in the episode. I never liked the song, but that acoustic cover was a highlight. I didn't even recognize the song when Benji first started singing it and then when I did realize what was happening, I confess I was a bit emotional. It may be a little contrived, but who cares. It was cute.

I think the time spent on the parents was an effort to show a different kind of family dynamic. Love, Simon is a near perfect film but it's a total fairy tale. Simon's parents were extremely progressive and accepting and everyone in the school cheered for Simon on the ferris wheel. That's not reality for everyone and I thought the first episode did a really good job of setting up Love, Victor as showcasing the other side of that coin. Having said that Love, Simon is a complete joy and a refreshing change from the majority of LGBTQ films I've seen that never seem to allow their main characters a happy ending. Another recent film I loved from Brazil, The Way He Looks, was refreshing too for the same reason. I kept thinking while watching how much I wished there was a show like Love, Victor when I was in high school.