LOVE, VICTOR: A Must-See for Teenagers (and Not Only Them!)

Do you remember Love, Simon? A coming-of-age style film based on the bestselling novel by Becky Albertalli received very positive reviews, and Hulu has produced a television spin-off of that story. Is Love, Victor just as good? The story takes place in the same school that Simon attended, but some time later. Victor is a new student who has just moved with his family from another city under rather mysterious circumstances.

He knows about Simon’s story, which once captivated the whole area, his forced coming out, and his fairy-tale-like email relationship with another boy.

That story was not about any great dilemmas concerning sexual orientation, there was no talk of suffering or of desperately hiding a secret. For Victor it is different. He comes from a religious Latino family. Since among his closest relatives there are many unspoken tensions and conflicts, he cannot count on their support. What is more, his grandfather is, for example, an open homophobe.

The new student writes to Simon full of resentment, perhaps even anger, trying to prove that not everyone is as lucky as he is.

They begin to correspond, and Victor tries to find his way in his new surroundings. I must honestly admit that I very much liked how the creators of Love, Simon presented their protagonist – his homosexuality was not a problem, it just happened to him. It turned out that this young boy was experiencing basically the same things as his peers. It was above all a story about growing up and finding oneself.

There was no question of coming to terms with one’s sexual orientation, and it is precisely those kinds of stories that predominate in cinema and television. In Love, Victor, although it is still the same exceedingly tolerant school and town, we are dealing with someone who approaches the matter completely differently.

The main character does not really know yet who he is. He thinks he may be attracted to men, but the environment in which he grows up makes him push that thought away.

When he meets Mia and begins to feel something for her, everything seems to be returning to the “right” path. But is it really? It is truly a very well-written series for young people (though not only!), with interesting characters and problems.

And it is by no means only about Victor’s orientation – there is no shortage of side plots here. Very interesting, for example, is the story of the boy’s parents and the reason why they suddenly moved to the other end of the country.

Everyone will find something for themselves here. Moreover, even the very issue of homosexuality is presented in different shades. In one episode, for instance, we see representatives of the LGBT community with whom our protagonist does not connect at all; on the contrary, he treats them as people from a completely different world. Not everything, however, is black and white.

Love, Victor also does not belong to those series in which gay characters are poets, do makeup tutorials, or sip coffee with their girlfriends while gossiping about the rest of the school (how many times have we seen that…). Victor is the star of the school basketball team, and his friend Benji, an out homosexual, plays in a rock band.

One of the main assets of the film from two years ago was Nick Robinson in the title role. I was afraid whether they would manage to find someone who could handle the task just as well, but Michael Cimino is simply outstanding.

He has charisma, charm, and that something that makes it so that even when his character acts foolishly, most viewers will still stand firmly behind him and root for him until the very end.

The supporting cast also leaves little to complain about, although some of Victor’s schoolmates look as if they were 30 rather than 17 (in reality they are 24). Better choices could have been made. Such series are needed, especially in places where homosexuality is still treated in many schools as a taboo subject. Gays, lesbians, and transsexuals were, are, and will be, and nothing and no one will change that.

What can change is society’s attitude towards these minorities – people who in many respects have it much harder in life. If we show them that they can be themselves and deserve the same happiness as everyone else, perhaps it will be possible to avoid situations in which someone wants to kill themselves only because they were born the way they were. Helping in this is not only sexual education but also popular culture, in which productions such as Love, Victor occupy a prominent place.

Teenagers should be required to watch such series (and would surely thank their teachers very much for it – it is top-level entertainment), but this title has a chance to appeal to a much broader audience. I would risk saying that even someone who has never met a gay person and whose views are conservative or even homophobic will derive a lot of enjoyment from watching. And if in the process they change their attitude towards people who, after all, live all around them, then one can speak of a double success.