If you didn’t know this, I’m a HUGE Becky Albertalli fan and have loved the Creekwood universe pretty much since the moment that it existed and I devoured Simon Vs the Homo Sapien Agenda. While I’m still sad that we never got an adaptation of Leah on the Offbeat with Leah and Abby because that book is my jam and absolutely perfection, I’ve still been super happy that the world of Creekwood has continued with the show Love, Victor. Season 3 was just recently released and apparently I’ve been super out of the loop because I had no idea until my sister informed me! I’ve spent an entire day binging the new season and I have a lot of thoughts about it! Let’s dive in!
As a reminder, for all my reviews featuring movies or TV shows, there WILL be spoilers involved!! If you would like to avoid spoilers, please do not read any further! You have been warned!
I absolutely loved the first season of this show, I liked the second and I had a lot of mixed feelings about the third one. Here are some of the things that I liked –
One of the biggest things I’ve always loved about this universe is how wonderfully they portray families, in all the different ways there can be a family. Simon’s family in Love, Simon made me feel so many things, so emotional and made me so grateful for my immediate family and for the friends who are my family. I love that the families are all so messy and real. I loved that we got to see so many different kinds of families from Victor’s parents getting back together and starting a business together and navigating between supportive, ally parents to Lake trying to have a relationship with her overly critical mom to Felix trying to deal with his mom’s mental health and her dating someone to Mia missing her dad and stepmom and fearing missing out on her younger sibling’s life. I just really appreciate that they all have family but all of their families look different and that’s a beautiful thing. Simon’s family in Love, Simon could easily be chalked up to a typical family but they come across so wonderful and supportive and loving and I love them. Seeing different families in Love, Victor is part of why I’ve loved the show for three seasons.
I liked how it ended for all the couples. I shipped Victor and Benji from the beginning and I think I would be incredibly sad if they didn’t work out. It took awhile for them to get to where they ended up but I also appreciated that as well. It wasn’t easy for them. It wasn’t just wrapped up into a neat bow and a happily ever after. They had to work hard to get where they end up and I think its clear that it will continue to be like that, and I appreciated that sort of honesty in a romance story.
I liked Lake ending up with a girl, Lucy and that they didn’t feel the need to put a label to it. I like seeing more bisexual and pansexual characters in media, as a bisexual girl myself, but I also understand how its not an easy label to adopt or to even figure out and I kind of appreciated that Lake didn’t know, she needs time to figure out and all she knows is that she is in love and attracted to a woman in this instance.
I also appreciated that not everyone ended up together, that there was reality and that some relationships didn’t work out. Mia and Andrew are going to attempt long distance because they love each other but its not an easy solution wrapped up in a bow. There’s also Felix and Pilar, who don’t work out, despite their feelings for each other, because they both realize that Felix’s love and attachment to the Salazar family, who stood by him during the hardest times, is more important than their relationship. I think the sacrifice that Pilar makes is really powerful and really beautiful. She knows her family means so much to Felix and she gives up their chance at a relationship as to not ruin that for him. It felt so real and genuine and I loved Pilar for that.
I continue to love all the diversity in this show. There is so much of it, from the religions to the races/ethnicities to the sexual identities and all of that and I think that there’s just something beautiful about that. When I watch a show like Love, Victor, I don’t want to think about all the diversity – it should just be normal. Because when I see it, I see the world the way it is and that’s how we should be casting and creating stories – just as we see it. And the world we live in is so unique and diverse and colorful and different and I love that. I love that Love, Victor just does it and it feels so normal. I can’t wait to watch and read stuff and feel like I don’t have to constantly make a thing of it. It just is so beautiful to see and it continues to make me very happy.
The thing that I struggled with the most was the romantic whiplash of the show. Don’t get me wrong – I understand YA and teenagers and teen dramas – I’m currently doing my 100th rewatch of the Vampire Diaries so I get it. But I felt like this show was a bit beyond that and I felt like I couldn’t figure out who might end up with who because it was such a mess. I’m okay with sex and casual hookups but there seemed to be kind of a lot of that in this particular season and I don’t know, it felt like it took away from what the show had originally been. I don’t think it’s me being a prude, because I write some pretty smutty romance myself, but I did find myself wondering if there was an actual script for some of the episodes or if it was just kissing, making out, sex. Again, teenagers, I’m totally here for it but I felt like there was a lot of opportunity to space out because there were so many kissing scenes.
On that note though, I did appreciate Victor’s ability to try out other people and dating other people, hooking up with and kissing other people. I do like that he did not sit around and wait for Benji but that he attempted to move on and that he genuinely liked other people, and found that he could like others besides Benji. Obviously, he realized that the person he truly wanted to be with in the end was Benji but I just…I do find that YA, and I’m a victim of this as both a fan and a writer, tends to show true love, black and white, no grey, happily ever after and it is kind of like…wait, these kids are 17! You know, you have a lot to learn about dating and love and all of that. But its a story so I get it. But that doesn’t mean I still didn’t appreciate that they gave Victor the opportunity to explore his sexuality and his emotions and ability to love with other people besides Benji.
The biggest gripe I think that I had with the season was that this was the last season so they felt they needed to wrap things up, which I totally got, but it also felt like there was so much of the show where nothing happened or, alternatively, the same things kept happening over and over again and it didn’t feel like anything was progressing or changing. It was a constant, will they-won’t they for everyone in the show and it seemed like a lot to stretch out for an entire eight episodes. I did find myself spacing out quite a bit and I just didn’t feel like there was a lot at stake, not the way that I felt with season one when you were constantly on edge about Victor and his sexuality and all the secrets he was keeping from everyone. I almost felt the season could have been shorter or even just a movie length. It was super repetitive and, I don’t know, I think I just wanted MORE from the last season of a show, of a universe, that I super enjoyed. It wasn’t bad. I just struggled with needing to find out what happened next.
All in all, I enjoyed the season as a whole and I’m sad that its ended. I love the Creekwood universe and I truly hope that this isn’t the last of it. I truly hope that we get more of these kinds of stories because Becky Albertalli writes such wonderful, genuine teen stories, queer stories, yes but also just great teen stories and I hope that we get more.
I wish we’d seen more of Victor and Benji together, living their lives, supporting each other on their journey, having Victor’s parents welcome Benji warmly. Wanted less of some of the other stories.