Yesterday was the Hulu premiere of the brand new show, Love, Victor. Only ten episodes long, I spent most of day binge watching this show. I absolutely love everything written by Becky Albertalli and I loved the movie, Love, Simon so I was definitely ready to watch this show. There are so many things that I absolutely loved about this show and I’ll say it –

Disney+ totally messed up by letting this gem go.

Here’s my review. I’ll do my very best to keep it as spoiler free as I possibly can, especially since it JUST came out yesterday and is a brand new story that has never been told before.

STARRING: 

Michael Cimino, Rachel Hilson, Anthony Turpel, Bebe Wood, George Sear, Ana Ortiz, James Martinez. See full list here.

ABOUT THE SHOW:

Love, Simon was an incredibly powerful, sweet and enjoyable movie that came out in 2018, based off the book Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by the wonderful Becky Albertalli. I truly loved the book and the movie and he universe that Becky created. The sequel, Leah on the Offbeat, is one of my absolute favorite books; as a bisexual woman, it makes me so happy to see a bisexual character written so well. I had hoped that when they decided to expand the Simon universe, that it would be with Leah but I was still very excited to come back to Creekwood High.

The show tells the story of Victor Salazar and his family, who moves to Atlanta from Texas. Victor hears nothing but the legend of Simon Spier and his romantic gesture at the carnival at the top of the ferris wheel and its there that our story begins. Victor is unsure of his sexuality and he comes from a culture that wouldn’t be as open and accepting as the one that Simon came out in. The show follows Victor as he struggles with his sexuality, his family and their secrets and problems,  making friends in a new place, and so much more.

REVIEW:

I watched this entire series in about a half day. Now, to be fair, there are only ten episodes and they are roughly 30 minutes long. It was easy to get through the series. But it was also super easy to get through the series because it was so enjoyable and I really grew to care about the characters.

Let’s get started there – the characters. I absolutely adore Victor and his family and I was sold on them the moment that they came on screen. Why, you may ask? Because they were BROWN. They were Latinx – I think Mexican, but I’m entirely sure because there was a mention of Colombia at one point during the show. Either way, it just felt so good to see a Latinx family on screen. The Spanglish and the total familiarity of being in a Latinx family – the good and the bad – was so heartwarming and wonderful to me. I’ve said it a million times – representation means so much – and seeing this kind of family on screen really made all the difference to me. I really appreciated that they decided to make Victor’s story with that background; I think its incredibly important to the story and its going to make all the difference between Victor’s journey and Simon’s journey. Its important. I adore Victor’s parents and his sister and his little brother, even his grandparents felt so familiar to me. And knowing that, I know how hard its going to be for Victor.

There was also some strength in the supporting characters as well. Mia is a great character and you really feel for what she’s been going through. I super loved Felix – his weirdness made him adorable and endearing. I think my favorite character, besides the entire Salazar clan, was Lake. She was fun, lighthearted, an amazing friend and provided a lot of humor for the show. Cameos by Andy Richter and Ali Wong really rounded out the cast and made for some super funny moments during the show. There is a lot of humor and a lot of sweetness to this show and its a huge reason that I loved it so much. It was nice to see a teen show that had such sweetness to it. Don’t get me wrong; I love drama between characters haha but I liked that the drama in this show was so…normal. It was normal and there are definitely darker moments but they all felt relatable and there were so many sweet and emotional moments.

I absolutely loved the idea that instead of just sitting there, feeling a grudge toward the amazing Simon Spier, Victor reaches out via Instagram, I believe, and begins a pen pal relationship with him. I love that Nick Robinson is involved in the project and that he narrates his replies back to Victor and is a true friend to him. There’s something really wonderful about that. Not only does it connect the two stories, but I just think its great for Victor to have someone he can be so honest with and that person will understand in the best way that they can. I love that its not just Victor as the token queer character but that we have Simon and Bram and that we get a collection of queer characters that are truly so wonderful. There are some great queer representation in this show and I really appreciated that – I think it was not only great for Victor as a character but it was really great for the audience to see that as well.

But what I think made this show so absolutely enjoyable to me was the fact that Victor’s story was not only so different from Simon’s but so different from a lot of stories that we see. Victor doesn’t begin the story with hidden confidence that he is gay. He has no idea. He is very, very confused and he goes through a lot of motions trying to figure it out and I really appreciated that. I liked that he had so much confusion because it was so relatable. Its so relatable to see someone going, okay, but am I? Am I really? I liked so much that it wasn’t automatic for him. He struggles with his sexuality because of his culture – religious, Latinx culture is not so open to queerness, I know – and also because his own feelings for others confuse him. I think that was also super powerful as well. I was…a little disappointed in the conclusion that Victor comes to but not so much that it ruined the show or anything. I don’t want to spoil anything but his struggle made me hopeful for something that didn’t quite pan out BUT in general, I loved the uniqueness to Victor’s story because I think a lot of people will be able to relate to it.

All in all, I found this show to be so enjoyable. It took the things that Becky created in the Simonverse and made it bigger and opened the door to so much more. It was fun, emotional, sweet and relatable in so many ways. I think its a commendable edition to the Simonverse and I think that if I were Becky, I’d be proud that this show was created from my book. It was truly great and I am crossing my fingers for a season two. You can’t leave it hanging like that!

RATING: 

5 out of 5 Stars

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