S03.E08: Brave

[paulvdb]

Quote

The Winter Carnival brings all of our characters back to where the series started. As they consider their plans past high school, they each have decisions about who they want to be with, and where their futures may lead.

[Harvey]

Well, that was perfect. Amazing season with a great ending. I loved it all.

[festivus]

Well, everything ended sappily ever after. That's what we should expect from this kind of sweet type teen show. I'm good with it. I would have preferred Lake and Felix together, but I do like that they were able to stay friends. Benji is boring though and I will die on that hill. Did y'all see his room? That weren't no teenage boy room. That was the room of some 40 year old married yuppies. From the 90s. It was too damn clean.

Hope to see the kid playing Victor in the future. He is beautiful. Don't mean that in a creepy way, he just glows. I also enjoyed Felix, Lake, and Rahim very much. 

[iMonrey]

So I guess that's it, no more seasons, and that's as it should be because as the season wore on it became increasingly obvious the writers were running out of ideas for these characters. What began as as sweet coming out story eventually turned into a rather tedious teen soap opera. There were so many unnecessary cliches and who couldn't see that ending coming from a mile away? 

Oh well, I liked it well enough but it was definitely time for it to end. 

[SanDiegoInExile]

Agreed.  28 episodes spread out over three "seasons" is pretty much the same as one season on broadcast TV.  For those needing a Gay Teen Comedy fix, watch The Real O'Neals, which aired on ABC a few years ago for 1.5 seasons, featured Bebe Wood, and is on Hulu.

As for Love Victor, it was nice they got to show us an entire year at Creekwood High  As someone who came out nearly 40 years ago (egad), it seemed a bit dated. It's nice that it will live forever and maybe help give some direction to those who are struggling.  Then again, we really didn't see a lot of Victor "struggling".  It was pretty clear at the outset where he was headed.  

Victor and Baggage, er, I mean Benji.   I didn't really see the attraction, but every gay is different.  Baggage, er Benji, had some winning moments in Season One, but the rest of the time, it was pretty clear that he needed to work on himself.  Baggage, er Benji, kept so much of his life and his parents under wraps, that no one could see how it led to his spiral.

In the end, it seemed like the show was more "Victor and Friends", with way too much story time given to his peers and especially his sister. I wonder if that is because the other actors were stronger than Cimino or the producers were expecting a longer run. I will agree that his speech about being "Brave" really helped propel all his friends and family forward.  

That said, I thought Season One and Season Two each had an amazing scene.  In Season One, when Victor reveals the truth to Felix on the front stoop, Felix's instant response is a mega-hug.  Likewise, at the start of Season Two, after Victor tells his parents, the immediate reaction of his sister is to rise and embrace him.  While the parents just sat there.  Two powerful scenes.  For Season Three, Rahim gets my vote for best scene when he calls out Victor for "passing as straight".  Probably the truest words spoken in the whole series.

Edited June 21, 2022 by SanDiegoInExile

[Scarlett45]

I didn’t care for this season as much as the previous 2, I feel we barely got to know Lake, and Rahim had some of the best lines, but Benji felt sidelined the entire season. 
 

Oh well it was fun while it lasted. 

22 hours ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

Benji, kept so much of his life and his parents under wraps, that no one could see how it led to his spiral.

So much this. 

[Glade]

I'm sad it's over, this was a really sweet, wholesome LGBTQ show with mostly great characters.  However, I didn't want Benji to come back, he's been grim, silent and lifeless this whole season, and his hair is too long to sweep it back that like that, it doesn't look good anymore!  Meanwhile, at least at boarding school he would be away from his triggering parents. But it was a good ending, and at least there are 2 more seasons of Heartstopper coming to bring many of the same feels.

[tennisgurl]

This was a sweet ending for a sweet show. I am sad that its ending but this was probably a good time to end things. It seems like this season, more than the last two, seemed to be struggling to find new stories, even though I still thought it was a fun season. Its such a cute sappy teen show I am glad that it got the cute sweet ending that it deserved, even if I am not thrilled that Victor ended up with Benji. He is just always going hot and cold with Victor, he always seems so moody, and while Benji's dad was a real dick to tell Victor that he made Benji relapse, he wasn't wrong that a teenage romance shouldn't be so dramatic, especially in its early days. 

I wish that Lake and Felix had stayed together, I really like them and I don't care much about Lake and her girlfriend who's name I cant ever remember. 

I hope that the whole cast goes on to do great things, everyone has been excellent. 

[JustHereForFood]

Good for Victor's dad to stand up to that asshole, even though it's sad that he felt he needed to resign, but since his boss would probably not change, it might be for the best. Also, good that he didn't punch him and just told him off. Victor's mom was also good with her support, that would probably not happen a year ago.

Victor's speech was good, but it seemed a bit forced to me how that suddenly inspired everyone else to make steps in their relationships. 

Mia - I am glad that she decided not to break up with Andrew immediately. They probably will eventually, becasue long distance is just not realistic for two highschoolers, but it will probably be easier for them after some time then now. I can't comment on her decision moving away, as I've not been in a situation like her when she was besically alone for a long time and now thinks she has a chance to be closer to her dad. It seems unfair that it only happens now that he has a new baby, but if it works for them, good.

Andrew seemed like a typical jerk at the beginning, but I came to really like him. He even seems more mature than the rest at times, but that could be because the actor definitely doesn't look like someone still in high school.

Lake and Lucy were cute together, but the end for their storyline seems most forced to me. I can't see Lucy changing her mind about moving away if she planned it for so long and I don't see how she would be ok living in her girlfriend's mother's apartment. Also, from a real world perspective, I think it would be much better for her to move away. I did not catch which Portland she was planning to move to, I see that there's one in Maine and one in Oregon, both of which sound to me like a much better place to live right now than Georgia. (But I've never been to US, I'm just going by what I read on the internet.) And for a while, I was sure that Lake would get back with Felix, which just makes me think how all of these YA shows make such a big deal of teenage relationships. Put into perspective - in just a year Lake went from lusting after Andrew, to her big romace with Felix, to big romance with Lucy and almost back to Felix. Ah, young love.

Felix is probably the nicest of them all and in the end he was the only one to end up single. At least his mom looks to be better now and his relationship with Victor's family has been salvaged. I think he's better off not dating Pilar if he is so attached to her family, it came off a bit like that's why he wanted to date her and she deserves better than that. Kind of like Harry Potter with Ron and Ginny's family.

As for Victor, I guess I would be equally ok with him ending up single and with Benji, as long as everything else for him was written well, which it was. I get why they ended it like they did though, the same big romantic (I guess) scene on the wheel like in the movie Love Simon.

Overall, it has been a great show, this season would probably be better if they had the same amount of episodes like the previous ones, but it was still great - better than most of teen shows IMO.

[Scarlett45]

On 7/9/2022 at 12:57 PM, JustHereForFood said:

I think he's better off not dating Pilar if he is so attached to her family, it came off a bit like that's why he wanted to date her and she deserves better than that. Kind of like Harry Potter with Ron and Ginny's family.

I get what you’re saying and I agree. If Felix and Pillar kept dating, when it ended it would be really awkward for him as Victor’s friend and a friend of the family. He values his place in the family more than he does being Pillar’s boyfriend- which makes sense to me. 

On 7/9/2022 at 12:57 PM, JustHereForFood said:

Put into perspective - in just a year Lake went from lusting after Andrew, to her big romace with Felix, to big romance with Lucy and almost back to Felix. Ah, young love.

I didn’t buy Lake and Lucy. I get that she didn’t need to be with Felix, but I don’t believe she’s in love with Lake. We never even saw them together! The cutest thing about the Lake/Lucy romance was that Mia felt replaced as the “girl friend” in Lake’s life. Which made a lot of sense to me and felt very relatable. 

[oliviabenson]

I would have preferred Victor ended up alone.