A series reboot rarely comes close to the original. At best, such a newversion of an old hit is pleasantly familiar but not innovative. At worst,it’s a reheated leftover that relies mainly on the nostalgia sauce poured overit. Sauce that turns out to be a bit stale after a few bites.
It is therefore striking that Heartbreak High , the Netflix reboot of the1990s Australian hit series of the same name, feels as fresh and contemporaryas the original did nearly thirty years ago. Mainly because writer andshowrunner Hannah Carroll Chapman — a big fan of the original — decided earlyon in the making that she didn’t want to make a reboot for the longtime fans.Instead, she wanted to give the current generation of teenagers what they hadwhen they were their age: their own Heartbreak High.
So the idea of inviting a different actor from the original to guest starfor each episode was scrapped, and we looked at what the teen series could bein the future. nineties so special to many viewers: an unusually diversecast, a much more raw depiction of a high school than was the norm ontelevision until then, lots of Australian subcultures and slang (the words’rack off’ came up several times in each episode) and a few attractiveprotagonists.
In terms of diversity it does Heartbreak High of 2022 not inferior to theoriginal. The new series only feels a lot less raw, although this is mainlydue to the glossy filter that now seems standard for Netflix series and makesthe whole happy and light, no matter how serious the subjects are sometimes.
Sexuality and gender
Where the students of Hartley High in the 1990s mainly encountered classdifferences, in 2022 the focus will be more on sexuality and gender. Astrikingly large proportion of the characters will describe themselves asqueer, and several of the main characters are non-binary. Something that theyoungsters do not find more than normal among themselves, only the parents nowand then have some difficulty with the chosen pronouns.
Much of the drama in the first season revolves around the discovery ofsomething the students have dubbed an “incest card,” a huge mural in anabandoned school stairwell detailing which students have engaged with eachother and which sexual acts. they performed (these are shockingly many, allwith the most bizarre names). The discovery of the map will force all studentson the wall to attend the hastily-created “sexual literacy tutorials” twice aweek — a class that the teens quickly turn to SLTs (pronounced ‘ sluts’) isrenamed.
Because the focus is so clearly on sexual development, the new Heartbreak Highcannot escape comparisons with other (teenage) series of the moment -especially the hit series Sex Education and Euphoria which indeed itresembles a lot (although it is not nearly as dark as that last title). That’snot a bad thing in this case. Heartbreak High bursting with charactersyou’ll instantly love, and storylines that keep you hooked episode afterepisode. Exactly what a good teen series should do.