Love, Victor

So let’s talk about Love, Victor, the spin-off of Love, Simon that’s simply just set in the same “universe” in that Victor emails with Simon for advice and goes to his old high school, but that’s about it. Let’s talk about how it’s an okay show with cute moments, an attractive cast, some bi-erasure, and a good attempt to answer all the critiques of Love,Simon that said it was way too white and wealthy.

You can watch the 10 episode first season (no word on a second) on Hulu. It was originally developed by Disney+ but then supposedly bumped for being “too gay” and “not family friendly.”

We first meet Victor, a young Hispanic teen trying to figure out his sexuality while dealing with a move to a new school across the country–you got it–Creekwood in Atlanta. He’s Hispanic, middle-class or upper lower-income while many of his classmates live in “mansions” and his parents aren’t picture perfect (as you’ll quickly learn)–which is basically an attempt to make it the anti-Simon, as in a teen without a perfect life other than his questions about his sexuality. This show also doesn’t weaponize sexuality and threaten Victor with it, which I appreciated, but as Victor becomes more popular and starts dating a girl and making friends, he is confused because of his cute male coworker at the coffee shop and his parents marital issues.

I liked this show well-enough. I didn’t binge watch it, but I laughed and cheered at points. I thought the character of Mia was great, the guy from Booksmart who played Andrew was as hot as ever, and I liked Victor, but I HATED Benji and I thought the parents story was weirdly overshadowing Victor’s at some points. Also…making him write letters to Simon felt so forced. I get it, that’s our “in” as viewers, but I didn’t care about it at all. And the episode where he visits NYC but not Simon really is weird. You don’t have to go all the way to NYC to see “Gay life.” I’m sure Atlanta has a gay bar…

Anyway, onto another topic. I was kind of bothered by how the whole time Victor was dating Mia but questioning his sexuality that it was just assumed he was actually gay and going to have to break up with Mia. They never once asked, “Hm, is he bisexual?” And just because he didn’t want to have sex with a woman he was gay? He’s also fifteen/sixteen..and awkward as hell, that doesn’t automatically mean you’re gay.Also, I hated Benji, so maybe that was coloring my opinion.

Overall, this was a fine show. It dealt with some cool issues to see on screen, I liked most of the characters, and I felt invested sometimes, but it also felt a little forced into the “Love Simon” world as if people wouldn’t care about this story otherwise..which I don’t think is true.

Anyway,  happy viewing!