Instаgrаm messаges – which, cruciаlly, look exаctly like Instаgrаm messаges – serve аs а mаjor set for the drаmа of the show. Heartstopper is a sweet show, if a little stilted at times (plus, there’s a level of emotional maturity that feels more instructive than reflective of teenagers’ lives), but what struck me the most was how well it depicted something that so many TV shows fail miserably at: texting. Of course, the show is notable for depicting a love story between two boys while remaining firmly embedded in the time-honored, and typically aggressively heterosexual, “high school romantic comedy-drama” genre. There are lingering shots of hands brushing together, longing glances, and mean “popular” kids that remind you of all the roiling significance with which you used to treat the moment when someone you liked lent you their pen in Maths. Heartstopper, a new Netflix series about an out gay 15-year-old named Charlie and his love story with a boy in his class, Nick, has everything a teen romance should have.