Hello, and welcome to Big Gay Energy.
I'm Bree. I'm Theora.
And I'm Caitlin. Come along with us while we dive
into the fun and nuances of queer media.
Representation matters, and we're here to talk about it.
Cheers, queers. Oh my God.
We're in a new studio. That's not a studio.
No, no, definitely not. No.
These are some. Plants, What's on the big gay
agenda today, Caitlin? Well, I think the first thing we
need to say is that we're in the same room we are.
The YouTube and the podcast audio has not.
Well, I mean, if you're listening, we're in the same
room. If you're watching us, you can
see that we're in the same never mind.
We're in the same room. It's real, yeah.
Before Caitlin got suffered. But that's not why we're here
today. You're not here to get beauty
routine rituals from us. We are here to talk about queer
beauty. What are we talking about today,
Caitlin? Heart Stopper.
Season One, Season one. I finally stopped calling it
heartbreaker. It's the opposite of
Heartbreaker. Heart Stopper.
Such a cute title, but yes, we're going to talk about the TV
show Heart Stopper Season One. To clarify, we have watched all
of it. We have put a few reaction
videos on YouTube if you'd like to go see that from season one.
The entire season is on our Patreon, so for 5 bucks a month
you could watch us react to Heart Stopper.
All of it. And eventually we'll do Season 2
when that comes out. Woo woo woo.
But for today, we're going to talk about everything and
anything. Heart Stopper, Season one.
I actually have some non heart sober stuff, but I promise it's
relevant. It's relevant.
I promise. Let's do it.
All right, So season one, episode one, where we meet our
leads. All of our babies, OK, so we're
just gonna go jump. You said you had something that
wasn't hard stopper related. Well, yeah, it's in my snow
section. OK, so we're not.
Even there yet? OK, All right, so let's get
through the first step. We're gonna go episode by
episode ish in this discussion just to keep us organized.
So we start with the meat, where we meet our little cutes,
starting with Charlie Springer, who's our out and out and proud
little gay. Is it Springer?
I think it's or Charlie Spring. Sorry, not Springer.
Charlie Spring at Proud Little Gay.
He's a tenth year at Trum Boys School in England.
They didn't really tell us where.
And this year he meets his new BFF in the form of a desk mate
in form named Nicholas Nelson, the Rugby star I love that you
said in the form of. In the in form, that's what the
that's what the no I know time period is called.
Yeah, OK, got it. The form of form, yeah.
And Nick is an 11th year 11, so he's a year older than Charlie.
I just I still don't understand how they're in the same one.
So I don't understand this either, and I didn't know what
form was because we grew up in America.
But what? From what I could tell, from
what I could tell, form is the equivalent of homeroom, which I
never had in school either. So I had to look this up because
I was like, what does that mean? And apparently it's just like a
period where everybody meets and you just like take attendance
and they do like the announcements of the school and
it lasts like 1015 thirty minutes and then you go to
classes after that. So my homeroom in middle school
was 1/2 hour and we basically had to do SSR, which we named
Sit Down, Shut up and read. Got it.
But then in high school is only like 15 minutes.
Yeah, so it's like a time period where like, class isn't
happening. It's like an administrative
period when other stuff is happening.
But like, you have to be at the same place every single day.
So I assume in this school maybe it's not big enough.
I don't know. So they just you?
I don't know. Maybe it's a way to mingle boys
slash, you know, classmates from other grades with each other.
I don't know. I'm not really sure why that's
happening, but that's what happens.
And I guess that changes every year.
So Nick and Charlie sit next to each other and that's our little
meet. Cute where we get.
Hi, hi. Hi and lots of rainbow lens
flares. So much rainbow lens flares, as
if we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into when we
were watching this show. Is a big game gonna happen?
I don't know. I don't know.
Just check out the three
rainbows in this lens. Yeah, and I'm sad.
I never got form. Because then I never got to sit
next to a crush and flirt with them.
But whatever, America. So, Caitlin, what were your
first impressions of? I'm Speaking of that, what?
The girl I sat next to in homeroom?
I went to prom with her. Nice.
But as friends. Yeah.
All right, so it kind of almost worked out for Caitlin.
What were your first impressions of Charlie and Nick?
They call me first. Well, the first time I saw Nick,
I thought he was Ben for some reason.
Oh my God. Caitlin has trouble
distinguishing the men. It's OK.
We got it by the end. They look so different.
They do. Yeah.
It was it was very early on. I yeah, I have trouble paying
attention sometimes. We all know this.
I just. They're adorable little things.
You're so cute. Not Nick is.
Golden retriever. Yes, Nick is definitely the
golden retriever. He's always like happy and
smiley and like lovey. And then Charlie's like Charlie.
Seems like he's traumatized a little bit, but how timid he is
and like he's. More awkward?
Yeah, he's like, it's hard to say that he's not confident
about who he is because. He kind of is, but he he almost
is like afraid to like fully be himself.
And I think that's because like. He's been bullied like this.
We don't see it, but it's heavily hinted that, like the
year before Charlie was outed. And so he's been out, but it was
against his choice and he was bullied for it.
So it's almost like he's like afraid to be too much of
himself, but he's like, I'm OK with who I am.
I'm just like, I, I, I know other people are right.
That's that's what Charlie, his perception is.
And I think that gets reinforced with before we even meet Nick,
we meet Ben Freaking Ben. Misery.
Yeah, Ben Hope, who kaitly calls Ben Misery.
And Ben gaslights Charlie a lot. And so I think a lot of it comes
from the way he was treated. So he's more like introverted as
like a defense mechanism, I guess, versus like Nick.
Nick has lived his whole life as like the rugby star.
He's popular and so he's never had to, like, hide who he is.
He just kind of like exists in this like.
Realm where he, at least on the surface, fits in.
But that also means that he's not figuring out who he is,
because it's just I'm what these people are.
We're all the same. Exactly.
He's he conformed way too much. That's exactly right and and in
that like kind of social structure like the rules are
pretty defined like Nick just plays rugby and throws the ball
around and like. Does Guy talk and things like
that? And it's like that's what's
expected. And so when you know rules like
that, it's like, OK, whatever, you're comfortable in the rules
and you never have to question stuff because it's like I just
follow the the social rules versus Charlie got his whole
life turned upside down and like luckily has a very supportive
friend group who wants him to be who he is.
Like genuinely loves him and doesn't try to put him in a box.
And so you know the thing that he has that.
Yeah. Oh my God.
Like, Charlie's story would have been way worse if he didn't have
that. And that's why, like, I think
we're just jumping. I think Ben's really sat a sad
character. But like, Ben is kind of in the
same circle as Nick a little bit.
He's not on the rugby team but he's like in that like popular
Ish realm from what I can understand because he, you know,
he crosses paths with Nick a lot.
And I don't think he has friends the way Charlie has friends.
I think he has the friends in that popular group that again,
they don't see you for you, they see you for how you perform in
the social group. And so I think that's what makes
him really sad because he he doesn't have anybody to like,
really talk to or like express and wait for.
So he's in rugby. No, he's not OK.
That's. I was like, I've never.
I think he's in Year 11, but like him and Nick, cross paths a
lot, like socially at parties and stuff.
So I think he's like, popular, but he's not like sports guy.
Got it? Yeah, So.
But like, Charlie has such a great group of friends that,
like, he's like, whenever they can bully me at school, I'm more
than just who I am at school kind of thing.
He knows he has people to go to. Yeah, totally.
Who love him and are will be there for him no matter what,
which is like the most important thing but.
Nick but Nick. Nick is the cutest and so they
become like flirty in form. But Charlie's secret weapon as
well. He's not a sports gay.
He can run super fast, yes. Which he's not a sports, but he
I mean I guess. Maybe he's a track and field
gay. That's more of an individual.
I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna run.
He's got the long legs. He just can run like a gazelle.
And next season, running in PE1 day and he's like, well, shit,
we need a body on the rugby team so we can so we could compete.
Let me ask him because he's pretty pretty fucking fast.
So he convinces Charlie to like, hey, hang out with me, I'll
teach you how to play rugby. You don't even know how to play.
And Charlie's like, the fuck is rugby?
Well, that's what we wish she would have said.
Yeah, so Nick teaches that they become, They bond by like Nick
teaching him how to play rugby. And we get all these little cute
montages of them like running and leaves and leaves.
And it's so cute. Leaves.
They're adorable. There's a lot of leaves.
There's a lot of cartoons, so yeah, well, we will get to that.
And there's a lot of cool stuff in this show.
So one thing they do a lot during the montage of them.
Playing rugby to IS, they do a little.
They do this a lot in the show period.
But it shows up here a lot in the first episode is lens
flares. Do you want to explain what that
is, Caitlin? Of why we saw so many of them?
OK, so a lens flare is typically when the light catches in the
camera lens and it creates this distortion and it can be
different colors depending on the light and stuff.
But there's a lot of scientific stuff.
I won't get into that because I don't know it, but in today's
media there there's so many things to take out lens flares,
that and practical things that to do on set.
So all of them are deliberate, and a lot of people have
analyzed this. If you're interested in this, I
couldn't go too much into it, but go and read it because that
place is full of analysis from people about hard stoppers.
Yeah, like it's a lot like they screenshot like so many.
Things yeah, I need fully explain it.
It's just too much to go into right now.
OK, give us the gist. But basically I would say that
it's to make it more light. You'll see it more when it's
just them having a good time and just trying to.
It's typically used to like distract or be cinematic, but
this time it is an aesthetic, but just to make you feel like
it's bright and cheerful. Yeah, that's a very big hallmark
of this show in general is that it's hopeful and mostly happy.
Like there's some deep things that like.
Dark things that happen, but they're handled in such a nice
way and overall Nick and Charlie have such a warm, loving
relationship that even starts here with them just like playing
rugby. And it's just it's very like
it's adorable. So yeah, they're trying to be
like something is happening here and it's warm and it's good and
it's hopeful and cheerful. And so yeah, the lens flares
definitely happened a lot, specifically when the two of
them were on Yes screen together and they'll be rainbows.
And there are rainbows as well. There's so many fucking
rainbows. Like, not even just rainbow
lights. Like the flares.
Yeah, they purposely put the rainbows.
On the flare, yeah, Rainbow flares like it's nuts.
I think when Charlie first sees or first walks into form and
Nick's just sitting there, there is a.
Rainbow lens flare. I think the very first time he
sees him, no, there's not just one, there's three.
My God, in that same frame, Are you serious?
Yeah, it goes rainbow, rainbow, rainbow.
That's nuts. It's like the biggest one.
It's showing that when they see each other, Yeah, that basically
they're blinded. Yeah, well, yeah, Nick is very
much like bathed in light, almost like a Halo, like in the
seat. Then he's sitting in bisexual.
Another bisexual. Listen, I'm gonna hydrate for
those rainbows. We don't have any shot.
Where is my glass? OK, I gave it to you.
I know. I see it.
Yeah, that deserves hydration. OK, that's awesome.
So yeah, if you miss those rainbow flares.
How? First of all, how?
Second of all, go back and watch that scene in particular.
You're welcome. Put there OK, like there's
people, there's rainbow flares and like basically everything.
Even when I know this is, we won't get into the scene yet.
But when he's taking the quiz, there's even a flare like on the
curtains like that goes down to him.
Oh shit, doing the computer. Yeah, people are insane.
That's go by frame by frame. No, there's a ton.
There's one where they have their first kiss, too, and
they're in that room and there's one in between the curtains.
Yeah, like, damn, I was like, oh, did they put that there?
I didn't realize I was a lens blare.
That's nice. Damn, this show is just the
gayest. I love everything it is.
It's super. I was just.
I was. Positive because it's the
queerest senses, No. I would say this is the probably
the queerest show we've covered. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So far, yeah, So far, yeah. So, yeah.
Anything else about lens flares that you wanted to add?
Tell the people they are really common right now.
Like shows are really opening it.
Like I think getting to the point where it's a little too
much, there's like this blue one.
This isn't. I will quickly go over this, but
there's this like blue one that everybody likes right now.
And it's my first experience with it was in Super Grill and
it's just in it. It's just people need to stop a
little. Bit that's why that's my advice
right now. Sparingly.
Oh, how do you? How would you?
Per your expertise, how would you rate the amount of lens
flares in this show? And how they see, I think the
way that they use it, like the it's a tactic in this show.
I agree. And I can tell by other research
that everything is very purposeful.
So I think what they've done is fine.
I agree they're more of a lighthearted show, not Yes,
like. I agree.
I don't think they're doing it because they're like, cool.
I think they're they're trying. That's why I wanted to see what
lens flares meant. Thank you for looking into it
because it seemed very deliberate.
The moments they were doing it, it's like Charlie and Nick
Montages and I was like, it's supposed to mean something
emotional. And it seems like that's why
they're using it. Yeah, yeah, love it.
They use it with. Not just them too.
I think later they start using it.
I mean, they definitely use them with the girls.
Anything that's like bright, happy.
Yeah, anything that's romantic. They throw in lens flares.
Yeah, I'm sure that it's in the party when they kiss.
Oh. What?
Well, there's we'll get to the party and the lighting in the
party is super fine. Oh, I have so much info from
that. We're gonna, that's a whole
other. We'll get there.
OK. So yeah, we'll move on from this
last thing I want to talk about before we jump into the rest of
the the cast of characters that were introduced to in the pilot
I want to talk about. I think we talked about Ben a
little bit. Ben and his gaslighting with
Charlie because that happens pretty early on.
So Ben Hope is like or misery that Caitlyn calls him is
Charlie's. Like when we first meet them,
it's like Charlie's quote UN quote secret boyfriend and
basically we get I don't have it listed so I'm just talking about
it now. But later on in the up in the
show, I think Charlie tells Nick how the whole thing with Ben
happened, like how it started. I don't remember when certain
time went now and basically what happened is like Charlie was
outed. And was just like, I guess I'm
out now And he was like he did a lot of like hiding to avoid the
ridicule like he becomes close with the art teacher we see over
and over again the art teacher has like a pride pin on he's
like I'm a safe ally or whatever.
Like I'll take pity on. Well actually he's gay I think
or queer at least. And he's like, I understand what
Charlie's going through please hide in The Art Room.
It's totally fine. So you don't have to be bullied.
And so one day Charlie was hiding in the one of the music
rooms and playing the drums, because he plays the drums and
Ben just comes in there. He's like, so you're gay, right?
Like, he, like, preys on Charlie because Charlie's like, alone
and isolated and Ben's like, so you're gay or whatever.
And then, like starts up, starts flirting with Charlie, but and
then it progresses to let's meet up and make out.
In dark corners of the school where no one can see us.
And anytime like Charlie wants to take it a step further, he's
like, oh, you like me. And you want to, like, kiss me
like you're my boyfriend. And Ben's like, I'm not your
boyfriend. He's like, who the Hell's going
to date you? Like, you're weird And, like,
he, like, gaslights him into feeling bad about himself.
And when Charlie feels bad about himself, that's when Ben's like,
OK, I'll make you feel better by kissing you.
And he's like, I'm being nice and he doesn't.
And it's like. Horrible for Charlie because it
like traumatizes him and it makes it make makes it hard for
Charlie to like trust that people like him for who he is
because Ben is like manipulating him.
But I think with Ben, it's he's an important character in a very
real one, because I feel like this is more common with like
men who are trying to figure out their male presenting people
when they're trying to figure out their sexuality because
there's much more stigma. Attached to men who are queer.
Because we unfortunately live in a patriarchal society where,
like, men are put at the top and straight CIS men are at the top,
and anybody that deviates from that is like trash basically in
the structure. And so there's more stigma
there, especially somebody like Ben, who's in that popular
social circle who's expected to perform as a CIS white male.
In that, right. So he's has a lot of
internalized homophobia, and he projects all of that onto
Charlie to manipulate Charlie. I'm not saying his behavior is
good. I just want to explain it
because I think it's important and something that unfortunately
happens a lot to men who who don't have a safe space to like,
express how they feel, which is not what happens with Charlie or
Nick. So I think he's a good like.
Character to contrast their journeys because he ultimately
is isolated and alone and he just he preys on Charlie because
Charlie's also seems isolated and alone, but like Charlie
actually really has a support system that Ben doesn't have.
Yeah, freaking Ben. I know, I I feel like I didn't
read the graphic novels that this is based on, but I I feel
like we have to get more into Ben at some point.
I would like to explore. Ben More, he never gets any
redemption the entire show. He's awful the entire time.
Yeah, I think Charlie really. We'll get into it later.
But Charlie really digs into him at the end.
But so I think like, maybe next year we might get into Ben a
little bit more. Maybe.
I don't know. I didn't read the graphic.
Next year, Next year on heart stopper.
No, I mean like next school year or whatever.
I don't know what it picks up next season.
Next season? Alright, Julie say anything
about Ben? The two of us, the two of us,
need look. No more do we want to talk about
the camera technique. Yes.
OK so other thing we learned about Ben is that and the reason
they split up and Charlie is now single in his brain is that Ben
starts ditching Charlie and Charlie finds out that Ben has a
girlfriend. And we find this out when
Charlie's like exiting the school and he sees Ben like
talking to and kissing a girl and then we get this really cool
camera technique. Would you like to explain?
They use multiple times, but this is the first spot I I
noticed it in. Yes, basically they have the
camera handheld, so it's typically steady cams.
You can't tell that it's not on a tripod or anything, It's just.
Very. Like you can't tell it's moving,
but when it's handheld you can see all the micro movements that
you basically if you're filming with your phone, it's like that
without the stabilization. And the reason that they didn't
use the Steadicam for that is because they wanted you to feel
basically what his insides are feeling like very all over the
place, anxious. Uneasy.
Unsure about what's going on and when it's so.
If it was steady, it wouldn't make you feel like you like, oh,
OK, that's happening. But because it was uneasy,
you're like, what is happening right now?
Yeah, it like normally the frame would be still.
And so you would just be watching Charlie emote, what
he's feeling. And so like you'd see him
getting anxious and then like spin around and walk away, which
is basically what happens. So because the camera is like
jostling so much, it gives you more of a like you feel more of
what Charlie's feeling and see how unsteady and like he is
because the camera is unsteady and the the frame is moving with
Charlie, like as he walks away. So you can almost like feel him
stomping away. And he like, it's more of like
you can see his like emotions too, because it's like sharp
aggression the way like the camera.
There's actually another moment that I think is even more Oh
yeah, when he's stomping, right when he's so.
So angry. Yeah.
Yeah, it wasn't. Towards Nick, I thought.
I couldn't remember if it was Nick.
I don't think he's ever angry that angry at Nick.
Oh wait, no, was it Tao? He might have been angry at Tao
because he. No, no, no.
He was angry at someone. He was angry at somebody.
And he was going like, really up to them fast and the.
Oh my gosh. The camera was moving so crazy
so much. It was like, seasick.
Yeah. Use like motion sickness.
You could. The inside of his head was just
like, crazy. Yeah, it was just, it was
aggressive. Like it was an intense and like
they do a great job in making you feel it.
Yeah, so that was the the, the cinematography in the show is
really fantastic and I feel I'm glad there are multiple reddits
about this because it deserves to be analyzed.
So we just wanted to point it out.
Or like or faves, Yeah, Because you don't have time to get into
everything because there's there's so much there's.
A lot. So well done.
We need to talk to people, but if you're prone to motion
sickness, you definitely remember that.
Be careful and you can see Ben. Just maybe wash it through your
fingers or something. I don't think it happens every
time he sees Ben. No, no, no.
It's only when, like there's something super emotional that's
happening. Yeah, but they do use handheld,
The handheld technique a lot because there's there's I
noticed a lot when like Charlie and Nick are like kissing and
stuff. It's it's not a tripod.
It's very it moves with them so it feels more like you're in the
moment with them. So it makes things more intimate
and stuff like that. So they they use the technique a
lot. But that aggressive one is only
when Charlie's like. So angry, actually.
Most of the show is handheld. Yeah.
Because the study Cam thing, which, do you mind if I explain
that? Yeah, please.
So the study Cam is basically this vest that the camera
operator, yeah, the Cam up wears and it has the camera attached
to it. Usually they'll be an arm, so
you can move it down and up and around in front of you.
But there's also an arm in the back of you that comes up like a
crane and it has a string attached to it.
So this camera is supported on multiple sides.
So that way when you're moving, it's smooth.
And it's not like the motion sickness jostly feeling that we
thought when he was really angry.
Yeah, we talked about this. You weren't here In Motherland.
There's a couple of, like, it's useful in action sequences
because the camera operator can kind of, like run with them And
stuff like, like can weave through people and it keeps the
camera very steady when they're taking the shots.
More than, like, if you were running after somebody with your
camera and you watch it later and it's like jiggling and
you're like, God damn, we're gonna do that again.
Or you don't have to set up a Dolly or like, have any, like,
big massive equipment. You can have like one person
weave in and out of people. It's really cool to see in
person, yeah. When I was when I saw it in
person, like it was just. Tiny person with this huge
camera thing on her. I was like, damn, girl.
I want to know what that feels like.
If it hurts your back up, right? Or supported.
I couldn't. I don't know.
That's very interesting. I wonder.
I wonder maybe someday somebody let us on set.
My God, I would love that so much.
I mean, that's literally what I studied.
So we're working on it. We'll see.
So anybody know if you're listening to this and you work
for hard stopper, hit us up. If you weren't for any or for
anything. If you're.
If you're saying I talk to this, hit us up.
Let's just have quite a few people that would be like, hey,
hey, hey, we're going to come visit you, OK, We're working on
it. We'll see what happens.
OK, Any more camera technique stuff before we move into the
Charlie's friends? No.
All right, So we get to introduce, also in the pilot, to
Charlie's super supportive and adorable friend group, which
consists of Tau, Isaac, I'm An Idiot and.
She wrote Liam And I'm over here like I keep calling him Liam, so
I want to call him Liam. That's not how you spell Isaac.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
OK, so let's start with Tao, which Tao describes himself.
He is the self-described token heterosexual of their group.
Anybody who introduces themselves like that, I will
love you forever. He's basically a film nerd, and
he's their group in general is like an outcasty group, and Tao
is super OK with that. He's like, I have my friends, my
four friends. That's all I need.
And he is supremely loyal to every single one of his friends.
Like he's the friends, the friend that would bury the body
with you. Like he's that kind of friend.
So there's Tao. Anything you want to mention
about Tao is just like an intro into them.
What do you think of Tao for himself?
It took me a little while to, like Tao be OK with him.
I mean, if you think about it, I understand where he's coming
from. I would also feel like that
because he's just his friend group is changing so much.
Yeah, Tao's big like conflict he's dealing with is that a lot
of change is happening and he's afraid of being alone.
He admits it later in the season, like he's afraid of like
being left alone because his friend group is changing.
So the big one is that CC was outed and then that kind of
changed things like the year before and and I think it made
him more protective of all of his friends because Charlie was
getting bullied and like he he loves his friends.
And like I think that made him like overly protective town.
And so when Nick comes into the picture, Tao's like, well, you
know, he's, he's a popular guy. Like he's going to just make
Charlie miserable because that's probably who was picking, like
that group of people is probably who was picking on Charlie.
And so he's like, doesn't trust any of this.
And he's very like to the point where he almost like, pushes
Charlie away. Because Charlie's like, I like
this guy, He's my friend. And how, like he can't be your
friend because he's going to turn on you.
He's going to make you miserable like all those other guys did.
And then it's all he can think about and talk about.
So like everybody else in the group is like, I don't want to
hang out with you right now. All you want to do is vent about
this shit. Like you got a lot of go man.
So I get why he's doing what he's doing.
And the other big change is that another group, another member of
their group, Li, transitioned. And so she was in the Truman
Boys School with them, went through her version of bullying.
And then I was like, I'm transferring to the girls
school. So she also transferred.
And so Tau every day comes to lunch with an extra apple juice
for Elle. And he's like, I keep forgetting
she's not here. So, like, he has trouble like
letting, like, accepting change, basically with his friend group,
like Elle's gone. You know, Charlie's now
wandering towards Nick. So he's and Isaac is always
reading a book and never paying attention to anybody.
So he's like it's just going to be me by myself.
So I I kind of get where he's coming from.
It is rough. It's rough.
But he, you know, because he's
so afraid of that, he ends up like doing a self fulfilling
prophecy where he does kind of start pushing people away
because he's like trying to control the situation by like
being like stay away from him, stay away from him, stay away
from him. And everybody's like, I'm sick.
I can't hang out today. Isaac.
Isaac, that bitch is in the bookstore.
But in return? Oh shit.
I don't remember where I was going.
I forgot, I not Isaac, Tell it's hard for you to get into him in
the beginning. Yeah, that was from the very
beginning, Yeah. What did you just say?
Basically tell it does a self fulfilling.
Prophecy because he keeps trying to stop the change from
happening and it ends up like pushing everybody away.
So like, he does get to a point where he feels very, very alone.
That's on him and Charlie kind of like blow up at each other a
little bit. Yep.
I don't remember. All right, continue.
Let's move on to L Let's talk about L Yeah.
I love Li Love L Oh my God. That was great.
It was great. I'm glad that she gets to go to
the girls school. Yes, cuz that must be just like.
A relief, you know. Want to know how long she was
stuck at the boys school? Yeah, me too.
Transitioning. Me too.
Because I know it had to have been for quite a bit.
Because it took them a lot to because no one would accept it.
The teachers wouldn't even. Yeah, Tao even mentioned that.
That's one of his gripes. He's like the professor wouldn't
even call her L like he refused to.
Like he kept dead naming her. Which is so dumb.
So, so dumb. You don't dead name people,
right? You don't dead name people.
Dead for a reason, Yeah. And like, whatever.
So I'm glad that she got to transfer, because that must have
been hell too. So like, they don't really talk
as much about, you know, what happened with Elle, Like if she
was bullied, she mentioned she was bullied.
But we don't get more detail, we get more details with Charlie is
what I'm saying. I don't think it affected.
She's really strong. Yeah, she's really strong.
She was just like, I need to get the fuck out of yours,
basically. She doesn't internalize as much
that we see as that we see Charlie, right?
Exactly. Yeah.
It doesn't seem to affect her behavior or relationships with
other people the way it did with Charlie, but she does start at.
Higgins. Higgs.
Sorry, Higgs, Higgs, Girls
school. And she's the New Girl and is
have in the beginning having trouble making friends.
But she ends up making friends with the school lesbians, and
we'll get into that the next episode when she meets them.
Damn it. But I love them.
I love them so much. She finds the best people to be
got friends with. So she's, you know, it's a big
change for her too. But she doesn't like give up.
She's like, I'm here. It's much better than Truome.
I'm so happy I'm not there. So like, I love that and her
friends. I love that her friends just
accept and support her. And like, she also has a really
good support system, like with her friends.
Yeah, and Tao's mom loves her more than Tao.
Oh. My gosh, it's so funny.
Retired. She comes over.
She's like Tao move, let me hug out.
I feel like that that's a typical thing.
It is a typical parent thing. They like to friend more.
Like, you're new you you're a lot nicer than my child at home.
She does come with like gifts and stuff.
She's like, I brought cookies. And so I understand why Tao's
mom's like, tell you never bake bee cookies.
What the hell? She's just so sweet and nice.
She's very sweet and nice. And the last, but certainly not
least, is Isaac, our King Bookworm, the ship captain of
all. He's the ship captain of, Yeah,
Nick and Charlie. And he sees what's happening
with Tao and Elle before anybody else does.
He's a man of very few words. But I fucking love that.
But he's so observant. Yeah, he sees everything.
And very informed at one point we what the What's the book
called? Something about gender.
Shit. I forgot we looked it up and I
already forgot it. Yeah, Continue.
Yeah. So that's Isaac.
He's always reading and I'm pretty sure in the what we're
going to get into in Season 2 with him is going to be very,
very exciting. I think Allison, the writer of
the books, wrote him as an ace character.
So we're going to get into that in Season 2.
She's like, that's going to be much more explicit and stuff.
I would like to. Which is amazing.
No, you never see that. And she, the cast just went to
Pride recently, and she was there and she had the ace flag
the whole time. Oh, I know.
He was reading Gender Explorers, by the way.
Gender explorers which I want to read, whatever that is.
I'm sure book racks from him are solid.
It's like a compilation of stories from trans people that's
so great. I love Isaac.
Yeah, Isaac's a little cutie. It's.
Like, I gotta be such an ally. Well, I mean he.
He's in the community. He's in the community.
So he's like, I need to know everything, everything.
Because I have to be able to recognize this from 1000 feet
away. But I also love how he's super
observant, but then also not paying attention at the same
time. Because he literally is always
reading a book and they'll be like arguing and stuff and he's
like reading his book, tuning out the bullshit.
He he chimes in when it's relevant.
Like, I love him, man. A few words, but King Isaac the
bookworm, I absolutely love him. He's.
He's great. He's he's very, he's the what
does foil mean? Foil is basically characters
that are set up to you're supposed to compare.
They're usually opposites. OK, Darcy, Yeah, he's kind of a
he would be an opposite to Darcy who will get into.
I love her so much. I'm sorry.
I don't see the egg. I love her.
Alright, anything else about the core for Charlie's friends?
They were very close knit and now they're struggling.
Yeah, and we're gonna get into all their struggles.
But yeah, that's all I have. All right, So wrap up the pilot
by just mentioning, If you weren't already aware, this show
is based on a graphic novel novel series called Heart
Stopper that was written by Allison Osman.
Is that how you say it? I have no idea.
I should have looked at this because I was saying Osman,
Osman, Bozeman, Allison, Queen Allison.
Who wrote this? We'll just say Queen Allison.
We'll say Queen Allison. And so I, I in this show was
approved for three seasons and that might that might be
everything that covers the graphic novels.
I'm wondering if they renewed it for two seasons, because that's
it. I don't know if we'll go beyond
that or just literally cover the graphic.
Yeah, I think that might be why they just gave them everything.
Like it got renewed for Season 2 and three at the same time.
Good for them. Good for them because it was a
popular graphic novel series. So go Isaac, please write the
book series anyway. So I like.
One thing I wanted to note is that they do a great job of
adapting it from a graphic novel.
And they do a lot of things in like editing that make it very
apparent that this was adapted from a graphic novel.
Like cartoons that randomly show up like leaves and birds.
And they do like the pain transitions where it looks like
a comic book pain, and they do things like visible electricity
anytime there's pinky touching. So what don't you think of the
graphic novel adaptation? It took a while to get used to.
I was just like, what the hell? Well, if you don't know that it
was a graphic novel, it's very weird that comes out of left
field. You're like, why are there
leaves? Well, I figured it was once I
saw the the pains. Yeah, yeah.
But if you're not paying attention, you're like, OK,
whatever. You're like, what?
It's super. It seems super random, You know
they all. Could be on drugs this whole
time. You never know.
Yeah, it's high school. There, there's.
I have a specific animation that do it.
In the last scene of the first episode, Nick is staring out the
car window, smiling. There are animated seagulls.
That fly around and that foreshadows their first official
date at the beach. Yeah, yeah.
And you hear the seagulls. Too they always the cart, The
animated things always mean something.
Yes, they're not. Just they're not random.
I mean, because if you watch the reaction videos, I think this is
for Patreon. Yeah, everything we filmed here
is for Patreon. Yeah.
So check out Patreon. But there was birds, and the
birds is what got us the most, the lovebirds, because it just
seems like it came out of nowhere.
And I was like, what are these birds?
But yeah, it it all symbolizes stuff.
And it's usually to show like emotions like little hearts,
because they're like, oh, that character is a crush on that
character. Or like, ooh, there's something
going on with these two. There's lightning.
The birds are just super random. So they feel random, but they're
not. My theory with the birds is that
what was my theory with the birds?
That he was leaving his friend. Like he finally realized his
friends suck. Yeah.
So it was a scene where Charlie it was just Charlie and Nick and
they What the heck happened actually, But.
It was just Nick. It was on Nick on the table.
It was with Imogen, wasn't it? Yes.
Oh, it was after. He is after.
He said let's be friends with Imogene.
Is that what it is? Yeah, Yeah.
And they're like, then these, oh.
What did he do? And Oh yeah, his friends were
like, oh, Nick's the worst. And Imogene's like, I can do
better than him. Let's be real like, she's, I
love Emma Jane. She's like, a good ally.
And she's like, whatever, it's we're just friends.
And then there's like lovebirds fly out of the tree circled Nick
and Evangene and that flys off guard so much.
They're not because like usually up to that point, the animations
of between characters who are having like emotional moments or
they're like. Ooh, they're like each other.
And it's just like randomly. It's just these two birds and
they're lovebirds, which makes it weirder.
And then I guess they fly their separate ways.
And I guess it's like birds leaving the flock, like they're
not behaving the way these popular people would act in
their friend group. They're like diverting from the
norm, which is the flock. So the birds are flying on their
own, I guess, and they like kind of separate and do or being
individuals, I guess that's kind of what it's saying.
That was your take, basically. I I'm really good at
bullshitting things in my mind. So that's what the story I came
up, no. And it's good.
That's a really good interpretation of what we were
watching. Yeah, that's.
I did something. You did many things.
Yeah, wait for it. Alright Caitlin, do you wanna
end it here or cover Episode 2 also before we like well?
Considering they have two different things and half of
this is probably gonna be me talking about snow, let's just
continue it. So we're only at 46 minutes
right now. Alright, cool.
So we're gonna shoot on over to episode 2, which is Crush,
basically. OK, so this is the episode where
Elle makes friends with the school lesbians.
I. Love them so much.
Tara and Darcy who are just the best more of them, please,
because I just absolutely love the two of them.
They're so cute like Tara, just like befriends L out of nowhere.
And she's just like, oh, actually, no, the thing they
bond over, she's like, hey, your pencil case is really cool.
And I was like, oh, thanks, I painted this myself like this is
a design on it. She's like and then tars like
you want to have lunch with those.
And this was right after the teachers, like Elle girl, you
got to make friends. So, Elle, I'm going to assign
you a friend. She's like, I'm going to assign
you a friend, which is so embarrassing for like, in high
school. Or she's like, no.
And so she's cautious of this. And she's like, did the
professor, like, force you to do this?
And TARS, like, no weird thing that asked me.
She's like, no, we sit in the cafeteria, though, if you ever
want to. I'm going to leave now.
And by the end of the episode, I think it's the end of this
episode. L goes to find the two of them
and OK, wait, I love the scene and Tara and Darcy are like
holding hands. Wait, wait, wait.
Before that. OK, go ahead.
Sorry. They're working on a project.
Is it French? Is that this episode?
Yeah. Because it was.
OK. OK, OK, wait, wait.
So, OK before that. OK, you're right.
So what The other, the other reason that Tara and Darcy are
important is because Tara knew Nick.
And like, three years ago, when they were 13, they kissed.
So it causes all this drama of like, oh, Nick likes this girl
he kissed three years ago, which is very a weird thing for his
friends to like, like, hang their hat on.
It's like, that was three years ago.
What the hell? Yeah.
Like, we don't even have the same voices we had three years
ago. We all went through puberty.
Like, what? Like, it's a very weird thing to
get hung up on. So there's this whole thing of,
like, Nick tells his friend or not Nick.
Charlie tells his friends about Nick.
And they're like, he's a straight guy.
So they're trying to figure out what Nick's motives are and
Elle, or they kind of find out that Tara existed.
Elle's like, oh, I know her. And they're like, well, you need
to find out if Tara likes Nick or like, what the fuck is going
on there? So how does how does she do it,
Caitlin? Well, basically they're.
I'm gonna say it's French. Yeah, they're in French class.
OK, French class. And they need to pair up, which
is awful when you're the new kid.
So awkward. So luckily she has talked to
Tara and RC. Yes.
And she turns around and she asked to be a group of three.
And Tara is like, thank goodness, and something about
just like Darcy is the actual worst.
And then Darcy tries to say something in French, and it's
She butchers the shit out of it. But basically, I think they're
doing family and like family, family and like relationships
was like the assignment of like phrases they had to ask each
other, which is super convenient.
So I was like. Perfect, I think.
Tara asked Darcy. Do you have a boyfriend and?
Darcy says in French. Yes, I have a girlfriend and El
goes. I think you just said the
feminine. And there's like, oh whoops, did
I and they just laugh at each other and like glance at each
other because what I love about that, she totally did it on
purpose. But Ella, like, would just got
the information that Darcy sucks at French.
So she's like, oh, she fucked this up by accident.
She's like, no, I have a girlfriend.
Then LS Tara, do you have a boyfriend?
And Tara of course answers, No, I don't have a boyfriend.
And Darcy just looks at her with this grin, and Tara goes.
What? It's true and it's just, I love
that scene. It's they're just the they're
just the cutest and then. Like they they cut over back to
the boys school school for like one minute and then they go back
and then it's the scene that you wanted to talk about.
OK, so then they wrap up their fun times by Elle is I guess
going to find them. It's like after classes are out,
I assume, and for some reason Tara and Darcy are hanging out
in their homeroom class, their form class or whatever, and
they're holding hands and Elle comes into the room and I think
she's like, are you guys together or something?
Well, no, before that start, before that where she's like,
what are you guys doing and. And they're like, what's this?
Are you just just firing her hands?
They're so soft. So that obviously is the worst
excuse of all time that I think Darcy's the one that gave it.
She's like, yeah, she's fired her hands.
And then I was like, are you guys together?
Because what is this excuse? And so they admit it.
And she's like, you know, you made friends with the school
lesbians. And I think to her, I was like,
that was the gayest excuse I've ever heard for holding
somebody's pants. Oh my gosh, I love them so much.
Darcy Darcy's my absolute favorite cuz she's so chaotic.
I relate so much. She really, however, she is so
confident. I do not relate to that.
Maybe we all have the confidence of Darcy and Imogene.
Yes. Holy shit, the two of them have
the most confidence on the show. I wouldn't see a scene with
those two together. They would get in so much
trouble together. I would love to see them
together. They'd be best friends.
They would. They would.
Like the straight girl and the lesbian.
Right. Well, we don't know what's going
on with Imogene, but, like, that's true.
I mean, the good. She's an ally.
We know that. Yeah, the ally and the chaotic
lesbian. Although they did have a scene
later where Emma jeans trying to figure out if Tara likes Nick
and that's all now. And she's like, I'm not being
homophobic. That's it.
I'm an ally. And like, Darcy's like,
congratulations. Like thank you for thank you for
your service they did have. A Yeah, that's right.
That's right. Oh, because I think Tara's out
at that point. She's like, I'm a lesbian.
Yeah. And everything's like, oh,
because like, in that scene, which we are jumping in that
scene, though, Emma, Gene's like, trying not to, like, step
on her toes. She's like, oh, if he's yours,
I'll back off. But they're like, we're gay,
we're dating, like, get away from us.
And she's like, I'm not homophobic.
I promise. I'm an, I'm an ally.
Thanks for your service because it's like.
It's not basic. She's like, my brother's gay or
something. It's OK.
I have a friend that's gay and it's like, thanks, but and Emma
Jean doesn't have a mean boat in her body.
She, like, meets what she's like.
But I want more scenes with them because I think it'll be fun.
Yeah, now that like they're all on the same page with each other
and the Knicks stuff like. I just really want more Darcy
Love her, so I also her sweater. OK, she always wears this
sweater that's like a rainbow tie dye sweater that also has
birds on it. Like Bird Chat is freaking.
Birds. All the animated things they do
have in the show, like actually. Like, physically, Yeah.
So because I think Elle has hearts on the back of her phone
and Nick has stars on the back of his phone, I didn't.
Catch that? Thank you, BuzzFeed.
Thanks BuzzFeed. I don't notice those details,
but I have those details written down because of BuzzFeed.
So whoever did their job at BuzzFeed, thank you, the
lovebirds were on the train they took.
So I have something for that trend.
Yeah, that's later. OK, that's later.
But anyway, do you have more can just upset?
I know she is. You can't let her in.
No. OK, wait, the sweater.
I want to mention her sweater. OK, they're a rainbow sweater.
There is no way that's a dress code approved sweater because
they go to like a school where you have to, like wear a
uniform. There's no way they would let
her wear that. She wears it all the time like
in school. And I'm like, how is she getting
away with this? I love it.
She's just so chaotic. Darcy.
Maybe they're just like there's no point Doesn't living this
like they're not. They don't show up to Ban.
I can't control these. Did you fear though?
Darcy is out and I don't know how long she's been out, but
she's out. So maybe she's like, this is
homophobia. Yeah, try to take away her
spider. She would do that 100%.
I want a flashback. Yeah, I want that flashback
where they're like homophobia. She's like, fine to keep the
fucking sweater. Just get out of my office,
Tarsi. And that's why they get away
with being late to band and Oh my God, we'll get it to the
house. They have the worst band of all
time later, but Oh my God, I love darcing her sweater.
I just have to mention that because like usually those type
of schools are super strict about dress code.
She wears this outrageous sweater all the time.
It's so her and I just love it. Are we done with?
I mean, we can never be done with them.
But I have something I really want to talk about.
No, no, no. That was just the intro to Elle
making friends at the school. That's the main.
Take away from this episode? Not for me.
OK, Nelly, Yes. OK.
So Nick and Charlie, let's start hanging out outside of school in
the subset. I think it's like the first time
this happens. Like, besides rugby.
Yes, ones flaring that they're. Like at their house, at Nick's
house, Charlie comes to Nick's house and they play Mario Kart
and it's super cute. And it's established that
Charlie is great at video game sports and Nick's good at real
life sports, which is super cute and as they're like play
wrestling, which is cute flirting, it starts snowing
because of romance of. Course it does romance.
And so they go outside with Nelly.
Nelly this played. By the Amazing Echo Aussie
Shepherd. Who was not support Border
Collie? Border Collie?
Sorry. Who I believe so I'm pretty sure
I here's a dog expert, caitly. No, I I stalked Echo on Easter
Echo. If you're listening, we.
Love. At one point you could get echo
autographs. Oh, that's badass.
Yeah, there's there's Echo merge too.
So go check out the one and only Echo I believe on Instagram and
there's there's a lot. Echo has a whole pack.
It's it's great. I love Echo.
I really want to interview Echo. I'm going to reach out, but
we'll see. It's.
Going to be the interview of my dreams anyway, Echo was not the
first choice. Which, how dare them.
How dare. They echo was the understudy.
And the first dog got sick. So, so echo wins.
Echo for the wind. Echo for the wind.
Yeah, so we get Echo, and while it's snowing, they go outside
and take a bunch of adorable selfies in the snow.
And I just wanna know how long it took them to get all of those
photos and where are they all 'cause they were super cute.
In next phone. They're in next phone.
You're right. How do we get next phone?
I was like, where are they? I'm like, they're they're
outside Theora. So, Caitlyn, did you want to
talk? So Caitlyn's brain was like, is
that real snow or fake snow? I know it's not real snow.
And Caitlyn went on a deep dive about fake snow.
And So what did you learn, Caitlyn?
I've got multiple pages so we're going to try and get through
this as much as possible so. I got a lot of my history from
filmschoolrejects.com. Nice.
Yeah, I figured I'd give credit where credit's due.
OK, so the history. There is multiple types of snow,
depending on what you need. Some projects that they have in
the budget have real snow. Game of Thrones?
Not actually, I don't think so. I would.
I have no idea. I would not that show.
But it gets expensive. I mean, I assume it's expensive
and it needs climate control because snow and ice.
In the 1930s they had refrigerated sound stages, so it
was a lot easier to work with snow and ice.
Oh, interesting. Possible food and organic
materials that could be used as snow is chopped chicken
feathers. Also chips, Instant potatoes.
That's interesting. And soap flakes.
Cheese was not listed. It would snow.
Soap flakes probably smells a lot better than all the other
ones. I don't know.
Potatoes sound good. They used to use bleach, corn
flakes, but the sound was a huge issue.
Yeah, I can imagine. You know, when you're snow
crunching quite that much. Yeah, and for It's a Wonderful
Life the. I don't know who it was, but the
person was like, very against it.
They were like the sound. We cannot have it.
The sound is too much. So Russell, Shearman and other
RKO staff invented silent sprayable snow that was made
with snowflakes. No soap flakes, water, sugar and
foam mite used in fire extinguishers.
Interesting. 60,000 gallons were used and then it's a wonderful
lug. That's crazy.
Yeah. Also, they just used pure salt
in you just saw every. Did you imagine?
If there was wind and well, what if they ruined the environment?
I hope that's on a stage where they can clean it up.
I just screwed the grounds. It down, but it was used in 1978
Superman of course, it was so interesting.
No, no square cut paper. What could also be used, but
it's a fire hazard. Who the hell got tasked with
cutting the paper? I mean, depending on what year
it was, it's true. They're in turn, they're like 4
squares. 4 squares. No, I'm just kidding.
So it wouldn't be flammable they used.
I don't know how to say this Crystal tile.
Sure. Oh my God no, don't read it.
Sorry. Aka.
White asbestos. Oh God.
They used it in movies like Wizard of Oz, so that time
frame, whole movie was just hazardous for everybody's
health. Wasn't the paint the Tin Man
wore toxic? Oh, I don't know, but the.
I'm pretty sure the crystal tile causes cancer, so exactly that's
that was a mess anyway. So now it's a modern times snow
cell SNOWCEL. Is the first modern approach for
fake snow and a UK based company is dominating the industry and
it's called snow business. So I'm snow.
Business I didn't, I couldn't track it to the production, but
I'm assuming that that's probably hard stop or use snow
cell and maybe this company, but just more for that company they
use snow cell products and they develop their own for certain
needs like they. Made their own in association
with one of the universities over there.
Like Sprayable Snow. So they can spray like windows
and stuff. Yeah, Windows. 2 Stones and
Stuff Innovative Go to their website and you can see a bunch
of videos and it's cool. It's really cool.
They show you how they do everything for something that
you brought up earlier. 70% of their products and packaging are
sustainable. They're very focused on making
sure. Their work is environmental
friendly because I was also wondering that because the fake
snow that I saw, which is it was powder and you poured water on
it, I was like how is that okay for the environment And it
didn't clump but they do make. Clumpable snow Like Snow Cell.
There's one that's for Snowball. There's a bunch of different
types, yeah, because in the scene that we're talking about,
Nick does make a snowball throw Charlie.
So they were. Doing that the whole time?
It has to be clumpable. And they talked about how they
were walking a thin line because they had to keep throwing it at
each other. But they can't breathe it in
because if they breathe it in, they were done because damn.
Yeah, because of the. I guess it's toxic to me.
Yeah, I guess so. I don't.
That's why I was trying to figure out exactly what it was.
It was the same day that the cast was announced.
So they were like kind of on a high there and they were just
talking about how it was like such a relaxed day and that they
had so much fun filming it. Ah, that's so cute.
Those actors were adorable. You can buy fake snow and other
film stuff on hollyn.com. But pyro stuff needs to be in
person, I think. But there's so much cool stuff.
Like they have slime and you can see how they film stuff just by
like the stuff that they have on this website.
Oh my God, I got so distracted. It was so cool.
I just, I can't wait to check out more of it on set.
They had big cannons that the snow were just blowing while
they were having the fight. Oh yeah, because there was a lot
of like snow blowing at them. That's cool, yeah.
I think that's it for my snow, man.
So, like, kudos to the actors too, who, like, were rolling in
the snow, had snow being blasted at them and couldn't, like, had
to, like, breathe without breathing this in.
Yeah, damn, that must be so hard while acting like shit.
That's a lot to keep straight for your health.
Yeah, yeah. So kudos to Kit and with Shit.
Who plays Josh? It's with a J.
I know it is a J. Who plays him?
Shit, we sound awful. Joe.
Joe Luck. My bad.
Sorry, Joe. Sorry.
I've seen more of a kit recently than Joe.
Well, poor kit. I know.
We're not going to get into that poor kit, poor kit.
He doesn't deserve it. That's why he deserves to have
Olivia Coleman as his mom. That's all I'm saying.
We all do. All right.
Anything else you wanted to say about the pilot in episode one?
So funny. Cute in episode 2.
I mean episode 2. Sorry, pilot in episode two.
Not right now. This has been a lot for two
episodes and I think, I think it's a good time to take a take
a break and continue in the next episode.
Yeah. So in the next episode, we'll
start up with season three and see how far we go.
Episode 3, Episode three. Sorry, I'm just excited.
This is getting seasons. We're talking about seasons not
used to it. So we're not.
We're not used to it, obviously. Do you hear us?
All right. So we'll pick up with Episode 3
next episode. So in the meantime, hydrate for
lesbian Jesus and gate up all over the place.
Bye, bye. And with that, we've been big
gay energy. If you like this episode, check
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