Spoiler Warning ahead:
Sex, relationships, complicated friendships, fistfights, and fucked up parents: welcome to Hartley High. When watching high school dramas, we are often met with portrayals that seem out of this world for us. “Heartbreak High” is different – it truly shows just how fucked up life can really be, and how we’ve got to live, laugh, love, and be silly to survive in a world that seems like one big joke – with us kids as the punchline.
The reboot of a 1994 Australian classic begins by talking about Amerie (Ayesha E. Harden) and Harper (Asher Yasbineck.) Amerie is a girl who loves with every fiber of her being, but it’s never enough. Harper is the quiet one with secrets weighing her down like stones. They were the type of best friends who only understood each other and yet both felt heavily alone. The pain they shared manifested itself in a secret map under the not-so-secret staircase at their school: the “Incest Map.” And no, this isn’t discussing incest, but a web of hook ups – who got with who, and a bunch of gossip that’s none of their business.
Shortly after, we witness the devastating heartbreak of a friendship breakup. Amerie and Harper are done. Amerie gets caught for the creation of the “Incest Map,” but doesn’t expose Harper as the other culprit. Suddenly, Amerie is thrown into the spotlight, and is laughed at like a clown in the circus of high school bullshit.
Amerie then finds herself being widely scorned throughout school, and she doesn’t have her best friend to lean on, drawing her to new friends who had once loathed her. There’s Darren, a non-binary person with a big heart and a questionable family, played by James Majoos who is non-binary in real life, and Quinni, a girl with autism portrayed by Chloé Hayden, who also has autism in real life. This representation is extremely important. As Amerie finds herself surrounded by new friends, she begins to pick up the pieces of her broken heart.
This is only the beginning. After the sex list went out, certain students were targeted. The principal thought the most effective way to navigate this abominable crisis in reputation was to place students who showcased “risky” sexual behaviors in a class, they called “SLUTS.” Amerie was joined by Harper, Quinni, Darren, as well as Amerie’s long-time crush and notorious player Dusty, new kid Malakai, and a few other students. And in portraying forced sex education, the show highlights the innacuracies in the system: The irony of placing only distinct students in a class for sex education goes to show how slut shaming and stigma is prevalent when talking about sex.
We also witness a horrid act of police brutality against Malakai, which displays police brutality and systemic racism in Australia, which is not often spoken about.
The show also features an asexual character, Cash, who is confused as to why he doesn’t feel sexual urges for a partner with whom he is very much romantically in love. The show explores his experiences in coming to terms with who he is and learning how to set boundaries with his partner.
As the show progresses, we uncover more as the characters seem to climb out of the trenches and find power within each other.