Heartstopper season three debuts with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes

Heartstopper finally returned to Netflix for its third season yesterday (3 October), and it’s safe to say that critics are absolutely loving it.

The queer coming-of-age favourite, based on web comics and graphic novels by writer Alice Oseman, is currently sitting at a perfect 100% rating on review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews.

At the time of writing, the show’s third season also has a 96% score based on over 250 audience reviews.

In a four-star review for The Guardian, the critic Rebecca Nicholson praised the show’s “sensitive approach”, adding: “For adults – particularly those who grew up with Section 28 on the books, when being LGBTQ+ often came with a veneer of shame – the loveliness of Heartstopper is in imagining that this is what teenage life could have been like. For those who can relate directly to the teenagers on their screen, what a treat.”

Writing in Empire, David Opie highlighted that while the show had grown up, it’s “signature innocence still remains intact”.

“No other series celebrates queer joy with such earnest and much-needed warmth as Heartstopper still does,” he wrote, calling it the show’s “most adult, accomplished outing yet”.

Likewise, writing for NME, Nick Levine called the latest season “transformative” and “vital”, saying it “renews Heartstopper’s sense of purpose and relevance to LGBTQ+ viewers in particular”.

In the build up to Heartstopper‘s third season, the show’s cast, including Joe Locke and Kit Connor, and creator Oseman have shared how the show is, indeed, growing up.

“The character and the storylines we’re discussing are maturing with the audience to a certain extent,” Connor told MTV, adding: “We are discussing slightly more nuanced and slightly more difficult topics. And slightly more adult topics.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with Rolling Stone UK, Locke described season three as the show’s “strongest”.

“We’ve all got better at acting,” he said. “I think season three is the strongest writing, the strongest everything from everyone.”

Heartstopper season three is streaming on Netflix now.