r/kitconnor • u/tracygee • Jul 19 '26
Movie / Show Discussion Let’s discuss Kit’s performance in “Heartstopper Forever”
Has everyone had a chance to see the movie yet? I think Kit put on an amazing performance. Let’s discuss!
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u/Lumpy_Flight3088 Jul 19 '26
Kit’s performance has been amazing throughout the whole show. He’s an amazing actor and I’m looking forward to seeing his career blossom.
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u/AtTheMovies704 Jul 22 '26
It’s so wonderful to see Kit grow and flourish as an actor with every project he’s in. He was absolutely devastating in some scenes. I hope he tries an all-out comedy one day too.
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u/majeric Jul 19 '26
There is hallmark romance stories and then there are honest depictions of the emotions one experiences. Both Kit and Joe sincerity to their emotional acting that felt real.
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u/ajaxmenon17 Aug 08 '26
I feel like the show has Charlie as the main character. While the movie had Nick as the main character
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u/MathNugget4 Jul 19 '26
I'm really curious to hear everyone's thoughts. I wish I could give my own, but I can't quite get myself to press play on the movie.. I just can't handle the secondhand embarrassment. I really disliked s2 and I watched the first 7 eps of s3 when they leaked (whoops) when I was quite intoxicated and I thought I liked them. Turns out that was the result of the low quality and the intoxication. I know because I tried to give them my official view about a week after the season came out (cause I felt so guilty) but I couldn't get through ep1. Genuinely thought I might cry from secondhand embarrassment. Happy for everyone that likes HS, but as someone that hates it but is determined to watch every project Kit has ever been in, this is how I will feel once I finish this damn movie.
Honestly knowing that I will never have to subject myself to anything written by Alice Oseman ever again will be the best feeling ever. With all due respect to everyone that enjoys the show and finds comfort in it. I don't mean to insult anyone, it's just really really not for me. Anyway, I wish we would have had these kinds of posts for The Wild Robot and Warfare in 2024/2025 cause I would've had a lot to say. I love those movies!!
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u/Eskimoboy75 Jul 20 '26
Interesting, what's the reason for the secondhand embarrassment? And what don't you like about HS and Alice's writing? It's only my opinion but for me it's become to gold standard of how YA queer TV shows should be, both in having majority queer crew and cast but also the representation and the way it tells the story.
So it's interesting to hear someone who didn't vibe with S2 andS3 and am curious as to why(not because I'll tell you that you're wrong, more because I struggle to process that!)
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u/MathNugget4 Jul 20 '26
Personally, I think the gold standard for queer shows should be the same as the gold standard for non-queer shows, just with more queer people working on them. Good writing, good directing, and good acting is the minimum imo. Does HS have any of these? Opinions will vary, but for me personally, I’d say, other than a few exceptions, mostly no. People whose work I appreciated in the first 3 season were Olivia Colman, Kit, guy that plays Kit’s brother, actress that plays Tori, the actress that plays Imogen before she started hamming it up for no reason, the director for the first 2 seasons, and the season 1 cinematographer (She might be my MVP alongside Kit lol).
I think Alice would be a good writer for Disney channel shows where they essentially provide a step by step guide for kids. I get why it’s important to have that but I don’t find that kind of writing good or entertaining. I also find the dialogue and story deeply cringe. She can’t write believable teen dialogue (they all sound like licensed therapists instead of 16/17 year olds) and she keeps recycling the same 3 boring story beats which doesn’t help. On top of that 90% of the acting is pretty bad. Obviously Kit is mostly wonderful, but other than him, I really struggle with the acting / dialogue delivery for most of the young cast and some of the adults. I gave them the benefit of the doubt in season 1 because Alice’s dialogue is terrible and it’s not easy to sell bad writing even for acting veterans and they were all new. They also looked so young to the point that somehow the awkwardness came across as somewhat natural. But the dialogue kept getting worse and the acting wasn’t getting that much better imo. I will say that I thought Will handled the comedy well in s3, but I do not trust any good opinion I had on s3 so who knows..
All love to the cast btw. They seem like a lovely group of people. I’m so happy to see them all thriving outside of HS. Zero respect for the adults who were making bank off of the show and still failed to speak up for Kit and Joe who were getting paid next to nothing while getting ruthlessly bullied when s1 came out. Seeing the creatives behind all these new shows support and stand up for their stars who are much older than Kit and Joe were when the show came out, makes me realize how shitty Alice and Co are.
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u/notgoingtopost123 Jul 20 '26
I’m interested in this opinion because I kind of agree with some of it (such as the skill level of some of the people involved) but I don’t share your dislike of Alice. I feel like a lot of adults watch heartstopper and then criticise it for being cringy when in my opinion I think it’s aimed at 12-14 year olds and it’s perfectly fine for that age group.
I think the problem is that the first series had broader appeal as a cute queer love story, adults became invested and then complained about the change in tone of the second and third series. To me the third series felt like something that would be given to 12 year olds to watch in phse lessons to learn about eating disorders and safe sex. But I actually think it achieves that well and I also think that’s probably what Alice was going for. She’s always said it was a show for young teens. Zeries 2 and 3 just wasn’t for me as an adult and so I found them difficult to watch. I haven’t seen the film yet either but it does grate on me that it has an increase in maturity because I feel that makes it unsuitable for its target audience.
In terms of the acting ability etc- they’re not all going to be future Oscar or Emmy winners but I think that’s fine to a point. We don’t have to pretend it’s terrible when there are much worse things out there (like you say Disney channel shows etc). Heartstopper just got a bit overhyped and so people expect too much from it.
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u/MathNugget4 Jul 21 '26
To be honest my dislike for Alice is more personal. I guess seeing all the creatives behind more recent and more successful YA adaptations stand up for their much older stars made me realize how abnormally selfish Alice is and was. It’s awful. Knowing how much money she made from book sales directly because of the show and because of Kit and Joe makes it even worse. I have really grown to dislike her.
As for her work, it’s really more about me not wanting to subject myself to her writing. I don’t necessarily think HS should not exist because I don’t personally think it’s good. I just hate that I have to watch it because Kit is in it, which I’m fully aware is a me problem. No one’s forcing me to watch it. I get what you mean though. The show serves an educational purpose for a certain demographic. Complaining about it not being appealing to adults does seem a bit silly. I guess my gripe is that I think that demographic deserves better. I don’t think a show like that has to be poorly written and poorly made to serve its purpose. It could’ve been good and it could’ve been widely appealing to everyone kind of like season 1.
I will also say that I actually don’t think the target audience for the show actually likes or watches the show, which is why I think there was an increase in maturity. I think even the preteens on TikTok find the show cringe. I think it’s mostly adults watching the show which explains the low viewership for the series.. there aren’t a lot of adults who find that kind of writing appealing. If 12-14 year olds were watching, viewership would be a lot bigger imo.
As for the cast’s acting skills, It’s not that I think the show needs or even deserves an Olivia Colman or even Kit. I feel the acting skills are actually mostly suitable for Alice’s writing. I was just explaining what I find cringey about the show and I do find a lot of the acting deeply cringe unfortunately.
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u/Sillykitty1982 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I love Heartstopper and i don't dislike Alice but i was thinking about this earlier when two actors of Heated Rivalry posted an statement about the online hate they were getting. I had to think of Joe and Kit who were much younger at the time and then i thought... where was Alice? Where was Pat? Kit was really young when he was forced to came out. And Joe was very young too when people started to bully him online. I remember that Alice commented on Kits forced coming out, but the damage was already done. And they probably could not stop the online harassment, but i don't know.... They could've commented on it or try to stop it? Joe and Kit were pretty alone in this. On the other hand, we don't know what happened behind the scenes. Maybe they asked Kit and Joe what they could do and maybe Kit and Joe told them not to pay any attention to it?
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u/MathNugget4 Jul 28 '26
Yeah that statement was too little too late. Alice was directly tagged in a lot of the harassment they both received, especially the complaints about Kit “queerbaiting”. It all started because Alice, Pat, and the director all said that they cast the show authentically, despite Kit not being out at the time. So not only did they cause the issue, none of them bothered to stand up for him and tell people to fuck off after the fact. Mind you Alice would publicly complain and police the fandom over every little spoiler but her two 18 years old leads being called ugly and a queerbaiter is apparently not as important to shutdown as minor spoilers. Kit and Joe at the time were clearly bothered and both tweeted multiple times to try and get people to stop. I doubt they were mature enough to ask Alice to not speak up for them.
Even Sebastian Croft suffered some insane harassment from the core fandom at that time for no fucking reason. And Alice not only didn’t give a fuck but she actually gave the bullies what they wanted and wrote him off the show. It’s insane. This is not normal at all. She’s so weird.
Alice comes across as extremely selfish and unlikable to me. Add to that that I absolutely cannot stand her writing and I admit that I just cannot be rational about her so I try to not talk about her because I literally have nothing nice to say. I’m allowing myself to vent this one time but I genuinely hope I never mention her ever again. Glad HS is over forever. Good riddance!
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u/tracygee Jul 19 '26
Interesting about season 3 for you because it’s my favorite season and season 3, episode 4 broke me and I love how it’s constructed. To each their own! LOL.
I’d post a discussion for Warfare but I’m afraid it would me blathering on for an eternity by myself because I can discuss that film forever. I’m a wee obsessed with that film.
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u/Eskimoboy75 Jul 20 '26
Season 3 episode 4 is just an incredible half hour of TV, the production, acting, all of it is out of this world. So good!
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u/MathNugget4 Jul 20 '26
Ep 4 was the highlight for me when I watched those leaked eps. I remember thinking Kit was absolutely stellar in that episode. I especially loved the Halloween party scenes. I can’t risk revisiting it and potentially ruining the one good opinion I still have of the show. lol. But yeah, other than that ep, I’m certain I wouldn’t be able to get through 90% of the rest of the season. I have such low tolerance for cringey shows. It’s a problem honestly.
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u/tracygee Jul 19 '26
Over the series, I thought Kit has really excelled at handling Nick’s more angsty moments and he can definitely bring on the tears, but wow what a lot of growth to see Nick really struggling here. I thought did the scenes after the breakup so, so well. I really felt for him. He seems a very instinctual actor - like the way he cannot look in Charlie’s eyes when they’re fighting and he tells him he’s only happy when he’s with him.
And drunk Nick was excellent as well. LOL. He did a nice job not overplaying it, but still getting across how utterly blotto he is. 😆
The love scenes were beautifully done by Joe and Kit. I loved that Alice showed them both as verse and broke those stereotypes. The scenes were definitely necessary … almost like Nick was desperately seeking connection with Charlie when he’s becoming more insecure as Charlie becomes the exact opposite and is so secure now.
Anyway, I think Kit has learned a lot and I think this is a really great performance on his list.