Love, Victor Season One Early Review

2018’s Love, Simon, based on Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, was a hit coming of age romantic dramedy about the struggles of a gay teen that managed to strike a chord with audiences thank to its charm, humor, and a stellar lead performance from Nick Robinson as the titular Simon. Little did we know that the film would spawn a spinoff television series. From the writers of Love, Simon, Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker, Love, Victor is a series that may take place in the same universe as the film (who would have guessed that there’d be a Love, Simon universe?) but over the course of its first season, emerges from the film’s shadow to become its own thing. While the two properties do share plenty of similarities, the biggest one being two gay teens at the forefront with the other featuring a gay teen named Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino), the latter builds on the world of the film and expands the story into something more befitting of a television series.

Attempting to offer something more, Love, Victor takes some time to find that same charm as it tries to find its own legs. It’s still follows a gay teen and his struggles with his own identity but that is just one part, anchoring a larger story that is hit or miss. Early on, the series makes it clear that Simon and Victor are different people and approach their problems differently as we first saw them at different stages in their lives. Though the former may be out of the picture, his legend still looms large for the new kid at Creekside High School. Victor may have to start from scratch with his imperfect family, including his sister Pilar (Isabella Ferreira), his younger brother Adrian (Mateo Fernandez), and his parents Armando (James Martinez) and Isabel (Ana Ortiz), in a new city of Atlanta, however, he wasn’t alone. Being a television series rather than a film, the original premise would need to be stretched. This meant a little more going on in terms of the story, making it feel more like a high school dramedy.

Suffice it to say that this transition wasn’t quite seamless in certain areas but with a first season featuring 10 episodes clocking in at around the 30 minute mark, Love, Victor is at least a quick and easy watch. What will surely keep viewers coming back is Victor’s journey. While the high school parts, from the romance subplots, the high school friend subplots, to the reference-centric dialog and humor, or the Salazar family drama (though Adrian is super adorable) weren’t the most original and didn’t always land, the series was at its best whenever it focused on Victor. Though these side characters weren’t necessarily distractions, they weren’t nearly as interesting. Victor and his de facto best friend, an awkward nerd named Felix (Anthony Turpel) who lived in the same building as him, had great chemistry together as he would help the latter shed his reputation. Meanwhile, he gravitated towards Mia (Rachel Hilson), the most popular girl in school, who was often joined by her friend Lake (Bebe Wood) similar to the relationship between Victor and Felix. Victor also needed a foil so cue the popular jock Andrew (Mason Gooding) who was not thrilled about Victor’s arrival.

The four became a tight-nit unit, experiencing the usual ups and downs as high school often went. The drama would for the most part go with wherever Victor’s story went. While Love, Simon arguably saw Simon at a much further stage in his life, Love, Victor initially saw Victor at a less certain stage in his life as he still had plenty of learning to do about himself and life experience to gain. His journey of self-discovery over the course of the season was compelling to watch. Victor’s sheer likability and relatability made him the prototypical rootable character. He was still young and made many mistakes along the way but despite this, that’s life and it was hard to not want him to be happy for him, and to a lesser extent his family, as we felt the gamut of emotions and feelings right along with him. Though whether or not Victor succeeds remains to be seen, it will certainly be interesting to see where he and the other characters go come Season 2 assuming there is one.

Though the acting was solid across the board, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the best part of Love, Victor is Cimino’s likable and relatable performance as Victor. Carrying the weight of the series on his shoulders, it’d have no chance without him. With boatloads of charisma and screen presence and showing range and vulnerability beyond his years, Cimino takes us on a roller coaster journey with Victor that viewers will surely not want to end.

At the end of the day, Love, Victor may share many similarities with Love, Simon, the series eventually finds its footing and moves beyond its source material. Just like the film, it won’t be for everyone meanwhile this series’ younger-skewing nature may not be for everyone but like the film, this series will undoubtedly find that same fan base while perhaps earning plenty of new fans. Though it’s a shame that it couldn’t make it on Disney+, the series is a better fit for Hulu and hopefully it will find an audience there. Michael Cimino is going places!

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.