Love, Victor Season Two Early Review

Based on the 2018 film Love, Simon, the first season of Love Victor built on the universe from its source material, featuring a similar journey of self-discovery for its titular character (with some special help) alongside some compelling high school drama, ultimately ending with the cliffhanger of Victor coming out to his parents. Now that fact was seemingly out of the way, this season was all about how the characters would handle it moving forward, prompting another journey of self-discovery on Victor’s part as his coming out held ramifications for all the characters who all got a bigger push this season. This made for a lot more going on this time around which meant that it took the season a little longer to get going compared to the first in trying to create more of a well-rounded story. Though the balance wasn’t quite there as not all the season’s subplots hit, it did get better as it went on, resulting in another satisfying emotional payoff. Michael Cimino once again delivers a stellar performance as Victor while the push amongst the other characters gave the rest of the cast plenty of their own moments to shine by fleshing them out with their own subplots.

Suffice it to say that this season of Love Victor may not be as glamourous as the first as it turned up the drama as the reality of the situation began to sink in. A huge adjustment for the Salazars was in store on top of Armando and Isabel’s own marital issues that began near the end of last season. That divide had an impact on the family moving forward as it showed who each were ideologically which in turn influenced their handling of Victor (with one handling it a lot different than the other). This season, they had some work to do there as well as with their marriage. Meanwhile, most drama of course starts at home so all of it just carried over into Victor’s personal life with Benji and the rest of his friends, not to mention the judging eyes back at Creekwood. And taking place during the summer following the events that ended last season, Victor had to face it all right away as a means for things to get back to normal or at least somewhat close to normal because there was no going back to what it was. In the end, there was still some of the same high school relationship drama with a few surprises.

Being gay was a new thing for Victor which presented a unique set of challenges on a personal level, figuring out what it meant to be gay in today’s age. That confusion in trying to consolidate those issues with his relationships with his family, Benji, and his friends created a roller coaster of an internal conflict that was compelling to watch over the course of its ups and downs but ultimately, that work is not done. As someone who has already been through what Victor has been through, Benji was someone who Victor leaned on though he still had his own insecurities to contend with while Benji had some issues of his own to add to their relationship drama. Nevertheless, the two still did their best to navigate through it all. Like most relationships, it wasn’t easy as it had its contentious moments. However, their love for each other was still there although it did also see its challenges if only to complicate things for Victor and his feelings. That being said, having invested so much time emotionally in Victor and Benji, it’s easy to root for them and want them to make it despite the fact that it may not now be as much as sure of a thing as it may have been.

Though they may be more scattered this time around, Victor’s friend unit continued to be a bright spot as their camaraderie and the great chemistry between Cimino and Rachel Hilson, Anthony Turpel, Bebe Wood, and Mason Gooding who were all great themselves as Mia, Felix, Lake, and Andrew respectively was on a bigger display here across the other subplots that made up this season. They were still a blast to watch together and had their moments together while new addition Anthony Keyvan as Rahim added to that dynamic nicely. The overall tone of the series may be a little different this season, making for an awkward transition at times but the spirit still shone through as it tried to find itself, moving beyond the shadow of Love, Simon. While its source material prompted the first season to move from Disney+ to Hulu, this season proves that the move was a right one as the material skews perhaps a level above that of the former platform.

At the end of the day, just as its titular character, this season of Love Victor did take some time to find itself once again but once it got there, it certainly delivered on an emotional level with a cliffhanger promising even more drama to come.

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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.