Review: Love Victor
Love, Victor is a show best summarized by Miss Albright in the film Love, Simon when she says, “That was a start.” Love, Victor attempts to walk two worlds, one in telling a new story of coming out in high school, and the other in telling the same story from Love, Simon. By attempting to do this it fails at both.
Love, Victor has several places that it clearly wants to go to that its predecessor never tried to but by keeping to the safe and comfortable world of Creekwood and the formulaic trope of Love, Simon, it never reaches those darker ends.
As in the film it spun out of, Love, Victor follows its namesake character as he struggles with his secret that he is gay and what that means for him and how it defines him to others. In this iteration though, the struggle with identity is spread out to the rest of the characters as they deal with their own selves in life.
The cast of characters begin as approximate doppelgangers from the film. Victor (Michael Cimino) is a stand in for Simon but with more flaws and the title of new kid in school. Felix (Anthony Turpel) works as Martin but as a best friend with a warmth and care that makes him very endearing. Mia (Rachel Hilson) and Lake (Bebe Wood) work as stand ins for friends Abby and Leah, albeit slightly less comparable as they blend and trade traits, and Lake holds a resemblance to Taylor from the film. Victor’s family proves to be comparable only in being two parents (James Martinez and Ana Ortiz) and a sister with the addition of a brother (Mateo Fernadez). None of them have characteristics comparable to Simon’s family, meaning they are far from perfect and that is a big factor for the story.
All these characters make Creekwood feel less idyllic than it did in the film and have excellent growth throughout the season, but they don’t prove as memorable as their originals. Given more time, they may become more of their own selves, but the simplistic understandable characters they are based on from the film are more easily understood.
Each of their side stories are also compelling enough and do aim at answering the question of identity poised by the show, they don’t connect with the same heart and strength that Victor’s personal story explores.
The show is a problematic start to a potentially compelling story because it asks and requires a season two. This first season sees Victor grappling with figuring out who he is and what he wants. That question is answered at the end and is compelling enough for some audiences to return for another season but is maddening enough to also drive them away. The show wants to explore coming out for a minority youth in a different socio-economic scenario, but the repercussions of doing so aren’t faced until the end of the season. That is the promised concept and it isn’t explored at all and is left for the potential season two. Even with the series staying in Creekwood, and knowing that Victor will be safe for all intents and purposes, the drama in the family could be incredible and the potential harm to his social existence will lead to some great storytelling, but it wasn’t delivered from the outset which leads to concern that future seasons may skimp on telling those stories as well.
Speaking back to Miss Albright, the call backs to the film are a nice touch that are for the most part used sparingly. While they do beat you over the head in the first episode, that is where they leave them. The updates on life of a handful of characters will make fans of the movie happy, but they only serve as a bridge to the new crew of characters.
On this note, Love, Simon was always meant to be a story of coming out and of love, but in the two years since its release, the world has moved forward and while it may be fine to be that, expectations are greater. In not rising to meet that, Love, Victor looks small and quiet in what it has to say. In a second season, it can reach deeper in a gay love story and explore what coming out means in every way, but it could have done more with the first season all the same.
