Hulu’s “Love, Victor” is a wholesome story about a young’s man journey navigating high school, romance, and coming of age. 

The series, created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, introduces Michael Cimino as Victor Salazar, a transferring sophomore to Creekwood High School in Atlanta, the setting for the series’ basis, the movie “Love, Simon.” Salazar and his family moved to Atlanta from Texas and he is initially excited about the fresh start in a new city. He quickly learns that being the “new kid” is not exactly the positive experience he desired. After a rough first week, Simon begins developing more and more intense friendly relationship with a small handful of his classmates, including his upstairs neighbor Felix, his rich but wistful friend Mia, the vapid gossip girl Lake, and the gay teenage rockstar Benji. In the middle of all this upheaval, Salazar is also struggling with family issues as well as figuring out his own sexual identity. 

The major thing to note about this series is that it is extremely authentic to the experience of being an LGBT youth, even in the modern age. Every person who identifies with that community has gone through the rough experience of questioning, judging both themselves and their personal relationships, and formulating a strategy for living truthfully and honestly while remaining stable. Salazar goes through all of these steps during the course of the ten-episode 1st season. His primary struggle comes from his devotion to all his personal relationships. He begins dating Mia within the first few episodes, he soon realizes his attraction to Benji and begins to grapple with the ramifications of that. It is evident that that the show is made by LGBT people for LGBT people and that is an incredible breath of fresh air. The majority of LGBT characters on major TV shows are largely reduced to stereotypes or stock characters and in Salazar’s case, this is simply the opposite situation. 

While the show does fall into some of the tropes of the teen dramedy, it takes stark turns in the approach. Most of the time when shows are centered around single characters, in this case the titular Victor, all other characters become supporting in terms of storyline and their relationship to the main character. In “Love, Victor,” each character orbiting Victor Salazar has a full storyline developed over the course of the season. Mia struggles with her father’s routine absence and her mother’s abandonment of her. Felix struggles with fitting into a school where he knows no one wants him around and his mother’s depression. Lake struggles with valuing herself and her image relative to others. Benji struggles with his own relationship and fighting societal perceptions of being an out gay man. Even Salazar’s family have struggles that are uniquely developed in this show which is a stark turn from most shows of this type.  

Ultimately, “Love, Victor” is a show you should watch regardless of who you are. The series tackles everything from divorce, poverty, depression, sexuality, gender, childhood trauma, and many other topics that anyone can learn from. “Love, Victor” receives an A+ rating.