Love Victor, season 2

If “Love Victor” season one was like a sweet tart, season two is a hard sour candy. A bit hard to take in the beginning, but (mostly) worth it in the end.

As promised, season 2 picks up exactly where the first ended. With Victor, played by Michael Cimino coming out to his family. It is a perfectly handled scene, from the writing to the acting, setting up the most rewarding arch of the season, Isabel Salazar’s (Ana Ortiz) journey coming to terms with her son being gay.

So much of what happens from there is quite predictable. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Season one wasn’t exactly full of shocks and surprises.

In the first few episodes of season 2 we see the ups and down of coming out in high school. We even get to see our young leads grapple with losing their virginity in a touching and funny way.

But then things get a bit wonky.

Of course the relationships of our newfound couples Victor and Benji (George Sear) and Felix (Anthony Turpel) and Lake (Bebe Wood) were bound to get complicated. Not to mention our non couple Mia (Rachel Hilson) and Andrew (Mason Gooding) Without conflict there would be no drama, right?!

Unfortunately the conflict we’re given feels incredibly manufactured despite the young cast’s best efforts to make it feel authentic.

Although I commend the writers for attempting to give these characters some flaws, by episode 7 the show had pretty much completely lost its sense of humor, even making one of our beloved characters almost entirely, unbearably unlikeable.

Luckily things take a turn for the better in the final episodes when the show begins to explore some areas I wasn’t expecting.

“Love Victor” was instantly groundbreaking by making the lead character a gay Latino, and season two (eventually) takes that premise and really looks at what it means for Victor.

It’s painful to watch Benji and Victor go through their growing pains as a couple and mostly for all the wrong reasons. But the payoff - looking at the differences in what it means to come out in Victor’s household v/s Benji’s as well as newcomer Rahim’s (Anthony Keyvan) in regard to race - although not perfectly executed, is quite thought provoking.

Although there are many good moments, particularly with Felix and Lake in the earlier episodes (their chemistry in “The Sex Cabin” episode is ridiculously delightful) and Victor and Rahim discussing Grindr and the toxicity of “masc only” and over-exaggerated stats in the penultimate episode….the season really belongs to Ana Ortiz and James Martinez (Armondo) as Victor’s parents. In addition to watching the characters learn what it means to be parents to a gay son we get to see the actors expertly portray their very well written separation.

In “Love Simon” we got that wonderful moment at the end when we all got to hear Jennifer Garner say to her son what many of us wish we had heard when we came out of the closet, but “Love Victor” goes so much deeper. Watching Ortiz navigate her faith and upbringing up against the law for her son is fantastic.

In the end, season 2 mostly works, even if it’s a bit messy along the way. But the real shame is the lack of depth and attention given to the show’s gay characters. Despite a strong performance from Michael Cimino in the last couple of episodes, Benji’s character is so badly written that it almost derails the whole thing.

In season 2, it’s the straight characters that steal the show. If “Love Victor” comes back for a third season, and considering the way this one ends, I hope it does, I can only hope that it will lighten up. And even more importantly take a bit more time leaning into its queerness.