Buzzy teen show too saucy for the Mouse
“Love, Victor” may have just debuted on Hulu, but the teen dramedy series has been making headlines for months. It’s no surprise why: The highly anticipated series is the small- screen continuation of the beloved, breakout rom-com “Love, Simon” of 2018. The series was one of the biggest — and most delightful — surprises in the initial slate of Disney+ originals: A young adult romance series with a gay lead made for Disney+ and its anticipated massive audience.
But, in February, Disney announced that “Love, Victor” would debut on Hulu instead, saying that the show explored issues that were too mature for Disney+. Some immediately assumed that the “mature issues” involved the series’ gay content and criticized Disney for presumably offloading it to Hulu, a service that’s more established but has fewer subscribers than Disney+.
Now that “Love, Victor” is out and proud on Hulu, we can finally get to the bottom of this mystery. And it turns out that yes, “Love, Victor” is too mature for Disney+ — but only if you take into account just how incredibly, thoroughly, perhaps unreasonably squeaky clean Disney+ wants their original content to be.
For example, in Episode 2, and this is as spoiler-free as can be, teens drink alcohol and one gets comically drunk. The high schoolers go to a party where the stated intention is hooking up. Another teen poses for sexy underwear selfies. There are serious marital issues that are discussed. And characters say the word “s - - t.”
Compared to what the kids are getting up to over on the CW and Netflix, “Love, Victor” is still a relatively clean, family-friendly show. But take a look at Disney+’s version of a teen series, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” which also features queer characters, and you’ll find no underage drinking, no sexy selfies and language that doesn’t get any worse than “hell” and “damn.”
“Love, Victor” makes uptight Disney+ blush, but it has to do with more than some chaste, same-sex pining.