Netflix’s Heartbreak High earned a worldwide following for its honest depiction of what today’s teenagers face: from first love, sex, trauma, break ups to inclusivity, sexuality, neurodiversity, and the besties (or frenemies) who get them through it all.
On 20 October, Netflix announced that the students of Hartley High would be returning for a second season. With that season fast approaching a streaming date, we have all the latest goss on what’s about to go down at Hartley High.
What happened in season 1?
From our review:
‘The heart of the story is the fractured friendship of Amerie (Ayesha Madon) and Harper (Asher Yasbincek). An opening montage shows the lifelong besties daydreaming in a disused stairwell at Hartley High, where they create a mural diagramming all their year level’s sexual gossip. That includes Amerie’s quiet crush on dreamboat Dusty (Josh Heuston) – who looks the most like a Heartbreak High character out of everyone here.
But Harper has ghosted Amerie, right after they attended a summer music festival together. Then Harper shows up on the first day of year 12 with her long blonde hair shaved. Now she hates a bewildered Amerie. You’ll realise quickly what caused the rift; but the emotionally immature Amerie takes ages to figure it out.
That same day, their ‘sex map’ is discovered – breaking up couples and friendships, outing the closeted, and causing great embarrassment for the school principal, Woodsy (a characteristically piquant Rachel House), who now has to field moral-panic phone calls from parents and The Guardian. As sassy nonbinary kid Darren (James Majoos) says: ‘What in Kids Helpline …?’
Loyally, Amerie takes the fall and becomes an instant social pariah – especially when Woodsy forces everyone mentioned on the mural to take remedial ‘sexual literacy tutorials’ taught by well-meaning English teacher Josephine ‘Jojo’ Obah (Chika Ikogwe). The resentful students, who think they have nothing to learn, promptly nickname the classes ‘Sluts’, and Amerie as ‘Map Bitch’.
Grieving her lost popularity – her other friends Sasha (Gemma Chua-Tran) and Missy (Sherry-Lee Watson) have also dropped her – Amerie is unexpectedly befriended by kind, elfin Quinni (Chloe Hayden), whose Autism is both a social struggle and a bullshit eraser. While Quinni’s bestie Darren initially resents Amerie, they eventually form a tight trio to navigate a year of love, sex and heartbreak.
There’s also a new kid at Hartley, with eyes for Amerie. Basketball star Malakai (Thomas Weatherall) is what romance fans like to call a cinnamon roll – endlessly cheerful and genuine, he seems even nicer next to arrogant jock Spider (Bryn Chapman-Parish) and his sidekick Ant (Brodie Townsend).’
Read: Heartbreak High, Netflix, review: showing respect, solidarity and consent
What’s gonna happen in season 2?
Netflix provided this logline that reveals only a little of what’s in store for Heartbreak High‘s second season:
‘The flies are buzzing, the ibis are raiding the bins, and the sun shines down on our favourite “lowest ranking school in the district” – Hartley High. Students stream through the gates and all our heroes are back for a second term – threesomes, chlamydia and burning cars a distant memory – it seems possible that everyone’s done a bit of growing up over the Term 1 holidays …’
Read: Teen streams: the best Australian teenager shows streaming now
Who’s in it?
- Fresh Faces: Sam Rechner [he/him] will play Rowan Callaghan, an unassuming country boy with a dry wit and a passion for classic cinema who finds himself thrown headfirst into the chaos of Hartley High and an epic love triangle, and Kartanya Maynard [she/her] is Zoe Clarke, an opinionated celibacy advocate who, along with her gang of ‘Puriteens’, threatens to bring down the SLT class from within.
- Sam had a breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s biographical feature film The Fabelmans, and starred opposite Jane Seymour and Jacqueline McKenzie in Ruby’s Choice.
- Kartanya is a Trawlwoolway woman of Nipaluna/Hobart in Utruwita/Tasmania, and has appeared in Deadloch, The Messenger, and Gold Diggers.
- Returning Cast: 2023 Logie nominees Ayesha Madon, Chloé Hayden and Thomas Weatherall as well as James Majoos, Asher Yasbincek, Will McDonald, Gemma Chua-Tran, Sherry-Lee Watson, Bryn Chapman Parish, Josh Heuston, Brodie Townsend, Chika Ikogwe and Rachel House.
Is there a trailer?
Sadly, there isn’t a trailer out yet for Heartbreak High season 2. But in the meantime, enjoy these bloopers from season 1:
When is it out on Netflix?
Season 2 of Heartbreak High will hit Netflix in 2024, but the exact date hasn’t yet been confirmed. Watch this space!
Heartbreak High season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
