Earnest LGBTQ+ spin-off series is endearing and lovely.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 11+?
Any Positive Content?
Sex, Romance & Nudity
a lot
The series revolves around romance: Characters kiss, date, go through break-ups, and talk about sex. Teens go to a party where they expect to "hook up," and a teen poses for selfies in underwear. The main characters develop healthy romantic relationships. Two characters make out on a bed and undress each other, and one of them asks for the other's consent before having sex (they're briefly shown under a comforter).
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Teens drink from plastic cups at a party and play a drinking game. One gets sloppy drunk. Another teen is recovering from alcohol addiction; he goes to rehab and tries to take care of himself.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
Victor pushes a classmate to defend his friend and himself. A priest tells a character that her son will go to hell because he's gay; the woman disagrees and argues with him. Classmates start a GoFundMe for a teen to mock him and smash his stuff onto the ground; when another character comes to help him, they're called "gay" in a derogatory tone. Victor's parents struggle to accept his sexuality; it takes several episodes to come to a place of healing.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
Messages center around acceptance, remaining true to yourself, and treating others with care and kindness. The series emphasizes the importance of courage and perseverance to overcome challenges. Strong family bonds play a crucial role in Victor's life and in the story.
Positive Role Models
a lot
Victor is intelligent, charming, and kind. He's well-liked by most of his classmates and tries to have close relationships with family members. His close friends have different strengths: Felix is loyal, optimistic, and supportive of others; Mia is empathetic; and Lake shows courage on her journey of self-discovery.
Diverse Representations
a lot
Created by White writers and producers, the series focuses on its gay lead character, Victor, born to a Colombian American dad and Puerto Rican mom. He and his family members are all played by Latino actors. They're all complex in their own ways: Victor and his sister, Pilar, are both trying to figure themselves out, and their parents work through marriage problems, financial hardships, and religious beliefs as they try to come to terms with, and later support, their son's queer identity. They sometimes speak Spanish with each other. Victor's love interest, Benji, is openly gay and proud of his sexuality. Important lesbian relationships: Lake and Lucy navigate various challenges (including Lake's initial confusion about her bisexuality) before developing a loving and supportive bond. Lake also struggles with low self-esteem and body image, but this isn't explored in depth. Felix lives in a single-parent household marked by emotional and financial challenges: His mom Dawn has a mental illness with mood swings making her unable to keep up with work; she never receives an official diagnosis but searches "Bipolar Disorder" in one scene. The mother-son relationship is loving but realistically portrayed with the stressors of living with mental illness and financial hardship.
Parents need to know that Love, Victor is a series that's set in the same world as the movie Love, Simon. Like Simon in the original movie, Victor (Michael Cimino) is a high school student who's pretty sure he's not strictly heterosexual and initially struggles with accepting his own sexuality and coming out to family and friends. Characters kiss, date, go through break-ups, and talk about sex, including an episode where teens attend a party organized around "hooking up." Teens in healthy relationships have loving sex with one another (nothing sensitive is shown). Expect an episode in which teens play a drinking game and one gets drunk; a teen struggles with alcohol addiction and seeks professional help. Characters have diverse sexual identities, ethnicities, and socioeconomic statuses. Victor's family is Colombian American and Puerto Rican, working class, and frequently speaks Spanish at home. Language includes "hell," "ass," "d--k," and "s--t," and characters occasionally use the word "gay" as an insult. Themes revolve around accepting yourself and others, and characters demonstrate significant courage and perseverance in finding ways to live authentically yet still maintain bonds with family and friends.
First, I would like to thank you for creating and releasing this amazing TV show. Thank you to Hulu for having it for 3 seasons. I wish there was more seasons but I know great things must come to an end. Thank you Disney for adding the entire series on Disney+. I got to say this is the only show that I actually “binge” watch non-stop. I have been a fan of the Simonverse since I watched the first movie: Love, Simon. This is the best TV show I have ever seen and I have seen 100s. Great story, great music, great characters, great actors, great attention to detail, and overall great production. Great ending of series with each character having a good stance in their storyline. With the final season script, my name even got to be included, which I was hoping would come true. This right here is just one of the many ways I feel connected to this series. Everyone involved in Love, Victor has shown how amazing they get their job done. I will be enjoying Love, Victor and other Simonverse projects for the rest of my life. I hope everyone gets a chance to witness the powerful impact this TV show and franchise has to offer.
This show is amazing my 11 year old son watches it with me and it’s kid friendly and funi reccomend for a mother whos kids are about 11 or so
What's the Story?
Set in the same universe as the 2018 hit movie Love, Simon, LOVE, VICTOR is about a high school sophomore named Victor (Michael Cimino) who moves from Texas to Simon's old home town, and attends the same high school, where Simon's romantic legacy is remembered by all. Like Simon, Victor is interested in his male classmates; unlike him, he comes from a conservative, religious Latin family in which his sister Pilar (Isabella Ferreira) is supposed to be the rebellious one, while Victor's mom (Ana Ortiz) calls her oldest son her "rock." Things are indeed pretty rocky for Victor at his new school, for despite the friendly presence of his new neighbor and friend Felix (Anthony Turpel), Victor immediately develops a rivalry with cocky basketball player Andrew (Mason Gooding), a confused flirtation with classmate Mia (Rachel Hilson), and a monster crush on openly gay Benji (George Sear).
Deeply loved by lots of cinemagoers, Love, Simon has nonetheless been criticized for its privileged, White point of view, which this sweet spin-off series seems determined to address. As the camera pans over boxes filled with trophies, a drawing of the state of Texas, and a Puerto Rican flag, we understand that Love, Victor's main character comes from a different background than Simon's (Nick Robinson) polished upper-middle-class origins. The subsequent scene of Victor's mom trying to find the right place for the family's crucifix points out a few more differences, as does Victor beginning the show with a DM to his predecessor: "Dear Simon: Screw you."
Of course, viewers will note that Victor is still a conventionally attractive teen who passes for straight and who has a loving (if more fraught) relationship with his parents. He also quickly develops a cadre of supportive friends. Gritty TV this is not. While Love, Victor isn't as groundbreaking as it might have been at another time, it's charming and easy to love—just like Victor himself.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Love, Victor depicts teens. Are the characters and their decisions realistic? What about the consequences of those decisions? Do these characters seem like people you might know? Why, or why not?
How does Love, Victor depict bullying? What should teens do if that happens to them? What should they do if they see it happening to someone else? How does Victor handle it? Positively or not?
The actors playing teen main characters range from 18 to 24 years old in real life. Does that surprise you? Why do you think adults often portray teens in movies and TV shows?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
suggesting a diversity update.
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
