The second season of “Heartbreak High” is as drama-packed as one would expect, with friendships blossoming, relationships and characters developing, the titular heartbreaks of course and Amerie (Ayesha Madon) never really catching a break. “Heartbreak High” deserves the same treatment that its predecessor did, with many seasons and more episodes, because it is not only entertaining, but tackles a wide variety of issues that teens deal with, that could be handled with more nuance if it wasn’t limited to the 8 episodes that Netflix has doomed it to. There is a lack of topical, fun teen dramas that are engaging and pop cultural in the way that “Pretty Little Liars”, “Gossip Girl” and all the ABC and CW dramas did back in the day, and “Heartbreak High” fills this gap, with a queer-forward diverse cast and tackling real issues in a way that it seems like it must go on forever.

After Harper’s assault and the effects of it, Amerie and Harper (Asher Yasbincek) become closer than before, with Harper having moved in with Amerie as she adapts to her new independent life without her father. Amerie vows to protect Harper at all costs and wants to dedicate all her time towards Harper, despite still being into Malakai (Thomas Weatherall) and constantly sneaking off with him, as “friends with benefits”. Meanwhile, as soon as school starts, someone starts tormenting Amerie, by conspiring against her and setting her up, and the friend group, particularly Quinni (Chloe Hayden) make it their mission to catch whoever it is, dubbed “Bird Psycho”. Darren (James Majoos) and Ca$h (Will McDonald) remain close, with Darren constantly visiting him in jail, however, their relationship is also facing its own hiccups.

A rift is created between the SLTs and a group of boys who are being influenced by the gym teacher, Mr. Voss (Angus Sampson) and have dubbed themselves the CUMLords, whose mission is similar very “men’s rights”-coded. A rivalry between the two groups emerges and Malakai, who had stayed with the SLTs changes sides because of a misunderstanding with Amerie. Malakai becomes close to the new kid in school, Rowan (Sam Rechner) and his latent feelings of bisexuality begin to surface, despite him not being eager to explore them. Although they had agreed to keep things casual, Malakai and Amerie break-up due to a series of misunderstandings, as well as Malakai gaslighting Amerie because he isn’t ready to face his feelings for Rowan. Once the two break-up, Malakai and Rowan start dating, however, everything is not as it seems between either of them.

The rivalry between the SLTs and the CUMlords continues and rears its head in the school elections, where Sasha (Gemma Chua-Tran) is running against Spider (Bryn Chapman Parish) and this gives Amerie the bright idea to also run for school president, based on the fact that people don’t like the two extremes of Sasha and Spider, and that it would earn her the chance and goodwill to atone for her sins against the students of Hartley High.

Harper decides that she does not want to relive her trauma through court proceedings and drops the charges against the people who assaulted her, resulting in Ca$h being released from jail and ultimately back to school with Darren. Their relationship soon becomes strained due to Chook (Tom Wilson) sabotaging Ca$h and wanting him to continue with their criminal activities, as well as the conflict between Darren’s hypersexuality and Ca$h’s asexuality. Darren and Ca$h’s relationship offers a glimpse into the difference between romantic love and sexuality because Darren is in love with Ca$h despite them not being sexually compatible and while it is obviously contentious, it doesn’t undermine the love that they both share. The relationship does require a lot of compromise and sacrifice that its practicality is questionable, however, the two seem to want to make it work.

A lot of seemingly incompatible pairs are forged this season, with Spider and Missy (Sherry-Lee Watson) giving forbidden love realness and Harper and Ant (Brodie Townsend) giving off an endearing relationship that develops beautifully with Ant’s character development. Rowan and Amerie also seem like an unlikely pair, however, the two bond after Rowan and Malakai have broken up and despite the future events, their chemistry is palpable. At the same time, Malakai is clearly not yet over Amerie.

The very obvious downside of Netflix’s 8 episode format is that stories are not properly fleshed out, even if they are written “in summary”, and the audience is required to fill out a lot of the blanks, the show could use more episodes. While we get a glimpse of Rowan’s story and motivation, it all falls flat and although we can appreciate how deranged he is, the only thing that carries it is the fact that we are used to Amerie suffering and “of course” this would happen to her, instead of it actually coming from the development of Rowan as a character and as a presence in the show.

Amerie suffers a lot in the show, from the friendship break-ups, her abortion, her relationship with Malakai which comes with so much turmoil and then suffering at the hands of a stalker, hopefully she manages to catch a break in the next season. With Malakai leaving the country without saying goodbye to Amerie, but merely leaving a note in her locker, which she doesn’t see, disaster seems to be looming for both of them as the misunderstanding is likely to cause a lot of heartache.

A lot happens in the show, which contains an ensemble of characters, and limiting this vast ensemble to only 8 episodes is such a disservice and Netflix’s failure to see this is another example of executives making decisions that are detrimental to the consumers’ and actors/writers’ interests. It is almost impossible, in this current format for the characters to receive full justice and character growth, despite the writers’ best efforts to ensure that the show goes on. Heartbreak High is a fun and chaotic shows, and even though it can throw some gut punches, it is quite grounded and reason prevails for the most part. It is rumored that Season 3 is the final season, and I can’t help but feel that we have not yet gotten to know these characters well enough for the show to end.

Rating- 4 out of 5

Streaming on- Netflix