high heartbreak is the latest TikTok obsession. The ’90s rebooted Australian teen drama is a certified global hit on Netflix.
The series garnered 33 million hours of viewing and is the fifth most-watched English-language series on Netflix this week. It also became one of the most watched series on Netflix Australia within days of its debut on September 14 and made the top 10 charts in 45 other countries.
What is high heartbreak?
The original series aired in Australia from 1994 to 1999. According to ABC News, it was groundbreaking “for its portrayals of working-class Greek, Italian, Lebanese and Southeast Asian teenagers.” It followed a group of Hartley High students as they navigated sex and relationships.
This time around, the 2022 version has a new cast of Australian characters representing the First Nations, LGBT, neurodiverse and disabled communities. Both versions are known to be ingrained in Australian culture, which means a lot of strong language, cultural references, and slang.
“You can tell when a series is focused on creating ‘diversity’ and when a series is focused on telling inclusive, complex and authentic stories,” Whitney Monaghan, a media professor at Monash University, told ABC News.
This is what TikTok says about high heartbreak.
The Discover page on TikTok for high heartbreak it already has 12.4 billion views.
“Knowing that non-Australians will never be able to fully enjoy Heartbreak High to its full extent due to all the little snippets of slang + references,” @chrisevanscake said in a video.
“This show is my obsession,” @thiamera said, showing a club scene from the series.
It’s pretty clear that young people like @imurgency find their depictions of teenage life relatable.
“This show is so real, I love it,” they said.
TikToker @meissa.com.au talked about the Indigenous representation in the series and how it’s a drastic improvement over the 1990s version.
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