Heartbreak High is an Australian comedy drama television series created for Netflix, by Hannah Carroll Chapman.
It features an ensemble cast including Ayesha Madon, Thomas Weatherall, Bryn Chapman Parish, Asher Yasbincek, James Majoos, Chloé Hayden, Will McDonald, Gemma Chua-Tran, Sherry-Lee Watson, Josh Heuston, Brodie Townsend, Chika Ikogwe, Scott Major and Rachel House.
Sam Rechner, Kartanya Maynard and Angus Sampson joined the series in its second season.
The map's creator, Amerie Wadia (Ayesha Madon), becomes a social outcast after taking the fall for its co-author, Harper McLean (Asher Yasbincek), who has stopped talking to her following a tragedy at a music festival they attended, later Amerie learns that Harper was kidnapped after the music festival by Chook's crew.
During SLTs, Spider voices his hate for the class and convinces all of the cisgender boys to leave, who form a new group called "The Cumlords" under Mr. Voss.
Later, a dead ibis is found on Harper's bag, the first act of a culprit dubbed "Bird Psycho."
Bird Psycho creates an online forum to bully Amerie, causing tension.
Malakai admits he may still have feelings for Amerie and discusses his sexuality with Darren, who advises honesty.
Amerie suspects Malakai's sexuality and digs up the "feelings pit" with Quinni to gain clarity, but is again targeted by Bird Psycho.
The students go to camp, and Quinni records her, Amerie, and Harper discussing Bird Psycho with her phone.
Mr. Voss, annoyed with the gossip, leads the students blindfolded into the woods and leaves them to find their way back.
[16][17][18] The TV series was mostly filmed in the suburbs of Maroubra and Matraville of New South Wales between November 2021 and February 2022.
[33] The first season of Heartbreak High debuted at number six on Netflix's Top 10 TV English titles for the tracking week of 19–25 September 2022 with 18.25 million hours viewed.
[35] The series remained in the top 10 for the third week, placing at number eight with 9.48 million viewing hours.
[36] The second season debuted at number seven on Netflix's Top 10 TV English titles for the tracking week of 8–14 April 2024 with 15.8 million hours viewed.
[41] The show received praise for its racial, sexuality, gender and neurodivergent representation, realism towards modern teenhood, costumes and visuals.
[42][43][44] It was also positively compared to other popular modern teen dramas (which viewers found it very similar to), including Euphoria, Never Have I Ever and Sex Education.
[45] Mitchell Adams of The Sydney Morning Herald commented on the representation of autism, saying "scenes where Quinni feels overwhelmed just sitting on a bus, or being at a party while forcing herself to mask how she feels in order to better fit in and not upset people, depict a pain neurodivergent people know all too well".