“Love, Victor” premiered on Hulu on June 17, 2020, and ran for three seasons and 28 episodes before ending on June 15, 2022. It is set in the same world as the 2018 film “Love, Simon,” and it carries that film’s star, Nick Robinson, back in front of the audience as its narrator.
Victor Salazar at Creekwood High School
The first season follows Victor, a new student at Creekwood High School. Michael Cimino plays him. Victor is a teen from a half Puerto Rican, half Colombian-American family that has moved to Atlanta, and the show tracks his self-discovery — the challenges at home, the new city, and his struggle with his sexual orientation. When it all seems too much, he reaches out to Simon for help navigating high school.
That premise is the safest thing “Love, Victor” has going for it. It is also the thing that holds the show back. The first season knows exactly what it wants to be: a gentler, longer version of the film that inspired it.
The Cast Around Cimino
The series surrounds Cimino with a deep bench. George Sear plays Benjamin “Benji” Campbell. Rachel Hilson plays Mia Brooks, Anthony Turpel plays Felix Weston, Bebe Wood plays Lake Meriwether, and Mason Gooding plays Andrew Spencer. Isabella Ferreira and Mateo Fernandez play Victor’s siblings, Pilar and Adrian. Ana Ortiz and James Martinez play his parents, Isabel and Armando.
Casting began in June 2019, when Ana Ortiz was cast as Isabel. By mid-August the full cast was announced. Johnny Sequoyah was first set as Mia; later that month, Rachel Hilson replaced her. The recast was made to take the character in a new creative direction. In October 2019, Sophia Bush was cast as Veronica, Mia’s father’s new girlfriend. Betsy Brandt joined the second season as Dawn, Felix’s mother, who struggles with mental health issues. Ava Capri and Anthony Keyvan joined the second-season cast, and Nico Greetham took a recurring role in the final season.
What Each Season Does
The second season deals with the aftermath of Victor’s coming out. It follows him through hard times with his family and through his relationship with Benji, which is tested more than once, due in part to Victor’s family. The second season premiered on June 11, 2021.
The third season catches Victor, his friends and his family in their junior year. They find themselves in situations that force tough, life-changing decisions about their futures outside of Creekwood. Hulu renewed the show for a third and final season in July 2021; it premiered on June 15, 2022, and was released at the same time on Disney+.
The Three Seasons Side by Side
| Season | Premiere | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | June 17, 2020 | Victor’s self-discovery and his coming out |
| Season 2 | June 11, 2021 | The aftermath of coming out, family and Benji |
| Season 3 | June 15, 2022 | Junior year and decisions about the future |
The table tells the story of the show’s ambition. Each season tries to widen the frame — from one boy’s secret to a whole circle of people making choices. The third season’s move toward the future is the right instinct. It is also where the show runs thinnest, because “Love, Victor” is at its best when it stays close to Victor.
Nick Robinson and the Simon Thread
Nick Robinson, who played Simon in the 2018 film, produces “Love, Victor” and narrates it. That narration is the show’s clearest link to the movie and its clearest crutch. It gives the series a voice it does not always need. The show was created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who also serve as showrunners.
Their work here is steady rather than sharp. The dialogue lands, the arcs close, and nothing about the production feels careless. What it lacks is the nerve to let a scene sit without explaining itself.
Where the Show Lands
The published critical score for “Love, Victor” is 6.9 out of 10, with a Metacritic score of 69 out of 100. That number is fair, and it is fair for a reason that has little to do with craft. The show does almost nothing wrong. It also takes almost no risks.
The first season is the strongest, because Victor’s secret gives every scene a charge. The second season has the harder job — the aftermath — and it mostly manages the family material, which is where Ana Ortiz and James Martinez do the most with the least. The Benji relationship is the show’s central engine, and it works when the writing lets it be difficult rather than sweet.
The third season is the weakest. Junior year is a strange place to end a series about a boy just learning who he is, and the push toward “life-changing decisions” makes the final episodes feel like a checklist. The show wants to send everyone off with a plan. It forgets that the plan was never the point.
What matters most here is what “Love, Victor” got right that its source film could not. A two-hour movie can only show a coming-out. A 28-episode series can show what happens next: the family that does not immediately understand, the boyfriend who becomes a real relationship with real friction, the friends who have their own problems. That is the show’s real contribution, and it is a genuine one.
What is noise is the narration. Robinson’s voice-over keeps reaching back to the film, and every time it does, “Love, Victor” shrinks. The show does not need a guide. It has Cimino, and it has a cast that can carry a scene without a narrator telling us what it means.
The comparison that matters is not “Love, Victor” against “Love, Simon.” It is “Love, Victor” against what a teen drama can be when it trusts its audience. This one trusts its audience about half the time.
The show ended on June 15, 2022, after three seasons and 28 episodes, and it ended on its own terms — renewed for a final season rather than cut off. That is worth something. So is the fact that it put a half Puerto Rican, half Colombian-American family at the center of a mainstream American teen series and let them be ordinary. The Salazars argue, keep secrets and make up. That is not a small thing to put on screen.
“Love, Victor” is a good show that could have been a better one. It is warm, well-acted and clear-eyed about its characters, and it is too eager to explain itself. The first season earns its place. The last one coasts on it.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.