I Can't Stop This Feeling I've Got

For the past week or so, I've been obsessed - obsessed - with a storyline from the British soap opera Hollyoaks. I honestly can't remember how I first got wind of it (it was a while ago), but I know it was YouTube that last week led me to watch a beautiful fan-made montage, which in turn finally spurred me to watch the storyline in its entirety. A storyline that spanned two years.

Of course, the name of the game here is to feature clips that were recommended, not clips that I happened upon. And so, instead of that stunning fan-made montage, here's a clip from near the end of the storyline, which I chose in part because it is safe for all audiences:



Synopsis of the Story:
Meeting in their senior year, John Paul and Craig become best mates. They begin dating two girls who are also best mates, but things get complicated when John Paul comes out and admits his love for Craig. Craig, after a time, realizes that he loves JP back, but insists that he still loves his girlfriend and moreover that he's still straight. The love triangle continues, until a debacle of an engagement party leads a bereft Craig to ask JP to accompany him to Dublin. At the last moment, JP decides he can't be with a boy who won't acknowledge that he's gay, and the two split up at the end of 2007. A year later, Craig returns, JP's current ex-priest fiance' is killed, and then, we have this conversation. I won't tell you what happens in the end.

It's a doozy, sure, but what can you expect from a soap opera? What I love is that, comparatively, this uproarious soap opera is still better produced, better acted, and better written than the majority of gay romances onscreen (I would know). It's a love story that takes the time to hit every beat over a two year period, and if it feels a bit dramatic, it's because it's about two nineteen-year-old boys.

This storyline really brought me back. I won't delve into the shocking but typical details of my own life, but I will say I'm glad to see an honest storyline like this so judiciously (and attractively) handled. It made for an arc that could simultaneously break my heart and make me believe in love all over again, in the ways that only fiction can do.

I have favorited a number of Craig/JP fan tributes and scenes, and I'm sure I will be holding marathons of this storyline well into the future. YouTube isn't really taking a risk in recommending clips from it anymore, but I do sort of wonder how it selects the clips it does. The above clip is, like I said, much tamer than it could have been.

But of course, I'm a tame sort of guy. So I say - well recommended.