Boots has become a huge hit for Netflix in the last few weeks

Netflix’s Boots follows a young gay man as he finds camaraderie in a seemingly hopeless place, all the while wrestling with the emotional – and, at times, physical – toll of keeping his true self under wraps.

Still, series creator Andy Parker and his cast of breakout stars hope viewers find a poignant message in the transformation the character undergoes, even if the show isn’t a traditional coming-out tale.

Released last week, Boots stars Miles Heizer as Cameron Cope, a queer teen who enlists in the Marines at the encouragement of his straight best friend, Ray McAffey (Liam Oh), after graduating high school in 1990.

Though Cameron befriends some fellow recruits, including the hammy and mischievous Hicks (Angus O’Brien), any hope of embracing his truth is dashed, given that being openly gay in the military is expressly verboten.

Boots is an adaptation of Greg Cope White’s 2015 memoir, The Pink Marine, and one of the final projects to be executive-produced by Norman Lear, who died in 2023 at age 101.

Miles Heizer (left) as Cameron Cope in Netflix's “Boots,” which premiered Oct. 9.

Lear’s production company tapped Parker, who worked on Netflix’s Tales Of The City and Grand Army, to translate Cope White’s book for the screen. The result is a compelling action-drama that examines masculinity and internalised homophobia while winking at other cinematic portrayals of military life, most notably Stanley Kubrick’s 1987........

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