Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Humorous, Hopeful
There's an old saying you may have heard: You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Boy Meets Boy may be a lighthearted love story, but it's actually pretty subversive in its portrayal of gay teens as not only normal, but even beautiful. The layer of humor is the honey, as opposed to the vinegar of confrontational activism—sometimes the way to change the world is simply to paint a loving picture of how things could be.
When Paul says of Infinite Darlene, "She is dressed immaculately in a vintage Charlie's Angels T-shirt and white pleather miniskirt. (I have no idea how she pulls it off. In fact, I have no idea how she pulls it on)," (18.26) we see the honey (let's call it the Laugh Honey, and feel free to steal that for your band name or comedy troupe) poured over the fact that there's a cisgender male freely wearing traditionally female clothing to high school. There's a whole lot of hope in that passage for a world with more acceptance and less violence.