OBSESSED

The world continues to be an ever-worsening shitshow, and I have various health issues, and so on and so forth, but at least I have Heated Rivalry. The casting, the acting, the cinematography, the music...it's all _chef's kiss_ perfection.

As I wrote about earlier, I have recently become obsessed about Heated Rivalry, the romance series from Canadian streamer Crave that is available in the US on HBO Max. It's also about gay men and set in the world of pro hockey, but it's a romance before anything else. Per this category on the HBO Max app yesterday:

For a while, almost all of my Instagram feed was related (and much of it still is): clips from the show, reaction videos of people watching the show, collections of online posts about the show.

I have been reading articles (some require subscriptions, and of course spoilers abound):

• In Vanity Fair, about watching in Russia being a rebellious act
• Also in Vanity Fair, an interview with the two main character actors
• In Harper's Bazaar, an interview with Hudson Williams
• In Out Magazine, about the relationship of equals
• In Forbes, about the masterclass in soft power
• In the Athletic, can the show change hockey culture?
• In the Washington Post, what it's meant for the author of the books the show is based on
• Also in WaPo, an interview with the costume designer
• In The Guardian, Women are feral for Heated Rivalry (Pull quote: "The fervent popularity of Heated Rivalry suggests that for many, the real romantasy is not sex and romance with dragons and fairies, but sex and romance without misogyny and gendered hierarchy.")
• Finally, in today's Boston Globe:

And not only in the Globe, but taking a large part of the front page.

As well as being the top of the daily email.

The story notes what I have seen as well: the show is everywhere. Saturday Night Live!

It also has an interesting quote from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who said in a massive understatement, "The content for young people in particular may be a little spicy"---Gary! Really? A little, you think?

The show is everywhere, and the two lead actors, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, are everywhere as well: the late shows, the morning shows, presenting at the Golden Globes.

And now, they are going to be Olympic torchbearers!

The music woven into the story is integral, and has started changing the lives of some of the musicians* (Wolf Parade, Harrison, Cailin Russo).
*ha, I typed "magicians" first!

I could write a whole separate post about the podcast Empty Netters, which I had never even heard of before (I'm not in a podcast phase of life these days), but they are brothers who are hockey players (beer-league level, not pro) and also screenwriters, so they hear about hockey media. They did separate podcasts for each of the episodes, they livestreamed themselves watching episode 6 (screenshots below of their reactions to a crucial moment near the end), and have now interviewed some of the supporting actors (Robbie GK, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova).  

They also have an episode for new-to-hockey fans called "Hockey 101: Teaching You The Rules Of The Best Game On Earth" and then a co-podcast with something called The Daily Friday Podcast, for which the episode title is "How Empty Netters Became the #1 Hockey Smut Podcast | Heated Rivalry Recap, S2 Predictions and More" which was fun to watch/listen to ask well.

Back to the livestream of episode 6, if you've watched the show, you can probably guess what just happened:

(Ignore the timestamps: it was supposed to be counting down to the end of the episode, but at least on the HBO Max replay, it isn't lining up.)

I love them, I want them to have more interviews with the cast. I would love them to have the director, Jacob Tierney, on. Anything. Give me more.

OBSESSED.