Punters and Pushers

We watched Heated Rivalry week by week as it released; Perry was like "I'll sit with you while you watch it," but ended up getting very invested. Especially in the Scott Hunter storyline, what a weirdo (I really liked the Scott episode, which I gather is not a popular opinion, but I'm not here for him and his smoothie twink, and the pacing is a little out of whack). We tend to put things on over and over again with varying degrees of focus, so we've watched all of it a lot. General spoilers for the season.

I had read the books but ages ago and they didn't really stick with me. I'm sure they're fine (I've heard the quality is kind of uneven and goes down with later books; I only ever read the first two and preferred the second one), but the show was phenomenal. Just getting gay hockey softcore on tv in 2025 feels important and hopeful. The fact that it was also really good and even the straight hockey bro podcasts (which...are now videos? But we still call them podcasts? I don't understand) are obsessed with it is just a bonus. Both What Chaos and Empty Netters are getting a lot of attention for their reactions; I haven't watched any of them all the way through but have seen cute clips on tumblr. It's charming to watch them slowly come to realize the vast diversity of experiences in the world. Like seeing kindergartners on a fieldtrip to an interactive museum. 

It's also been delightful to watch Connor and Hudson (...mostly Hudson) just go completely off the rails in all the media appearances they've been making since the show took off. Like, just the most unhinged freaks who were completely made for each other and also this show. I adore them. I am pleased to report that the RPF develops apace. 

Also Cesare Borgia was there? It's frankly a hate crime to make François Arnaud play an American hockey player, but he does it very well and is very handsome indeed. Samantha was like "he looks like a young Shea Weber." He looks like a Shea Weber who hasn't spent the last 25 years in a meat grinder, is what he looks like, because those men are the same age. I enjoyed his response to the guy (not sure who he is or why his opinion mattered) who was like "this is not what gay sex looks like" by being like "what the fuck does gay sex look like?" and then doubling down when Vulture interviewed him about it like "okay but they don't act gay though" and he was like "why are you watching a show about closeted hockey players if you don't think there's room for that diversity of experience." He and Jacob Tierney have both also been on point in response to any bullshit about whether Connor or Hudson are gay and why won't they come out, etc. They were both waiting tables up until like the week before filming started! Give them some space! Mind your business! Also it's illegal in Canada to ask people that during a job interview (thank u, Jacob).

I enjoy the memes about how this is Canadian government funded hockey yaoi (due to the tax incentives in Ontario and Québec and the Canadian Media fund) as long as they don't go so hard they tip over into "tee hee! what a quaint and charming country with none of the problems experienced by real countries!" which tumblr loves to do. Mostly it's been okay; they got it out of their systems after the pilot I guess. 

The show itself, IDK, you should go watch it. It's lit so you can see what happens! There's lots of kissing and face touching and tit grabbing and suggestive angles and artfully raised thighs doing a lot of penis-hiding work. The intimacy is scorching, and in all the interviews they talk about how much that's down to the intimacy coordinator and everything being tightly choreographed, which I think is super cool. There's loadbearing buttsex and some light BDSM. The acting is good, don't listen to what people say about Hudson's acting, he watched Sidney Crosby do media and he made his choices on purpose. The haters simply don't understand the depth of his art. 

Like the source material, sometimes it tips over into cringe a little bit ("I kind of prefer being the hole," my man did not say that, he can't even say that he's gay out loud yet) and obviously nothing where they have a Texas boy being a Russian is going to be perfect, but overall, I think it sticks the landing. Apparently the Texas boy loves linguistics and did do a good job learning Russian vowels. At one point he has like a five minute monologue in Russian, which is more than I personally could do in French which I speak like every day, so good for him. 

The last episode really pulls out all the stops. Like, you've had this really compelling and (relatively) well paced love story paying out and they find the space to have some really compelling parent-child dynamics and exploration amidst the love story concluding. they do such a good job showing how this relationship has blossomed and what it can look like outside the confines of a hotel room, and how it's new but still comfortable. ALSO! It is beautifully lit! I love being able to see shit! I like that the ending isn't perfect--they aren't coming out, the best they can do is hopefully play for teams that are two hours apart, there's all the agonizing Explaining to the parents who don't know exactly what to say--and that it just ends with them driving down the road. Very apt visual metaphor. Based on what I've heard about subsequent books, I kind of hope JT goes rogue in season two, but we'll see. 

I've read a little fic and I've got the kink meme open in a tab, but I'm not super duper compelled by it although I've read one or two good ones. I think a lot of it is probably just life stuff; my focus isn't great, I'm preoccupied by pregnancy stuff, it's liminal spacemas so I'm on screens too much anyway. Go support the kinkmeme because there's fuck all spaces where we can be like "this is a place to be horny however we want, manage your own feelings about it" these days. 

Anyway, delighted to see such good CanCon on my screen during an otherwise gloomy media landscape, recommend everybody to watch it.