The contrast between idealized yearning and the actual closeted experiance hits hard. What stands out is how straight romances got centuries of exaggerated fantasy while queer stories only recently earned that space. I once binged SKAM during a rough week and thought about how much lighter high school would've felt with those narratives avilable.
At a time when I'm growing weary of crowbarred-in badly written pornified smut in the romance books I'm reading, Heated Rivalry was a refreshing change of pace/scene because I felt like it really focused in that yearning you talk about, and the 'but we can't' of it all. I did a cheeky re:read when all the press about the tv show came out and enjoyed but didn't adore it, so wasn't going to bother watching until I saw a clip on Instagram. It's rare a tv adaption of a book works for me but the casting/chemistry was spot on and I could write poetry about Connor Storrie's bum (up there with the Russian fella from White Lotus S3).
I liked it too! (Except episode 3, which felt way more cliché-ridden than the main relationship.) It’s escapism yet grounded in real feelings that so many of us – gay or straight – have and, unlike the characters, very seldom have the chance to express or get a good result from them!
I cheer on yearning gays like others do football teams.
Yeah what they did in episode 3 was cram an entire book (the first in the series) into one episode which I think is why it felt really rushed. Shame as I thought Kip’s female bestie was one of the better female characters (I thought the actress who played Rose was a bit insipid given she’s supposed to be a ScarJo level superstar in the book).
She was the only character I liked in that episode! Rose wasn't really giving much, was she? Most of the women characters seem underdeveloped – not sure if it's the same in the book – which is a shame.
It's very much the same in the books - the Stucky fic origin of the first in the series is very obvious, so Elena is a very thinly veiled Natasha Romanov, Svetlana is someone Ilya fucks after buying a car from her and isn't nearly as interesting. The female characters really do just exist to be best pals to the gay boys - which is absolutely fine given the way the gay best pal gets shoehorned into a lot of stuff with female main characters.
The thing with many, many coming out/secret gay men romance stories, especially ones featuring a lengthy period of closet occupation, is that there is very often a woman involved somewhere who is either used as a cover, or an attempt at heterosexuality. Like, so many. And usually they are expected to play nice and be there for the gay guy once he's ready to open up – and that is lovely – but it results in placeholder characters, when I feel it would be valuable and interesting to examine exactly what it means to these women to have been discarded or seen only as a stepping stone on the route to self-discovery. (Indeed I wrote my second novel to address exactly this.) I suppose it would've taken away from the main relationship – and it was only six episodes after all – but I feel the female characters here had more to offer than 'oh that's totally fine and I'm here for you whenever. One aspect of the show where it falls down for me. I suppose it's better tan pitching them as merely an obstacle and then demonising them – which used to happen a lot – but some pushback or exploration of their feelings would've been cool. Coming out is a tough ride, and people get hurt beyond the central pairing.
I just wrote my first article(?) on yearning and heated rivalry if anyone wants to have a read and support a new substacker 👋
I enjoyed it!
The contrast between idealized yearning and the actual closeted experiance hits hard. What stands out is how straight romances got centuries of exaggerated fantasy while queer stories only recently earned that space. I once binged SKAM during a rough week and thought about how much lighter high school would've felt with those narratives avilable.
🖤
At a time when I'm growing weary of crowbarred-in badly written pornified smut in the romance books I'm reading, Heated Rivalry was a refreshing change of pace/scene because I felt like it really focused in that yearning you talk about, and the 'but we can't' of it all. I did a cheeky re:read when all the press about the tv show came out and enjoyed but didn't adore it, so wasn't going to bother watching until I saw a clip on Instagram. It's rare a tv adaption of a book works for me but the casting/chemistry was spot on and I could write poetry about Connor Storrie's bum (up there with the Russian fella from White Lotus S3).
I liked it too! (Except episode 3, which felt way more cliché-ridden than the main relationship.) It’s escapism yet grounded in real feelings that so many of us – gay or straight – have and, unlike the characters, very seldom have the chance to express or get a good result from them!
I cheer on yearning gays like others do football teams.
Yeah what they did in episode 3 was cram an entire book (the first in the series) into one episode which I think is why it felt really rushed. Shame as I thought Kip’s female bestie was one of the better female characters (I thought the actress who played Rose was a bit insipid given she’s supposed to be a ScarJo level superstar in the book).
She was the only character I liked in that episode! Rose wasn't really giving much, was she? Most of the women characters seem underdeveloped – not sure if it's the same in the book – which is a shame.
It's very much the same in the books - the Stucky fic origin of the first in the series is very obvious, so Elena is a very thinly veiled Natasha Romanov, Svetlana is someone Ilya fucks after buying a car from her and isn't nearly as interesting. The female characters really do just exist to be best pals to the gay boys - which is absolutely fine given the way the gay best pal gets shoehorned into a lot of stuff with female main characters.
The thing with many, many coming out/secret gay men romance stories, especially ones featuring a lengthy period of closet occupation, is that there is very often a woman involved somewhere who is either used as a cover, or an attempt at heterosexuality. Like, so many. And usually they are expected to play nice and be there for the gay guy once he's ready to open up – and that is lovely – but it results in placeholder characters, when I feel it would be valuable and interesting to examine exactly what it means to these women to have been discarded or seen only as a stepping stone on the route to self-discovery. (Indeed I wrote my second novel to address exactly this.) I suppose it would've taken away from the main relationship – and it was only six episodes after all – but I feel the female characters here had more to offer than 'oh that's totally fine and I'm here for you whenever. One aspect of the show where it falls down for me. I suppose it's better tan pitching them as merely an obstacle and then demonising them – which used to happen a lot – but some pushback or exploration of their feelings would've been cool. Coming out is a tough ride, and people get hurt beyond the central pairing.