So, I finally sat down and watched Heated Rivarly.
I've kind of been avoiding it, in a way, because I got the vibe that the target audience is not actually gay people, but the same audience who consume boys love media and One Direction fanfiction slop, if you know what I mean, and the fact that the only people in my circle that had actually watched were exactly part of that audience scared me even more. Furthermore, I'm always a bit wary about queer media because, our biggest success ever, is a movie based on a book about pedophilia so... Yeah, you will never convince me that Call Me By Your Name is worth all the praise it gets because it's not and I still refuse to interact with it to this day.
I'm very glad to have been proven wrong (mostly, at least.) The production, the cinematography, the script and the characters are actually all so well thought of.
Now, I have zero interest in sports, and being born and raised in Greece, I have even less interest in or knowledge of ice hockey so, I was pleased to find out that you don't really have to, to understand or enjoy the show. At the same time, sports is a very heteronormative field and, almost exclusively, queer folk are forced to repress their identities in order not only to succeed but to actually survive in that field so I fully understand what the series means for the community and I'm glad to see many people saying it's inspired them to come out or otherwise helped them.
At first the constant time skipping felt a little jarring but in the context of how Shane and Ilya meet and interact with each other it makes sense. It's very refreshing to see a story about two men who are actually peers and there's no insane age gaps or power dynamics or marriages with women who are being cheated on because the guy is actually gay are involved.
I understand that all of these are actually valid queer experiences and coming of age or coming out stories for many in our community and I don't mean to belittle anyone's experiences, it's just stuff that's not doing it for me personally. It's not you, it's me, literally, so please don't get all up in arms about it.
I was surprised to find out that the first season gives us a secondary couple (I understand now that Heated Rivarly is only the second book in a series of books and Scott and Kip's story is the plot of the first book) and it's nice to see a different angle and different problems queer folk face.
The sex scenes, which have been extremely well shot, are such a rare thing to see in media. Gay men having sex so extensively, and it's not exaggerated porn; it's actually refreshing to see something like that. I'm also actually glad that they don't feel distracting, they make sense in the places where they exist, but also I appreciated that, in several points during the show, they just imply that Shane and Ilya are having sex but it's happening off screen because we don't need to see it to know that it's happening, they could have very easily went down the mindless fanservice route, in fact I was under the impression that it was just softcore porn, but I'm very glad to have been proven wrong.
I also love all the side characters; even the more minor ones feel like actual people that are fleshed out. From Kip's friends and his father or Sasha (who even appear on just one episode,) to Shane and Ilya's families and, by far my favourites, Rose and Svetlana - all of them are very interesting to see. Surprisingly, the only ones that feel not fleshed out at all are Shane, Ilya and Scott's team mates. I can barely name anyone. I know there's the Latino dude in Scott's team, the big guy who crushed Shane in Ilya's team and Shane's friend who doesn't understand how condoms work but I, genuinely, couldn't tell you what their names are or what their goals are other than the guy who only knows to have babies.
Now, I'll be extremely honest here, while the issues presented are very real and very serious queer issues, and Scott publicly coming out and giving his speech later about being a queer role model made me tear up but, it's at the same time very hard to ignore that all of these people are extremely conveniently attractive, extremely famous and extremely rich, and yes, that does take me out a bit. I didn't realize before starting to watch the show that we're talking about Olympian level players here, I thought they were just... Idk, "regular" athletes and not super successful ones. Not that every story in media should be about people next door and regular, grounded settings and the fact that these people are actually rich and famous can work as a power fantasy of sorts, I guess, so maybe it's just the fact that they're athletes that breaks the immersion for me... But yeah, the fact that even Kip is ripped as fuck is a bit extreme! Not entirely unrealistic though because all the gays on Tinder are apparently ripped and rich and way out of everyone's league lol.
Another slight issue I have is that, I feel like, a lot of the problems presented - all three of the hockey players being afraid to come out publicly because they think it will cost them their careers, Shane forcing himself into a heteronormative relationship with Rose, Shane coming out to his parents - are at the end resolved very easily? Everyone is so happy and cool about everything in the end, almost as if homophobia doesn't actually exist in the show's world, or at least the main characters' circles, other than Alexei, I guess? Idk, does that not feel weird to anyone? I am personally glad to not have suffered cases of extreme homophobia or bullying, but homophobia in Heated Rivarly is only there as a boogeyman idea and a plot device but we never see any of the openly or closeted gay characters directly experience it in any way which I think is a bit weird and unrealistic. I don't know if it was internationally set up this way - maybe they wanted to tell an idealised coming of age / coming out story - but it does take me out a bit at times. It also feels a bit like the series Hollywood, which, if you haven't watched is basically "What if we ended sexism, racism and homophobia if we tried a little harder in the 50s?" which Is optimistic, at the very least, but, sadly, far from realistic. Again, not everything needs to be realistic and grounded and dramatic and gritty, but I can't help but feel that, homophobia and bullying is something that's obviously very real and we all know what it feels and sounds like, but it's very weird that none of the characters directly experience it ever on the show, other than two arguments between Ilya and Alexei in the span of six hours. I'm glad to see gay people thriving, even fictional people, but I feel like it might give the wrong impression to the audience, especially to non queer viewers, that, no actually you can come out and everything and everyone will be okay about it and you can live your dreams and be hot and rich and have a hot and rich boyfriend so queer problems are actually not real. I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into this or taking it the wrong way, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
All in all, I'm glad we get to see not one but two wholesome gay relationships in an undeniably successful TV show, not something niche, not something obscure, it is mainstream, and the depictions of the characters, even if a little unrealistic and idealised at times, still feel like overall positives and success in the way queer people, gay men specifically, are portrayed in media, and hopefully this will be a first step in more shows and films being greenlit in the future that can achieve mainstream success and show the world that we do exist and we do matter and we can, actually, have all the success and love in the world as everyone else.
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