Jacob Tierney for Deadline
"Who said Iām doing it all? Thereās a lot of material," Tierney coyly told Deadline, suggesting that some storylines involving Shane and Ilya might continue into another subsequent season.
"The Long Game is like sex Scenes from a Marriage. I donāt want to say we are making Bergman here, but youāve got your happy ending, youāre in love, you get to be in a relationship. But, as most adults know, you think thatās when it gets easy? Itās not. Thatās when it gets hard. Thatās when you have to make real decisions. Thatās when real life can often smack you in the face."
"Weāre continuing to take this relationship on a journey that will end happily, but along the way is full of ups and downs and realizing loads of shit about yourself, about your partner and about how you want to live and what it means to live as a queer couple in the world and what you want out of your privacy and your public life," Tierney said." Weāre just continuing to give Shane and Ilya the seriousness that this love affair deserves while also continuing to exist within the confines of the genre that weāre in, which I love. I want them to be happy, but I also want to show that thatās not easy. Because part of what Rachel does so brilliantly in her writing is to give queerness joy, but also not pretend the world isnāt the world. Itās not like she created this world where itās like, thereās no homophobia and hockeyās amazing, and anyone can come out. No. She shows itās difficult, takes courage, guts, and sacrifice, and takes stepping up and saying things with your full chest. And that to me is a triumph. Thatās what weāre trying to do here."
"We didnāt expect any of this attention or reaction from a public that might not exist at all," Tierney reflected. "Weāve learned a lot [since the show aired], and thereās a lot to think about moving forward in terms of the fandom and all that comes with it, negative and positive."
Tierney shared that an overlooked piece of the showās booming success, in addition to reaching the female, romance, and queer demographics, is that it stars a person of color. "We have a non-white lead. I think thatās fuckinā important," he said. "We can learn a few lessons out of that: you donāt need to be making an Asian show to have an Asian lead. Hudsonās a fucking star, man."
