Jim Downs in The New York Times:
“Heated Rivalry” has become a breakout hit. The hockey drama — adapted from an erotic romance novel for the Canadian streaming service Crave — just ended its first season on HBO Max and has left gay men crying at watch parties that feel more like 19th-century religious revivals. If you want to understand why this show has become our community’s equivalent of a cultural earthquake, the answer is that watching a gay couple be mildly boring and in love is still radical.
During the season, two rival Major League Hockey stars — Shane Hollander of the fictional Montreal Metros and Ilya Rozanov of the Boston Raiders — fall for each other, moving from adversaries to soul mates. There are plenty of steamy locker room encounters and charged rendezvous in luxury penthouses. But in the season finale, which landed last week, the two men are secluded in an intimate cottage — grilling burgers, lying by firelight, taking daytime swims, scrolling through their phones on the sofa. Culture has not kept up with queer people, despite major political strides, legal victories (including marriage equality) and growing social acceptance. Stories and art explicitly about queer life are being made, but they rarely find a wide gay audience. They’re not typically embraced the way “Heated Rivalry” has been.
More here.
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