Description

After another long hiatus, you know it would have to be something really good to bring us back. And what's better right now than Heated Rivalry?

We do our usual chat about this wonderful Canadian romance series, talking production, context, music, and a deep dive into the characters, performances, and cultural zeitgeist of the gay hockey show. We also talk about the origins of the series in fanfic, the romance genre as a whole, and some of the writing and production elements we loved the most.*

As always we're indebted to many discussions that came earlier, since we are so far behind the cultural discussion curve. Some of the discussions/analyses we watched on this one include:

• The Cultural Power of Heated Rivalry by M.E. Berkshire
• Thoughts on Straight Men Reacting to Heated Rivalry by Therese
• Why HEATED RIVALRY F*CKS So Hard | Intimacy In Hollywood by Taylor Carmen
• One Scene Changed the Perception of the Show by Spica
• The Real Reason Heated Rivalry Has Women Obsessed by Therese
• why heated rivalry has women in a chokehold - the feminine gaze explained by Laura Elise
• Why Gay Men Are Talking About Heated Rivalry by The Gay Men Going Deeper Podcast

* As well as those we hated, such as the heinous lack of Carly Rae Jepsen in the soundtrack.

Additional Notes:

• As noted early on in the episode we are working with new equipment which has the *potential* to produce better quality stuff, but we are still working out some of the kinks with it, so there are a few issues throughout. Hopefully we will be able to clean these issues up in future episodes.
• Intro and Outro music is by The Impossibulls, as always.
• This CBC interview with Jacob Tierney is also really great to watch - it came out after we recorded so it was not in our list of influences for this one, but gets into some of the same topics we cover.