-4/5
If you’ve had any internet access in the last few months, you would have heard of the mega-hit TV show Heated Rivalry. What you might not have heard about it, is that it’s pretty much total slop that turns a blind eye to the struggles of queer people internationally and deliberately excludes complex narratives in the name of making money.
The difference between queer media and gay media is that one is created to be digested, considered and to represent those who need it, whilst gay media is a quick and easy money grab. Unfortunately, Heated Rivalry is as quick and easy as a money grab gets. It has just as many sex scenes as the average cartoon-cover smut book (think icebreaker), and half the plot. Carried by time jumps that pretend show the completely nonexistent story, it’s clear that this show was designed as a quick money grab that wouldn’t offend the straight people, rather than a meaningful queer story (which it absolutely could have been).
According to the reliable source of “r/heatedrivalry”, the author consulted her bisexual husband in the creation of the novel, and potentially show, but it seems some information was conveniently lost in translation to make the content easier to stomach for straight people, so that they could enjoy it without feeling guilty about watching real gay porn.
There is definitely room in the characters to create beautiful backstories – in the next season/s I would like to see more about Shane’s upbringing, have a few more diverse characters introduced, and to delve deeper into Ilya’s story in order to create a vastly more diverse show, that we can finally claim as a part of our queer world.
