Mattyboy

ooh, we montaged through a lot of time there, but interesting account of the development and recruiting process.

Yeah I don't get what Oliver thinks he's up to (or if he's thinking and acting with purpose). He seemed a competent agent earlier but now his mind and actions seem to just be a puddle of slop. Maybe he's broken but weird that this is what broke him.

This reminds me of the HEA thread from a while back. Writers sometimes get told (and agree) that happy endings are soft, dreamy, juvenile things for soft, dreamy, juvenile writers and that serious literature uses darker tools with sharp cutting edges. But it's not long ago that a gay story with a HEA was a very radical proposition, and very rare. It's an excellent development that this has changed. Yeah the asses are good, but it's not that hard to find that on the internet these days (although self-permission to look may be another thing entirely). I think you're absolutely right that that audiences are starved for stories in which relatable people have a good relationship. I watch the TV series Family Law a bit (on Global in Canada, CW in the US); the episodes explore the expanding and fluid shape of "family" in the modern world. There are a bunch of queer characters, and they learn a new lesson about family every week. But nobody in the central cast is in a good and stable relationship. Sure, conflict drives plot lines, and it's sort of relatable that no one has it figured out, but it's also a current example of that old rule that healthy and happy isn't attainable. Heated Rivalry is fresh and radical TV because the characters have desire, and then sex, and nobody calls in the Special Victims Unit or winds up in a courtroom. There's a bit on Annie Proulx's Wikipedia page where she says she feels burdened by having authored Brokeback Mountain, because people won't stop sending her fanfic in which Jack and Ennis have more and better sex and it leads to a happy ending. I get how that would be annoying, and some of the fanfics probably do take a very porny turn, but it's yet another sign of that desire in audiences for a different answer to the question of whether good relationships are possible.

@ReaderPaul I'm feeling both "holy cow" and I'm not surprised. Brokeback Mountain is such a milestone, but now it's a period piece from another generation. I just l looked it up and Annie Proulx published the short story before Mathew Shepard's death. I would have guessed it was the other way around. Both incidents were very of-that-time, though. The movie came out in 2005 as same-sex marriage reforms were becoming a hot political topic, although it'd be another decade before the Obergefell decision in the US. You can see this generational change around gay fiction, even a decade ago, but especially before 2005, the basic notion was that gay romances had to involve staying in the closet and somehow managing, or at least some sort of don't ask, don't tell deal. We were all fish swimming in water; I don't think it occurred to anyone in '97 or '05 to judge Annie Proulx or Ang Lee for Jack and Ennis not living their truth and being true to themselves. Brokeback was a big part of an immense cultural earthquake, but I feel the GA comments-section gang would judge it harshly now, and maybe rightly so.

Tarquin's already proved he'll commit serious crimes to preserve his position (the barn, and the planted evidence at the garage). What saved Oliver here is that up til now Tarquin's crimes have been premeditated with considerable planning. It looks like the gears aren't moving all that fast right now. It'll be really dangerous when he gets there.

I still stick with this was stoopid with two o's on Oliver's part. He has to bluff that he's dispersed the evidence, while confronting Tarquin with evidence that will utterly destroy him that in fact no one else knows about. It's impulsive and self-indulgent, and Oliver's lucky that Tarquin didn't either call the bluff and murder Oliver on the spot, or fly into a rage and murder Oliver on the spot. It can't count as brave on Oliver's part, as he's jeopardizing Orel and Finn's future as well by this self-indulgence, and he has no right to do that.

"He didn't lock the door" This is criminal negligence and Oliver should be jailed for it. Mind you, there's a good chance he'll be murdered before it gets that far. What an idiot. It's kind of ruining this story that Oliver is was built up for us as a careful auditor but has been a complete fucking dope for the last few chapters.

all those days in the archives, I'll bet he knows something alright.

Long slugging matches have declined a lot in pro hockey, as have the numbers of players who are inclined to engage in one. There's also now (since the lates 1990s) a rule that jerseys have to be tied down at the back, which generally prevents jerseying now. Abe Donovan could have been assessed an additional minor penalty for illegal equipment by a hockey referee, although that's the least of his crimes. Justice for the rest will require another venue.

The next chapter title seems to point to trouble on that front.

It is an excellent hockey detail that Darren "jerseyed" Abe. Potentially disastrous for Darren to have social media vids showing him beating someone up and threatening rape. I hope Mario comes to his senses and deletes before Darren loses his life over this. That vid could be the end of any big hockey team wanting to have anything to do with Darren.

Tarquin might look into a twin-relationship with Sanitaria Springs, it's grown a lot since the writers got there.

It's wild to think that these boys were completely anonymous in October and now they're carrying the Olympic torch and meeting cuddling with the Canadian prime minister.

Oh, if it's trains like "Pizza boy rides a train" yeah, it has trains.

Carterverse Merrickville seems to be a bit bigger and better serviced than Earth-prime Merrickville. There are tracks, but I think the passenger station in E-P Merrickville was demolished quite some time ago. A nearby town, Smiths Falls, was a big enough railway intersection that it tried to brand itself "Chicago of the North," but that's a bit of hyperbole - it's the premier rail hub of Lanark County, at least, and does still have a passenger station. But there certainly is the possibility of either locomotive or human-relationship train-wrecks here.

Sometimes stuff is set in the American South because people want to critique white Southern culture (which -at its worst- totally deserves it) but leans too much into "Luke Duke git sum corn pone" type cliches. I often skip over stories I think will have those tropes, because I'm just not that interested. The set up here of a family of second-gen Syrian-Americans who are still into Syrian food culture but are pretty American otherwise is a lot more sophisticated than that, and is more likely for lots of real people. And BillyTeddy story was fun, so I thought I'd see what you were up to here. And this was also fun, but not the same as that.

This was charming! and not quite what I expected!

This "soft power" moment was followed by a very funny speech at the CMPA

I guess Oliver was working through the surprise that the meeting turned into a job offer. I hope he catches up with events and realizes that if they're head-hunting him, he can ask for stuff, such as some security guarantees for Orel and whatever Merrick legacy assets he values. It'd even make him look good that he didn't want to leave his old job in a shambles.

Lydia seemed to have gotten it wrong with "4 pm." It needed to be "right now."

Yeah, I get that this kind of thing is hard, but I'm finding it disappointing and actually a bit out of character for Oliver to collapse like that. He knew absolutely everything he needed to know when he got into this that it would be like this.

Yeah, I thought the first episode (which is all I've watched) was a bit rushed. Probably could have used some more hockey. I agree that it isn't that groundbreaking from the perspective of anyone around here, but it is for many Shoresy watchers and a lot of people have had basically no exposure to the genre, which is I think where a lot of the energy of this as a pop culture phenomenon is coming from. Geewhilickers short story Out of My League posted on AD and at Dabeagle's site is at least as good as Reid, better developed with better hockey.

Nice that it looks like Darren's made a good start on friends and allies.

From the Hollywood Reporter, and most daily New York City newspapers: "Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged residents stay home during a Sunday [press] conference as snow continued to fall heavily across the city. One of his suggestions for passing the time? Reading Heated Rivalry, naturally. “The snow is coming down heavily across our city, and I can think of no better excuse for New Yorkers to say home, take a long nap or take advantage of our public library’s offer of free access to Heated Rivalry on e-book or audiobook for anyone with a library card,” he said during the press conference, met with smiles and laughs from the team behind him. The New York Public Library announced Saturday (Jan. 24) that anyone with a library card would have access to download any of the books from author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, a string of six connection queer hockey romance novels. The library is offering the instant access through Feb. 14 — a game changer for any patron who’s experienced the agony of waiting for a recently popular book to come off hold at the library."

Maybe we're still heading for Oliver/Lydia. As awful as the folio is, it's excellent that it's on the table and Orel and Finn came to a consensus about what it was and how to handle it. It's nearly enough to hold up an extortion charge as is. I feel Tarquin is overestimating how easy it is to revive sealed juvenile records into current trials; that part was mostly a bluff, which Finn and Orel haven't quite named yet as such, but they're making the right call on it. It's actually good that Tarquin is still at the bluff/intimidation phase; the really bad stuff will be what happens after that fails.