I was not pursuing watching Heated Rivalry. Truly, I wasn't. I read the HR book (but none of the other books in the series). It was nice. (Not typically what I look for in fanfic, but it's OK; sometimes it's downright lovely.) I found the novel to read like "angst with a happy ending," the end.
I did not find it earth shattering, but that might be because I did not actually
read it; I listened to the audio book. So I suspect I missed a lot that I would've otherwise gotten if I
read the book, because my eyes work better with my brain than my ears do (except when it comes to music enjoyment).
Just ask every parent - and teacher - even friends - who ever tried to give me verbal step by step instructions for doing anything. I was not good at that. Reading from A WRITTEN LIST of instructions, no prob. Listening and organizing verbal instructions? Yeah, I suck at that. (And then in my 4th decade, I was finally diagnosed with ADHD. Coincidence? I think not.)Yeah, I heard all the buzz about the series. But I am one of those "if it's 'trending', I'm the opposite of interested" cranks. I generally hate being told what to look at/watch/listen to/do by anyone/anything who isn't paying my hourly wage -
especially any algorithms.
(To be fair, I don't much like being told what to do by those who pay me to do my job, either - especially when it's stupid, bad for patients, and/or violates the manager's/employer's/facility's existing policies. But then, they are paying me, so I tend to listen, even if it's stupid, because I have bills to pay until I die. Anything 'trending' anything is not paying me to pay attention to it. So. I tend to ignore "trending." *shrug*)But as I was, uh, let's say "obtaining" Heated Rivalry for a friend over last weekend, I thought:
well, since I have all six episodes of S1 now, I might as well watch it... So I did. Here's my review.
No spoilers.First, though, I'm going to say - very earnestly - something not said much in fandom anymore (not nearly as often as it was, say, 5-10 years ago):
omg - the feels!Seriously. There are some very heart-clenching, angsty moments in certain HR episodes that broke me in the best possible way. Angst is my jam, so -
guh. I could hardly take it, the angst was so achingly good.
( Other thoughts in no particular order, with no spoilers )I really liked Heated Rivalry. A lot. They really did a great job with this series. I'm proud to have been enjoying similarly Canadian made little TV series gems for decades (Forever Knight... due South...) - and I'm so glad to see another one, this time apparently taking the world by storm.
Also, kudos to Jacob Tierney (Glen on Letterkenny) for helming such an incredible project.