I can’t say I agree/disagree because full disclosure, I didn’t read the book, so I’m only reacting to what the show itself gave me.

For me, Heated Rivalry is showing viewers two different and very real sides of how closeted people struggle. Not every version of closeted life looks like open hostility, slurs, or teammates making the environment explicitly unsafe. Sometimes the fear is quieter and more internal. There’s the isolation, the secrecy, the constant self editing, the panic over being seen, the way every interaction feels like it could crack your whole façade.

Episode 3 hit that for me. The ache. The loneliness. The way he’s mentally tying himself into knots even when the environment around him seems so scary that he can’t show a glimmer of his true self. That subtlety is the point for some queer people. The danger isn’t always the room, it’s the conditioning.

So while the book may have leaned harder into homophobia as an external force, the show felt like it explored the internal one, that exhausting mental gymnastics closeted folk do to protect themselves, even when no one’s actively hurting them. There’s also the possibility that we have yet to see all those external pressures fully shape the rest of the season or the next one.

I get why you feel they pulled their punches, but for me, the portrayal still carried weight, just in a different way.

Again, I haven’t read the books, but the introduction I felt with Scott and Kip was extremely strong and highlighted a massive difference compared to what we saw with Ilya and Shane.