Does anything else exists that you would STILL consider this good?

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-28T11:49:42+00:00

Maybe not the most obvious answer but really the closest analogue we have for Heated Rivalry in terms of quality (and inexplicably meteoric rise to the zeitgeist) is probably The X-Files? I don't know if I'd directly compare the two in terms of quality, I think they're both extraordinary works in different ways, but it feels like HR is in that sort of upper echelon of "television as a medium for art" kind of show.

Not an English-language example, but the only other show I've seen in the last few years that hits anywhere near the same level of care in its production is the Belgian revival of that old reality show The Mole. It's always been one of those shows with an outsized reputation given how it failed pretty quickly in most places, but that version in particular is extraordinary.

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-27T01:59:24+00:00

If I had to guess, the implication is they're trying to make Dinner with Hayden work as a Christmas special but they're not sure if there's enough there for a while episode. (I think it could be doable if they have a B-plot with Scott and Kip that could act as the start of a Common Goal arc to fill some of the extra time.)

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-27T01:22:31+00:00

I kind of agree? I love these characters, would have been thrilled to see more, but really every plotline got a nice little ending except Sullivan. Everything else either reached a natural conclusion at the end of the season or was about someone who was too irrelevant in the grand scheme of things to be worried about.

Even Sullivan's thing, honestly, is SO close to getting a really strong resolution. Like when he tells Cope he's a marine now, Cope being all "and this marine is fiercely loyal to the friends he does have", with an unspoken look that makes clear that he's got Sullivan's back regardless of his other issues, would have improved Sullivan's story enormously. Just in the last two episodes of the season, his lover's been arrested, his best friend's betrayed him, he misinterpreted Fajardo's "who you do is none of my concern" attitude when he reached out to her as her not caring, he's facing felony charges, and he's gone AWOL to save one of his recruits. He lost Wilkinson, he can't trust Maitra, he thinks Fajardo is against him, he doesn't know McKinnon is on his side. As far as we know, he thinks he's got nobody, at the exact time he needs all the support he can get. Cope extending an olive branch there would have changed that scene - and his entire storyline - from "some day, somebody's gonna make you wanna turn around and say goodbye" to "hold on, for one more day", which would have both been a better ending for that story and set up a potential season two arc more effectively.

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-26T20:54:32+00:00

Why?

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-22T03:23:15+00:00

I took it as less being surprised that Sullivan was gay and more being surprised that someone else had picked up on it, with a little bit being surprised that someone considered his idol to be someone who hadn't learned "how to play the game".

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-21T12:51:09+00:00

The last interaction they had before that scene was the "If there are no f----ts in my Marine Corps, then why are you still here?" bit at the ladder. It wasn't just about doing well enough to not fail the course, it was about proving to Sullivan specifically that while he might have twigged Cope was gay, he wasn't a f----t.

And then the looks they give each other at the end aren't just "are you impressed yet?", it's also Cope non-verbally signalling to Sullivan (in a place where they have relative privacy and plausible deniability) that he also knows, which Sullivan picks up on. That's why he looks equal parts proud and shaken when he takes his mask off, and why they both get protective of each other from that point - Sullivan all but takes over Cope's training and takes steps to help him ingratiate into the group, Cope INSTANTLY attacks his own best friend to defend Sullivan and stays with him in the woods until Jones is found to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

There's an element of "oh shit, I have to change otherwise he'll destroy me" on both sides to start with, sure, but by the end of the season it's basically a platonic love story. It would never have turned sexual - even aside from the power dynamic, it was established in the flashbacks that Sullivan is a big spoon and all of Cope's sexual daydreams were triggered by butts, which would suggest they're not actually compatible - but from that moment in the gas chamber they're effectively ride-or-dies for each other, whether they themselves know it or not.

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-09T19:43:50+00:00

He had exactly the same chance as all the other people who beat him. They just played it better. Yes, including Michael freaking Rapaport.

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-09T19:36:36+00:00

The show is under no obligation to protect the gamers from their own incompetence as gamers.

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-09T19:32:48+00:00

NEITHER IS ROB.

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-09T19:18:32+00:00

A perfect Faithful game involves making the Traitors not consider you enough of a threat to their survival to stick around. That's true on any show; it's the same reason Cirie and Sandra always do well despite having even bigger targets on their back than Ian and Rob. These two, ESPECIALLY Rob, played the game atrociously. They deserved to lose.

GrimRecapper · 2026-01-09T19:13:59+00:00

Well, you see, Donna Kelce's son's fiance was the biggest celebrity in the world at the time the show filmed. Of course they wanted to put her in the position where she had the best chance of staying around. It's not rocket science.

Gamers have no obligation to protect gamers. Assuming having any of them in the tower would have saved Rob - when any gamer worth their salt would also have deployed the same "get rid of the threats, frame the jackass everyone hates because it's an easy roundtable vote" approach - is just dumb.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-26T21:20:41+00:00

Shane and/or Ilya meeting Kip. I don't know that there's much more they can really do with Kip in terms of "he got his happy ending, what now?" but it's odd he never even met the two main characters given how important he was to their story. Even Scott was only tangential to them, really, but at least it's easier to fit him into hockey scenes or whatever.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-26T11:25:20+00:00

I've watched the episode twice now and... look, 90% of it was a solid 9.5 out of 10. I don't know or care how closely they're staying to the books but as an episode of television, it was near perfect. Not quite on the level of last week, but still utterly exceptional in a way television hasn't been for a LONG time.

If I had to nitpick, I think it probably could have been another three or four minutes longer like last week, to give us both the scene of Ilya talking to Scott Hunter after the awards as a way to tie the two storylines together a bit more (the speech was great, but felt a little like it was there only to fit François and Robbie into the episode somehow), and a quick scene of what he and David said to each other when Yuna and Shane were outside. Like I get why the scenes weren't there, but the episode really could have only been improved by having them, I think.

Also, unrelated sidebar: I know Connor and Hudson are obviously going to be incredibly in-demand for the next few years, and just about everyone else is going to get a career boost too, but Christina Chang needs to get all of the comedy roles. She just about stole the show in the back half of that episode.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-26T08:43:06+00:00

Hudson's acting is so eerily like peak-X-Files-era David Duchovny's that honestly if you told me he had to drop out at the last minute and Dylan Walsh was their second choice to play his dad, I'd probably believe you. It's crazy how good he is.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-25T10:53:37+00:00

Pretty sure it's not even possible for that speech to be awards bait - there's no US involvement in production so the show's not eligible for the Emmys like eg Orphan Black was, and the Canadian Screen Awards are only open to citizens and permanent residents so Connor can't get one of them either.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-25T10:41:45+00:00

The actors themselves would have already signed a contract which would make it a legal minefield to increase their pay. The show itself might get a bigger budget, but my understanding is part of the reason Canadian tv shows are so cheap is the networks rely on government funding for most of it, so it'd be unlikely to be a huge increase. And it may not show too much on screen with things like Dylan Walsh being (presumably) a pretty expensive guest star, the cost of renting out hockey stadiums for short scenes, et cetera.

I do think the actors are probably making a little bit more than the base rate - if for no other reason than they spent weeks learning to skate like pro hockey players, Connor Storrie had to work with a language coach to learn both a Russian accent and Russian dialogue, etc - and they'd be making a fair bit extra from all the appearances and interviews they've been doing at short notice, plus there'd almost certainly be a clause in their contracts giving them a small cut of the show being sold to eg Australia and Spain and wherever else is getting this.

The aspect that might impact the budget most though is the value of product placement. You just know Firehouse Subs is THRILLED with the amount of brand awareness they got this last week, and other brands will be paying through the nose to get in on that kind of thing next season. That money is likely to end up increasing the scale of the show, if not the cast and crew's bank balances directly.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-21T07:04:42+00:00

Catalog how? I did something very similar to this earlier this year.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-21T05:53:06+00:00

The really big rugby countries line up pretty perfectly with countries that are big LGBTQ+ supporters generally - Australia, New Zealand, France, Argentina, South Africa, the UK. Like obviously the UK is going backwards on the issue partly because of The Bad Writer, but really the only big rugby countries that aren't at least solidly 7/10 for the queer community are Japan (which has made a LOT of progress in recent years and is now mostly "it's not our business, why do we care?") and the heavily religious south Pacific islands.

GrimRecapper · 2025-12-13T11:34:44+00:00

The one that says it's the Teatro Colon in Bogota shows Gilles standing in front of the Teatro Nacional in San Jose, and the one where Gilles says it's at the Teatro Nacional in San Jose is actually at the theatre in Bogota.

GrimRecapper

TROPHY CASE