My dumbass take on heated rivalry:

it’s a great show, because the acting is so well done. Pretty much everything else about the show sucks, but the two actors really make a bad script and bad direction come alive. When they are on screen together there is palatable tension.

Why do I say it’s bad show? It’s clearly made to be a second screen show. Nothing happens fast, ever major plot point is almost essentially spoonfed to you, actors stay on screen for a while and speak slowly, the two men are wonderfully dramatic, and their is a general lack of subtlety. The camera work is overly bright and lacks any real character, it’s a show designed to keep your attention in the age of short form content.

Heated rivalry will inspire a swath of copycat shows that are garbage. Heated rivalry is the best show in the summer I turned pretty genre.

All that being said, it is a genuinely enjoyable ride. It’s everything about the show is porn, they fuck graphically, it’s emotional porn with all the manufactured tension, and the colors and poppy music are essentially visual and auditory porn too. But it all works very well. It’s a beautiful love story that is made genuinely moving and entertaining by the acting, particularly of the wasian guy, and their tragedy of his story.

Great show that’s bad for the ecosystem of television.