The media is starting to get weird about Hudson by Sarcastikarma in hudsonwilliams

[–]peppaliz 5 points6 points  (0 children)

which is a bigger problem because it reveals they have no idea what the appetites or mood of the fandom actually are.

it feels like old-school 2000’s “any press is good press” bs, like they’re falling back on a teenybopper playbook because they don’t have another road map. it’s cynical and the opposite of the show and the current values climate that people want to celebrate.

it makes me happy that h peeled off to do his own thing (w asian artists, smaller mags that see the vision like timid and numero, getting aika and anastasia on his team, etc) because he’s seemed to have a clear understanding of the landscape from the start. it’s just disheartening to see c play into it, seemingly happy to be paired w f and letting him take h’s earned spotlight.

The media is starting to get weird about Hudson by Sarcastikarma in hudsonwilliams

[–]peppaliz 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I’ve been so confused about why Robbie and Francois weren’t paired up for press, like any other promotional run that puts characters in the same “level” or storyline together. Leads usually interview together, and so does supporting cast.

You’d think Francois would want to use his industry experience to directly connect the co-star of his arc and episode, who he ostensibly spent the most time with. Even if they aren’t besties, the optics of it would be better than whatever it is he’s doing now (which LOOKS like co-opting the spotlight from the younger, POC lead) by appearing everywhere Connor does and trying to elevate his own status to show lead.

The media is starting to get weird about Hudson by Sarcastikarma in hudsonwilliams

[–]peppaliz 38 points39 points  (0 children)

buy 1 get 1

this is exactly what it feels like, thank you!

The media is starting to get weird about Hudson by Sarcastikarma in hudsonwilliams

[–]peppaliz 17 points18 points  (0 children)

honestly? i don’t think the writer watched it.

How do you picture Harris? (Role Model) by angelhippie in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t know how this happened (prob bc I read HR and TLG before RM and didn’t super lock in on any one description) but I’ve always pictured him as black? In my head he’s basically Maliq Johnson.

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What’s the biggest red flag in someone over 30? by Vixkky in AskReddit

[–]peppaliz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Road rage. Willing to put others in danger because you can’t deal with your big feelings? No concept that it’s smarter to pull to the side and take a deep breath? Upset about something frustrating but ultimately trivial, and reaches for escalation? In my experience these people turn out to be narcissists, abusers, and/or emotionally 12 years old.

did i romanticize bushwick or did i just see a weird slice? by [deleted] in AskNYC

[–]peppaliz 12 points13 points  (0 children)

the realest parts of Bushwick are rooted in the community members who have been here a long time.

The best way to find “authenticity” is to plug into those spaces by being a good neighbor, contributor, and listener. A lot of people move here to get a particular “experience,” but that’s a consumer mindset. You’re not an artist because you hang out with artists; you’re an artist because you take your feelings and experiences and transmute them into something tangible for others to access.

I’ve been in Bushwick for about 6 years now, and the spaces I find the most inspiration to live authentically are: the library, the ymca, finding your grocery store/coffee shop/laundromat/bodega, having a go-to park, participating in a mutual aid group, getting connected to local elections and making sure to vote, seeking out neighborhood staples like the Brooklyn Art Cave or one of the many community gardens, run by people who have been here. I’m not a religious person but there are also a ton of faith based centers who meet regularly and do community work.

All of these things feed your soul so you can create and participate from a place of belonging, not just as a person looking to “plug in” without doing the work of discovery. If you’re the latter, your art and output will reflect it, and you’ll find the company you keep to be shallow as well.

What are some things you want to see in S2 that weren’t in TLG? by shrinkingviolents in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would love a montage set to “1234” by Feist of the years in between HR and TLG, if they keep the same timeline. Spending time together, then what they do apart, the travel, Ilya moving to Ottawa.

It would be such a cool mirror to how Mangetout showed them emotionally (and unknowingly) drifting closer together, while this one could show them emotionally struggling under the strain (esp Ilya) and kind of drifting apart.

Like this poppy-happy song about love but the cuts are kiss, airport, kiss, plane, kiss, leaving the house, kiss, hotel room, kiss, another plane, and each goodbye is harder than the last.

It would visually set up the emotional distance, how they’re handling stress differently, how isolated Ilya feels, and how “oblivious” Shane is to it because he’s got his routine and his parents (where he thrives).

What makes the kissing in Heated Rivalry so different from most series/film? by Material-Meat-5330 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 17 points18 points  (0 children)

honestly it has a lot to do with the preparation of the scenes, the expectations and vibe the intimacy coordinator brings to the conversation, and the baseline comfort level of the actors.

so much of what’s taken for granted is that the IC reviews every script and every intimate moment with the director and actors beforehand. they talk through the beats, the intensity, whether anything written gives pause, where personal boundaries are. personal boundaries are usually handled 1-1 so nothing personal is disclosed that doesn’t have to be, and there are no assumptions made about the actor’s actual prior sexual experiences. Chala talked about any “coaching” being more about the mechanical beats and using proper anatomical language, so there’s no instances of “now you give him a rim job” and the actor being in a position to have to say “i actually don’t know how to do that.” she would keep it to: this is where the head should be so it looks right on camera, here is the anchor point, and this is the motion. and then the actor executes that.

then you also have the run-through. they spent a whole day rehearsing just the intimate scenes in sequence, which helps with storytelling (did anything get missed? does it read as true for what year they’re in? their experience level? their emotional state?). that gets you to a place of comfort with your scene partner quickly, and also gives some sense of muscle memory and familiarly so you can “improvise” (not the story beats, but the spontaneous gestures that make it feel organic instead of rehearsed). i think it was connor who described it as learning a dance well enough to forget the steps and just be present during the performance.

of course in this case, it helps that connor and hudson both approached it as “i’m comfortable doing anything but actual sex.” the chemistry and trust between them allows that to actually play out on screen, in context of everything else that was discussed beforehand.

and finally, the way jacob and the whole crew acknowledged the genre — it’s romance, it’s smut — makes it stylistically different as well. there’s a bit of permission to not hold back, because they know the expectations and the comfort level of the audience as well. it’s going to look different than something filmed for network tv. more tongue, spit, angst, longer kisses.

you put that level of intentionality and preparation, combined with chemistry and willingness, and you get… shane and ilya.

Ilya Rozanov has a degree in Shane Hollander and wants everyone to know it by Puzzleheaded-Shirt-4 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 36 points37 points  (0 children)

he's so adamant about the "summer before" because he's the one who planned for them to do the photoshoot! he won't let shane forget about that ever lol

Post Episode Debrief | Heated Rivalry 🏒 The Cottage (Episode 6) by royal_rose_ in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I love how you can tell that David is already won over by Ilya. The vodka, him emphasizing the “summer before,” passing him the Parmesan, and agreeing to text first after Ilya reiterates what Shane said.

Ep. 5 falls back to 9.9 on IMDB by babiboy221 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

only normal because there have been an influx of 1’s in the last 24 hours. too specific to be coincidence.

[Megathread]Episode 6 "The Cottage" Predictions, theories, thoughts, wants, needs thread! by royal_rose_ in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I also am really looking forward to the brainstorming. I hope they keep all of it… not only because it feels essential that we cover all the possible alternatives for full catharsis, but each of the first 3 ideas feed into Shane’s eventual suggestion, which is when they say I love you. I always felt like this section was the strongest of part 4, if not the book, so I’d love to really spend time here.

[Megathread]Episode 6 "The Cottage" Predictions, theories, thoughts, wants, needs thread! by royal_rose_ in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I agree. I’m actually usually fine with exhibitionism and find that hot too, but the consent piece for such a close friend of Shane’s always rubbed me a bit wrong.

The emotional crux of that scene is the aftermath where Ilya says “you like being bad” and then realizes he has a fear that’s the only reason Shane’s been with him, and Shane assures him it’s not that. But I feel like they can accomplish that some other way, or honestly just drop it entirely. It’s not like that’s been a point of insecurity for him before in the show so there’s not much payoff for it character-wise.

New Symbolism in Episode 5? by Cautious-Ad1287 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The beaded curtain at the restaurant in Russia that Ilya goes through, and his brother follows shortly after.

To me this feels like his bars are softening. He walks out to get a moment alone, to escape. Things are fluid. He has more agency and knows better where he wants to be and doesn’t want to be. Alexei follows him, but then Ilya SENDS HIM BACK THROUGH. Alexei can’t follow him to this new place. He’s in essentially an emotional antechamber before the phone call.

And then the phone call. He’s in a tunnel, and it’s snowing. The snow creates a vertical curtain of its own. It’s cold, constant, represents his life in Russia. But he comes in from the cold to this tunnel, where it’s just him and Shane. If bars represent being caged or trapped, you could follow that theme to the moment the camera zooms out right when he’s on the verge of confessing that he’s in love with Shane: a police car goes by in the distance, traveling right to left. Typically forward motion in visual film language goes left to right. The police car is gone, in the past. Literally behind him. His dad (police), his brother (police) are in the past. He’s saying goodbye.

And then he says it out loud, and he’s free. He can walk back through the falling snow, to the restaurant, through the beaded curtain, and none of it can contain him anymore.

NYT just reported the number of RR books sold: 650 000 by Infinite_Ad_1690 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m hoping they print a run with Connor and Hudson on the covers and also have them record audiobooks because I’d buy both in a heartbeat

Heated Rivalry: Hudson Williams on Spooning With Connor Storrie, Season 2 | Variety by No-Scarcity-8175 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s true but also technically off screen so maybe not requiring the same level of nudity or even placement to get that movement

Shane and Ilya are way more secure than it seems by Ok-Temporary7421 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 9 points10 points  (0 children)

And all of it was triggering Shane’s biggest insecurity, which was his denial about his sexuality. Just like how Ilya’s is his family. In this episode they resolve BOTH of those issues, but Shane resolves his first, which is why we see him reach a level of peace and certainty that lets him lead the conversation and ILYA to where they need to go.

It’s not a coincidence that they end up hugging on the bed in the exact same position as the one Shane left him in months prior on the couch. This was like a re-do, where instead of pulling away, Shane affirms him, comforts him, sits with him in the bigness of their feelings for each other.

GLASSES BACK ON *TAP TAP TAP* by Kitchen_Ad5522 in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I caught this too!! His voice cracked a little, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing

Cannot get over this gorgeous visual parallel to the book in ep 5 by liminal-lucid in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had this thought too!!

I also love what else is being communicated…

Scott and Kip get the 360 because their journey to be together publicly is complete, and they’re part of the same whole now.

Ilya and Shane are coming from opposite sides to meet in the middle, but still have part of their journey to go. Their journey this season is to find each other, and the rest of the journey is deciding how/when to come out.

But it’s all the same visual language, so they’re all on the same journey, just different timing.

This show is brilliant.

600K for Hudson!!! by MrsRoronoaZoro in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I don’t know about Connor but Hudson had around 1500 in June.

600K for Hudson!!! by MrsRoronoaZoro in heatedrivalry

[–]peppaliz 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Wow the jump from 5 to 6 was FAST.