No, I don’t want to watch your hockey show

Flow industry I’ve got it Lots of flack Over the past few years, but there is one thing Hollywood It’s undeniable that studios are good at: recycling the same idea, over and over until the world ends (or until everyone finally decides they’ve had enough of it). Harry Potterwhichever comes first).

This tried-and-true formula now plays out in real time with Prime Video Off campus And upcoming Netflix series Icebreaker, It appears that, like hot competition, are hockey-themed romance novels about polar opposites who can’t seem to keep their hands off each other.

But there is one major difference: Icebreaker and Off campus Its events revolve around heterosexual romances, while… Hot competition It is about a secret gay relationship. Considering how much weirdness played a role in that Hot competitionExplosive popularitythe uproar over exciting hockey content seems to be another example of Hollywood not getting the message.

Off campuswhich debuted last month, is about Hannah Wells, a conservative musician who agrees to enter into a fake relationship (?) with college hockey team captain Garrett Graham in exchange for private lessons in philosophy (??). Coming icebreaker, Which Netflix announced this week, is about an ice skater who falls in love with a hockey player after they are forced to practice at the same rink.

Hockey aside Icebreaker and Off campus They have a lot in common with Hot competition. All of them Quotations from popular novels: Off campus It’s based on a series of steamy books by Canadian author Elle Kennedy Icebreaker Based on the YA novel by British author Hannah Grace. They’re also all variations of the “enemies to lovers” trope, popularized by fan sites like Wattpad and ao3.

When it debuted on Crave and HBO Max last winter, Hot competition The film received attention primarily for its racy sex scenes, as well as the chemistry between its two leads, Connor Story (who plays the mercurial Ilya Rozanov) and Hudson Williams (Shane Hollander). But as the show gained momentum, it also received acclaim for its depiction of the surprisingly tender relationship between the two, as well as its depiction of spaces and themes specific to the LGBTQ community. She also gained a large following among straight women, drawing attention to the Japanese fandom Fujoshi, Which centers around heterosexual women consuming gay male stories.

It’s hard to overemphasize just how much Hot competitionThe film’s success was due to its strangeness, not just because it was hot, but because there was real audience demand for it. According to UCLA 2024″Hollywood Diversity Reportshows that feature “underrepresented stories,” including LGBTQ-themed narratives, enjoy higher average ratings and more social media discourse than shows that don’t. “The evidence is clear that audiences today are hungry for both diverse stories and diverse storytellers,” report co-authors Ana Cristina Ramon and Michael Tran told WIRED via email.

There is certainly evidence to suggest that public interest in hockey has increased as a result Hot competitionPopular, with NHL ticket sales are said to be up In the weeks following the show’s launch. But it is difficult to understand how studio executives could look at the success of that show and attribute it to a sudden new interest in a sport that had historically been… Less popular In the United States of baseball, basketball or football.

The real interpretation of Hot competition‘s popularity seems fairly obvious: girls are gays, and they love watching hot guys having sex in hotel rooms and exchanging eager glances on the dance floor. The taboo nature of Shane and Elijah’s relationship in a traditionally male space likely played a big role, says Matt Boritz, a senior research fellow at the Center for Storytellers and Scholars at UCLA.