Why is 'Heated rivalry' so 'hot'?
The sexual charge of Heated rivalry (More than rivals, on Movistar Plus+It has become an undeniable draw for generating high expectations among the audience. Professional hockey is the perfect excuse to amplify the conflict: a highly masculinized environment associated with the most basic heterosexuality, in which gay men must hide their sexuality. The secret relationship between two rival players is the main narrative and erotic-festive plot. The series doesn't offer much more than that, but it's interesting to discover its inner workings.
Sexual tension: Sex has been so heavily promoted before the series premiered that we already feel the sexual tension in the very first scene. The viewer has prior information that predisposes them to interpret everything, from the very first minute, in terms of physical attraction. Camera movement is used to place us in the position of the character who is looking: the shot glides over the other's body, fragments it, lingers, and visually constructs desire. If the protagonists are talking on their cell phones, they have small objects in their mouths (a pendant or the drawstring of a sweater's hood) to stimulate the idea of sucking.
Time dilation: The series chronicles their relationship over ten years. The time jumps, sometimes of six months or a year, underscore the restraint of desire. Consequently, a profound sexual intensity is placed on the couple's encounters, even from a psychological perspective.
Off-camera, at just the right moment:Heated rivalry It's a kind of porn softThe series avoids being explicit and stays right on the edge to keep it within the bounds of fiction. mainstreamBut it openly flirts with the codes of erotic consumption. It avoids what could be considered outright pornography, but exploits its effect. The viewer understands what is physically happening. The first episode is strategically filled with sex scenes. The first one takes only fourteen minutes to appear, adhering to the trope of a locker room shower. The next one lasts nine minutes. The sex scenes are easily identifiable and almost self-contained. The script is so basic that the narrative arc is understood without needing to follow the "transit" sequences between encounters. In fact, many passages are simple video clips similar to a perfume commercial.
The secret: However, there is one element that the series unequivocally plays with, and that is the idea of secrecy. This was already the case with a similar series like Fellow TravelersThe weight of homophobia doesn't disappear: the secret is not just a narrative context but a driving force for eroticism. The series, despite becoming more luminous towards the end, transforms a tragic reality like homophobia into an effective dramatic device: it intensifies desire and charges the scenes with tension. It makes structural violence useful for making the sexual plot and romantic drama more powerful. And here lies an ambiguity that is both problematic and unsettling: that what makes the story effective is precisely what oppresses.