+1. The last 15 minutes of Episode 4, the entire Ep 5 and most of 6 are a cinematic masterpiece. Whoever styled Ilya…I mean Connor deserves a fat paycheck. That man’s fits were 🔥 in every scene. Don’t even get me started on the hair styling. |
The costume designer has been posting on instagram about where items were sourced and why certain decisions were made. Interview with another account: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTdiyQ_kXMC/ Her own posts: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTH78ZKEUpF https://www.instagram.com/p/DSt2rGHl28R/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DS5-4aFkfXu |
The books have a MASSIVE fanbase and part of the reason this show took off was that they were feral for the adaption. People were posting about hoping to hear "stupid Canadian wolf bird" for months. These readers know the book so well that a faithful adaption was brilliant. He only got 2 of the 6 books into the first season! There's so much room for more in season 2. The actors were signed for 3 season, so we'll see if a third gets the green light. Crave would be crazy not to go for it. |
Is there any romance that meets your high standards? fwiw, Game of Thrones is more explicit and I've never seen someone call those scenes "erotic moments." Hm. |
I'm not the PP but The Sopranos was a love story. Just because something has a romantic element doesn't mean it's not high-quality. |
It doesn’t seem that most people who watched the show read the books. Only one of the remaining books is about these two main characters. The other three are about other gay hockey players. I read the author is now writing a third book about these two characters to have more content for the tv series. After reading a section of the book, I am kind of shocked it had a big following. It is a very simplistic and weak writing. You can read a chapter in about 3 minutes. I dont hold out much hope for success for a sequel. The factors that came together to make the first series go viral are not going to be there in the next round. |
But everyone who read the books watched the show. Again, that's why this series immediately took off. Most romance series are set in a "world" and each book is about a different couple. You get to see all the characters along the way, but two are center stage. Scott and Ilya have pretty significant roles in all of the books, though they move to secondary character status. Scott is a veteran player and seen as a leader among the queer players. Ilya is Rachel Reid's favorite character and his parts provide both comic relief and some character development. It's unusual that this one lets one couple have multiple books. Rachel Reid said that Shane and Ilya keep coming up in her thoughts, so she's going for a third book for them. Think about Bridgerton, which gives each sibling a book, but the other siblings are still present at times. The show doesn't do as great of job of this. Book 1: Scott and Kip Book 2: Shane and Ilya Book 3: Ryan and Fabian (Ryan has played on multiple teams) Book 4: Eric and Kyle (Eric is on the same team as Scott, Kyle works with Kip) Book 5: Troy and Harris (Troy is on the same team as Ilya, Harris works for that team) Book 6: Shane and Ilya Most books are written at the 5th/6th grade level. That doesn't mean the stories aren't interesting! |
I haven’t read the books, but a friend who did claims that for once the TV adaptation is way better than the books. I just watch it for Rozanov’s good looks and sass. |
Same! |
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I’m reading the books now. It’s not amazing writing, but what this author does well is creating characters people care about with surprisingly realistic dialogue (not grand speeches or truly witty banter; just realistic dialogue for men).
Sometimes authors are good at all the things — describing landscapes/settings, dialogue, plot, interesting characters, etc. Sometimes it’s just one of those things. Have you ever met someone who’s a great storyteller but not a great writer? Same thing here. I like her characters and I want to read what happens to them. But no, I’m probably never going to read a passage in these books and swoon over the prose. |
I read this as "for Rozanov's good looks and ass" and I was like AMEN! And then I saw that you said sass.
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Are there any non gay playing in the professional hockey world? Apparently not. 😂 To me, the show was so-so. The pacing felt disjointed and I did not find the characters interesting. Didn’t enjoy all the explicit sex as I think it’s rarely needed (before you ask, yes I think the same about Game of Thrones and actually like GoT sex scenes even less.) |
It definitely makes it seem very fake and fan fictionesque when all the key characters are gay hockey players! Then again it’s clear from the books that her hockey knowledge is limited to begin with. The show is definitely not some incredible work of art, it’s like a gay Harlequin romance novel, but it was fun to watch and as the previous poster said Ilya has great sass and ass! |
| Wait, there are only 6 hockey players in her books; the other love interests aren’t players. Y’all think having just 6 gay or bisexual hockey players in professional hockey is “fake”? Six is a lot to you? lol - I think it’s a wild underestimate. |
| Rachel announced a third Shane/Ilya book yesterday, Unrivaled. |