They cast the lead actors perfectly, big reason why this show works so well.

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Anonymous wrote:Would watch but gay sex is cringe for me to watch. Is there a lot of it?

It’s pretty raunchy, lol. There are short clips circulating on Twitter.

I decided to read the books first. I am not a prude, but oh my this is graphic M/M sex. I'm not hating it...

While the sex in the show isn’t gentle per se, I love how gentle and tender they are with each other. Often kissing, Ilya always touching his face and lifting his chin up for eye contact, checking on him if this or that is ok, if he is scared, if he still wants it. Asking for consent and then doing raunchy stuff is hot! I wish more hetero men would watch the show because it is a case study in what women find attractive and arousing too.

It was written by a woman for a largely female audience. Female viewership of HBOMax went from 48 or percent to almost 70 with the success of the show. A lot of M/M romance isn’t written for or by men, but for and by women.

Genuinely curious and this is probably gonna get deleted but do straight women genuinely get off on this? I'm watching right now. It's entertaining but it's not hot.

Why wouldn’t they? A lot of what these men do to each other can be done in a hetero relationship too. Not everything, but most of it. The actors are hot and sell the sexual tension well in the show, plus the intimacy scenes are filmed very well, so I can see how this is a turn on for straight people too.

+1, although the sex scenes were not what drew me and I suspect most women to the show. I like watching the personal growth of the two players, Ilya in particular. A beautiful love story, beautifully told. The gender and sex scenes are secondary.

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Anonymous wrote:Would watch but gay sex is cringe for me to watch. Is there a lot of it?

It’s pretty raunchy, lol. There are short clips circulating on Twitter.

I decided to read the books first. I am not a prude, but oh my this is graphic M/M sex. I'm not hating it...

While the sex in the show isn’t gentle per se, I love how gentle and tender they are with each other. Often kissing, Ilya always touching his face and lifting his chin up for eye contact, checking on him if this or that is ok, if he is scared, if he still wants it. Asking for consent and then doing raunchy stuff is hot! I wish more hetero men would watch the show because it is a case study in what women find attractive and arousing too.

It was written by a woman for a largely female audience. Female viewership of HBOMax went from 48 or percent to almost 70 with the success of the show. A lot of M/M romance isn’t written for or by men, but for and by women.

Genuinely curious and this is probably gonna get deleted but do straight women genuinely get off on this? I'm watching right now. It's entertaining but it's not hot.

Why wouldn’t they? A lot of what these men do to each other can be done in a hetero relationship too. Not everything, but most of it. The actors are hot and sell the sexual tension well in the show, plus the intimacy scenes are filmed very well, so I can see how this is a turn on for straight people too.

Okay I'm a few episodes in and I don't like the actress gf.

I like the American hockey player and his little twink bf with the nice dad.

The sex scenes don't do anything for me tbh but I can see how they would be titillating to some and it's the idea/sounds of sex that are more interesting than seeing two guys have sex.

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Anonymous wrote:Oh damn. Five min. in and the Canadian is already sucking off the Russian. You guys weren't kidding.

1) The first sex scene is in the middle of the episode, around the 17th minute, not 5th.

2) I thought the sex scenes were very well done, hot af and only added to the story. They get better as in more intimate but also steamier after Episode 1.

Alright, nerd, I wasn't being literal. Chill.

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Anonymous wrote:Would watch but gay sex is cringe for me to watch. Is there a lot of it?

It’s pretty raunchy, lol. There are short clips circulating on Twitter.

I decided to read the books first. I am not a prude, but oh my this is graphic M/M sex. I'm not hating it...

While the sex in the show isn’t gentle per se, I love how gentle and tender they are with each other. Often kissing, Ilya always touching his face and lifting his chin up for eye contact, checking on him if this or that is ok, if he is scared, if he still wants it. Asking for consent and then doing raunchy stuff is hot! I wish more hetero men would watch the show because it is a case study in what women find attractive and arousing too.

It was written by a woman for a largely female audience. Female viewership of HBOMax went from 48 or percent to almost 70 with the success of the show. A lot of M/M romance isn’t written for or by men, but for and by women.

Genuinely curious and this is probably gonna get deleted but do straight women genuinely get off on this? I'm watching right now. It's entertaining but it's not hot.

For me, surprisingly the answer is yes. I am very much straight and married. I did not find Brokeback Mountain intriguing at all.
Perhaps here it’s because the Russian is my type and the actor who plays him is so handsome. I found the sex is sensual, intimate, hot and arousing.

I loathe too much sex on screen, which is why I switched to Japanese and Korean shows some time ago (I am half east-Asian, but don't speak the language, so I watch with closed captioning). Even though some Japanese and Korean movies are known to be hyperviolent and have nudity, there is a large swathe of their production that is a lot more sensitive and restrained, and those are the ones I like to watch.

I just don't understand why people in the west equate romance with sex. That's not what it is at all. There's romance, and then there's porno. It's OK to like porno! Just don't sell it to me as romance.

Anonymous wrote:Oh damn. Five min. in and the Canadian is already sucking off the Russian. You guys weren't kidding.

1) The first sex scene is in the middle of the episode, around the 17th minute, not 5th.

2) I thought the sex scenes were very well done, hot af and only added to the story. They get better as in more intimate but also steamier after Episode 1.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would watch but gay sex is cringe for me to watch. Is there a lot of it?

It’s pretty raunchy, lol. There are short clips circulating on Twitter.

I decided to read the books first. I am not a prude, but oh my this is graphic M/M sex. I'm not hating it...

While the sex in the show isn’t gentle per se, I love how gentle and tender they are with each other. Often kissing, Ilya always touching his face and lifting his chin up for eye contact, checking on him if this or that is ok, if he is scared, if he still wants it. Asking for consent and then doing raunchy stuff is hot! I wish more hetero men would watch the show because it is a case study in what women find attractive and arousing too.

It was written by a woman for a largely female audience. Female viewership of HBOMax went from 48 or percent to almost 70 with the success of the show. A lot of M/M romance isn’t written for or by men, but for and by women.

Genuinely curious and this is probably gonna get deleted but do straight women genuinely get off on this? I'm watching right now. It's entertaining but it's not hot.

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Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately I think the series reinforces a discomfort that a lot of hockey players would have. That the gay guy on the team is staring at your body and genitals in the shower and jerking off to it.

It's a special person that assumes any queer person around them is attracted to them.

Did you watch it? Ilya watches Shane showering and then starts jerking off.

Ilya stajerking off after he notices Shane getting hard. It’s subtle—the book makes it more clear.

Getting hard doesn’t mean you want sexual advances. It’s clear Ilya gets off watching teammates shower. I think the idea that if a man or woman doesn’t want someone staring at their naked body and jerking off to them, it is on them to never put themselves in that situation is exactly why there would be an issue if a gay hockey player came out. If the team is then told he is going to watch you shower and may jerk off to you so if you don’t want that…shower at home, that isn’t going to go over well. Nor should it.

So what is your solution? Don’t be gay?? Your argument is weak and frankly silly.
And yes, getting hard / signaling to someone that you are attracted to them and want them warrants a reply. In fact, the opposite would be awkward! How do people hook up? One shows the other they want them (eg, by getting hard in the shower when just the two of you), and then it is either reciprocated (hopefully) or put an end to 🤷‍♀️

My point is this is a fantasy tv show. It has nothing to do with real life. There is no deep meaning. Hockey players aren’t going to think about coming out because of this show, it’s just TV. Like all the other tv. It’s meant for women who get off on men’s hot bodies and gentle caresses and kisses and tender loving gazes just like men get off on women’s hot bodies and sex. It isn’t deep or meaningful. It’s the genre of smut. Just like the story telling in porn isn’t deep or meaningful. Watch it for the entertainment but people connecting it to real life is nonsense.

You are wrong in all sorts of ways. E.g., a hockey player just came out of the closet and credited the show: https://www.out.com/gay-athletes/heated-rivalry-real-hockey-player-coming-out

That guy was already out. Lives in Vancouver with his boyfriend and plays on an LGBTQ rec league. And he wasn’t a pro player - half of Canada’s population are ‘hockey players’. Just someone looking for a couple minutes of fame.

No need to move the goal posts. Fact is, this show is breaking down barriers for lgtbq players in hockey. Male hockey culture is extremely homophobic. If people are more comfortable with themselves or others after watching this show, I'm all for it.

Eh. It used to be extremely homophobic. Both of my sons play hockey, D1 and what you’d probably call semi-pro. There are always jerks on every team, but by and large it’s much more reflective of society at large.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would watch but gay sex is cringe for me to watch. Is there a lot of it?

It’s pretty raunchy, lol. There are short clips circulating on Twitter.

I decided to read the books first. I am not a prude, but oh my this is graphic M/M sex. I'm not hating it...

While the sex in the show isn’t gentle per se, I love how gentle and tender they are with each other. Often kissing, Ilya always touching his face and lifting his chin up for eye contact, checking on him if this or that is ok, if he is scared, if he still wants it. Asking for consent and then doing raunchy stuff is hot! I wish more hetero men would watch the show because it is a case study in what women find attractive and arousing too.

It was written by a woman for a largely female audience. Female viewership of HBOMax went from 48 or percent to almost 70 with the success of the show. A lot of M/M romance isn’t written for or by men, but for and by women.

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Anonymous wrote:I’m obsessed. Rewatching and counting down to the finale. It is not just gay porn. There is a nuanced story being told.

Yea it is. If the sex scenes were hetero you'd say it was porn. They're over the top and unnecessary.

I'd say they're incessant, which makes the story boring to me. If there is a story beyond the standard "in the closet" narrative.

The show premiered about 6-7 weeks ago and has a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 9/10 on IMDb with 70,000 reviews, and 5 star reviews only on Amazon. I can’t think of any other current show or movie with this type of success. So the story can’t be all that boring.

Oh damn. Five min. in and the Canadian is already sucking off the Russian. You guys weren't kidding.

Anonymous wrote:Directors and producers have to look harder for new talent. It’s boring to watch the same dozen or so actors and actresses in every other movie and show. Connor Storrie is absolutely mesmerizing as Ilya, and we need more talent like that to be discovered. What a breakout performance for him! I was glued to every scene he was in.

He is a delight! I hope he has a very long career. He was so good in this. Not just the Russian, which is really damn impressive, but the whole performance.

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Anonymous wrote:For the people who things this show is erotica or p*rn, someone timed the sex scenes. They counted time spent talking afterwards and flashbacks.

https://www.threads.com/@toriloves_heas/post/DTg3BcglCkl?xmt=AQF0ddJBn7TASRJOQaFA1XikylCvTUXh1DpIO8HJmuErg_0

Episode 1: 8 minutes 15 seconds
Episode 2: 4 minutes 30 seconds
Episode 3: 1 minute 40 seconds
Episode 4: 2 minutes 30 seconds
Episode 5: 0
Episode 6: 2 minutes

Under 19 minutes. Total run time for the entire show is 295 minutes. 6.67% of the show was sex scenes.

Are these people prudes? Or is it just that the couples are men?

Eh not a big fan of gay sex, men or women. Not my jam.

FWIW to me, any show that spends 7% of its time on sex has too much sex. A couple of scenes in the entire run sure. More than that is too much for me. But then I am not the target audience anyway since I am not a big fan of the romance genre. I think it should be an appetizer not the main course in the narrative.

Agree. I lost interest in OITNB because it was just too much gratuitous sex. Of both the lesbian and straight varieties.