No, I don’t want to Watch Your Straight Hockey Show

Companies are streaming you have found more flack over the past few years, but there is one thing that Hollywood Studios are great: rehashing the same idea, over and over again until the world ends (or until everyone decides they’re sick of it). Harry Potterwhich comes first).

This tried and true formula is now playing in real time with Prime Video’s Off Campus is an upcoming Netflix series An icebreaker, to show that, as Extreme Competition, is a hockey romance about polar opposites who can’t seem to be apart.

But there is one big difference: An icebreaker and Off Campus it’s about same-sex love, right Hot Race it’s about a secret gay relationship. And considering how queerness contributed Hot Race‘s very popularit seems like the clamor for horny hockey content is another example of Hollywood not getting the message.

Off Campuswhich premiered last month, is about Hannah Wells, a closeted singer who agrees to enter into a fake relationship (?) An icebreaker, which Netflix announced this week, is about a figure skater who falls in love with a hockey player after being forced into the same rink.

In hockey, An icebreaker and Off Campus there are many similarities Hot Race. All of them adaptation of popular books: Off Campus It is based on a series of steamy books by the Canadian author Elle Kennedy, where An icebreaker was inspired by a YA novel by British author Hannah Grace. It’s also a variation on the “haters to lovers” trope, popularized by popular sites like Wattpad and ao3.

When it premiered on Crave and HBO Max last winter, Hot Race especially received attention for its hot sex scenes, as well as the chemistry between its two leads, Connor Storrie (who plays the mercurial Ilya Rozanov) and Hudson Williams (the straight Shane Hollander). But as the show began to gain traction, it was also praised for its portrayal of the romantic relationship between the two, as well as for portraying LGBTQ spaces and themes. It also gained a large following among straight women, attracting attention from the Japanese fandom fujoshi, which focuses on gay women who consume gay news.

It’s hard to overemphasize how much Hot RaceThe success has been due to its complexity – not because it was hot, but because it wanted a real audience. According to UCLA’s 2024 “Hollywood Diversity Report“Shows that have “unrecognized issues,” including LGBTQ-themed issues, have higher average ratings and more media coverage than those that don’t.

There is evidence that the interest in hockey has increased because of Hot Racefame, and NHL tickets are reportedly on the rise in the weeks following the show’s launch. But it’s hard to understand how studio executives can look at the show’s success and show a sudden, renewed interest in a game that, historically, has been around. very popular in the United States than baseball, basketball, or football.

A literal description of Hot Race‘s popularity seems obvious: girls, gays, and they like to watch hot guys come out of hotel rooms and exchange desires on the dance floor. The extreme nature of Shane and Ilya’s relationship instead of the traditional male-female relationship may also have played a role, says Matt Puretz, senior researcher at UCLA’s Center for Storytellers and Scholars.