GAYDUCATION

Author: Devon

  • What to watch after Heated Rivalry

    What to watch after Heated Rivalry

    As our time at the cottage comes to a close I feel like I’ve seen a ton of people online wondering what to watch next. So if your first ever gay show was Heated Rivalry and now you’re undoubtedly hooked and looking for what’s next, I got you. First just know that you’re likely not alone so I’m going to use this space to create a list of shows that I consider the best of the best when it comes to watching gay media. 

    Will update this list over time as hopefully more shows come out.

    I don’t really think there is a better place to start than with one of the greatest to ever do it, SKAM. If you weren’t on Tumblr or other social media back in the day you likely missed one of the coolest experiences in gay media. 

    There are two key aspects that differentiated SKAM from other gay media. The first being that one of the more unique watching experiences with SKAM was that they would drop clips throughout the week synced in real time to the characters’ actual lives – so if a character in the show was doing something at 3pm Tuesday, you would get to see the clip at 3pm Tuesday. This added an incredible amount of depth and connection to the characters’ lives that I am not sure other shows have captured. The second being that while the original version comes out of Norway with SKAM, the show concept was sold abroad to other countries. 

    While there are rules and requirements for adapting the show into a new market, each new remake adds their own flavor and cultural weight to the same story. So while the overall journey is the same, the beats of that journey can and often do change.

    SKAM (2015 – 2017)  

    Country of origin: Norway  

    Seasons: 4, but the third season is the gay season

    Brief synopsis: A groundbreaking web series following the daily lives of teenagers at Hartvig Nissen School in Oslo. Season 3 centers on Isak, a closeted teen who falls for the mysterious new student Even, exploring themes of sexuality, mental health, and first love through real-time social media storytelling.

    WTFOCK (2018 – 2023)  

    Country of origin: Belgium  

    Seasons: 4, but the third season is the gay season

    Brief Synopsis: The Belgian/Flemish remake of SKAM set in Antwerp. Season 3 follows Robbe, a quiet teenager grappling with his sexuality while navigating high school, who meets the free-spirited Sander, leading to an intense emotional journey of self-discovery.

    SKAM France (2018 – 2023)  

    Country of origin: France  

    Seasons: 4, but the third season is the gay season

    Brief synopsis: The French adaptation of SKAM set in Paris. Season 3 follows Lucas, a reserved teen hiding his sexuality from friends and family, whose life changes when he meets the enigmatic Eliott, a transfer student with secrets of his own.

    SKAM Italia (2018 – ???)  

    Country of origin: Italy  

    Seasons: 4, but the second season is the gay season

    Brief synopsis: The Italian version of SKAM set in Rome. Season 2 centers on Martino, a high schooler struggling with his identity and feelings for his friend Niccolò, exploring the complexities of coming out in a traditional environment.

    After SKAM and all the remake iterations, I think the next most sensible recommendation is to stay in Europe but this time head to Sweden and 

    Young Royals (2021 – 2024)  

    Country of origin: Sweden  

    Seasons: 3

    Brief synopsis: Prince Wilhelm of Sweden is sent to the prestigious boarding school Hillerska after a public scandal. There, he falls for fellow student Simon, a scholarship kid from outside the elite world, forcing Wilhelm to choose between duty and love.

    Heartstopper (2022 – 2026)  

    Country of origin: United Kingdom  

    Seasons: 3 + a movie (2026)

    Brief synopsis: Based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novels, the series follows Charlie, an openly gay teenager, and Nick, a popular rugby player, as they navigate friendship, feelings, and the realization that their bond might be something more.

    Puls (2020)  

    Country of origin: Denmark  

    Seasons: 2

    Brief synopsis: A coming-of-age drama following Samir, a closeted Muslim teenager in Denmark who develops feelings for his openly gay classmate Bastian while balancing cultural expectations with his authentic self.

    The Invisible Boys (2024)  

    Country of origin: Australia  

    Seasons: 1 (mini-series)

    Brief synopsis: Set in a small Australian coastal town in the 1990s, the film follows three teenagers – Charlie, Hammer, and Zeke – as they navigate the confusing terrain of adolescence, sexuality, and friendship in a community where being different can be dangerous.

    Bara Sex (2024 – ???)  

    Country of origin: Denmark  

    Seasons: 2 fully out but a 3rd in production

    Brief synopsis: A Danish youth drama exploring relationships and sexuality through multiple storylines. The series features Morten, who navigates his feelings for another boy while dealing with family pressures and the challenges of teen life in Copenhagen.

    My next recommendation I can only in good conscience recommend the first two seasons of the next show, as the follow up seasons are such a departure from what made this show and these characters fun to watch. 

    Rykter (2021 – 2025)  

    Country of origin: Norway  

    Seasons: 4, but can only recommend the first 2

    Brief synopsis: A high school drama centered on Erik, a popular student whose life unravels when rumors spread at school. The series explores his sexuality, relationships, and the devastating impact of gossip in the social media age.

    Heartbreak High (2022 – 2026)  

    Country of origin: Australia  

    Seasons: 2 fully out with a 3rd and final in production

    Brief synopsis: A Netflix reboot of the classic Australian series set at Hartley High in Sydney. The show features diverse storylines including Darren, who explores his sexuality and gender identity, and Quinni, an autistic queer student navigating first love.

    Love, Victor (2020 – 2022)  

    Country of origin: United States  

    Seasons: 3

    Brief synopsis: Set in the same universe as “Love, Simon,” movie, the series follows Victor, a new student at Creekwood High School struggling with his sexual orientation. He reaches out to Simon for guidance while navigating family, friends, and first love with Benji.

    Like with SKAM, Eyewitness is a remake of an already existing single season show. This is the American remake which I think balances the characters, pacing and overall story the best but feel free to look into the other versions.

    Eyewitness (2016)  

    Country of origin: United States  

    Seasons: 1 (mini-series)

    Brief synopsis: Two teenage boys, Philip and Lukas, secretly hook up at a remote cabin and accidentally witness a triple homicide. Desperate to keep their relationship hidden, they refuse to tell anyone what they saw, even as the killer hunts them down.

    Our next show sadly only ran four episodes and although the time is brief with these characters, which I think they deserved so much more time, it’s still a worthy albeit short time with these wonderful and interesting characters.  

    Solo (2024)  

    Country of origin: Norway  

    Seasons: 1 (four episodes only)

    Brief synopsis: Set at Spark, a school for music, dance, and drama in Lillehammer, the series follows several students including Milo and Oskar as they navigate performances, relationships, heartbreak, and self-discovery during their formative teenage years.

    Drenge / Boys (2022)

    Country of origin: Denmark

    Seasons: 1

    Brief synopsis: In the idyllic Danish town of Silkeborg, a group of tight-knit choir boys live a life of debauchery outside the church; their lives are upended when one of them is found dead in a lake, and a person close to the deceased starts suspecting foul play.

    Boots (2025)  

    Country of origin: United States  

    Seasons: 1

    Brief synopsis: Set in 1990 when being gay in the military was illegal, closeted teenager Cameron Cope impulsively joins the U.S. Marine Corps with his best friend Ray. As they endure boot camp’s brutal training, Cameron navigates masculinity, brotherhood, and keeping his identity hidden.

    De Klas van 2000 (2025)

    Country of origin: Belgium

    Seasons: 1

    Brief synopsis: When Seb has to tell his teenage daughter Emma that he and her mother are separating, he decides to immediately come clean about a secret he has been carrying around for years: he is attracted to men.

    Elite (2018 – 2024)

    Country of origin: Spain

    Seasons: 8 seasons

    Brief synopsis: When three working-class students receive scholarships to the exclusive Las Encinas prep school after their public school collapses, they clash with wealthy classmates in a pressure cooker of class tensions, romantic entanglements, and deadly secrets. The series features multiple prominent LGBTQ+ storylines, including Omar (a closeted Muslim teen who sells drugs to afford independence from his conservative family) and Ander (the school principal’s son and tennis star), whose relationship navigates coming out, family acceptance, and later a complicated dynamic with newcomer Patrick in later seasons.

    Prisma (2022 – 2024)

    Country of origin: Italy

    Seasons: 2 (canceled before finished)

    Brief synopsis: From the creators of SKAM Italia, this coming-of-age drama follows identical twin brothers Andrea and Marco – physically identical but living completely different lives – and their group of friends in the coastal town of Latina. Andrea explores their gender identity while dealing drugs; Marco battles depression while swimming competitively. The series examines gender fluidity, sexuality, self-perception, and the messy process of figuring out who you are. Both seasons are out, though the show was sadly cancelled after season two, the two seasons are worth watching despite an unsatisfying  ending. 

    Oro Jaska (2024)

    Seasons: 1 (mini-series)

    Country of origin: Norway (Sámi language)

    Brief synopsis: Set in Kárášjohka, a small Sámi community in northern Norway, the series follows two teenagers whose lives collide after a party. Elli Anne wakes up with bruises and fragmented memories, suspecting she was raped. Meanwhile, Issát, a snowmobile racer with dreams of going pro in the US, faces accusations while hiding his sexuality. As rumors spread through the tight-knit village, both must decide whether they dare to tell the truth.

    Blur (2024 – )
    Country of origin: Belgium
    Seasons: 1
    Brief synopsis: Tells the story of a close group of friends formed during high school. But what happens after their graduation? As their lives change, so do they, and so do the dynamics between them. Will they let go of old friendships or stick together.

    Shameless (2011 – 2021)
    Country of origin: United States

    Seasons: 11
    Brief synopsis: A comedy-drama following the dysfunctional Gallagher family on the South Side of Chicago as they navigate poverty, addiction, and chaos while fiercely looking out for each other. Note: While the series as a whole isn’t LGBTQ+-focused, one of the main characters, Ian Gallagher, has a significant queer storyline that runs throughout the series and became a fan-favorite arc.

  • Heated Rivalry

    Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander share a moment

    To start off this blog I figured I’d open with the show that has been taking the world and the girls and gays by storm. it’s everyone’s new favorite part hockey, but mostly sexy smut show, Heated Rivalry. 

    Truth be told, I maybe wasn’t the biggest fan of the series because initially I felt like the first two episodes were overly focused on the hooking up and not the connective tissue of a relationship. I wanted to know so much more about these characters, who they were, their backgrounds but as the season and story has progressed I think they’re finishing incredibly strong.

    Heated Rivalry sits in such an underrepresented space in gay media and speaks to something I will touch on later but I often think there is this unfair assumption that if you’re gay it means you couldn’t enjoy sports, or that you couldn’t possibly like what people would consider traditional masculine activities and as somebody who does, it’s always been so frustrating.

    To my knowledge, this is perhaps the first gay show to break through the zeitgeist, where we are now seeing straight led hockey podcasts reviewing each episode and whole sports bars filled with people group watching the new episode and it’s been really awesome.

    There’s certainly been popular gay shows before but they’ve always been stuck in a containment of sorts for just the girls and gays to talk about, a niche product only appealing to so many people. This smashes that (hope we see more shows like that) 

    I haven’t fully decided how I’ll handle reviews on this blog, I think I’ll give the big moment highlights versus the play by play, moment to moment synopsis, but we will see going forward. 

    While the first two episodes were largely about Shane and Ilya unending hook ups, two characters stuck, unable to admit what is truly drawing them together. We got to see two people operating almost on pure physical pull, brain chemistry doing what brain chemistry always does.

    Episode Five gives us some of their best moments and character work, it shows us what happens when people run out of places to hide from themselves and have to actually accept the truth.

    Shoutout to the MVP, and GOAT gay ally of this episode Rose, who knows Shane may love the idea of her but can’t actually be in love with her. It’s such a beautiful tender moment when she gives Shane the permission to come out, and he takes it. I absolutely loved Rose asking if he’s ever been with a guy and he silently nods yes, this moment is intercut with scenes from when him and Ilya are together … she then asks him if it was better, he answers “of course” as more flashbacks of Ilya and him play … the whole scene just so wholesome. Also shout out to Shane acknowledging he’s the bottom in this moment. 

    A while later Shane finally tells Ilya he can’t keep pretending he doesn’t love him. Ilya isn’t as confident in this moment and unfortunately sort of rebuffs him. Later, when Ilya’s father, who has been sick, dies and everything goes to absolute shit with his family in Russia, he calls Shane and just unloads, in Russian (side note: this was clearly pages of dialogue in a language Connor Storrie didn’t speak before being cast in this role, and yet to my ear,  he’s delivering it perfectly) He talks about his family using him for his money, about loving Svetlana … but not the way he loves Shane, and that he doesn’t know what to do about it. Shane who obviously doesn’t speak Russian can’t understand any of it but we are blessed with such a subtle moment from Hudson Williams, who played it exactly right  – his character knows something huge is being said even if the words spoken aren’t understood, and yeah I really liked this moment.

    Then the ending of the episode. Shane, still recovering from a season-ending injury, asks Ilya to spend the off season summer together at his cottage. Ilya says no because that’s sort of what Ilya does … although in a way it’s understandable, their hidden relationship has all the typical pressures of being in the closet, but in the background is of course Ilya being from Russia, which makes everything so much more complicated because Russia.

    But then Scott Hunter, who we met previously in episode 3, wins the Cup and the entire dynamic flips.

    The camera finds Scott looking into the stands, alone while everyone else is celebrating with their loved ones on the ice. Tension is thick as he waves Kip down onto the ice … embracing him, and then finally, kissing him … on national television in front of everyone.

    Scott went first.

    He showed it was possible to be your authentic and true self. If anything comes from the popularity of this show I hope it’s exactly that: spaces traditionally thought of as straight can be enjoyed by and participated in by those who are not, too.

    We then get to watch Ilya watching and we can see the whole calculation change. He calls Shane and we finally hear the words “I am coming to the cottage.”

    All it took was one guy on another team deciding he’s done hiding and the entire future has changed. I can’t wait for the future episodes of these characters and where things go, I and hopefully so many of us will be seated.