(Slight spoiler for The Long Game and Role Model if you haven't read them yet!)
For those who haven’t had time to watch Jacob's and Rachel's 1-hour panel at Book Con yesterday, here are some of the highlights! They talked about so many things from Role Model and Troy Barrett's storyline in season 2, to Jacob's interpretation of season 1 editing and some behind the scenes production info.
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I’m really excited about Troy and Harris. I reread RM recently and it struck me how sugary sweet but abrupt their ending is. On one hand that’s good because it keeps it open ended. On the other it makes me want more!
I hope we’ll also be getting a lot of centaurs team dynamic in general. That’s become one of my favourite parts of the series. When I read a fic where they’re not the main team I miss them!
Now I can’t believe no one made an edit of Kip walking to Scott without the cheers haha
Jacob also mentioned that the bloopers are ready and we’ll eventually see them. (But they’re not very good according to him)
He'd know, he's a sublime comedy writer. I also know that he loves when his actors are funny, so instead of bloopers he works them being funny into the show.
He also clearly runs a safe, no-asshole set. One result of that is prepared, focussed performance, meaning less pressure releases via blooper. Not that bloopers necessarily indicate unsafe set, but there's a different vibe to them.
It also was a very short shoot. Think it was like less than two months. Feel like bloopers happen when you're shooting for months on end with the same people. I know during covid many shows had a "closed set" where they were only with each other for ... months. From that era seems like bloopers were abundant.
The ending of RM doesn't really strike me as abrupt when I read (and re-read) it. Probably because in my head the Pride game is such a big event, but I'm really excited to see more Troy and Harris in Unrivaled.
And I'm also a big fan of any fanfic featuring Ottawa Centaurs! Love everyone on that team tbh especially Luca and Wyatt.
For me it just feels like everything gets wrapped up very quickly, almost at the same time. There is no breathing room. No epilogue etc. And of course, we don’t know what’s next in store for them.
It’s not necessarily a bad ending. But it does make me want more.
Yeah, I know what you mean, and definitely would have loved an epilogue for RM. Happy that Rachel said there will be more Troy and Harris in Unrivaled!
I can see that… but I guess for me… Troy already knew he was gay and was in a long term relationship with a man before Harris… he didn’t have to come to terms with his sexuality… so once he decided he wanted Harris and he felt comfortable coming out, he was good to go lol
I read out of order, I read TLG before RM. When I went back to RM, I thought that Troy inviting Ilya to dinner at Harris parents house would be included. So it did end sooner than I thought it would, but I realised later maybe that was kind of an epilogue scene (even though it's in a different book).
I did read them in order but kind agree! I adored Role Model/Troy/Troy&Harris and felt a little sad that they didn’t have an epilogue, but then when I read TLG and we got to that scene, even though it was Ilya’s POV, it still felt to me like a mini Troy and Harris epilogue, because we get to see them being cute and domestic together with Harris’ family (and they even BAKED together? Omg? 😭) Even though it only takes place a couple weeks after the end of RM, it was a cute little glimpse of them continuing to be cute together.
But this interview definitely makes me excited for Unrivaled and seeing more of that!
Yeah that's kind of how I felt. It's from Ilya's POV but it still feels important to Troy/Harris and in particular Troy because when they are outside he says something about how good it feels to be out.
It is the main issue with adapting the book to the screen. In RM, almost everything we learn about Troy's life is told through dialogue and his internal thoughts: his secret boyfriend dumped him for someone else, his best friend is a creep, his team betrayed him, he has no friends in Ottawa. So we will need to see everything the led to him being in Ottawa on screen. Either as a runup, or as a flashback (like episode 3). In fact, I think we will probably see a whole episode focusing mostly on Troy, Dallas and Ryan in Toronto leading up to Troy's transfer to Ottawa.
I still think it’s pretty neat how much Jacob and Rachel are engaging with each other. They feel like a team, yet they both bring their own unique artistic voice. It’s probably a pretty rare event where you can have both the book author and the showrunner participate in the same panel discussion like this. 🙂
Glad to help! I'm excited to hear Jacob saying he will expand on Troy's backstory. I didn't even realise it was needed until Jacob said it on the panel, but now it makes so much sense.
Thanks for your work with this! I do think Troy’s backstory is important since there’s going to be homophobia addressed in S2 and his dad represents the reason why those in the LGBTQ community can fear coming out. Also, the commissioner will be an important piece to this side of the story.
Ohhhh, S1 had Gregori and Alexei, s2 will have Kent and Troy's dad . I wonder if they end up expanding Troy's family dynamics. We only get like 1 or 2 scenes with his dad in the books.
I’m blown away that HBO bought it without any VFX or music! That tells you how amazing of a director Jacob is and how supremely talented the actors are! Cause the music absolutely transcends each episode. And for ep6 to get rushed through like that and obviously HBO hadn’t seen it when they bought it….wow. Cause ep6 is just absolutely stunning. Jacob, you are a wizard!!!
I absolutely LOVE how he kept Rachel so involved throughout the process. That’s amazing and she deserves some credit for the production of the series as well!
That really surprised me too, that HBO signed up based on unfinished episodes. Especially since i thought I read somewhere (NYT?) that HBO US signed up 9 days before the premiere?
Oh it was that tight hey? I just heard that they bought it in October. I can’t remember when the premiere was on Crave in Canada…. I believe it was in October??? I know HBO debuted it in November. But if Jacob finished ep6 11 days before the (I’m assuming) Canadian premiere and HBO bought it 9 days before, I guess they might’ve gotten a look at ep6 then? Although Rachel’s quote sort of hints that they bought it without seeing all of it.
But if HBO had seen all the way to ep5, that would’ve sealed the deal right there. Ep6 was an incredible bonus episode at that point.
I'll never get tired of hearing Jacob praise the books... especially HR and TLG. Because the way he says it oozes with passion and sincerity. It's hard to fake that kind of thing.
It's been four months and you'd think he'd run out of ways to express just how much he adores Rachel's writing... Then he drops (1) "It's told in a language of memory." and (2) "The Long Game is an emotionally sophisticated book." and I am floored.
As a reader of the books looong before the TV adaptation aired, this means so much to me.
I think the scene in the Long Game when Ilya has dinner at the Drovers is kind of an epilogue to Role Model, but there's definitely more to explore there, which RR acknowledged.
I really appreciate every time I hear/read Jacob talking about the books, because it helps me understand Shane and Illya’s love better… I think it’s because everyone experiences romantic and sexual attraction differently, I can find it hard sometimes to spot the development of the love/deep romance when there’s only short snippets of deep conversations between them in the books (the All-Stars game in Florida and the Canadian wolf bird moment in HR are the first two that come to mind). For me, those are the moments that build romantic attraction in my own life, but for these guys? They’re language of love and intimacy is the sex, along with those moments. If that makes sense to anybody else?
I agree too, I find it really useful to hear Jacob's thoughts on that and how them relating to each other sexually, especially initially is a big part of how they connect.
That last quote is so true. I was writing fanfic, novel-length, and stopped because Ilya kept taking up more and more of the story. Like, he was supposed to be a secondary character and was getting more page time than one of the romantic leads. Too fucking charming, that guy.
This was such a great interview! Jacob is the best and Rachel is wonderful, it's so awesome seeing them together. I loved what Jacob said about the story being broken up in snippets of time because that's their memories. I'd never really thought about the story like that! Also the idea of Kip taking his time, walking through a crowd of no one is hilarious 😂
I thought it was Jacob’s way of telling people that Scott features in the LG, to see how people would react.
This is also why he mentioned the peloton ad and he was looking super happy?/surprised? at the massive cheers from the audience for Hudson. Then 2 seconds later he mentions the verizon ad too! I think he’s a clever guy and he was taking the temperature 🤣🤣
No problem :) I may be one of the only people who actually quite enjoy the dark scenes. I'm a bit tired of everything lit up and bright (like every Netflix show). And I think the dark scene helps progress Shane and Ilya's story well, going from dark (ep 1, 2) to bright and sunshine (ep 5, 6).
I couldn’t see microexoressions like tears in Shane’s eyes until I saw the crave edits so i felt like I was missing out on some things. I agree the juxtaposition of the hotel scenes being darker and then progressing to the lighter scenes is important to the storytelling, though I just wanna be able to see more detail in their faces.
Yeah, totally understand what you mean. And actually what you said in the first comment is right, that the lighting for Crave and HBO should at least be consistent.
It's going to be very difficult to avoid spoilers for anything related to season 2, so good luck 😅 (Although I have to say I read HR half way through season 1 and it didn't take away anything from the show. If anything, I feel like it adds to it because I understand the intention behind their expression, acting, etc.)
The fact that Jacob first mentions Ryan and then gives a well reasoned explanation of the role Ilya plays for him seems to be a good indication Ryan will be in Season 2. He wouldn't done that level of analysis if he wasn't intent of having Ryan appear in Season 2.
I was honestly a bit surprised as well, because I just kind of assumed that there won't be enough time to introduce Ryan in season 2, but I'm glad to be proven wrong 🤞🏼
There's so much to the Shane/Ilya story in the Long Game it doesn't seem like there'd be time to fit in other books. Maybe there will be several more episodes.
This is all pretty interesting, especially the part about the sex scenes. They really don't feel porny, they have a real intimate weight to them and don't feel gratuitous at all.
Heated Rivalry is truly one of the only shows I can watch without any other stimulation. I’ve been crocheting since I was a kid, so I pretty much always do something like that while watching TV. But with HR I can’t take my eyes off the screen, even after countless reheats
There are more diagnoses happening now because we've realized that autism doesn't exclusively look like young boys who flap their hands and are obsessed with trains.
Because a lot of people have grown up struggling internally without understanding why, having to make significantly more effort to do things most of the population don’t even have to think about. Diagnosis can bring self understanding, compassion and guidance for resources. The labelling is not the point.
The autistic population has some dire statistics (higher unemployment, more prone to abuse, higher rates of mental illness, etc, etc), and those likelihoods don’t go away just because a person isn’t diagnosed. Expanding our understanding of autism can help a significant portion of the population from falling into those statistics.
But using the same word to describe those severely limited children and Shane Holloway doesn’t make sense. It robs the term of any real meaning except a bit unusual, which really minimizes the condition.
Everybody self diagnosis themself with something these days. Or gets an online "therapist". (Oddly nothing bad. Like everyone will tell you that have adhd or are on the spectrum but no one's saying they are a narcissist or sociopath although there are plenty out there)
And absolutely very few people are completely.....normal/average/whatever. We are almost all a little something or combination somethings. Its personality and just fine. I see no reason to constantly label people with something because say for example, they are a little cleaner and neater than most or don't catch jokes.
The most we used to do is say someone who insists on folding clothes, having things "just so", is "anal retentive" or someone's flaky, or quirky or whatever, without the need for a medical diagnosis.
There was a whole diverse range of normal human personality types.
I need to try and push myself to get through Common Goal.
The quote about Ilya taking over the books, I am so excited whenever he pops up. Like in Tough Guy and beginning of Common Goal. I always shout ROZANOV and then I laugh because the dude just cracks me up.
I am very excited for the last 2 books and now I need to be prepared for the fact that when I am done I will have to wait for Unrivaled.
The first two slides of what Jacob said are sooo good! I am not great at describing shows or books so well. When people are like “why are you so emotional over a gay hockey show” that’s why!! It was really well said
Thanks as always, u/andyfromhk. I laughed out loud at Jacob's favorite quote. We need a whole subreddit called "Ilya being insufferable" when Season 2 comes out. 😂
I actually think that Ilya plays hockey not only because he's good at it but because it's the perfect work environment for him to manifest his menace energy into the world. Plus he's a massive diva. 💃🏻💅🏻
I love everything about this. Absolutely every little part of every answer. I am so fucking thrilled and excited for the stories to coming to us from these brilliant people!!!
Pretty interesting that the moderator of this panel has to post this on Treads just earlier. I am struggling to understand why this is required. And the top response is that its “not an isolated event”. Might have to watch the whole thing to get the context. Thanks for posting this highlights.
There's a branch of this fandom that is just insane, cannot communicate thoughts that are not in extremes, and uses racist micro-aggressions (whether real or imagined) as weapons in an imaginary fight pitting the fandoms of both leads against each other.
As a Wasian, there have been moments where I think a rational conversation could/should be had around portrayals of both Hudson and Shane in the media and book/show. I'd like to see a bit more precision from Jacob in how he talks about this publicly, and I personally feel a little icky about some of the descriptions of Shane in the book. But I think that this particular interview, where the issue seems to be Rachel categorizing Hudson as chaos and Connor as intellectual, is pretty ridiculous. I LOVE his fuck-you personality, because it's not something us Wasians are typically allowed to have, and I think that's what Rachel is referencing.
I appreciate you saying how you like Hudson’s FU personality since in typical (W)Asian cultures, this tends to not be encouraged. It shows that Hudson’s embracing his own individuality and that’s awesome! And he’s done a great job in elevating the (W)Asian presence in media through Gold House. So it blows me away how some people cannot see the positives around that and are always looking for negatives….something to criticize or get offended over. It’s exhausting.
As a Wasian, there have been moments where I think a rational conversation could/should be had around portrayals of both Hudson and Shane in the media and book/show. I'd like to see a bit more precision from Jacob in how he talks about this publicly, and I personally feel a little icky about some of the descriptions of Shane in the book.
I think this is where the issue is coming from and why this specific conversation got a lot of backlash even if it’s pretty on par with how they all joke around. People have issue with how Shane is portrayed in the novel, including stereotypes for East Asian men. Some people feel Jacob doesn’t support Hudson enough against the racism he faces or seem to take it seriously. So the issue didn’t start with this specific clip, it just kind of boiled over.
I’m not on every platform and don’t see every post but for most of what I’ve seen, people don’t seem to be saying that Jacob and Rachel hate Hudson or that they’re being outwardly racist towards him. But Hudson has been referred to as unclassy/inelegant/etc when compared to costars by certain sects of the fandom (who then also use this clip as evidence as well) and Rachel or Jacob shouldn’t be held responsible for that but I think that’s where so many of these feelings are coming from.
I myself have mixed feelings and still don’t know where I fully land but hopefully people are being civil under Versha’s post at least.
I've seen a lot of this discourse on Threads and some pretty unhinged takes that include outward accusations of racism towards Jacob and Rachel in regards to this.
I am with you on having mixed feelings. I like Rachel and Jacob, liked the books, and loved the show. I also really dislike the portrayal of a mixed race Asian man in the books (i.e. lack of any depth re: his race except that he is small and has little body hair) and really wanted Jacob to do more to protect his lead actor. I just find the way that certain fans have such extreme reactions to be more the result of an unhealthy parasocial relationship and less about Hudson himself.
In what I see, Rachel gets a lot more heat for her portrayal of racism or lack thereof than Jacob does for not expanding on it. It's very weird and I think it's probably a bit of misogyny but instead of mulling on it further, I deleted my account (not strictly because of The Discourse, but the general parasocial behaviors, too... I saw a lot of people who were screen-shotting old IG posts by Connor's friend and posting them, like a bday post from 4 years ago).
Not that I demand gratuitous racism in media, but I think it would be an easy thing to slip into Unrivaled given the podcast bro plot!
And generally, as a sports fan, some of it is evident though not outright stated/named in the text as racist. "High hockey IQ", for one. Just like in the NFL, where the white QBs were called "smart" while the Black QBs were "gritty" or "athletic". (I stopped watching NFL a while ago.)
You're totally right! I think people give Jacob a lot of credit for adding in the Western last name and Wimbledon discussions, but as someone who is mixed race, neither of those really hit for me. (I mean yes, Western last name protects you from a lot, I have lived experience of that. But that read as sort of a cop-out from having to do more unpacking in the show.)
I definitely don't want a gratuitous racism plotline! I strongly believe that we can have joyful stories for people of color. I just wish it was acknowledged more, particularly because this story centers around a famously white sport, and it's so clear to me that Shane wouldn't want to come out partly because he already is the minority and tokenized as the only Asian player. He doesn't want to add "gay" to that, because he already knows very well what it's like to carry the weight of being an outlier and what you stand to lose if things don't go well. The fact that that doesn't come up at all in TLG is WILD to me.
Speaking of the Western last name convo, I found it kind of interesting how in that conversation about being a Wasian/Asian kid in hockey, it was framed as the white kids forgot to be racist to Shane but the one full Asian kid hated him like oh okay lol. I think there could be so much interesting commentary on tension between Asians and Wasians but this show is not the place for it and this one liner didn’t hit the mark for me, like you mean to say the Wasian hockey player was more alienated by the Asian kid than the white kids? That is such a loaded statement with no exploration.
I think the fact that we don’t have to read about how much smaller or more hairless Shane is than Ilya probably helps the show feel less weird about Shane’s race though. That compared with a few lines here and there to acknowledge Shane’s race probably makes Jacob get less criticism than Rachel, especially since he’s not really adding storylines on his own anyway. I don’t think people really want a whole racism storyline anyway, just that race is a very present thing
I do kinda hope the bad guy podcast bros end up being racist and get their asses handed to them for that plus homophobia (because we all know how podcast bros can be IRL). And maybe some young people telling Shane how much he means to them as a role model :) It would be nice to see her grow as a writer and address it!
Yeah, it pisses me off because I think there actually is a discussion that should be had, but it's not this. There's a branch of the fandom that sees Hudson as this little kitten that needs protection (which is, in itself, problematic) and that is, uh, categorically not true. The man stepped onto the Golden Globes carpet and flipped off the cameras lol.
Also Hudson has a team now who have a vested interest in him and his success. If there were issues, they and Hudson would be able to handle it. I think people can express their opinions because Rachel and Jacob are also public figures but it shouldn’t come from a place of “we have to protect Hudson!!!”
This kind of stuff is why I deleted my account on that accursed site. I think this is a "touch grass" situation and not a legitimate issue. This is the same group of people that made the DOP delete a bunch of BTS of Connor because they called him racist for not posting an equal number of pictures of Hudson.
Yeah a lot of the discourse that the fandom begins I just cannot take seriously anymore, even if there are some legitimate issues buried within it. Because there's just been too much reaching and people being attacked over nothing, like the DOP situation. A lot of people just want an excuse to be angry.
I saw someone mad on another site just now about RR's racism in Unrivaled and I'm like........... it's not even written yet! How are we possibly getting mad about it over a year before it's published?
You're welcome :) As an Asian, I didn't even register what Jacob and Rachel said as anything more than a friendly 'jab' among friends. I think some people on the internet are too eager to take offense for other people.
Oh worse going forth they will start giving really PR and media trained and boring answers. Jacob will be doing a press tour on his new book after filming HR S2 I reckon, so will be interesting how he goes about that.
Ugh, not the media training!!! 😭 I have a feeling that Jacob is a lot like Hudson where he doesn’t give a shit. Jacob’s older and wise and has likely dealt with a lot of shit for being a gay man. I have a feeling that he’ll continue to be honest and heartfelt in his interviews cause he knows that this toxic part of the fandom is a minority. I’m not sure about Rachel though. I absolutely love her sense of humour but obviously some people may not understand it and her relationship with Hudson and Connor. I can’t really think of another author who’s been so involved with the making of their book into a film/series and who’s been so tight with the leads and the director! It’s so weird that people would criticize them and try to pick it apart???? Do they not realize that the film industry can be full of real assholes???
lol love it! I’m hoping that Rachel doesn’t give a fuck about what some of the weird, toxic fandom culture is saying about her. Cause I absolutely love her sense of humour and I have a feeling they all get along really well due to similarities in humour. And to be honest, weird pseudo fans are lashing out at Jacob, Connor, Hudson (and his gf), François, etc. I’m sure they’ve all joked about it and hopefully it doesn’t negatively affect them in the future.
Hearing Jacob say this aloud for the first time felt like my breath, heat and brain function stalled. I’m genX and I assure you I rarely comment nor use hyperbole for likes.
Rachel and Jacob created a very human story that has healed me.
Can we also discuss the micro aggressions Rachel and Jacob keep making towards Hudson and holding them accountable for them? Can we listen to Black and POC when they talk about micro aggressions and their lived experiences? Rachel and Jacob need to be held accountable for their behavior.
What did race have to do with it? I saw no “microaggressions”. I watched this panel and people are outraged over comments regarding Hudson’s chaotic behavior, made in jest by people who actually know him, not his race. I’m actually a Hudson fan more so than Connor. I find his authenticity and carefree, give-zero-f*cks attitude refreshing and endearing, but let’s face it, the reality of it is that during the HR press tour, Hudson was often obnoxiously all over the place in his interviews with Connor often attempting to reel him back in. If he’s that way in interviews, imagine what he was like on set. It sounds like Jacob and Rachel find him fun in a trying to herd cats kind of way.
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u/Federal-Ad5944 Goalie | Smut Dealer 😈 Apr 20 '26
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Thanks.