Mal: He calls back, you keep them occupied. Wash: What do I do, shadow puppets?

'The Message'


Premium Cable: The Cursing Costs Extra

[NAFDA] A thread for the discussion of all original programming on HBO, Showtime, Starz and other premium channels.

This is NOT a general TV discussion thread.


Hil R. - Dec 29, 2025 10:13:56 pm PST #7397 of 7418
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

And they're getting hundreds of kudos and comments within a couple hours of being posted.


Hil R. - Jan 02, 2026 10:04:57 pm PST #7398 of 7418
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

I swear, I've seen about a hundred "You can tell Heated Rivalry was written by a woman because..." takes in the past few weeks, and not a single one of them has made any sense. And a lot of them contradict each other. (And one of them led to me discussing fandom history with someone who linked to TV Tropes to explain something, which is how I just discovered that TV Tropes treats "ho yay" as a term from "the old days" whose origin is lost to the mists of time, and I just noped out of that conversation because I just couldn't.)


Jessica - Jan 03, 2026 9:07:44 am PST #7399 of 7418
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

which is how I just discovered that TV Tropes treats "ho yay" as a term from "the old days" whose origin is lost to the mists of time

INSERT STANDARD TVTROPES REACTION HERE BUT, LIKE, EVEN WORSE BECAUSE OMGWHAT

IME all of the "tells" between men and women romance writers disappear once the overall quality of the writing rises above a certain bar, which Reid's does.


Matt the Bruins fan - Jan 03, 2026 9:20:00 am PST #7400 of 7418
Oh honey, the mentally unwell people have been in the fanbase since Game Changers was Stucky fanfiction on the internet. The calls have been coming from inside the house the whole time!

I will say that the one bit I've read so far, the "My dinner with Hayden" short story, seemed to employ slash fiction clichés I read on livejournal back in the late 2000s and 2010s. The best friend raising outraged objections to the main character's choice of partner as if he could argue him out of his relationship, one member of the couple using "pervert" as an ironic endearment during foreplay, etc. I don't know that those are specific to being written by a woman so much as arising from slash fiction culture. Which is where the stories started if I understand correctly, Heated Rivalry having originated as Sidney Crosby/Alex Ovechkin RPF and Game Changers as a Steve/Bucky AU on AO3.

That was a concern of mine when starting the show, but if the novels use a lot of those tells Tierney and the production have done a good job of removing them in the adaptation.


-t - Jan 03, 2026 9:23:09 am PST #7401 of 7418
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I just noped out of that conversation because I just couldn't.

Wow. I didn’t think I could get madder about that


meara - Jan 08, 2026 9:51:50 am PST #7402 of 7418

A gay male friend of mine noted on Facebook that he’s obsessed with HR, and I agreed, and he told me his local friends are not (!!) so I agreed to be his crack dealer. I sent him a ton of TikTok edits and he’s reading the books currently so I sent him some fanfics but told him most of them I can’t send until he’s finished the books currently and he was like “wait, what’s AO3?” And I was all “oh you sweet summer child…the crack awaits you”


-t - Jan 08, 2026 10:56:38 am PST #7403 of 7418
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Mwahahaha


Hil R. - Jan 09, 2026 4:06:24 pm PST #7404 of 7418
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

Question for people who watched season 1 of The Pitt: I'm extremely phobic of rats, and I couldn't watch the first season because of that. Was that thing resolved within the first season, or do I still need to be cautious?


DebetEsse - Jan 09, 2026 6:07:32 pm PST #7405 of 7418
Woe to the fucking wicked.

I would assume that plotline was resolved, but have not seen the premiere


-t - Jan 09, 2026 7:37:50 pm PST #7406 of 7418
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I think it was resolved but I can’t remember exactly how, so not 100% confident. There’s none in this episode.

Man, I remembered there was emotional trauma but forgot about all the injuries and such onscreen. Much flinching