Gary Direnfeld

They are not hard on the eyes, I will say this.

Now, at the risk of bringing, like, a conversation up from the last 15 years ago, I want to bring up another gay romance I saw many years ago, Brokeback Mountain.

That movie was littered with sadness.

One of the characters dies.

There's a lot of, like, heavy negative elements.

What I was so struck by was the sheer amount of joy in heated rivalry.

It's not that there aren't some negative, you know, traumatic elements there, but predominantly it's...

Quite a wholesome show.

And I think a narrative like that is something that I hadn't really seen.

I'm sure there are other shows and movies like that.

But talk to me about this.

Why it doesn't seem to be so common to just have a straightforward, joyful portrayal of gay romance on TV or in film.

Yeah, and to put it lightly, hockey culture leans slightly macho, I might say.

You have done some research in the area of masculinity and vulnerability.

Emotional vulnerability is not something I've often seen portrayed in hockey players, like real NHL hockey players.

These themes come up in the show, though.

It's kind of striking that in that context of this hyper masculine macho sports culture, there can be true vulnerability and sweet vulnerability.

What do you

make of all that?

Yeah, his friend that he comes out to is the same actress from Yellow Jackets where she plays like a young sociopathic teen.