Seventh Row Podcast

The best directed TV show of 2025 is a queer hockey romance from Canada called Heated Rivalry. And like the rest of the internet, host Alex Heeney has become quite a fan.  But she's been thinking a lot about what makes it good and what has made it popular, and how those two things definitely intersect, but the Venn diagram isn't just a circle.  So on today's episode, Alex talks about why she, too, was very excited for the cottage, why the show is hitting in this cultural moment, what still felt lacking — and how all of that sent her to rewatch Looking, a very different kind of show, to get the hit she was really craving. 👉 Want to watch/rewatch Looking with Alex and a small group this spring? Get on the waitlist here: http://email.seventh-row.com/looking  

Early screenings of Chloé Zhao's Hamnet had critics weeping in the aisles Host Alex Heeney left it dry-eyed — and so did her guest, Angelo Muredda. We're Shakespeare fans, long-time film critics, and not exactly immune to a good cry — so in this episode, we try to figure out why the film didn't land. We dig into what works in the film (a short list) and what doesn't (a longer one), where the adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel went awry, and whether having read a synopsis of Hamlet on Wikipedia might actually impede your enjoyment of the film. 👉 Stay updated on Alex's next group experiences Related Episodes 169. David Cronenberg's The Shrouds with Angelo Muredda 132. Sarah Polley's Women Talking with Angelo Muredda 159. Macbeth with David Tennant

This Tuesday, October 28, I'm hosting The Short Take — a free, one-time-only live workshop for film lovers who want to watch and think together. We'll watch an award-winning 22-minute short from 2017 that looks at queer history — and who gets to tell it. It's a film I haven't stopped thinking about in the last 8 years. Then, we'll rewatch key scenes and unpack how the film's form (e.g. blocking, shot choice, editing, production design, and more) shapes what it makes us feel. 🗓️ When: Tuesday, Oct 29 → 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT / 7 PM Europe 💡 More info on The Short Take 🎟️ Register free (no replay)   

What if the most powerful insights about a film don't come from watching it alone — but from talking it through with curious people who notice what you missed, and help you turn half-formed thoughts into something deeper? In this episode, I share why I built The Long Take — A space for deep, layered, perspective-shifting conversations about film — and how a spirit of collaboration, attention, and trust can transform how we see movies…and ourselves We kick off Nov 2 with a zero-prep welcome session. 👉 Save your seat

How can a film with a queer protagonist, written by a queer playwright, and directed by a queer man… not be a queer film? That's the tricky question I'm tackling with The Choral, the WWI period drama that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In this episode: my Ralph Fiennes/Nicholas Hytner fangirling, why the film works as a crowd-pleaser but flattens queerness and other marginalized identities, and the bigger questions it raises about reclaiming — or sanitizing — queer history. 🎟 Plus, a sneak peek at Living Out Loud, my FREE three-day summit on queer and trans storytelling happening Oct 3–5. 👉 Sign up for Living Out Loud