All the way back in May, one of the breakout hits at Cannes was Jordan Firstman’s dramedy Club Kid, about a gay scenester lost in a haze of drugs and sex who has to get his act together when a child show up on his doorstep. Funny, sweet, and crisply tailored, Club Kid ought to be a critical highlight of the fall (if not a box office sensation). Though, another bit of filmed entertainment about a party-happy gay guy trying to take care of a child has kind of beaten Firstman to the wide-release punch. 

Proud is a Polish series that debuted on HBO Max last month, and like Club Kid it finds its heedless protagonist suddenly forced to heed the needs of a little one, and those of a bureaucracy that seeks to protect children. There are differences here—Warsaw instead of New York, a death in the family instead of a random hookup resulting in a pregnancy, the lead isn’t loathed by half of gay twitter (as far as I’m aware)—but the premises are similar enough that it does feel like the wind has been snatched from Club Kid’s sails just a little bit. 

Though, let’s not flatter American audiences by asserting that a Polish-language series about a gay model trying to adopt a baby could become the next Heated Rivalry. This series, which has aired four episodes so far, is likely to remain on the fringes, beloved by a few and, perhaps, resented by others. It’s just not as compellingly soapy as Heated Rivalry, or excitingly splashy as Club Kid. But it does have its merits! 

If you’re interested in the series, I would recommend sending your computer or smart TV or whatever on a little journey to Poland, via VPN, because all that’s available on American HBO Max is a really grating dubbed version. Which I know is a bit of an ask for a lot of you—I really only learned how to use a VPN a few months ago, and I often forget to turn it off after I’ve used it, so all of a sudden I’m looking at weird French YouTube videos and have no idea why. But that little bit of work is worth it, I think. The series has an inviting pull, doing just enough variation on convention to register as something new.