‘Heated Rivalry’ is the Show the Gays Deserve

You mean there’s hot sex, slow burn romance, explorations of institutionalized homophobia AND a happy ending?!

Let me set a scene for you: it’s a snowy Saturday-after-Thanksgiving in Madison, Wis., the day I was supposed to travel back to the Twin Cities had my bus not been canceled. Instead, I’m staying at my twin sibling’s apartment, which they share with our childhood friend and their long-term partner. The four of us sit down, mugs of hot chocolate in hand, to watch “the gay hockey show.”

That show, of course, is “Heated Rivalry,” HBO’s spicy sports drama that explores the secret relationship between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, who play on rival teams in Major League Hockey, their fictional universe’s top hockey league.

Now, my sibling and I have been watching hockey for years, and we have long understood that it is, in fact, the gayest sport, but even our non-sports-watching friends were engrossed.

That’s not even the half of it, either. After watching the first season in its entirety, I can safely say that “Heated Rivalry” is the show that gay people have always wanted and always deserved.

Sex certainly shapes the queer experience — anything you feel like you have to hide inevitably colors how you see and navigate the world — but any queer person will tell you it’s not the be-all-end-all. “Heated Rivalry” sets the bar high for queer media going forward because it lets its romantic leads fall in love after hooking up for a decade.

As creator-writer-director Jacob Tierney told The Washington Post, “In the land of people who are like, ‘Well, you know, you catch feelings, and then eventually you make love,’ I’m like, ‘Okay Mother Superior, not us. That’s not how we do it.’”

The sex itself isn’t overzealous or forced, either. The chemistry and trust between stars Hudson Williams (Hollander) and Connor Storrie (Rozanov) is palpable, and the scenes they create are hot and tender enough to make any flavor of queer person yearn, not just gay men.

The show’s context being professional sports, particularly hockey, adds another layer of complexity given the toxic masculinity and homophobia entrenched in those cultures. In an episode that zooms out from Shane and Ilya, we follow a veteran player (the in-universe equivalent of, say, Sidney Crosby) navigate a relationship while closeted. There’s something truly powerful about seeing two conventionally attractive, archetypally masculine men be physically intimate with each other; a highlighting of how culture tacitly shapes our expectations of who people can and cannot be.

After all, Rachel Reid, author of the “Game Changers” book series, the show’s source material, wrote the books as a way to reckon with hockey’s homophobia problem, per The Washington Post.

Not only does the story explore sexuality, identity and the cultural arena of sport in thoughtful and engaging ways, but that story is acted out spectacularly. Tierney has said that Williams and Storrie were cast in part due to their chemistry, and both actors give masterclasses together and separately. They embody the intense dynamic of two people who each possess qualities that the other lacks, but who also bring out sides of each other that no one else sees.

Storrie in particular stands out with an impeccable Russian accent and delivery of Russian lines, not to mention the comedic relief brought by Rozanov’s dry, diva personality that masks immense pain and heart.

Chemistry is palpable throughout the cast, from Hollander and his parents to Rozanov and his best friend with occasional benefits, Svetlana. (That’s right, this show has non-monogamy, too!)

If the promise of a complex story and stellar acting still hasn’t sold you, I’ll just say this: “Heated Rivalry” is straight-up beautiful. On-point cinematography contributes to lush, immersive scenes polished with a score that includes love ballads and club bangers alike.

The show’s hockey footage is particularly impressive. The scoreboards on clips of live game broadcasts feel authentic to late 2000s to early/mid 2010s NHL broadcasts, and the arenas where games take place look and feel real. Once again, Storrie and Williams dedicated themselves fully to recreating authentic hockey play.

The only issue I have with the hockey scenes, and probably the whole show, is the Olipop ads plastered on the boards in scenes from 2014, when the prebiotic soda first came out in 2018 and the show ends in 2017.

Williams recently shared that closeted professional athletes have reached out to him, sharing how much “Heated Rivalry” resonated with them, per Them.us. Paired with the fact that there have never been any out gay players in the National Hockey League, the show’s potential impact becomes even clearer.

Without giving too much away, perhaps the biggest reason why “Heated Rivalry” is the show gay people deserve is its happy ending. Relationships flourish, no one dies or has violence done against them, and no one is ostracized. Indeed, there are moments of pain, anguish and anticipation that will tie your stomach in knots, but our heroes quite literally ride into the sunset together in the end.

Call it unrealistic, but while suffering is a real dimension of the queer experience, so is joy, and everyone, even hockey players, deserves to experience it.