The Canadian drama is a phenomenon across the Atlantic. Finally, it’s available to watch in the UK
It’s always frustrating when a TV show is a huge hit across the Atlantic, but we have no way of watching it in the UK. For months I have read articles and listened to podcasts hyping Heated Rivalry, a Canadian series about two ice hockey players who publicly hate each other but are shagging behind closed hotel doors. A lot.
I’ll be honest, it didn’t sound great. Based on a romance book by Rachel Reid – the kind with cartoon characters on the front and several sequels – Heated Rivalry has all the hallmarks of a cheesy soft porn masquerading as a TV drama. And, let’s be honest, who really cares about ice hockey? But when it finally arrived on Now last Saturday, I gave it a chance… and ended up watching the entire series in one enraptured afternoon.
The series’ main characters are Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two rookie hockey stars – the former from Canada, the latter from Russia – who exchange hard stares and even harder words when they face each other on the ice. The stage is quickly set for a classic enemies-to-lovers storyline when their dynamic changes in the post-match showers.
The sex isn’t exactly graphic – the nudity only goes as far as showing Shane and Ilya’s (extremely impressive) bare bottoms. But there is a hell of a lot of it (“are these two at it again?!” exclaimed my boyfriend as he wandered through the living room). In fact, there are a total of 14 sex scenes across the six episodes, which averages out to around two or three per episode. Sex sells, as we all know, and that fact will be enough to attract an audience.
According to the online chatter, most of those people are straight women (guilty). The reason is simple: most heterosexual sex scenes are directed by straight men, so, more often than not, female sexuality on screen is all about male fantasies and can feel a little unrealistic to women. But having a gay man, Jacob Tierney, in charge of Heated Rivalry’s heated moments lends realism – and emotion – to the sex. While Shane and Ilya won’t admit it, we know they are falling in love through their intimacy, which changes from plain old shagging to making love.
The fact that this is sex between two sportsmen isn’t simply incidental. Both Shane and Ilya keep their trysts a secret because there are no other gay hockey players who are out to the public – there is no precedent for how their fans, their teams, and their corporate sponsors will react to their sexuality. That Ilya’s home country isn’t safe for gay people only adds to his need to keep who he really is under wraps.
That’s as far as the misery goes, however. Unlike other dramas about gay men, from series like It’s a Sin and Pose to films like Moonlight and Call Me by Your Name – the only tragedy in Heated Rivalry is that it takes so long for Shane and Ilya to admit that they are in love with one another. There are no Aids scares, very little homophobia, no abuse. Yet this is no saccharine series akin to Heartstopper – whether on the ice or in Ilya’s king size hotel bed, there is real grit here.
Those who do tune in for the sex might be surprised by just how emotionally invested they become. Episode three is a real turning point, taking us away from the central love story into the world of another secretly gay hockey star who falls in love with a guy who works in a smoothie café. The conclusion of their side-story is one of the most joyous, life-affirming scenes I’ve seen in any TV series.
Yes, there are questions over whether the legions of straight women watching are fetishising gay sex. And there’s the issue of representation, given that we don’t know the real-life sexuality of the actors (though Tierney has shut down such conversation as “irrelevant”, saying, “You can’t ask questions like that when you’re casting, right? It’s actually against the law”.).
But I encourage everyone to give Heated Rivalry the chance it deserves and judge it for what it really is: a sexy, feel-good love story starring two incredibly hot men.
‘Heated Rivalry’ is streaming on Now
