The sizzling phenomenon has landed in the Czech Republic. Starting February 6th, it's available on HBO Max.
I thought Heated Rivalry wouldn’t be my thing. I'm not really into romance and I've got gaps in even the most classic rom-coms. I've never watched Sex and the City and I'd always choose The Fellowship over Twilight in any situation. I'm not even into hockey.
I started watching the first episode out of curiosity – what’s everyone talking about? I planned to move on to the second season of Fallout. Little did she know...
Just briefly. Heated Rivalry is about a Canadian hockey superstar, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), starting his career with the Montreal team. The media and industry insiders immediately compare him to Ilija Rozanov (Connor Storrie), a Russian guy living in the USA, dazzling with his aggressive talent on the Boston team. And coincidentally, Boston and Montreal are sworn rivals.
Hardworking and diligent Shane is a sensitive guy on the spectrum. Meanwhile, Rozanov enjoys his fame, radiates confidence, and arrogance, has a womanizer reputation, and dislikes following rules. At their first meeting, Rozanov is icily cold to Hollander. But soon after, in the showers post-game, he openly shows sexual interest in him. The plot revolves around a dangerous secret and the tension between two strong but starkly different personalities.
Better than Elordi
It's understandable why a show featuring prominent male bodies and male nudity attracts a lot of female viewers, especially when it involves attractive young athletes. But if the charm of a hockey love story was only about showing off nudity, sex, and attractive heroes, then Bridgerton or anything with Jacob Elordi would automatically get the same hype. Heated Rivalry has been making headlines for some weeks now, much like the fourth season of Bridgerton, but its global impact seems unmatched. Check out these stats:
- “How to date a hockey player” was one of the most Googled queries in the USA in January.
- Interest in Boston hockey jerseys was the highest in December in the last five years.
- There was a spike in hockey-related content searches on PornHub, with an increase of 273% among women and 148% among men.
- The search term “hockey gay” increased by 2120%.
- Shane and Ilija have become symbols of defiance against the regime in Russia. On the Russian database Kinopoisk, Rivalry is rated higher than Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, despite being illegal in Russia. The fanbase gathers in secret Telegram groups with up to 45,000 members.
According to Lucie Krejčová from the National Institute of Mental Health, who specializes in female sexuality, there’s a clear reason for the popularity of queer romance among women. “In movies or series, women look a certain way, behave a certain way, and experience sexuality in line with the ideals of the era. This leads many women to automatically compare themselves to these images. This element disappears in stories about relationships between two men,” she explains.
“Women aren’t subjected to implicit comparisons with the ideal of female attractiveness or expectations of how they should ‘properly’ behave or react sexually. For many women, this can be liberating. They can experience excitement without self-control, shame, or fear of judgment,” Krejčová concludes. Queer love stories simply offer a view without patriarchal ideals trying to mold women to their image. It’s liberating.
The demands that popular culture constantly throws at girls and women – the stereotype of the good girl who should elevate her social status through marriage, but only if she wins the groom with her perseverance, obedience, and captivating appearance – are absent in the hockey romance.
Relatable Queer Characters
I asked the community why the show is so popular with the queer audience. According to Slávek, who’s watched the series three times, the explicitness worked, but there’s something deeper behind its success.
“Many people said they first saw these two really handsome guys in sexual scenes and thought, ‘wow, this is wild’. Because most queer series like Heartstopper, Young Royals, or movies like Red, White & Royal Blue and Call Me By Your Name aren’t very sexual. Here, it felt completely freaky and it exploded on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter – where it’s extremely popular. Everyone shared it. After two episodes, the story became very personal for many people. A really good hook worked and then a good story followed,” says Slávek, possibly the biggest Heated Rivalry expert in our country.
“I think every queer person experiencing a coming out or still living in a closet can immediately relate. Shane and Ilija are very different, but both are professional hockey players and can’t come out because it would somehow ruin their careers. Many queer people living in societies where being queer is not well accepted can resonate with that,” he explains.
Another factor, according to Slávek, is something like fatigue with tragic endings. “Almost all queer stories end badly, like Call Me By Your Name. Here we finally get a good ending, and people appreciate that.”
The Courage to Do It Differently
Canadian director and screenwriter Jacob Tierney discovered the Game Changers book series by Rachel Reid, a fellow Canadian author, during the pandemic. “I was immediately drawn in. And not ironically, not as a guilty pleasure. I admired the storytelling. It was extremely sexy, funny, and touching at the same time,” he shares in an interview with Toronto Life. Being queer himself, he was able to handle the visual representation of the relationship sensitively and from the right angle. When the series landed on the Canadian streaming platform Crave on November 28, within three weeks, its viewership increased by 400%.
Heated Rivalry presents a classic forbidden love story without clichés, depicting characters with lots of layers in incredible detail, believably, personally, confidently. The hook in the form of perfectly executed storytelling worked on me. One mysterious dialogue, a catchy soundtrack, and dynamic editing did the trick, and within a minute, I wanted to know how this would all end. It’s not a shallow “smut” like 50 Shades. It has refined dialogues, emotional charge sparking with chemistry, and a balanced script that doesn’t drown in sentiment, leaving many things unsaid.
No Extra Minute of Screen Time
Tierney reached craftsmanship and storytelling quality because he stood against Hollywood tendencies to squeeze the maximum streaming hours out of every story. At a time when actors complain about how shallow modern scripts have become due to Netflix and co., it’s an exceptional vision and perhaps even a cure. He’s not planning seven spin-offs like Game of Thrones, and he respects the fanbase of the original book series, unlike the creators of The Witcher. “I don’t need to make ten episodes. Six is enough, I’d rather tighten my belt than stretch the story until it loses its momentum,” he reveals.
He plans the second season of the hockey phenomenon with the same logic – again with six episodes. Filming will start in May, and viewers will likely turn on the continuation in spring 2027. “We want everyone dying with anticipation. That's what the show is all about,” producer Brendan Brady shares.
