I didn’t expect to love Heated Rivalry, then I pressed play on my Sky remote and realised why this gay ice hockey drama has everyone — midlifers included — 100% hooked.
I’d read all about it, clocked the pictures of the lead actors living their best "oh my god, we’re famous!" lives at the Golden Globes, and friends kept telling me I had to see it, but I still couldn’t get my head around why Heated Rivalry was causing such a fuss on my social media feeds. It couldn’t be that good. Could it?
Having not fully recovered from the horror of watching Saltburn with my parents (I still wear the grave scene like a tattoo), I can’t explain the relief I felt that I didn’t make the same mistake with Heated Rivalry.
Instead, I viewed it with one my oldest friends, Clare, who admitted halfway through the first episode that she was finding it “both educational and very tingly.”
I hadn’t told Clare what the show was about. She’s not big on pop culture so she was expecting something akin to Rivals. What she got was the story of an extremely steamy gay romance between two closeted world-class ice hockey players, Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander.
As the two best players in the world playing for opposing teams, they’re supposed to hate one another, only they don’t seem to be able to stop taking each other’s clothes off.
Shane is sweet, sexually inexperienced and hails from a stable Canadian family, while on the other end of the spectrum we have the sexually fluid, exceptionally charming, and completely messed-up Russian party boy, Ilya Rozanov (grrr).
The series follows Shane and Ilya’s complex dynamic over several years, and the ‘will they, won’t they’ storyline is intoxicating. There are also several sub-plots that are equally as easy to get invested in.
On a shallower note, the cast are bordering on offensively good looking. I imagine I wasn’t the only viewer with one eye on the TV and the other on Google, researching their back stories, dating histories and cereal preferences.
Heated Rivalry has gone down a storm with Gen Z, and TikTok is ablaze with memes and fan videos. I should know - I’ve watched most of them.
The surprise audience has been us midlifers (including Sex and the City's Kristin Davis!), which has led to all manner of think pieces about how it’s being lapped up by middle-aged “wine moms” in boring marriages looking for a thrill. There’s even been speculation about women seeing it as a “safe space” because the focus is solely on men. Seriously.
As the kids say, it’s not that deep. It just happens to be joyfully erotic watching beautiful men exploring each other’s perfectly carved, sweaty bodies against the backdrop of a tender, romantic storyline. Yes, it’s escapism, but isn’t that what TV is for? Its compulsive appeal has got nothing to do with age, gender or sexual preference, and it’s lazy to suggest that women of a certain age are watching it for different reasons than anyone else.
Same-sex romances aren’t new to either the big or small screen, but for some reason, Heated Rivalry hits differently.
The not-insubstantial number of sex scenes range from romantic and sensual to downright filth, but somehow don't feel overly done or completely gratuitous (there isn’t a penis in sight, but we’ve got imaginations).
Crucially, it doesn’t go in all guns blazing with cliches. I asked several of my queer friends to check from their POV and they all agreed. Even when things veer briefly into Fifty Shades of Grey territory during the very ‘moving’ penthouse scene (thank god for rewind buttons), they pull it off (as it were) thanks to the lightness of touch, tenderness and emphasis on consent that runs throughout Shane and Ilya’s relationship.
The show’s success isn’t down to glossy production values (the crowd scenes are visibly sparse in places), a superstar cast (the only recognisable actor is Dylan Walsh from Nip/Tuck), or backing from a big-name studio. It was initially due to be picked up by a major US streaming service, but after they tried to implement a ‘no kissing until episode 5’ rule (sigh), the show’s writer and director, Jacob Tierney, chose to film it with smaller, but less repressed, Canadian streamer Crave instead.
We are eternally grateful to both Hollywood’s stupidity and Jacob’s bravery, because it’s hard to imagine the series playing out any other way.
It’s been labelled "the sexiest drama on TV", and it bloody is. But it also cracks you open in ways you don’t expect. It’s emotive, makes you laugh and cry (sometimes at the same time), and leaves you feeling hopeful about romance and in love with love.
My friend Kay (whose mate has watched the series an impressive five times so far) summed it up perfectly: “It’s like Romeo and Juliet - well, Romeo and Romeo - without the depressing ending. It’s just… so f***ing hot.”
Heated Rivalry is available to watch on HBO Max in the US and Sky and NOW in the UK.