Heated Rivalry

By Kiwi Kali

Harbour Heather is a devoted ice hockey fan while Kiwi Kali knows nothing about the sport other than its major trophy sharing its name with a viral water bottle. Who better to write yet another unoriginal take on the low budget Canadian adaptation of romance author Rachel Reid’s Game Changer series? Here it is: the Sportsfreak take on Heated Rivalry.

How did you first hear of Heated Rivalry?
My social media feeds started filling up with references to the show. I wasn’t familiar with the Rachel Reid books but Instagram and Threads quickly taught me that the two main characters were hockey players called Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, and the rest of the discourse seemed focused on their arses.

As a cis woman who’s not a fan of ice hockey, naturally my question to Heather was how realistic the hockey scenes were. #HowNaive

The Boxing Day Ashes Test finished early and I still had my Neon subscription in anticipation of season 2 of The Pitt, so I decided to start watching. And I haven’t really stopped.

What is so good about Heated Rivalry?
Where to start? At the very beginning. There’s no slow build up – the main characters are introduced and into their physical interaction within the first 15 minutes. There’s depth to the characters beyond two young, hot generational talents in their sport. It’s certainly implied that Shane Hollander is neurodivergent, whereas Ilya Rozanov carries the weight of expectation of a strict father and his conservative Russian upbringing, the relevance of which becomes apparent as the story unfolds.  The inevitable outing of one of the characters is beautifully depicted, with genuine emotion and the lightest touch of humour.

In terms of the production, the showrunner Jacob Tierney has used a modest budget to great effect. It was filmed in Canada in just over 30 days, although the story spans about 10 years, with time jumps that are initially jarring but follow the timeline of the books. There are moments where you realise that the budget was so low there wasn’t enough money for extras in large crowd scenes, but the visuals don’t really suffer for it. The music is fantastic, with t.A.T.u’s 2002 hit in the club scene in ep 4 an instant earworm. Tierney stuck with a smaller production company because they didn’t limit his creative decisions, and the show became a global sensation when it was picked up by HBO Max.

Ilya and Shane are portrayed by newcomers Connor Storrie (spoiler alert: he’s from Odessa, Texas, not Russia) and Canadian Hudson Williams. To say their rise to fame has been meteoric would be an understatement. They literally went from hospo jobs to being presenters at the Golden Globes, being picked up by major talent agency CAA to represent them, being styled in YSL, Armani, Bottega Veneta, Bulgari and Tiffany, appearing on late night talk shows, and yet their sense of wonder at how they’ve ended up here is delightfully refreshing.

Episode three of six is dedicated to another couple, Scott Hunter and Kip Grady, aka Skip. The actor playing Scott is Francois Arnaud, who I recognised from that other great Canadian streaming hit, Schitt’s Creek (on Netflix – bear with it through a ropey season 1 to be rewarded with brilliance). I read a comment that Schitt’s Creek walked so that Heated Rivalry could run, and that rings true.

Why should I watch Heated Rivalry?
In the old days of terrestrial TV, there was a phrase “watercooler show”. It’s why Friends episodes all start with “The One With…”. Appointment viewing is no longer a thing, but if you mention Heated Rivalry, you’re guaranteed to find at least one person who has seen it and is desperate to talk to you about it.

Why is it so wildly popular?
Theories abound as to why women are obsessed with Heated Rivalry. Some of the more plausible ones are that there’s a long history of straight women reading (and writing) gay male fan fiction, that the depiction of romance and love between two men removes problematic issues around gender stereotypes, that consent is an integral part of the show, that there are hot male bodies and a licence to ogle them…

For me, the sport aspect drew me in. I am in a significant minority in that I did not enjoy Ted Lasso. I’m none the wiser about ice hockey after Heated Rivalry, but I found it heartwarming that traditional hockey podcasts (What Chaos and Empty Netters most notably) started seriously analysing the show, and not in a puerile, homophobic way. The Empty Netters guys went as far as doing a live reaction video
to the season finale (The Cottage, IYKYK). Both podcasts have recorded Hockey for Dummies type episodes for their new fanbase. From what I’ve gleaned, the NHL isn’t exactly known for being inclusive of difference, and I think it might be too much to hope for wholesale culture change as a result of this show.

At the heart of it though, Heated Rivalry is a romance, told well.

Favourite quotes
“You will murder me”
“When did your English get so good?” “I read the New Yorker now”
“I’m coming to the cottage”
“Stupid Canadian wolf bird”

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