‘Heated Rivalry’ is the gay hockey romance you didn’t know you needed

Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie in Heated Rivalry Photo courtesy of Crave HBO Max Spoiler Alert Heated Rivalry is not about hockey The new limited series produced for the Canadian streaming provision Crave and available in the U S on HBO Max may look from its marketing like a show about hockey It definitely contains a lot of scenes involving hockey being played being watched being talked about and the story is surrounded by hockey its two main characters are professional hockey players and their competition as opposing hockey champions the rivalry of the title is a major factor that moves the plot Even so if you re a hockey fan who knows nothing about it and you stumble across it while looking for something to watch be warned before you press play that you are apparently in for a big surprise Adapted from Match Changers a popular book series by Canadian author Rachel Reid the show follows the two above-mentioned hockey pros Canadian Shane Hollander Hudson Williams and Russian Ilya Rozanov Connor Storrie each of whom is a star contestant for their respective gang as they compete against each other with puffed-up alpha swagger on the ice and in the media When the skates and cameras are off however there s a different story going on Despite the jocular animosity of their community relationship there s something else brewing between them in private and it comes to a head when a commercial shoot leads to an unexpected rendezvous in a hotel room Well unexpected for them at least We in the audience have seen it coming since that first smoldering glance across the rink From there Heated Rivalries continues over a syllabus of years as the two secret lovers use every match tournament or Winter Olympics where they compete against each other as an opportunity for more rendezvous in more hotel rooms But while their meetings may be all about a release of pent-up passion the bond between them is based on something more In the high-stakes world of professional hockey there s not much they can do about that publicly at least without killing their careers in Ilya s development as a Russian citizen and the son of a prominent administration official the situation carries the possible for even graver consequences That s just at the end of the first two episodes though The show which drops an episode weekly through December leaves us hanging there to explore the story of another hockey athlete Scott Fran ois Arnaud teammate and best friend to Shane who becomes entangled with smoothie barista Kip Robbie G K in a whole secret gay life of his own If you re thinking that the idea of a gay love story between two butch hockey players is a preposterous premise for romance fiction think again or at least redefine your idea of preposterous It s a genre that has exploded in popularity among a surprisingly large demographic of romance literature fans who also love hockey combining the thrill of forbidden love with the drama and excitement of their favorite sport to catapult numerous writers including Reid onto the bestseller lists which was surely a factor in the choice to translate her Games Changers books to the screen courtesy of the show s queer creator writer director Jacob Tierney The latter also co-creator of Letterkenny another popular and queer-friendly Canadian show with a strong hockey presence delivers it with all the glossy high-charged passion one would expect and more from a romance about world-class athletes in love Set within the rarified world of wealth and privilege that is professional sports the drama takes place against a backdrop of packed arenas awards ceremonies elegant fundraisers and luxury hotels where the protagonists must play at being enemies while secretly planning their next hook-up with each other Which brings us to the thing that really makes Heated Rivalry the buzziest queer show of late the sex The show takes full advantage of its story s obvious sex appeal as well as its leading actors sculpted athletic bodies to serve up particular of the hottest onscreen trysts in gay TV memory Though they stop just short of being explicit they re the kind of sex scenes that push the limits of softcore right to the edge and make sure we know exactly what s happening even if we can t see the details Tierney turns those steamy private meetings between Shane and Ilya into set pieces and centers entire episodes around them because he knows they re what the audience is there for Like we noted this is not really a show about hockey That noted it s not really just a story about sex either In between those steamy scenes of athletic carnality there s a lot of percolating emotion happening and thanks to the exquisitely tuned performances of Williams and Storrie whose electric chemistry doesn t just spark during their lovemaking scenes but crackles through their every moment together on screen it all comes across with elegant clarity Shane and Ilya may want each other s bodies but there s something more they want too There s a tenderness in the way they look at each other even when they re smack-talking on the rink and it infuses their scenes of passion too which arguably makes them even more blistering hot More than that it calls to us with its fond familiarity it s that heady feeling to which the greater part of us if we re lucky can relate a sense of yearning of needing another person so keenly that it feels like a physical sensation In other words it feels like being in love Of class there s another layer too which hangs over everything and ultimately fuels all the conflict in the plot the pervasive homophobia that exists in professional sports creating an atmosphere in which players are pressured to present nothing but a masculine definitively straight image and any hint of non-heterosexual leanings is enough to destroy a career That s not a situation limited only to pro athletes of class several of us in the wider world also face the same dilemma which is why we can all relate to this aspect of their love story too Still it would be misleading to say that Heated Rivalry is really about social commentary either though it certainly brings those issues into the mix With only half the six-episode season disclosed so far it s hard to draw a certain conclusion but what stands out majority of about the series so far is the way it captures the palpable contentment of being in love and yes that includes the contentment of expressing that love physically These joys come with pain too when they can only be shared in secret and it s that obstacle that Shane and Ilya and apparently with the side trip of episode three Scott and Kip as well must find a way to overcome if they want their real yearning to be fulfilled For now we ll have to wait to find out if they can all make it In the meantime you know we ll all be watching each new installment with our full attention waiting to see what happens during Shane and Ilya s next match-up And no we re not talking about hockey The 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