Heated Rivalry (2025)
By Chris Gismondi
If you’re like me, you started Heated Rivalry for the spice and stayed for the story. The TV drama is the newest Canadian indie success story written and directed by Jacob Tierney and based on the male-male romance novels by Rachel Reid. If you recall the celebrated African American popular romance author E. Lynn Harris, you will know that female readers gravitating to gay male romance has happened before. The central context is two-closeted, professional hockey players. We watch as their desires and internal struggles play out across an eight-year affair. The first season spanned six episodes, and the show has been confirmed to return for a second season.
The series follows pro hockey players, Japanese Canadian Shane Hollander and white Russian Ilya Rozanov as they take their on-ice rivalry into the bedroom. The two starring actors, Hudson Williams and Connor Storie have garnered critical and popular acclaim for their dedication, bravery of exposure, and nuance. Williams portrays Hollander as on the autistic spectrum with an awkward, flirtatious air while Storie learned Russian and how to skate for the role. Hollander is a calculated perfectionist with an overbearing “mom-ager,” Yuna played by Christina Chang. Rozanov comes across guarded and cold with a disgraced, homophobic family and sick father that he supports back in Russia. The series also features a minor secondary gay couple of closeted American hockey captain Scott Hunter played by François Arnaud, and the barista Kip who becomes his secret partner before he comes out publicly only after retiring from the sport.
While Hollander and Rozanov begin the rookie season in 2008 as rivals and casual flings, the plot travels to the Sochi Olympics in 2014 with nods to the politics of queer (in)visibility and identity in Russia and the sporting world. By 2016,they still see each other occasionally during the playing schedule of their rival Montreal and Boston teams. Rozanov gets jealous reading that Hollander is dating a famous actress and sees them dancing in a nightclub while in town for a game. But Hollander’s girlfriend suspects he might be gay and they split amicably. In 2017, Rozanov’s father dies in Russia, and he calls Hollander to vent about his family, opening up about his developing feelings. During a Montreal-Boston game, Hollander gets injured and suffers a concussion which concerns Rozanov. While recovering in hospital and delirious from pain medication, Hollander invites Rozanov to spend the summer at his private Muskoka cottage. The two get inspired to be together and plan a future after watching Scott Hunter win the league cup and kiss Kip publicly on the ice. Hunter is saddened and guilty watching the other players’ spouses and children celebrate before he waves down Kip from the stands in a dramatic tearjerker.
Unfortunately, race plays a subdued role in the background of a very unstated white culture. In the series, Hollander is ambiguously Asian Canadian and celebrated as a diversity draft pick on the Montreal team. Hollander is half Japanese, while the actor Williams is actually of Korean and European heritage. Rozanov’s friend and sometimes bisexual fling Svetlana is black Russian played by Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova. Hollander’s actress “girlfriend” has a black, gay best friend Miles played by Devante Senior. And Kip’s protective friend Elena who confronts Hunter about the secrecy of their relationship is portrayed by Nadine Bhabha who is Indo-Caribbean. These secondary characters support the central storyline of a white hockey culture and romance between the boring, Asian perfectionist and troubled, Slavic serial dater.
As the series initially aired, I was hesitant to give it my attention since only François Arnoud and Jacob Tierney from the principal crew publicly identify as queer. But my skepticism faded as I observed careful and attentive storytelling alongside steamy moments. The series is a beautiful slow burn that builds tension masterfully. It also culminates in satisfying moments for its characters who are pent up, navigating the machismo of the hardcore sporting world of professional hockey that seems to demand that they hide themselves in the face of its celebrated athleticism and on-ice brutality. (In what other professional male sport do referees stand back and watch as players actively engage in beating each other in the head, besides boxing of course, where that is the entire point!)
That contrast is partially what makes Heated Rivalry so brilliant. It is aggressive, professional athletes coming to terms with their own desires, intimacy, and the public image they must maintain; the public fallacy that a gay man can’t be or possess within him, the drive and athleticism, and blunt force of a hockey pugilist and love for other men. On that last note, there are layers of “closets” which enhance the narrative. All the athletes are not out, but Hollander and Rozanov are rivals and then continue to perform as rivals when in public even as their relationship and feelings deepen secretly. They consciously look over their shoulders in public, careful not to appear amicable, but then lounge in each other’s arms in private as guarded flings and later infatuated lovers.
In addition to the intertwined stories of Hollander and Rozanov and Hunter and Kip, the series has brilliant cinematography, costuming, and symbolism. Production made convincing use of filming locations like Hamilton, Guelph, Toronto, and Montreal. Likely from its novel-adaptation, the series has many surprise reveals which have garnered a lot of fan attention and speculation online. For example, Hollander and Rozanov’s sexual encounters are staged with mirrored compositions as their relationship develops. The series plays with fire and ice, and light and dark symbolism as the two leads admit their feelings and eventually commit to a future with one another.
Apart from the very steamy sex-scenes, the show is groundbreaking for its representation of queer desire and yearning. In the genre of gay athletes, this series is a great compliment to the British romantic drama In from the Side (2022) about an affair between two gay rugby players in their queer inclusive league. While mainstream series like Heartstopper(2022-2024), Please Like Me (2013-2017), or Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020) provided wholesome male-queer stories, they were often packaged in a sanitized and palatable form. Heated Rivalry certainly doesn’t shy away from delivering on nudity, graphic sexuality, or passion, alongside romance. It most resembles the Spanish Netflix series Smiley (2022) for its mix of uncompromised thirst and giddy love.
Heated Rivalry’s focus on queer male psychological longing and turmoil may align the story most neatly with the high passion lesbian drama The L Word (2004-2009). While other shows like Queer as Folk (UK: 1999-2000, US/Canada 2000-2005), It’s a Sin (2021), or Pose (2018-2021) have addressed out-queer stories and representation, they were punctuated by darker topics like HIV/Aids or substance use. But the characters in Heated Rivalry are closeted athletes and the most fundamental struggles they overcome are with themselves, their feelings, and the world around them. This internal psychology is developed more richly than the predatory coming of age story in Call Me by Your Name (2017).
The Netflix series Boots (2025) featured a young, closeted male character enlisting into the 1990s “don’t ask don’t tell” era American military. The series was cancelled after one season and centred mostly on dark comedy around the circumstances of the hostile environment without any queer joy or pleasure. What prevents Heated Rivalry from falling into this trap is its satisfying delivery of queer pleasure, but also an unspoken admission that hockey culture and the professional sporting world is the obstacle to overcome. That culture is the reason Hollander and Rozanov are in the closet or why Scott Hunter only feels comfortable to come out after retiring from the sport. Fans of the series have taken note as the NHL has tried to capitalize on the series’ hockey hype, aligning the league with the series to grab viewer ratings or ticket sales.
Hockey Canada and the NHL would love easy wins as they repair their public image from a perception of rape culture and abusive hazing following several high-profile Hockey Canada litigations. But the NHL has also previously banned pride nights, rainbow stick tape, and permitted players to make bigoted remarks as a byproduct of their faith. Current hockey culture is both the villain and tantalizing bad boy that has inspired the world of Heated Rivalry. The show is essentially a fan fiction for a more inclusive hockey world punctuated by longing, repression, and release. The series is an alternative universe where Canada’s favourite past time features men wrestling with restraint and falling in love in tune with their romantic and emotional intelligence.
Chris Gismondi Bio
Chris Gismondi is a PhD candidate in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton) and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded art history scholar. He is also a curator and a former Graduate Research Fellow of Slavery North. His research focuses on the visual and material culture of Canadian Slavery. He is a queer-white settler from Dish with One Spoon, Head of the Lake Treaty no. 14 (1806) territory.