‘Heated Rivalry’ is making me (a straight woman) go insane
This article contains mild spoilers for “Heated Rivalry” episodes 1 to 5
Heated Rivalry” has taken over the internet—and most of its fans are women, apparently. The steamy, yearn-y, Canadian show, based on Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” novel series, stars relative newcomers Connor Storrie (Ilya Rozanov) and Hudson Williams (Shane Hudson) as two hockey arch-rivals quickly falling into bed, then in love. And it’s everyone’s latest obsession.
And I mean obsession.
If you spend enough time on TikTok and Reels, you’ll see fan edits, discourse, POV-style reactions to episodes, and just plain screaming by viewers whose lives have been seemingly upended by the show (myself included).
While it’s definitely a show about two closeted athletes’ years-long situationship against the backdrop of a pretty homophobic sport, women are eating it up.
Why is that, though?
While I’m unable to speak for all women, there are a plethora of reasons I’m insanely invested.
Game. Set. Match.
Something the show does exceedingly well is the opposites attract trope, and the ingenious way it gets subverted.
Literarily speaking, the leads are on opposite ends of the personality spectrum. They serve as one another’s foils, with Rozanov being the aggressive, smart-mouthed Russian import, and Hollander being the straight-laced, boy-next-door Mr. Perfect.
Different as they may be off the ice, they’re toe-to-toe when it comes to athletic prowess and accomplishment. Equals in almost every way that matters to them.
And in my personal experience, I’ve never been on equal footing with a man. In some way, shape, or form, I’ve always been either less than or too much. Maybe in terms of status, financial capability, matters of taste, or sense of humor (where I’m always number one on the podium), but I have never felt truly seen as an equal.
But with Shane and Ilya, they’re as close to an evenly matched set as I’ve ever seen. It’s rare in the world of the straights to feel like you’re on the same level as someone with romantic (or even sexual) interest in you.
My devoutly Catholic upbringing would tout it as complementary, but it just feels like a square peg in a round hole most of the time. Seeing two equals removes the power dynamic that’s so common in straight romance, and that’s one of the main things that makes it so enticing.
Eyes on the prize
Watching “Heated Rivalry” is the most action I’ve gotten since the dawn of time. It’s unapologetically horny and (potentially) cold-shower-inducing, but the parts that get me going aren’t when backs are arched, and the (fully cheeked-up) moons are hanging high in the sky. It’s when they just look at each other.
There’s been a campaign to bring back yearning and romance, and the show does both things terribly well. Sexual intimacy is one thing, but to see the man you’ve been in an eight-year-long situationship with gaze at you with a warm expression across the ice when you’re playing on opposite teams?
Indescribable.
They both try hard to be so impersonal and convince themselves it’s just blowing off steam, but the eyes, Chico. They never lie.
We go from hotel room hookups in the early days of their relationship to—gasp—staying over each other’s homes and seeing them discover pockets of domesticity they thought were impossible for them.
And the non-sexual intimacy is on another level.
In a scene where a reporter asks Rozanov and Hollander a complicated question, and Rozanov freezes up, Hollander gently taps the side of his foot against Rozanov’s shoe as a sign of support and takes the question in his stead.
During the MLH awards, when they’re both reading a terrible script off the teleprompter, the pair takes a selfie, and Rozanov’s hands linger on Hollander’s back, not to mention the various calls they share during some of the most devastating points of their lives (no, I’m not sorry Rozanov’s dad is dead).
When they embrace in the hotel room in Florida after Hollander comes out to Rozanov about his sexuality and Rozanov opens up about his tough family life, it’s emotionally orgasmic. And don’t even get me started on the hospital scene.
It’s the glances, the touches, the subtle shows of support, whether it’s in a dark hotel room or in the light of day, while Rozanov is making Hollander a tuna melt because of his intense macrobiotic diet.
The longing is there. The yearning is there. And to me, that’s the championship cup of all romances.
We’re just fans here
The biggest reason I’m deeply invested in the show is that it’s a love story where everything exhausting about heterosexuality doesn’t exist. The presumption of a love story because they’re a couple of straights has never even landed on the drawing board.
Common expectations of a heterosexual relationship, like getting married at a certain age and having babies, are nowhere to be found. Friends are not telling them that they just have to be patient for the right one, and relatives aren’t telling them to go out and meet people (technically minus Hollander’s mom with that Swedish princess).
Instead of falling in love because of the context they’re thrust in—which is what happens in most heterosexual romances—they fall in love in spite of it.
They fall in love in spite of the fact that the world is against two professional major league hockey players falling in love. They fall in love in spite of the fact that they’ve been marketed as arch-rivals since their junior years. They fall in love because they truly want each other against all odds.
Rozanov and Hollander fight their personal shame and guilt, and throw up a gigantic middle finger to the systems in place by wanting each other. And isn’t that just pure romance?
The rush
What surprised me the most about my personal reaction to the show is just how alive it made me feel. I’m a fangirl through and through, but “Heated Rivalry” has brought out something in me that hasn’t seen the light of day since I was 12 and discovered romantic literature for the first time.
I’m literally giggling and kicking my feet under my covers because my poor, poor heart can’t take it. There have been several moments when I had to pause the show just to take a lap and collect myself because it’s too much.
This gift from the heavens (Read: director Jacob Tierny and author Rachel Reid) comes at a point in my life when I’ve retired from professional dating. Men are exhausting and confusing, and watching this show lets me experience that exact same rush.
And bonus points: Storie and Williams are much better looking than any man I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes. Likely ever.
Watching “Heated Rivalry” sort of feels like reparations for every terrible date and situationship I’ve been through. It takes my favorite parts of romance and embeds them deeply into my heart.
I feel so deeply for the show that my words fail me, so I leave you with one final message: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHGHHGGHGHHH.
