They’re now on ice until Season 2.
“Heated Rivalry” has ended after a six-episode first season that went viral for its steamy scenes — and epic yearning.
Cue t.A.T.u.’s 2002 hit “All the Things She Said.”
The Canadian gay hockey romance is on Crave across the border, and HBO Max in the US. It’s already been renewed for a Season 2, and it’s among the top five scripted debuts of the year, on the streamer.
Spoilers below for the Season 1 finale, “The Cottage.”
Based on a novel by Rachel Reid, “Heated Rivalry” follows Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two pro hockey players who are on rival teams. They get into a steamy hookup relationship that lasts nearly a decade, until they finally admit their feelings for each other.
In the Season 1 finale, they have a romantic getaway in Shane’s cabin. There, they confess their love to each other, and make it official that they’re boyfriends. Before, their relationship was full of sex, but they often shied away from emotion.
All isn’t well, however, because when Shane’s dad David (Dylan Walsh) accidentally walks in on them, they find themselves having to abruptly come out to him and Shane’s mother, Yuna (Christina Chang).
It’s awkward at first.
Yuna exclaims, “but you hate him!” referring to Ilya.
Shane’s father says, “And there were no nice men in Montreal?” indicating that he believes Shane could have picked a better partner.
So, their problem isn’t that Shane is gay, but rather, who his boyfriend is.
The hockey obsessed Yuna also doubts Ilya’s loyalty – since he played for her hated Boston – but she’s soon swayed by how much Ilya clearly cares for her son.
After the Hollanders get caught up and get onboard, David asks the couple, “So is your plan to what? Keep doing this in secret until you both retire?”
Shane replies “probably, I don’t know,” while Ilya says, “probably yes.”
Shane’s mom says, “No, that’s sad!”
The episode ends on an upbeat note, as Shane and Ilya are together and in love, Shane’s parents accept his sexuality and his relationship, and they drive off together, planning to have dinner with Shane’s parents.
All is well…except for the fact that neither of these famous athletes have come out in public, and they don’t have a plan for when and how to do that.
Clearly, that’s the set up for the conflict in Season 2.
The show has gone viral online, getting attention for its copious and long sex scenes.
Tierney told Variety that he became a fan of the books during 2020.
“It hadn’t really occurred to me to option it before because of how smutty it was. I was like, ‘I don’t know how you put this on TV.’ But then I thought, ‘Maybe this is valuable IP. Maybe this is something that moves the needle.’”
He sent a message on Instagram to Reid, and she was a fan of his other show, “Letterkenny.”
“I was like, ‘May I have your books for a reasonable amount of time and money?’ And that was the beginning of it,” he recalled.
“Right from the jump, [series creator Jacob Tierney] told me this is gonna have a lot of sex in it because that’s important,” Reid told Slate. “It’s not going to fade to black and it’s not going to be ‘the suggestion of a blowjob’ … He’s like, ‘It’s going to be as explicit as we can possibly go.”
Storrie and Williams have been playful about the steamy show, as the actors got matching tattoos that say “sex sells.”
Storrie, 25, got the ink on his shin, while Williams, 24, got it on his thigh.
“We settled on ‘sex sells’ because I think it was just kind of like a tongue-in-cheek, kind of winky view of being a part of something like this,” Storrie said in an HBO Max Instagram video.
He said that for some viewers, getting to “watch these to [characters] fall madly in love” is the “cherry on top of the cake.”
Williams said, “There’s sex that is selling and it’s a very sort of alluring factor. But we believe it’s sort of the worth and the merit beyond that.”
Tierney told Slate that when he was first shopping the idea to adapt the novels, he heard from various Hollywood execs who made suggestions like waiting until Season 2 to include sex scenes.
“I was like, ‘What are you f–king talking about?!’ ” Tierney told the outlet. “These books are porn. You think that the audience is here despite that? They’re here for this. This is what they want.”
He added, “I’m feeling like I’m glad I trusted my gut. I think that, had I followed the advice or the notes I was getting, I would have made a show that would have not pleased people, especially that core fan base. I certainly don’t think we would have gotten the reaction that we’re currently getting.”
“Heated Rivalry” Season 2 doesn’t have an announced release date, yet.
