The end of 2025 delivered one of the best sports romance series we’ve ever seen.
And no, that’s not hyperbole at all.
Look around the interwebs, and you’ll see all the Heated Rivalry hype. But it’s not the manufactured type to drum up views. The series has tapped into something very special within its audience, crafting a joyous queer romance to bookmark the year.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
The success of Heated Rivalry may have caught some by surprise, but it was very much deserved.
Series leads Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie were relative unknowns before the series’ breakout run, but they’ve quickly emerged as stars. Their nuanced, passionate portrayals of rival hockey players falling in love bewitched audiences this winter.
Heated Rivalry is the kind of series you could unpack for hours, and that’s precisely what Jasmine Blu and I did.
We had a spirited and introspective conversation about the first season, our appreciation for the beautiful acting, and what we hope to see in the already greenlit second season.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
Whitney: Heated Rivalry! Where do we even start?
Jasmine: Who would’ve thought a small indie Canadian hockey show would take the world by storm and let us end 2025 on a high note with TV? I DID NOT see that coming. But I loved it.
Whitney: I did not see it coming either. I was someone who just happened to watch the series during that Thanksgiving holiday weekend out of curiosity, and nothing has been the same since.
Jasmine: I heard about it, and I said I’d check it out. I love sports fiction, and I have a soft spot for hockey content. Mighty Ducks for life! Also, I’m a Buffalonian. Bills and Sabres forever. Even though Buffalo keeps catching strays in this universe.
Whitney: Quack Quack forever. I’ll be honest, the sports aspect was the last thing on my mind when I heard the chatter. It was actually the romance aspect I was seeing that had me hooked. Specifically, I saw the infamous ‘genetic’ scene, and I had to see what was happening in this world.
Once you gave the show a chance, what was your immediate gut reaction?
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
Jasmine: The romance angle was intriguing, but I mostly went into the series blind. I thought the first episode was a bit slow or light on the plot. So I had to look it up to see what it was about.
But I was instantly taken with the artistry. I was riveted by the cinematography, blocking, and other elements.
Then I fell in love with the characters, their chemistry, and the journey. We both watch a lot of TV. I get so used to jumping immediately into plots, so I appreciated how Heated Rivalry eased us into a compelling story. I hadn’t realized just how much I needed and missed that.
Whitney: I do love a good romance and good chemistry. There is a lot of serviceable chemistry on TV. The relationships are perfectly fine and believable, but they’re not moving any needles.
The first episode of Heated Rivalry does such a masterful job of not only introducing us to Shane and Ilya but also of allowing their effortless chemistry to take center stage.
(Crave/HBO Max/Screenshot)
The framing of the gym scene, with the back-and-forth cuts to them cooling down on the floor (and the hands grazing the water bottle), and everything about the rooftop Vegas scene at the end of the episode, is about feeling an incredibly taut tension between Shane and Ilya.
It’s SO good, and it’s such a spectacular way to start a romance series.
Jasmine: It’s really intentional and brilliantly built up, and that has endeared me to this series. It’s committed to the art of TV, character building, storytelling that matters, rather than just the business of it.
I never felt like Heated Rivalry tried to manipulate emotions out of me. It just gave me a story worth investing in and authenticity.
Everyone behind it was genuinely in it for the love of the game; it earned my investment and feelings. Romance rarely gets thoughtful treatment or respect. It’s refreshing.
Whitney: That’s a great point about the series not trying to manipulate your emotions.
Even though the basis of the story may not be relatable in the sense that a very small percentage of people will ever play a professional sport, let alone be the very best in the world at said profession, there was an innate relatability for me in exploring a series of firsts.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
Jasmine: The discourse around this series and who relates to it and why fascinates me. The expectation that anyone must relate to a series or its characters solely because of similar experiences is the antithesis of what TV and its characters are about.
We’re both WOC; we’re accustomed to watching things about people and experiences that don’t reflect our own lives, and we still connect anyway. That’s not an outlier for us; it’s a rite of passage.
So, why did Heated Rivalry resonate with you?
Whitney: The idea that every single woman consumes certain media for the same reasons is just blatantly untrue. Treating women viewers as a monolith cheapens the very real diversity that exists in how we connect with stories.
As I said earlier, I love good chemistry in whatever form it takes, and I’m always drawn to stories and characters that make me feel.
That may sound like a basic answer, but it’s actually very rare. As you said, you and I watch A LOT of television, and many shows leave you feeling wildly indifferent more than they make you feel happy, sad, excited, angry, or an amalgamation of all of them.
(Sabrina Lantos/Crave)
From the nervousness and curiosity surrounding Shane and Ilya’s first meeting, I was interested in unraveling who these two men were and where this tenuous connection might lead.
With each passing hour, I fell deeper in like with the connections on the show, and how it allowed the story to evolve in a way that felt organic. They weren’t trying to sell me a romance. They were showing me a romance that trusted the audience to feel it without being told how.
Jasmine: Same. I’ve been consuming series out of habit or investment, but not necessarily because they made me FEEL. I’m a character girl. There’s a raw vulnerability from these characters that I really gravitated to. Heated Rivalry has a universal thread of humanity that transcends it. And people respond to that.
I know you’re not as endeared to Scott Hunter as I am, but I’ve found him to be my comfort character for a myriad of reasons.
Our backgrounds are different, but he’s such an internal, intrinsic person. When he outright mentioned how people tell him he can be intense, I felt that. His longing for family, his internal nature, and his embodiment of loneliness all resonated with me.
( Sabrina Lantos)
I’m not a famous hockey player like Shane, but I know what it’s like being the token POC in a room, navigating predominantly white spaces, and being the “model” minority.
His autism was so very familiar because I saw so much of my brother in him. Ilya putting on a brave face is something that’s resonant, too.
Watching it slip for and because of Shane is a testament to the relationship-building this show handled so remarkably in only six episodes.
My biggest gripe is shows that tell rather than show. Heated Rivalry shows us this romance without insulting the viewers’ intelligence and allows them to feel. It’s a rarity.
Whitney: I love vibrant, multi-faceted characters, and I felt super connected to Shane for many of the reasons you mentioned as well. Being a POC in spaces where no one looks like me, and also feeling like I had to push myself to be the best at everything I did, along with having a very competitive spirit.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
I also just related to the general sense of trying to understand yourself, the things you like, the things you aspire to, and ultimately, who you are.
I think so many of the characters touched people in various ways, and that’s beautiful. That’s exactly what television should do.
Jasmine: He’s such a wonderfully complex character.
Hudson Williams is fantastic as Shane. He had a difficult job playing an internal character, and he knocked it out of the park. I would get misty-eyed because of how he spoke, carried himself, and took things so literally. And how he depicted anxiety with his whole body and micro expressions reminded me SO much of my brother.
Connor Storrie has earned rightful praise for his performance and accent work. I marvel at that as well. But Hudson Williams’ performance is criminally underrated.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
Whitney: I will literally go out right now and scream at random people on the street, telling them how good Hudson Williams is in this series if you ask me to.
So much of what’s happening with Shane is happening internally. He has to do so much work with only his face, posture, and general presence in scenes, which I marvel at.
Like during the All-Star hotel conversation during Heated Rivalry Season 1 Episode 5, he does so much during that scene, just in the way he’s seated and his line delivery. I felt like I could feel everything he was feeling in that scene because it was radiating off him.
And there are countless scenes throughout the season that show you how much Hudson understood Shane.
Connor Storrie is so crazy talented. The accent work is next-level, but he has an incredible presence on-screen.
(Courtesy of Crave/HBO Max)
Your eyes are always so drawn to him, not because he’s demanding attention, but because he’s crafting this performance that feels deeply believable. He makes everything about Ilya feel intentional and authentic.
You mentioned your love of Scott Hunter, and for the record, I may not be as endeared to him; still, I understand and respect Scott and Kip’s stories, as well as recognizing their importance to Shane and Ilya’s story and, thus, their inclusion in the first season.
How did you feel that episode helped shape the first season?
Jasmine: I thought it was a great episode. They’re the Game Changers for a reason. I know it garnered mixed feelings, but I loved it and its placement for the overall arc.
Skip’s dynamic shifted things onscreen for Hollanov, and it was also the perfect structurally transitional episode for the season. The first two episodes built the attraction and connection between Shane and Ilya.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
It has the most sex, mainly because it’s the only way they could really connect then, within these stolen moments. The hints of what they could be lingered from that stairwell kiss during Episode 2, which I still get in my feelings about. Then we break from them after that taste or spark of something more layered.
But the Skip episode gave us that breakaway, then you could feel the tonal shift in Hollanov when we returned. Their intimacy wasn’t just physical; it was emotional. It flowed better than a time jump.
But overall, it was the first episode that broke me open. I was emotionally raw every episode onward.
There are layers to why Skip was a necessity to push Ilya and Shane forward. I appreciated their love story even if it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. We get a more condensed version onscreen than in their book, but the impact was still felt.
That rink kiss-to-Hollanov cottage phone call sequence is everything, Whitney. I was feasting!
(Sabrina Lantos)
Whitney: As some time has passed, I can see the Skip episode with fresher eyes. But in real time, it was a bit of a product of circumstance.
You get these two back-to-back episodes that are so sexy, exciting, promising, and the beginning of something, and then you get Scott and Kip’s whole story in an episode, and I think it was okay to be a little bit discombobulated by the shift.
But their story is very emotional, rich, and layered in a way that is similar yet different from Shane and Ilya’s. Scott’s speech about being too much is definitely one of those moments I’ll never forget from the season.
It’s interesting you say that was the episode that broke you open, because it was really the first episode for me. And if you can’t tell, I am a first episode truther.
I don’t think it’s many people’s favorite episode (it’s not even mine), but I absolutely love a pilot episode that lowkey makes me want to run through a brick wall because I am so damn excited about what a series could be. That’s what the first episode did for me.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
Jasmine: Hudson Williams is riveting. OK, I started Heat Rivalry two weeks after my IWTW binge. Heated Rivalry exacerbated my emotional state. But Williams reminds me of Jacob Anderson as Louis. It’s easy to see how phenomenal someone is in a flashier role. Sam Reid as Lestat. Connor, as a newcomer, is mind-blowing as Illya.
I really am in awe of how he completely transforms physically. But quieter roles are understated and restrained. What Williams did with Shane is so good that it deserves more discussion.
I loved him in episode 5. The whole damn episode. His eyes, especially. How he emotes through them. I’ve seen his other work, so his intention and execution are clear.
It sucks that Skip’s arc is put in one episode and dilutes their story a bit, especially for people who won’t read the book. But it had its merits. I saw the vision.
Ultimately, it’s Shane and Illya’s story at the center, and I love how the series honors Skip in relation to that. The fifth, third, and sixth episodes are my top three.
Overall, it’s such a solid series that it’s hard to choose favorites. The fifth was just a culmination of the story coming together perfectly, the characters at their rawest. That Russian phone call STILL plays in my head on repeat. It BROKE me.
What was your favorite episode and why?
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
Whitney: Jumping from Interview with the Vampire to Heated Rivalry must have been a trip. Interview with the Vampire Season 2 left me an emotional wreck, and then getting right into the years-long romance that is Shane and Ilya? I hope you’re okay.
Yes, people often overlook the quieter roles. Hudson has to do so much without ever uttering a line, and he’s just so damn good at it.
I know everyone has their favorite scenes from the series, but two of mine are the stairwell kiss (I hope film school classes use that scene one day for some kind of class discussion) and the conversation between Shane and Rose at the restaurant.
Those tears in Hudson’s eyes deserve an Emmy. And the way his face is wistful one moment, confused the next, and scared, yet also increasingly surer as the conversation goes on, is beautiful. I can’t really put into words how lovely everything about Hudson’s work in that scene is.
(Sabrina Lantos © 2025)
As much as I love the first episode for giving us Shane and Ilya for the very first time, my favorite has to be The Cottage. I could also say it’s a tie with episode five, as they’re both the strongest episodes narratively and just really carefully crafted episodes of television.
Episode five is all about Shane and Ilya starting to be more honest with one another after years, and I love seeing them both get more comfortable throughout the hour, even if there’s still this line they’re tiptoeing on.
And my God, Ilya speaking Russian to Shane and getting to say all the things he keeps buried so deep inside because he’s never had a safe space to let these feelings out, is so unbelievably moving.
It’s such a raw and charged scene, and the voice inflections, subtle pauses, alongside the beauty of the snow falling as Ilya bares his soul, is the very best of television.
And the chemistry, Jasmine. THE CHEMISTRY. How do two people have chemistry like that over the phone? But the finale is everything.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
I love the episode’s simple nature and the decision to condense it to only a few locations, letting Shane and Ilya’s relationship breathe freely for the very first time.
They’re surrounded by all these windows and all the light that’s been missing through so much of their relationship, which was often hidden by the night and closed-off, sterile spaces.
It’s just this perfect coda to the season, and everyone is at the very top of their game. It’s not romance for romance’s sake, but instead a series of raw emotional beats that show just how far these characters have come.
Jasmine: Sister, I am NOT okay. How do normal people deal with emotions like this? Who said that FEELS are fun? Is lie. Liar told us that.
Heated Rivalry isn’t just fantastic for a queer romance. And it’s true. I’ve been part of, listened to, and supported conversations about representation, specifically queer representation onscreen.
I’m so very happy that many queer people get this romance – this show that’s layered. Maybe not everyone can see their own experience in this story, but that doesn’t negate the fact that many do.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
This show becoming a mainstream universal phenomenon can lead to more diverse content, so we can collectively stop trying to hang our hats on one show being everything for a demographic.
But what I can say as someone who does love the romance is how great the series stands out in that genre.
I struggled through the final season of TSITP. But Heated Rivalry really put some respect back on the genre. That stairwell kiss is a masterclass in romance. The way it was filmed, the feelings it evoked. It made me appreciate having a series that treats romance seriously, not as a joke.
The series is pleasantly surprising in its execution of romance, sex, intimacy, and consent. It captures it all without sacrificing any of it. Not just for queer content, but full stop.
Episode 5 had me genuinely holding my breath while watching. I loved the growth in both characters, particularly in their vulnerability. The fifth episode really nails Ilya’s fear and the stakes. You FEEL them. Shane does too. I can go on for an hour about that episode.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
The Cottage is the perfect coda. The one setting being the actual and physical embodiment of a “safe space.” The love admissions and being truly emotionally open.
Whitney: Heated Rivalry is this compelling, nuanced, and transformative love affair between two men in a suffocatingly manly profession; one they still have to navigate even once they’ve committed to being together.
But it’s also this story, rooted in queer joy and romance, rooted in the beauty that is love, one of the most fundamental experiences of humanity.
And you’re right that it may not be something everyone can relate to, but I love seeing how people feel seen in this show.
It warms my heart to see community building from this show and to see it helping people in different ways. And it becoming such a mainstream success gives me hope that we can get even more diverse stories of queer, joyful romance.
It proves that these stories don’t necessarily need to be niche or coded for a specific audience; instead, they just need to be rooted in care and honesty.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
I am a romance lover through and through, and I think what’s the most magical thing about the series is the way it hits so many of the romantic beats, and does it in a way that isn’t corny or tacked on for the sake of checking off a box.
The story lends itself to many of those beats, and they never try to do too much outside of the story Rachel Reid created. But from page to screen, there is room to add intricacies that you can’t always visualize through text, and the series does so well at expanding upon specific ideas from the book.
It all culminates in this experience that has absolutely hooked people and made them feel all kinds of things they maybe weren’t expecting when they took a chance on this little show that could.
What are you hoping to see in the next season?
(Courtesy of Crave/HBO Max)
Jasmine: Next season, I just want them to keep the same energy and execution, no notes. I loved the simplicity of the creation. Most of the budget went to cameras, and everything else just fell in line. It’s proof that you don’t need excess to make great TV.
Casting mostly unknowns, having this intimacy, and artistic vibe, that’s all part of the allure. I don’t want the show to ever lose that. I’m thrilled those behind it are getting the acclaim they deserve. But I also don’t want the hype to affect the quality.
I do want eight or ten episodes. There’s a lot of material to work with, and I’m excited to see The Long Game onscreen. I also want to see the universe expand while still centering Hollanov. Role Model feels essential.
I’m just ready to see Shane and Illya continue to evolve. Their love story is so compelling.
(Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max)
Whitney: I also agree that I don’t want much to change, since they found a formula that works, and I would rather they continue to follow it than change all the things that made their product so wonderful.
You could tell and feel that the series was made with care and love, and I’m so confident that it will continue.
I would also like more episodes, and I don’t mind if they split The Long Game into two seasons.
It’s such a meaty book, and with extra time, there is so much room to expand on some ideas that could use more exploration, especially as they relate to Shane. It’s a heavy book, but it’s also a grand book, with a lot of moving parts, and giving space to all of them over a longer period would only do the series well.
But I’m just glad we’re getting more Shane and Ilya, and that they will continue to be at the center of the story. Their story is so palpably comforting, and I have so much faith in the creatives to deliver us another banger of a season.
Hollanov forever.
You can watch all episodes of Heated Rivalry on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the United States.
-
Industry Season 4 Episode 1 returns back to form with Harper Stern at the center, backstabbing, betrayal, sex, and greatness!
-
A fire destroys two communities on When Calls the Heart Season 13 Episode 13, highlighting the meaning of family. Our review!
-
Landman Season 2 Episode 9 just threatened to toss the story we know it into complete disarray. Is that how it will play out?
You can view the original article HERE.
