One of my friends who lives in Washington State invited me to watch a movie filmed near her place. It was a movie full of stunning mountains & forests. With a grin, I then invited her to watch Heated Rivalry, as much of it is filmed around where I live & work. You can walk 1 minute from my office to find yourself where the main character Ilya is filmed running in “Russia” and where Shane is filmed running in “Montreal” (both locations at Dundurn Castle in Hamilton).
For those of you who haven’t heard of the show Heated Rivalry, I’ll give you a quick synopsis – it’s a story of 2 male hockey players who are captains of the Montreal & Boston teams of the major hockey league in North America. On the ice they are rivals and off the ice they share an almost decade long situationship/romance in secret.
On one level, the show’s creator Jacob Tierney, describes it as gay, smutty tv. On another level he describes it as being about Queer Joy. The show is based on Canadian author Rachel Reid’s romance novel of the same name. The show was quickly lauded by fans as being the only good thing of 2025 with quips like “who knew a Canadian gay hockey show would be the thing that would brings us together in 2025”. The six episode series started out strong and each episode just got better and better.
Vulnerability
One of the most striking themes for me about the author, the show’s creator, the actors & the fans has been a strong theme of showing vulnerability and the response from much of the world has been with love & safety instead of shame.
As a psychotherapist I know that when the things we feel shameful about are met with love & safety that this is the formula that brings healing.
The display of bold vulnerability inspired me to write this post about Heated Rivalry.
I’ve got the one part of me that gives me a side-ways look and says, “Really, you’re going to write about a post about very spicy gay romance novel after the last post you wrote was about connecting to Jesus beyond religion?” or “Do I really have anything to add to this conversation?” or “I think you’re just fan-girling right now”.
On the other side is the reality that I’ve been writing this post in my head for weeks. Writing this post is a minuscule display of vulnerability compared to so many others connected to this show and anyone in the queer community who is in major league sports.
Rachel Reid
Let’s start with the author of the book Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid. When the author was asked what type of books she wrote, she would defer to calling it Romance. In her blog post – An Attempt to be Earnest, she writes:
” I write sexually explicit queer romance novels about hockey players. You probably know this, but I’m saying it because it’s something that I don’t feel comfortable telling everyone. I love talking about my books, and other books like them, to romance fans, but outside that wonderful (and thankfully, enormous) bubble, talking about what I write can be stressful and embarrassing. I’ve often attempted to defend my books, and my entire genre, to people (sometimes other writers) who are dismissive of romance. I’ve felt shame about my books, which is something I never want to feel again.”
I appreciated Rachel’s honesty & vulnerability about fully showing up about her passion for queer hockey romance. As an earnest (but also irreverent) Canadian I did contemplate naming today’s post “The importance of being earnest”. I’m now a forever fan of Rachel Reid.
Jacob Tierney
Enter the show’s creator, Jacob Tierney, who talks about listening to Rachel Reid’s books during the pandemic. He at first wondered whether the book could be put on television, because it was so sexually explicit. But then he saw the book was starting to catch some attention and didn’t want anyone else to option the book besides him. As I listened to his interview, “The joy of gay, smutty TV” with Tom Power from CBC’s Q, you could hear Tom’s nervousness around the topic, and Jacob Tierney meets him with confidence, heart, & pride about the show. These qualities all transfer into the show. Where one director would’ve nervous, shaky or apologetic about the content – he is refreshingly heart-centred and proud.
The Stars
The two lead actors, Hudson Williams & Connor Storrie are stand-out actors. As a viewer I bought into what they were selling. The acting was strong and their chemistry was on fire.
They also showed their heart & vulnerability during their press tour in a way I’ve never seen before. No dry, boring answers. I watched with awe as they both set boundaries about sharing their personal sexuality or answering any leading questions like “who’s your celebrity crush?” and met the interviews with fearlessness, playfulness and joy.
I think of how Timothee Chalamet starred in the 2017 movie Call me By Your Name (a coming of age story of a young gay man in Italy in the 1980s) and his trajectory as an actor, and I can’t help but hope for the same for both of these actors.
The Fans & Allies
Throughout the release of the series, there were whispers of negativity and the haters were immediately stomped out by other fans, allies, and those involved in the show. As a fan, I could also feel that protectiveness in myself, “Don’t you dare say a bad word about anything about the show that brings me joy”.
This positive response then seemed to bring a tidal wave of unlikely support – the Boston Bruins tweeted “Heated Rivalry” when Montreal & Boston were playing (Boston & Montreal were the main characters teams in the book). People posted videos of being in Montreal at a hockey game and seeing the trailer for Heated Rivalry at centre ice.
But perhaps my favourite unlikely supporters were from some straight white male hockey pod-casters on the show The Empty Netters. Enter two brothers and former professional hockey players, Dan & Chris Powers and their producer Sean who normally discuss hockey. For whatever reason, they decided to re-cap & review each episode after it was released.
They started out with an attitude of curiosity and hesitancy and then each episode pulled them in further as fans who wanted all the best for Ilya’s & Shane’s romance. They earnestly asked questions about gay sex & coming out to the comment section and reported back in the next episode. Reading the highlights of the comment section alone in each episode is an uplifting experience. They end it all with a live watch of episode 6 and you can see them almost moved to tears at certain points of the episode.
Queer Joy
As a mother of two boys, it has been important for me to raise them in an atmosphere of love & support, whatever their sexuality. When family members or people ask them if they have a girlfriend, it’s been my immediate response to say, “or boyfriend”, to the point that it’s probably annoying. They are teenagers, and I don’t want to assume anything or ask them to confirm anything at this time.
And as they become adults, if they are straight cis white men, then I want them to know how to show up as allies.
Watching Heated Rivalry and listening to Jacob Tierney talk about Queer Joy made me hope that all queer people would find a love like Ilya & Shane’s (but without having to keep it a secret). With so much explicit hetero-sexual sex on television (and so much of it mediocre or with violence), it was both extra spicy & refreshing to see the same space given to two very good-looking men having sex. With consent and so much heat.
Also, as Heated Rivalry is fiction, the show & book model to the audience what an ally looks like for the queer community. The show’s girlfriends, friends, and family members are written as strong, smart, supportive individuals.
The last show I watched that was about Queer Joy was Schitt’s Creek which gave the spotlight to David & Patrick’s relationship as the series progressed into Season 3.
Hara & Core Essence and the Arts
When I talk about Hara, (see my post Hara if this concept is new to you) the easiest examples to see it in real life is with athletes. Watching any person make a challenging move look easy is seeing a person in Hara. Figure skaters are my athlete of choice to see Hara visualized – let’s dance around the ice and throw each-other up in the air while making it look effortless!
My experience of a person anchored in their core essence is a person who is un-apologetically themselves in a loving way. The space around them has little to no density – they aren’t pulling at your energy or pushing their energy on to you. There isn’t an agenda – they just are. When you’re with a person in core essence, you don’t feel tired afterwards.
The show Heated Rivalry has one of the highest ratings of a television show of all time. The writing, the directing, the acting, the MUSIC (bangin), and everything else come together in a way that seems effortless (while obviously being a lot of work). That’s strong Hara. And not from one person – from many. The joy and heart felt within the show and it’s creators are it’s Core Essence.
Big Cultural Shifts
The timing of the show seemed divinely timed – Canada & the US were voracious for everything this show delivered. The response to a queer gay romance could’ve just as easily been dismissed at a different period in time.
There are many comments on social media about the impact of both the show and the overwhelming positive response to the show on our culture at large. It is incredibly heart-breaking that there are no openly gay athletes in the NHL, and few in major league sports. I think of all those athletes having to hide such a big part of themselves and that’s incredibly sad.
Unconditional love & safety heal shame. As a person who deals in energy, I can’t help but wonder what both the seen and unseen positive impact of this show & positive response will be on our culture at large towards gay athletes in sports and showing up as allies. It’d be lovely if this cultural moment created a safer space for athletes to be more openly gay, but that’s a lot to ask of them after so many years of oppression.
If anything I hope that more people show up as allies – especially in the pro-athlete world. I also hope that every gay athlete finds some allies in their life, and that perhaps the positive response to the show will tell them that there is a broader culture outside of sports who truly loves them and wants a safer space for them to be fully themselves.
And then we’ll getting Season 2 in 2027 and that will hopefully bring another layer of unconditional love & support from the community at large.
Icing on the Cake
The Icing on the cake for this series was that most of it was filmed in my community. Ilya’s “Boston” home is next to the woods I spent many a Sunday afternoon exploring with my best friend as a child. It seems that every direction I drive right now is land-marked with key places in the show. The photo that I took (below) is at Dundurn castle. This is where Ilya goes running in “Russia”. (Sorry that I don’t have Connor Storrie running here in this photo.)
Whew – well if you happened to love the show as much as I did, let me know. If you’re not in Canada or the US, the show will be released in many more countries soon.
Happy New Year! Wishing you all a person, space or community that allows you to show up fully as yourself.
