It is quite something to see so many Americans go crazy over a gay hockey show with numerous sex scenes in 2025.
“Heated Rivalry,” the hit new series from HBO Max and Canadian streamer Crave, follows a yearslong romance between hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). Playing for rival teams but finding themselves drawn to one another, Shane and Ilya start a secret fling that develops into a long journey of love, denial and self-discovery over the course of eight years. The series is based on a popular novel by Rachel Reid and adapted for television by Jacob Tierney.
Screenshots from this show might have you reaching for your remote or phone faster than you’d care to admit. The show is full of sex scenes that are now being ranked by their horniness on queer and mainstream platforms. The show, much like its book, is fun and escapist and as horny as it is heartfelt.
At a surprise appearance at Hi Tops, a gay sports bar in West Hollywood, Storrie took the mic and jokingly said to the adoring crowd, “Thank you for tweeting about our butts,” before going on to talk more seriously about how much it means to them to see so many people in LGTBQ+ communities embrace them and their show.
Indeed, their cheeks have had a whole lot to do with the show’s immediate virality. “Heated Rivalry” has been seemingly unmovable from HBO Max’s Top 10 shows since its premiere in November. Season 1 sits at 96% approval on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, with a 91% audience score. Posts on X are clearly still part of what helps a TV show reach larger audiences, and the rise of this show is a testament.
There have been plenty of queer, scripted shows to air in the U.S. But with the exception of the criminally underappreciated Showtime historical drama “Fellow Travelers,” I haven’t seen a show that is so overtly sexual with gay characters in a long time.
Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander in “Heated Rivalry.”
I align with Kaiya Shunyata’s argument on RogerEbert.com that “‘Heated Rivalry’ stands out in a wasteland of recent queer television that plays it too safe,” and especially on the point that “the show is also one of this year’s most enjoyable.”
Not everyone is impressed, however. One critic panned the pilot episode because it “plays out like something that used to be shown late nights on Cinemax instead of a story with well-drawn characters and romantic chemistry between its leads.”
Separately, in an interview with Vulture, “I Love LA” star Jordan Firstman was prompted to compare the sex scenes between gay characters in his show to “Heated Rivalry.”
“Yeah, we’re going for it. It’s gay. I’m sorry, I watched those first two episodes of ‘Heated Rivalry,’ and it’s just not gay,” he said. “It’s not how gay people fuck. There’s so few things that actually show gay sex.”
François Arnaud of “Heated Rivalry,” who portrays Scott Hunter, another gay hockey player trying to navigate his personal life and his professional image, wrote in an Instagram comment: “Is there only one way to have ‘authentic’ gay sex on TV? Should the sex that closeted hockey players have look like the sex that sceney LA gay guys have?”
It was an appropriate response to an asinine comment from Firstman. But in some ways, it’s nice to even spot such a stupid argument about gay sex in this climate. As for the Cinemax comparison, “Heated Rivalry” is a lot more nuanced than that critique, but even if it weren’t, again, it’s nice to even be able to make such a comparison.
Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov and Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander in “Heated Rivalry.”
Though the end of the show’s six-episode first season run is near, Crave and HBO Max announced that a second season is on the horizon.
“‘Heated Rivalry’ represents the very best of what Canadian creators can deliver: rich characters, compelling drama and a world audiences want to live in,” Justin Stockman, vice president of content and programming at Bell Media, which owns Crave, said in a statement announcing the show’s renewal. “The response has been extraordinary, and seeing the series now traveling internationally is an incredible milestone.”
It’s worth noting that the show comes from Canada. While HBO Max streams the series simultaneously in the U.S., it was only three years ago when, after being acquired by Discovery, layoffs and budget cuts at Warner Bros. impacted nonwhite, nonmale and queer executives and creatives the most. Moreover, in the wake of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI push and open hostility to the LGBTQ+ community, Canadians deserve proper applause for this show.
To the credit of Storrie and Williams, they have done a remarkable job promoting the series and the obvious friendship they have bulit as a result of it.
That chemistry has stoked speculation about their sexuality, which, I suppose, is understandable given the lack of queer roles for queer actors.
On the other hand, Williams, who notes the chatter is “just the nature of celebrity,” is right to maintain he deserves something for himself.
“I think there’s never a question for me, when I would dream of becoming in the public eye, that I would want just a level of privacy,” he told Deadline. “But of course, I agree. I want queer people telling queer stories, but also, there’s the element of Connor and I — we’re best friends, and we love expressing that physically.”
Though it remains to be seen what the success of “Heated Rivalry” will do for other queer representation, it can already credibly claim to be one of the most impactful queer TV shows ever.
“Heated Rivalry” is streaming on HBO Max.
