To start off this blog I figured I’d open with the show that has been taking the world and the girls and gays by storm. it’s everyone’s new favorite part hockey, but mostly sexy smut show, Heated Rivalry.
Truth be told, I maybe wasn’t the biggest fan of the series because initially I felt like the first two episodes were overly focused on the hooking up and not the connective tissue of a relationship. I wanted to know so much more about these characters, who they were, their backgrounds but as the season and story has progressed I think they’re finishing incredibly strong.
Heated Rivalry sits in such an underrepresented space in gay media and speaks to something I will touch on later but I often think there is this unfair assumption that if you’re gay it means you couldn’t enjoy sports, or that you couldn’t possibly like what people would consider traditional masculine activities and as somebody who does, it’s always been so frustrating.
To my knowledge, this is perhaps the first gay show to break through the zeitgeist, where we are now seeing straight led hockey podcasts reviewing each episode and whole sports bars filled with people group watching the new episode and it’s been really awesome.
There’s certainly been popular gay shows before but they’ve always been stuck in a containment of sorts for just the girls and gays to talk about, a niche product only appealing to so many people. This smashes that (hope we see more shows like that)
I haven’t fully decided how I’ll handle reviews on this blog, I think I’ll give the big moment highlights versus the play by play, moment to moment synopsis, but we will see going forward.
While the first two episodes were largely about Shane and Ilya unending hook ups, two characters stuck, unable to admit what is truly drawing them together. We got to see two people operating almost on pure physical pull, brain chemistry doing what brain chemistry always does.
Episode Five gives us some of their best moments and character work, it shows us what happens when people run out of places to hide from themselves and have to actually accept the truth.
Shoutout to the MVP, and GOAT gay ally of this episode Rose, who knows Shane may love the idea of her but can’t actually be in love with her. It’s such a beautiful tender moment when she gives Shane the permission to come out, and he takes it. I absolutely loved Rose asking if he’s ever been with a guy and he silently nods yes, this moment is intercut with scenes from when him and Ilya are together … she then asks him if it was better, he answers “of course” as more flashbacks of Ilya and him play … the whole scene just so wholesome. Also shout out to Shane acknowledging he’s the bottom in this moment.
A while later Shane finally tells Ilya he can’t keep pretending he doesn’t love him. Ilya isn’t as confident in this moment and unfortunately sort of rebuffs him. Later, when Ilya’s father, who has been sick, dies and everything goes to absolute shit with his family in Russia, he calls Shane and just unloads, in Russian (side note: this was clearly pages of dialogue in a language Connor Storrie didn’t speak before being cast in this role, and yet to my ear, he’s delivering it perfectly) He talks about his family using him for his money, about loving Svetlana … but not the way he loves Shane, and that he doesn’t know what to do about it. Shane who obviously doesn’t speak Russian can’t understand any of it but we are blessed with such a subtle moment from Hudson Williams, who played it exactly right – his character knows something huge is being said even if the words spoken aren’t understood, and yeah I really liked this moment.
Then the ending of the episode. Shane, still recovering from a season-ending injury, asks Ilya to spend the off season summer together at his cottage. Ilya says no because that’s sort of what Ilya does … although in a way it’s understandable, their hidden relationship has all the typical pressures of being in the closet, but in the background is of course Ilya being from Russia, which makes everything so much more complicated because Russia.
But then Scott Hunter, who we met previously in episode 3, wins the Cup and the entire dynamic flips.
The camera finds Scott looking into the stands, alone while everyone else is celebrating with their loved ones on the ice. Tension is thick as he waves Kip down onto the ice … embracing him, and then finally, kissing him … on national television in front of everyone.
Scott went first.
He showed it was possible to be your authentic and true self. If anything comes from the popularity of this show I hope it’s exactly that: spaces traditionally thought of as straight can be enjoyed by and participated in by those who are not, too.
We then get to watch Ilya watching and we can see the whole calculation change. He calls Shane and we finally hear the words “I am coming to the cottage.”
All it took was one guy on another team deciding he’s done hiding and the entire future has changed. I can’t wait for the future episodes of these characters and where things go, I and hopefully so many of us will be seated.
GAYDUCATION 