Heated Rivalry - The Fandom that Swept your FYP
If you are reading my blog, chances are you have seen me scream, giggle, jump up and down, and cry on social media all month long. As I wrap up this year, my heart is filled with so much joy because my favorite book was turned into the most beautiful TV adaptation to ever grace the screen (in my humble opinion, of course…). Obviously, I’m talking about: Heated Rivalry.
The reason I do the work I do, is that fundamentally, down to my toes, I am a fan. When I love something, I love it out loud. I think this is something that people often pick up on quickly when they meet me; I am the happy, loud, passionate one.
And what I’ve seen this month is that the fans surrounding Heated Rivalry were a happy, loud, and passionate bunch as well. Each day the popularity and scope of this show grew exponentially, highlighting to me that the show had an incredible impact on the viewers.
When I first read the book Heated Rivalry, its impact on me was significant: it was the first MM romance book I ever read and it fundamentally changed my perspective on reading smut because up until that point the smut that I had been reading was directly correlated to lived experiences that I had had or could have. But reading stories that will never be your lived experience (aka reading MM romances as a woman) allows you to relate to any character in the story, instead of automatically inserting yourself into the shoes of the heroine. It also extends your empathy for what is not your lived experience. And that is impactful.
The fact that the Heated Rivalry TV show was well received did not shock me. What did, however, was the SHEER VOLUME of people who acknowledged its impact!
I knew something was brewing when I saw the staggering viewership my tiktoks were getting, and slowly but surely the amount of content that started to flood my FYP surrounding the show. However, I think the real scope of the situation hit me when I started getting texts from the most unlikely of family members and friends, asking me for info on this new “gay hockey show”.
But why am I telling you all this?
Because Heated Rivalry is more than just a good show with surprisingly graphic sex. It's a testament to the hunger for authentic stories and a rubric for representing sexual stories.
Many people were quick to make assumptions after episodes 1 and 2, with comments such as, “Will this story just be about sex?” or “OMG, I love this super slutty, new show!” But luckily, most people were able to see the engaging story that lived within the nooks and crannies of the sex scenes.
At its core, the love story between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rosanov shows that deep emotional intimacy can be incited and preceded by physical intimacy. Theirs is a story that starts with sexual exploration and grows into profound self-acceptance and emotional intimacy. Yet, the emotional catharsis of their love story would not have been possible without their sexual relationship.
And the world got it.
I not only received thousands of comments, but also saw millions on social media, praising this story for giving the audience an honest look at relationships. We got love, romance, pining, yearning as well as lust, exploration, and desire. We also got ten-minute-long sex scenes with naked characters expressing raw emotions of arousal, curiosity, joy, anxiety, and fear. The cameras did not cut away from this aspect of the relationship, or make it more palatable. It was raw and unfiltered.
Here is why I think this happened: it goes back to the beginning. It's a great book and it was brought to the screen by a fan.
The source material Heated Rivalry, and the entire Game Changers book series contains stories focused on intimacy - both physical and emotional. Each story has its own unique take on the topic. My friend, Lucas Haviland, a filmmaker and book enthusiast, beautifully and concisely categorizes them as follows:
Book 1 - Sexual Romance
Book 2 - Sexual Awakening/Identity
Book 3 - Sexual Acceptance
Book 4 - Sexual Experience/Learning
Book 5 - Sexual Redemption
Book 6 - Sexual Realignment
To get the full breadth of this assessment I highly recommend you read the entire series. But, for today, what matters is the understanding that Reid's books don't just have sex in them to make them hot. Her books uncover fundamental truths about her characters through sex.
This is something people constantly try to diminish. I hear it daily when explaining the work that I do. I hear it in the skepticism of people’s voices or in the emotions they can't seem to conceal on their faces. And that's okay. But we can't take the sex out of Heated Rivalry, no matter how much Hollywood standards want us to believe that. This show only works because a fan who truly understood the necessity of sex within the story was the one bringing it to the screen.
Writer/Director Jacob Tierney had to be outspoken, passionate, and brave about the things that he loved in this story. He was brave enough to reach out to the author and be honest about his passion for the story in order for Reid to trust him with his adaptation. And then he had to bring that same love and passion into every meeting, pitch, writing session, casting call, shoot date, and post production meeting.
To be a fan is not easy. You have to constantly champion something through questions, doubt and reservation - sometimes even coming from yourself - every single day.
In the end, Tierney’s passion paid off. His efforts brought together Chala Hunter's heartfelt intimacy coordination, Jackson Parell’s stunning cinematography, and Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams' moving performances. They all culminated in a breath-taking show that became an international obsession.
In a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under attack again, and the world in general looks pretty bleak, seeing Shane and Ilya move from steamy sexual encounters to veiled Russian love declarations and time at the cottage, stirred to life a deep joy in the millions of fans who all witnessed and shared in the unfolding of this story. And that, my friends, is impactful!
