It is quite something to see so many Americans go crazy over a gay hockey show with numerous sex scenes in 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHeated Rivalry<\/a>,\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Screenshots from this show might have you reaching for your remote or phone faster than you\u2019d care to admit. The show is full of sex scenes that are now being ranked by their <\/span>horniness<\/span><\/a> on <\/span>queer<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>mainstream<\/span><\/a> platforms. The show, much like its book, is fun and escapist and as horny as it is heartfelt. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n At a surprise appearance at Hi Tops, a gay sports bar in West Hollywood, Storrie took the mic and jokingly <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> to the adoring crowd, \u201cThank you for tweeting about our butts,\u201d before going <\/span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Indeed, their cheeks have had a whole lot to do with the show\u2019s immediate virality. \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d has been seemingly unmovable from HBO Max\u2019s Top 10 shows since its premiere in November. Season 1 sits at 96% approval on<\/span> Rotten Tomatoes<\/span><\/a> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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 \u201cFellow Travelers,\u201d I haven\u2019t seen a show that is so overtly sexual with gay characters in a long time. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n I align with Kaiya Shunyata\u2019s argument on RogerEbert.com<\/a> that \u201c\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 stands out in a wasteland of recent queer television that plays it too safe,\u201d and especially on the point that \u201cthe show is also one of this year\u2019s most enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Not everyone is impressed, however. One critic panned<\/a> the pilot episode because it \u201cplays 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Separately, in an interview with Vulture<\/a>, \u201cI Love LA\u201d star Jordan Firstman was prompted to compare the sex scenes between gay characters in his show to \u201cHeated Rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYeah, we\u2019re going for it. It\u2019s gay. I\u2019m sorry, I watched those first two episodes of \u2018Heated Rivalry,\u2019 and it\u2019s just not gay,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not how gay people fuck. There\u2019s so few things that actually show gay sex.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud of \u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d who portrays Scott Hunter, another gay hockey player trying to navigate his personal life and his professional image, wrote<\/a> in an Instagram comment: \u201cIs there only one way to have \u2018authentic\u2019 gay sex on TV? Should the sex that closeted hockey players have look like the sex that sceney LA gay guys have?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It was an appropriate response to an asinine comment from Firstman. But in some ways, it\u2019s nice to even spot such a stupid argument about gay sex in this climate. As for the Cinemax comparison, \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d is a lot more nuanced than that critique, but even if it weren\u2019t, again, it\u2019s nice to even be able to make such a comparison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though the end of the show\u2019s six-episode first season run is near, Crave and HBO Max announced that a second season is on the horizon. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201c\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 represents the very best of what Canadian creators can deliver: rich characters, compelling drama and a world audiences want to live in,\u201d Justin Stockman, vice president of content and programming at Bell Media, which owns Crave, said<\/a> in a statement announcing the show\u2019s renewal. \u201cThe response has been extraordinary, and seeing the series now traveling internationally is an incredible milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s 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<\/a> nonwhite, nonmale and queer executives and creatives the most. Moreover, in the wake of the Trump administration\u2019s anti-DEI push and open hostility to the LGBTQ+ community, Canadians deserve proper applause for this show. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That chemistry has stoked speculation about their sexuality, which, I suppose, is understandable given the lack of queer roles for queer actors. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/694181d5260000d9068372d2.jpg?cache=GJfgrWboMb&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale\")
<\/div>\n![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/6941825b1900000a0e7f4486.jpg?cache=Uugo8aCeDU&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale\")
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