HBO Max's New Big Hit Is A Must-Watch Hockey Romance Series With A Smutty Twist

Executives are constantly trying to figure out what kind of programming will keep audiences glued to their screens, and in our current era, the answer is to connect a series to existing, already-popular intellectual property. HBO Max's Stephen King prequel series "It: Welcome to Derry" continues to crush it in the ratings, and both "The Last of Us" and anything related to George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones" are awards darlings for the service. But HBO Max's latest hit isn't a show it produced in-house; it's one it merely acquired the United States streaming rights to from the Canadian platform Crave, the same folks that gave us huge hits like Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney's "Letterkenny" and "Shoresy." It's the latter of the aforementioned duo who's at the helm of the buzzy (and spicey) "Heated Rivalry," an adaptation of Rachel Reid's mega-popular queer, smutty hockey romance novels packed to the brim with anatomical enthusiasm.

Social media has already lost its collective mind over the first two available episodes, and the fervent fanbase on BookTok has been feral for these characters for over five years. And truly, who can blame them? The series centers on eight years of secret hookups between two devastatingly attractive hockey rivals — Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) — who trade smoldering glances on the ice, only to devour each other in secret. The TV adaptation captures the same steamy energy of the book, with the story anchored by two leads whose chemistry is so combustible I'm amazed the set didn't violate fire codes.

HBO Max subscribers are now practically foaming at the mouth for the next episode. And to think "Heated Rivalry" didn't have confirmed distribution stateside less than a month ago (and was announced just a week before airing).

Jacob Tierney wrote the script for "Heated Rivalry" on spec and remarked during an interview with Episodic Medium that he and executive producer Brendan Brady talked with several third-party financiers and studios that would have been great to work with, but that they received notes that would have fundamentally changed the story or tone of the series. Tierney noted the majority of queer romance adaptations like "Heartstopper" are focused primarily on the Young Adult demographic, but this is a series about adults, for adults. The sex is explicit by design and a necessary part of telling this story. "Sex is character development; it's not just a random sex scene in every episode," Tierney explained. "They learn about each other, and they learn about themselves through this."

Given that the NHL has precisely zero out gay players (the series uses the fictional Major League Hockey [MLH] for obvious reasons), the show's commitment to making its central relationship both hidden and gloriously horny is pretty radical. It's a show about hunky dudes exploring each other's bodies, yes, but it's also a dissection of masculinity in the only professional men's sports league to not have any openly gay players. The secrecy between Hollander and Rozanov isn't just a tool for forbidden romance; it's a necessity to validate the homophobic culture that they find themselves ensnared in. This is precisely what drew fans to the book series in the first place, beyond the desire to read queer smut. A lot of the decision-makers saw "Heated Rivalry" as a gamble, but the creative team knew the truth. "These fans are going to be the reason why this show breaks through," Brady declared. "They are the core audience that is going to help drive a larger audience to this project."

Only two episodes (and an alleged nine inches) deep, "Heated Rivalry" isn't exactly Crosby/Ovechkin slashfic brought to life, but as their romance rockets forward thanks to the show's time-hopping habit (whole seasons of hockey vanish while their codenames "Jane" and "Lily" exchange increasingly wild thirst texts while on the road), every message drips with the energy of two people pretending they're not already in a relationship. On this show, hockey is glorified foreplay, and Tierney's knack for wordplay gives all-new meaning to locker room talk and the need to practice stick-handling. But whenever our lovebirds reunite, their competitive crackle turns the bedroom into a private overtime period. Their pillow talk resembles a pre-game huddle; last-name banter, breathless strategy notes, and all.

The series has been trending nonstop on social media and is currently one of the most-watched shows on HBO Max. The fact that this titillating tale of on-ice rivals finding love and identity through mutual orgasms should be a surprise to no one, but it is once again another instance of people failing to recognize the power of media popular with LGBTQIA+ viewers and women. As the industry continues to capitulate to conservatism and the completely biased perspective of homophobic focus groups rather than the actual consumers of queer media, the explosive success of "Heated Rivalry" is undeniable evidence that audiences yearn for these stories, and the Canadian team behind the series knew exactly what they were doing from the beginning. It even has me, a lifelong Chicago Blackhawks fan (and a card-carrying lesbian), swooning for a guy who plays for Boston. 

"Heated Rivalry" is available on Crave and HBO Max. New episodes are released on Fridays at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT.