Heated Rivalry

What is Heated Rivalry about?

Shane Hollander is the quiet, disciplined face of the Montreal franchise. Ilya Rozanov is the loud, charming Russian star in Boston. On the ice they are sold to the league as enemies. Off it, for the better part of a decade, they are each other's secret: hotel rooms after road games, nothing said out loud, two closeted men in a sport built to make sure nothing ever is. Adapted from Rachel Reid's Game Changers novels by Jacob Tierney for Crave, the series takes the part most sports romances skip, the long middle where neither man can name the thing they are doing, and makes that the whole story. Hudson Williams plays Shane as someone whose control is the only thing holding his life together, and Connor Storrie plays Ilya as a man who uses charm the way other people use a locked door. It is explicit, and the explicitness is doing work: the sex is the only place either of them tells the truth. My honest opinion is that it is better than the discourse around it, because it refuses to treat the closet as a misunderstanding that a good conversation could fix. The obstacle is an entire industry, and the show never pretends otherwise.

It is the rare adaptation that understands why the book worked and does not sand the edges off it.

Is Heated Rivalry based on a book?

Yes. It is adapted from Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid.

Heated Rivalry Season 2: What we know

Crave has confirmed a second season adapting The Long Game, the fourth Game Changers novel, which follows Shane and Ilya past the secret and into an actual relationship. Cast and premiere date have not been announced. We update this line whenever Crave confirms something new.