Queer hockey drama Heated Rivalry premieres on Sky Atlantic

Heated Rivalry, a Canadian queer hockey series, premieres on Sky Atlantic on Saturday 10 January at 9pm. The show was created for Canadian streamer Crave and follows two star players drawn to one another amid media scrutiny.

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov — players from Montreal and Moscow respectively — are played by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, and the review notes the co-leads begin their relationship almost immediately, in a not-quite meet-cute in a shower room. The series is described as audacious in making ice hockey sexy, with bold but not gratuitous sex scenes and a visual focus on the athletes’ bodies and luxury settings. The review also says the show has become a runaway success in the US, with clips circulating widely on social media.

The series frames sport as a repressively macho arena: Rozanov is shown struggling with family issues he cannot share and Hollander is guarded by concerns about sponsorship and reputation. Intimacy is treated as a form of power play that reflects the characters’ public standing, and the pair are largely kept apart by international fixtures, meeting around matches, shoots and awards — “See you next season” becomes their refrain. Whether the story ends in a fairytale resolution or trauma is left for viewers to discover, though the review says the show gains depth and humour as it progresses over years and could serve as a star vehicle for Storrie.

Key Topics

Culture, Heated Rivalry, Montreal, Moscow, Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie