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PORTSIDE CULTURE

HEATED RIVALRY RAISES THE BAR FOR QUEER SEX ON TV  
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Hunter Ingram
December 11, 2025
AV Club
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_ In less than two weeks, “the gay hockey show,” as so many have
generalized it, has become an out-of-nowhere phenomenon at the end of
a year in need of one. _

, Photo: Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

 

The internet has had absolutely zero chill about Crave and HBO Max’s
_Heated Rivalry._ The tweets have been on a level of horny not seen
since the first season of _Bridgerton_. The watch parties with friends
to see their reactions to the sex scenes call to mind _Game Of
Thrones_‘ run. Even the memes have been top-notch in that very
special way that makes social media tolerable for a fleeting moment.

In less than two weeks, “the gay hockey show,” as so many have
generalized it, has become an out-of-nowhere phenomenon at the end of
a year in need of one. But _Heated Rivalry_ is doing something even
more important for the culture than just turning it on. The story of
rival hockey players turned lovers Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams)
and Ilya Rosanov (Connor Storrie), in its first two episodes, is a
patchwork of one sex scene after another. Shane and Ilya aren’t out
to anyone, so their physical relationship is something they only
indulge in behind closed doors, every six months or so, when their
teams happen to be in the same town. They are sustaining themselves on
singular nights of passion, even though their feelings deepen each
time they give themselves over to the other. It is a love story built
from the bed up. For audiences who are used to series fading to black
when queer sex starts to get steamy onscreen, the uninhibited and
intentional embrace of explicit sex between these two men has grabbed
headlines faster than Shane and Ilya grab each other in their
bi-annual meetups.

It’s freaking hot. There’s no other way to put it. Seeing these
two men crash into each other with an insatiable hunger makes you want
more—and that is the beauty of what is happening here. We want more
shows like this. The sex in _Heated Rivalry _isn’t only for the
shock value, although that has certainly brought in viewers, and it is
straight out of author Rachel Reid’s books. It makes you yearn for
more, just like Shane and Ilya are. When you get something you
didn’t even know you wanted, or didn’t want to admit you needed,
it is intoxicating. And it’s why audiences are falling for this show
right out of the gate.

_Heated Rivalry_ also happens to be a very good series, and it works
for a few reasons. Williams and Storrie have some of the most intense
chemistry on TV in recent memory. The ease with which they touch each
other compulsively and instinctively, even outside of the sex scenes,
is captivating. But those scenes also work because writer-director
Jacob Tierney understands that sex is the building blocks of this
relationship. There is nothing wrong with that—and frankly, it is
true to life for some in the gay community. So letting the camera
linger on the soft and hard kisses, the moaning and the grunting, the
fumbling of legs, the thrusts and hand holding, is vital to understand
how these two men are finding themselves through each other on their
terms. It’s not often that TV is willing to admit that sex can be as
impactful as a meet-cute to a relationship, but it is nevertheless
heartening and, again, hot to see _Heated Rivalry_ not shy away from
it. And wanting more isn’t confined to the bedroom. As Shane and
Illya become more inseparable, even at a distance, you start craving
more than just sex from them too.

But this isn’t the first time in recent memory that a series has
depicted shockingly frank sex between men as a gateway to a deeper
story of love. Showtime’s _Fellow Travelers_
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put its two stars, Matt Bomer
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and Jonathan Bailey, in increasingly entangled and acrobatic positions
to hammer home just how important physical connection was to creating
their decades-long love story, fraught as it was in McCarthy-era
America.

  

But as much as viewers might want more of Shane and Ilya, the success
of _Heated Rivalry_—and _Fellow Travelers_, for that matter—serves
as an important inflection point for what is once again possible for
queer storytelling. For too long, the idea of actually showing queer
love in all its physical forms wasn’t marketable and disappeared as
quickly as it arrived. It’s an uphill climb that _Queer As Folk_,
both the U.K. and U.S. editions, faced 25 years ago. They were just as
explicit, if not more so, in their embodiment of queer sex, but they
only reached an audience that was willing to find their stories.
Similarly, HBO’s _Looking_ had its own direct approach to sex within
the gay community and remains one of the most revered (albeit
imperfect) additions to this small but mighty genre. With _Heated
Rivalry_’s ascendancy on HBO Max right around the holidays when
people are looking for escapism (it continues to make a play for the
top show on the streamer), there is a chance for these candid queer
love stories to find a bigger audience than they have in awhile. And
it’s about time.

Wisely, _Heated Rivalry_ is also wielding its sex-positive powers to
tell a variety of other stories. After its two-episode premiere left
audiences needing a minute to cool off, viewers came back ready for
more hot-and-heavy Shane and Ilya content only to find that episode
three was a completely different tale about Shane’s former teammate
Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and his budding relationship with a
smoothie barista named Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.). Their story is an
altogether distinct flavor of love in the making. They are
domesticated from the jump, hopelessly romantic without trying too
hard and rooted (mostly) outside the bedroom for now—all of which is
fully realized by Tierney in just one episode. It is also an imperfect
and fractured relationship by the end of the hour because of Scott’s
insistence to hide their relationship. This detour will be important
to Shane and Ilya’s story moving forward (as it is in Reid’s
novels), but it also showed that _Heated Rivalry_ is playing _The Long
Game_, to quote the title of one of the books in the _Game Changers
_series.

Whether audiences are foaming at the mouth for the sex or blushing for
the romance, more than one shade of queer love has found itself in
front of audiences this holiday season in a big way. _Queer As Folk
_was a pioneer in celebrating every aspect of queerness, and _Fellow
Travelers_ and _Looking_ were critical darlings that managed to cut
through even the most prejudiced detractors. _Heated Rivalry_
wouldn’t be here without its elders in this space. But just like how
older generations talk about paving the way for younger ones to carry
the baton of representation farther and faster than they ever could,
this show raises the bar for what we should expect—or rather
demand—to see more of from a changing television industry that needs
the type of excitement. The puck has been passed. Let’s see what the
gay hockey show can do with it. 

HUNTER INGRAM IS A CONTRIBUTOR TO _THE A.V. CLUB._   

* heated rivalry
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* hbo max
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* queer representation
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* queer tv
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