Truth about Heated Rivals, by SARAH VINE. The gay hockey romance has caused hysteria among straight women. I've watched the X-rated show and this is why... it's NOT what you expect
Are you into gay porn? If not, I would proceed with caution when watching the hot new show of the moment, Heated Rivalry, which premieres, preceded by much hype, fanfare and Reddit rabbit holes, in the UK this weekend.Me, I'm not especially into porn, gay or otherwise, but having watched four episodes I now consider myself fully versed in the ways of Greek love. I have eyed more prime rump than my local butcher, witnessed more hoses being vigorously pumped than at my local petrol station, endured more horizontal tangos than an X-rated edition of Strictly.To summarise: Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) is a clean-cut, fresh-faced young Canadian ice-hockey champion; Connor Storrie is his moody, chiselled, world-weary Russian counterpart, Ilya Rozanov. Their rivalry on the ice is as fiery as their passion in the bedroom.Initially Ilya leads the running, seducing the puppy-like Shane and introducing him to a world of previously unimagined carnal delights. Later, Ilya shows his more vulnerable side (his abusive, drug-addled brother who treats him like a cashpoint, his ailing father) and the cultural abyss between them comes into play.There is a great deal of meaningful glances, biting of lips, general heavy breathing, semi-naked gym action and quite a lot of sweaty crotch shots before the pair get down to more explicit business. From there on in, it's a whirlwind of intense ball play culminating in breathless bedroom encounters. Hilariously, Shane keeps his pristine white socks on throughout most of it.Having premiered across the Pond last November, the show has gained steadily in popularity, becoming a huge viral hit. As a result, it's had more gushing column inches (pun intended) written about it by the bien-pensant streaming classes than even last year's Adolescence.Rolling Stone called it a 'word-of-mouth sensation'; Variety dubbed it 'the year's biggest TV surprise'; Newsweek: 'the unexpected TV conversation of the moment'. Even the dear old Radio Times noted that it is 'hard to fathom just how quickly Heated Rivalry took the world by storm'. Connor Storrie plays the moody, chiselled, world-weary Russian, Ilya Rozanov Shane Hollander, portrayed by Hudson Williams, is a clean-cut, fresh-faced young Canadian ice-hockey championI must confess myself also somewhat baffled by this level of hysteria. The show is good, but it's not extraordinary. Or especially groundbreaking. Russell T Davies did something very similar back in the late Nineties with Queer as Folk, exploring the lives and romantic dilemmas of three gay men in Manchester. Arguably, his take was more entertaining, certainly more original and a good deal more daring, given the times.Nevertheless, there are some compelling and timeless themes – star-crossed lovers, forbidden love – and complex emotional dynamics, intelligently explored. The acting is excellent (I have no doubt it will make stars of its young protagonists, especially Storrie, who plays the Russian Rozanov), the script is witty, and it's shot with undeniable elegance and artfulness. And you do end up becoming invested in the characters. But at the end of the day, the excessive and pornographic sex just makes it a very hard watch it. For me, at any rate.In fact, in many ways, the sex ruins it. It gets in the way of the drama, and makes it seem like the narrative is just a flimsy framework on which to hang the smut. Which is a great shame, because it's better than that.But I suppose that's what you get when you are pitching to a generation that grew up watching hardcore porn on the internet. Most people are now so desensitised to this stuff it doesn't bother them. The fact that it bothered me probably just marks me out as an incorrigible old prude. Especially since, we are told, the show has been an especially big hit with female audiences.This I do find baffling. For a start, there are no interesting female characters in the show, only cliches. Shane's mother, Yuna (Christina Chang) is a blunt (and arguably slightly racist) caricature of the pushy tiger mum, the kind of woman who orders salmon and brown rice for her son in restaurants and spends her entire time brokering lucrative sponsorship deals. Heated Rivalry is a whirlwind of intense ball play culminating in breathless bedroom encounters, writes Sarah Vine In many ways, the sex ruins it. It gets in the way of the drama, and makes it seem like the narrative is just a flimsy framework on which to hang the smutIlya has some sort of female love interest on the back burner, again an NPC (non-player character) who seems to spend most of her time snorting drugs in her underwear. There is an archetypal gay best friend. But otherwise, it's mostly hot men in various stages of arousal. Women don't really come into it (well, not as far as I have watched anyway).And yet, the show is based on a series of books written by a woman (Rachel Reid) and the viewing figures show it has undeniably struck a chord with female audiences. If I had to say why, I would surmise a combination of prurience and romantic displacement.Quite simply, the male characters are just very nice to look at and you get to see an awful lot of them. But perhaps more importantly, the dynamic between Ilya and Shane mirrors most heterosexual relationships, with Shane occupying the more gentle, feminine (needy, sensitive, thoughtful, emotional) role and Ilya the traditionally male (more forceful, dangerous, mercurial, aggressive, troubled) role.Theirs is an intense, sometimes destructive relationship, fraught with cultural complexity (Ilya is very much from the wrong side of the tracks, whereas Shane is pretty much a choir boy) and cultural barriers (Shane is terrified about anyone finding out). And as such this is the stuff of every romance, from Wuthering Heights to Mills & Boon. It's just played out in a different context.As Storrie, who plays Ilya, himself said in an interview, the show, despite being about gay men, is geared towards a 'more feminine gaze'. It's not just the sex, it's the moments in-between, the feelings and sense of vulnerability which are universal to all relationships, and which make an audience connect.That may be the secret to the show's success, but it also makes it highly derivative. After all, let us not forget that the late, great Jilly Cooper pioneered this kind of thing with her series of steamy bonkbusters set in the fictional county of Rutshire, one of which was, in fact, entitled Rivals. Swap the Cotswolds for Montreal, horses for hockey sticks and Rupert Campbell Black for the saturnine Ilya, and you're pretty much there.There's also something rather cynical and manipulative about the framing. It's almost as though someone had asked ChatGPT to write a romance designed to tickle as many hashtags as possible, for maximum viral impact. Sports fans: tick; woke Canadians: tick; fans of romantic fiction: tick; gym bros: tick. Frustrated, doom-scrolling mid-life women: tick. Horny gay men: tick.Then again, isn't that just the way of the world these days? Aren't we all, at the end of the day, just slaves to the algorithm? Forget decency, censorship is for losers. All that matters these days is breaking the internet. And by that criterion, this show is destined to be a winner.
