Heated Rivalry became “a word-of-mouth sensation” (according to Rolling Stone, external), “the year’s biggest TV surprise” (Variety, external) and “the unexpected TV conversation of the moment” (Newsweek, external).
It is “hard to fathom just how quickly Heated Rivalry took the world by storm”, Radio Times, external said last month.
The sex is “almost constant” and it’s “no exaggeration to say that far more of the show takes place between the sheets than on the ice”, David Opie wrote.
But he added: “As naughty as the show can be, it’s also rather moving at points… Heated Rivalry is as authentic in its feelings as it is in its approach to gay sex, something which mainstream productions rarely nail.”
That view was echoed elsewhere. The show “resonates because it embodies our lives”, Jim Downs wrote in the New York Times, external.
“If you want to understand why this show has become our community’s equivalent of a cultural earthquake, the answer is that watching a gay couple be mildly boring and in love is still radical,” he said.
Commentators have noted that both the show and the books have attracted a large female audience (the “wine moms”, as writer-director Jacob Tierney has dubbed them, external).
“But so much attention to female fandom… risks overshadowing what a bountiful gift Heated Rivalry is to the gays,” wrote David Rooney in the Hollywood Reporter, external. “That becomes increasingly apparent as each successive episode taps into richer veins of queer experience concerning the fight between desire and self-denial.”
He added: “The combination of sex-positivity and swoony romantic wish-fulfillment makes Heated Rivalry hugely satisfying, taking it far beyond the notion of ‘Canadian gay hockey smut,’ as it’s been reductively called.”
