Letterkenny veteran Jacob Tierney wrote and directed the six-part series about two rising hockey stars who fall passionately in love.
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin entered the NHL in 2005. For more than 20 years, the Canadian star and his Russian counterpart have waged one of the greatest rivalries in the sport. They've won titles, medals, and scoring crowns, and both are still playing (with the same franchises that drafted them), having earned their place among hockey's all-time elite.
Creator: Jacob Tierney
Stars: Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Callan Potter
That's the underlying premise at the heart of HBO Max and Crave's new six-part romantic drama, Heated Rivalry, based on the book by Rachel Reid and written and directed by Letterkenny veteran Jacob Tierney. Don't expect many direct similarities to Letterkenny, though. Heated Rivalry may have some comedic elements, as relationships between passionate men are often entertaining, but it's a sincere and passionate adult love story: less The Cutting Edge and more Challengers, without the annoying "Zendaya" point.
Critics have only seen the first two episodes of the season, making it difficult to predict how some of my reservations about the narrative will play out. But so far, Heated Rivalry is sensual, daring, very Canadian, and will satisfy viewers looking for holiday flirting (and more) without a trace of holiday content. And while it's not exactly a Crosby/Ovechkin-style slasher flick, it could certainly be interpreted as such.
Our young protagonists, who appear at semi-regular intervals as they jump from amateur hockey duels to the fictional MLS draft and the competitive schedule, are the promising young players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie).
Shane, an affable Canadian, is the cornerstone of his national team and is drafted by the Montreal Metros, while Ilya, the anchor of the Russian team, is a seemingly sullen bad boy, drafted by the Boston Raiders.
Besides being the two biggest rising stars in the sport, both Shane and Ilya face immense external pressure.
Shane has a very involved mother (Christina Chang), who is eager to help promote and monetize his innovative biracial celebrity, as well as a less aggressive and intrusive father (Dylan Walsh).
Meanwhile, in Russia, Ilya's family faces various financial difficulties and high expectations related to the Motherland celebrations and other events.
The league wants to forge a rivalry between them, as the sport's rising stars. They are expected to hate each other, but they soon discover that the chemistry between them is not based on animosity.
There's a way of spacing out the narrative that could have propelled Heated Rivalry as a "they'll get together" relationship drama that would have stretched out at least through the first season, perhaps culminating in a chaste kiss at the season one finale.
That's not Tierney's approach. Within 10 minutes, Ilya and Shane share late-night workout sessions (stationary bikes, etc., at least initially) that leave them sitting across from each other, sweaty and breathless, sharing a water bottle with an initially tentative handshake while sizing each other up with words and glances. It's hardly any time before they're embroiled in clandestine, sweaty, and breathless meetings.
The relationship develops rapidly because the show jumps around in time—sometimes months, sometimes seasons—as they exchange obscene messages (the names "Jane" and "Lily" are used as a subterfuge) and wait for the next time the schedule puts them in the same place for an All-Star Game, the Olympics, or an ice showdown between the Metros and the Raiders. We don't spend enough time with the characters separately to really want to see them together. But we know they both believe this is a budding relationship; it's not that either of them has actually used the word "relationship" in the episodes I've seen. The time jumps also allow for comparisons to Love & Basketball, which Heated Rivalry hasn't quite achieved so far, but that's a pretty good thing in terms of advantages.
Hockey, in the world of Heated Rivalry, is just a prelude. It's the forum where Shane and Ilya compete for annual awards, medals, and the Cup, but the show spends very little time on the ice. More time is spent with the characters in locker rooms and on the sidelines, with players joking around in slang that Tierney is keen to emphasize blurs the line between homosocial and homosexual. It's all wrapped up in jokes about blowjobs and penetrations, mostly told by men convinced their world is entirely heterosexual.
Comments
Post a Comment