By Lucy Hansen
Managing Editor
If you’ve been in the media lately you’ve heard about Heated Rivalry. The Canadian sensation that exploded overnight is everywhere, and you can’t escape it. However the popularity didn’t come until the season was almost at its end. At first there were no massive promotional campaigns or celebrity interviews announcing its release. Instead the show was quietly released to HBO, competing for attention with every other big-bidget series.
At first, their audience was small. The initial viewers who found Heated Rivalry were often reluctant to even admit they had seen it due to the explicit nature of the show. However, as the show began gaining popularity online, viewers were quickly able to look past it and dive into the intrinsic storyline, tension, and character development illustrated.
Leads Hudson Williams (Shane Hollander) and Connor Storrie (Ilya Rosanov) both portrayed their breakout roles beautifully. And it did not take long for the media and the world to become obsessed with them. Williams and Storrie have experienced some of the fastest rising stardom in history and there’s no indication that their fame is dying anytime soon.
Heated Rivalry has infiltrated much more than just the cinematic world. Mentions of the show have now appeared in late night TV, major league sports coverage, politics, and it even has positive reactions from sides of the internet that one wouldn’t expect.
It might have just been a story about a sports team and a 10 year long situationship, but it is also one of the few queer stories that has actually made it mainstream and has not been overrun by stigma and stereotypes. A huge reason for this is that the series was produced by Accent Aigu Entertainment and Crave, two smaller production companies.
The success of this series shows one thing: viewers crave new, exciting, and interesting storylines. We need to create a space where we welcome these stories to be told. When viewers choose to support independent creators, they help shape what stories are told and whose voices are heard.
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