CONVERSATION: Heated Rivalry on Television
A lot of us here in North America will likely be shivering when this thread posts, so it seems like a good time for a little heat. If you haven’t yet read Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid or watched the Crave TV adaptation, written and directed by Jacob Tierney and now streaming on HBO, then they may be your ticket to keeping warm. Both are so chock-full of hot scenes that you might just end up fanning yourself, whether it’s winter or summer where you live.
In any case, the weather seems like as good an excuse as any to discuss Heated Rivalry, this winter’s breakout hit show. Here are some questions to start us off:
What are your thoughts and opinions on Heated Rivalry’s success and its effects on readers, hockey fans, the LGBTQ+ community, and television viewers?
How did you first encounter Ilya and Shane, the main characters? Did you read one of Rachel Reid’s books first, or watch the show?
What is your opinion of the show? Of the book(s)? Are you a fan of both, either, or neither?
If you came to the story first as a reader, what are your thoughts on the casting of Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams? How do they and their performances match your vision of Ilya and Shane?
If you’re a reader and viewer, which do you like best, the show or the book(s)?
What was your favorite episode?
If you were introduced to Shane and Ilya’s story through the show, have you read The Long Game? What did you think of it if so?
And finally: Rachel Reid will be publishing a third Ilya and Shane book, Unrivaled, later this year. What are your thoughts on that? Are you looking forward to reading it, or do you prefer to stick with The Long Game’s ending?
Please feel welcome to answer as few or many of these questions as you’d like, or to ask your own. We can’t wait to hear what you think!
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I am here for all of it. I liked the books and I really enjoyed and was touched by the TV adaption. Honestly I am not generally fond of strongly sexualized romances. However I thought that the sex in this show was necessary. It was so important to show how the initial sexual attraction slowly turned into genuine feelings and eventual love. I was so moved by the scene where Alex was speaking in Russian and telling Shane how much he loved him. All the acting in this production was first rate.
@MN Reader: I just started watching on Saturday and only watched one and a half episode so far, but I do think that actors did a great job so far. They took the work seriously ( I do confess that I was a little worried about the show becoming a parody) and I was glad.
@MN Reader: Yeah, they did a terrific job. I thought the actors really got the characters. Other than not being tall, Connor Storrie pretty much was Ilya. Hudson Williams was somewhat different from how I imagined Shane, but I actually liked him better! Both physically and as a character.
There were a few minor things where the adaptation didn’t work as well for me as the original source material. I thought the scene where Sevetlana tried to hook Ilya up with Sasha was a misstep. I didn’t understand her motive. It wasn’t necessary to the story, except to show that Ilya had matured some, and I liked the way his maturation was handled in the book better.
And in the last episode, where Ilya is referred to as having been a ladies’ man — well, we never saw that on screen! His relationship with Svetlana was a lot more meaningful than just hookups and we didn’t see him with other women otherwise, except when he was trying to get over Shane/Rose.
There were also places where I felt the show did a better job, most notably with Shane’s mother. Shane’s relationship with his mother was more complex and real, and the way that was resolved was great. And I thought the technical aspects of the show were great too, most notably the use of music.
I also agree about the scene where Ilya pours his heart out in Russian. Connor Storrie was so good in that.
Can’t wait for Season Two!
@Sirius: I’ve seen people online say that Connor Storrie’s Russian was great, can you confirm that? Apparently he learned it in just a month and a half.
I felt like I was in a fever dream for a few weeks, watching and re-watching. I followed a thread on K.J. Charles’ Discord that was dedicated to the series, and I had to unsubscribe because there were 50+ new posts every hour. Still, it was a wonderful way to get through a difficult holiday season. I read the books afterward, so I was just as shocked as everyone else when Scott went public with Kip. The books were *fine* but I don’t know that I would have considered them especially notable without the actors and director bringing them to life so perfectly.
My 34 year old intellectual communist daughter, who has never read a romance novel in her life, loved the series too. I’m tickled that we can share the experience.
@Janine: It was very good. You can hear the accent, but it was very good nevertheless.
I read Heated Rivalry when it first came out, and while I liked the characters, I didn’t think the writing was that great. I reread parts of it since the series came out and stand by my opinion that the book is more telling than showing. I realize this is not a popular opinion.
I don’t have HBO so I’ve watched as many clips of the show as I can find (which is sadly limited) and think what I’ve seen of the acting is phenomenal. I’m really hoping for a DVD release. I don’t think HBO ever does them but it seems Crave does. I’ll be all over that.
From the limited amount I’ve been able to see, the show is showing the story the book was telling.
I think it’s pretty amazing that they managed to find two such talented unknowns. One would’ve been great, but finding two … It makes you wonder how many other talented actors are out there laboring to be discovered.
@Janine: I don’t think he “learned it” learned it. He learned how to speak the words. Which seems a little more reasonable than actually “learning” Russian in that short a time.
I saw an interview where he said Russian extras tried to converse with him, and he had to tell them he understood only a little. He’s an amazing actor. I looked him up on IMDB, and some of the stuff he’s been in, you can’t even tell it’s him. He acts with his whole being – body, face, voice – and practically becomes another person.
I was haunting instagram for a while there. I learned also that Jacob Tierney is friends with Rainbow Rowell who (I think?) writes romance so it tracks that he’d be good at adapting romance.
I forgot to mention that unless I will read amazing reviews I am not planning to read the third book about them. I do not believe that this was originally planned and I do not particularly care about writing “for the movies only” if that makes sense. All the power in the world to the writer who gets a chance to earn more money, but I am not very interested.
@Sirius: “I do confess that I was a little worried about the show becoming a parody”
That is always a worry when it comes to romance adaptations. I’ve always cringed when I hear about one. I think there’s going to be a flurry of them now, and I kind of dread it.
@Sirius: Same
@SusanS and @MaryK: I agree there are some weaknesses to Rachel Reid’s writing and while I liked Heated Rivalry a lot and LOVED The Long Game, I can see some of the points you’re making, MaryK.
I find Rachel Reid to be a wildly uneven writer, I thought Game Changer was a terrible book and couldn’t finish it, while on the other hand I felt, and still feel, that The Long Game is brilliant and has the best depiction of depression that I’ve ever come across in genre fiction. I speak from an #ownvoices persepective on that – Reid captures aspects of depression that I just don’t see depicted much, like the utter loneliness even among a group of friends, and the acute need for physical contact. The vulnerability and fragility.
Anyway… while I agree some aspects of Reid’s writing aren’t great — she can be unsubtle and I also sometimes feel she objectifies the male body, which in a book about queer men that’s written by a woman, can be problmeatic — I think she is a master of dialogue. And this is borne out in the TV show, because having read the books mulitple times, I’m pretty sure that at least 90% of the dialogue in the screenplay is taken verbatim from the books. No wonder Tierney decided to adapt them; the work of crafting great dialogue was already done.
@MaryK: I used to do theater — more backstage than onstage, I was just okay as an actress, at least relative to other people who were bitten by the bug — and I can tell you that there are a lot of unbeliebably talented actors who haven’t gotten a big break and probably never will. It’s an incredibly competitive profession. So many peope want to be in it and there aren’t that many opportunities per capita. It’s inevitable that no matter how talented you are, your odds of finding success are small. It takes a lot of ambition, perserverence, pavement pounding, hustling, and networking to succeed, and you can even do all that plus have talent, and never succeed anyway. I lived in LA for fifteen years and when I took Ubers, I met actors, screenwriters and once, a stand up comic, who made their living driving cars.
@Janine: The depression part of TLG is what has made me pass on it. I’m too empathetic when I read so if there’s a lot of depression I’ll get depressed.
I did like the dialogue. I think if there’d been more dialogue I’d’ve liked it better. Too much of it was internalized for my tastes. Tierney and the actors were amazing in how they were able to convey all of those internal feelings externally. With the caveat, of course, that my experience is only with the highlights that’ve been clipped to instagram and YouTube.
There’s a hockey podcast* (I’ll have to look up the name) run by three brothers that reviewed each episode and did a live watch of at least one. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but they went viral for their totally invested reactions.
*Empty Netters
@MaryK: For sure, the book had its melancholy moments, but I found it hopeful rather than depressing. Partly because I felt seen, but also because it showed that depression may not completely go away, but it can be managed and ameliorated and life can be good and worth living even when you have it. Which I have found to be true. Based on how it ended, I expect that Unrivaled will not be melancholy, but we’ll see.
I know what you mean about feeling empathy for characters in books because I cry very easily when I read sad sections, and have been known to go through half a box of tissues and sometimes even to sob. For me it’s cathartic (crying literally releases bad chemicals from your body, which is part of why we sometimes feel better after a good cry) and so I actually really like it, but I know it’s not that way for everyone. And I struggle a lot with books (outside the romance genre) that have bleak endings – those have been known to put me into clinical depression.
Thanks for the heads up about the podcast! I will check it out.
@MaryK: I forgot to add – Rainbow Rowell mostly writes YA, but from what I understand some of it is quite romantic.
@MaryK: Everyone said that after Bridgerton hit it big but there weren’t any other historical romance series after it debuted, as far as I’m aware. I think this will be a bit different though, because contemporary romance is a lot more popular at the moment than historical, and because historical movies and television shows are notoriously expensive to make. Sets, costumes, props, etc. don’t come cheap.
Speaking of — I saw that Jacob Tierney said that they left out the building that Shane bought exclusively to have sex with Ilya in secret because they couldn’t afford to pay for another set. I have a feeling that the budget for season two will be bigger.
I found the series mirrored my reading experience pretty closely. I was a little ambivalent about the first section but totally invested when it came to the relationship stuff. So episode 5 (and then 6) was definitely my favourite. I thought the ending was perfect.
The actors were fantastic, I thought the show was very clever with their editing and camera work to save money* without losing the atmosphere and the overall adaptation was excellent.
*for example, there are loads of tiktoks about how they never showed the audience/journalists in the awards show/press conference scenes because they didn’t have the budget but watching it, it didn’t look fake or cheap. Very clever.
Season 2 is going to be amazing I think. I hope they stick to what they do well and don’t try go over the top just because they’ll have a bigger budget.
I’ll read book 3. I’m not sure its necessary but I’ll read it and review it and let you all know what I think!
@Kaetrin: As with the books, I liked the whole thing but I agree the last two episodes were stellar. I loved the first one , too, but I did struggle a bit with watching the sex scenes. I am used to reading sexy scenes in books but on screen they are harder for me to get used to.
The actors were great, I agree, but I actually did feel that one of the award shows looked a bit off without an audience. It took me a moment to realize that it was an actual award show.
Fingers crossed for season 2, since The Long Game was my favorite of the two books. I doubt they’ll go OTT — it doesn’t seem like Jacob Tierney’s style — though it is true that sometimes limitations like a smaller budget force artists to think creatively, which can actually result in better work.
I wonder what they’ll do with fitting Troy’s storyline into The Long Game. Role Model is my third favorite book in the series (and really my only other favorite, since I wasn’t impressed with Game Changer, Tough Guy, or Common Goal) and I think that unlike with Game Changer, it will be harder to fit into a single episode. Also, Troy and his storyline play a bigger role in TLG than Scott’s storyline does in Heated Rivalry. It would work better to have a Role Model season first, before one based on TLG, but with fans clamoring for more Shane and Ilya, I don’t know if the showrunner will want to do that.
Agreed re book 3. I just hope it doesn’t ruin the perfect ending of TLG. Then again, I had that fear about the second book, too, that it would ruin the ending of HR (which was in some ways even more perfect), and it didn’t happen. So I have some faith in Rachel Reid. She has also said that the third book will be more external-conflict based — Shane and Ilya happy, but having to overcome the adversity that is (I think) fallout from the scandal of their relationship. I’m not sure if that can be enough to sustain an entire book, but I’m glad she’s not going to manufacture more conflict between them.
I forgot to come back to say that I really loved the show, and yes, two last episodes were my favorites. Even if I got that they were initially communicating mostly through sex, I should not be kidding myself, if they did not become more self aware ( no, we do not hate each other, we actually may love each other), I would not have liked it as much. But the actors, the actors! Such a great work, such wonderful chemistry. Happy sigh.