369. Why Heated Rivalry (Guest Post)

Clicking on the image above will take you to the IMDB page for Heated Rivalry; I wish I could zap you to a free place to watch the show, but it's on HBO, so you'll have to subscribe to see it. That said, you're going to want to pay the fee (for at least a month, during which you can binge) after you read the following post by my friend, Michelle Charles, who's going to be a published author someday, at which point, you can say you read one of her first published essays.

[I didn't edit her words at all, so I need to tell you, before you read, the one word in her work to which I object. She calls herself "middle-aged." Since I'm significantly older than she, and I'm middle-aged, I think it would be more apt to call her "youthful."]

Without further ado, here's her post:

Why Heated Rivalry?

Reader, I must confess, Heated Rivalry has me (a cis, white, heterosexual, middle-aged woman) in an absolute choke hold. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the HBO phenom, Heated Rivalry, adapted from the Game Changers book series by Rachel Reid. For my rock dwellers, the show follows the relationship between two rival hockey players over the course of their careers. Before I tell you “Why Heated Rivalry," there are a few things you need to know about me. First, I am a hockey fan (“Let’s Go, Bruins!”), and no one is more surprised about that fact than I am. Picture me as a bookish girl, with a tendency toward granny hobbies, and a deep love of pajamas. Not really someone who’d generally be down with a sport where people regularly throw punches and lose teeth, but it’s amazing what can happen when your child becomes obsessed with something. Second, I am an avid reader of romance novels. From the first stack of my mother’s secret stash of Danielle Steele novels that I read under my covers by flashlight at the age of twelve, I became obsessed with the promise of the genre. No matter how much conflict the characters endure, they will always find their happily ever after. And so, we find Heated Rivalry at the very unusual intersection of these two loves. Now that we’ve established a few things about me, back to our “why.”

Why watch a very lean six episode show about rival NHL players? Why bother sitting in front of the TV when you could spend your time learning a new skill, or cleaning the house, or managing one of your eight million responsibilities (I’m looking at you, laundry pile)? Why care about the love story between two closeted men, from cultural and familial backgrounds that could not be more opposite (other than the fact that they are absolutely stunning specimens of male beauty)? Why, for once, am I not inclined to scream from the rooftops that “THE BOOKS WERE BETTER!” Why? Because the romance was allowed to tell Shane and Ilya’s story in the way that only this genre can. 

At first blush, Heated Rivalry feels salacious. One episode in, and all the viewer is met with are two people who cannot seem to stay away from each other, no matter how high the stakes. The NHL is an inhospitable environment for anyone who does not identify as straight/cisgender, but despite the fear of being found out, our two main characters find ways to, ahem, connect between locker room meet-ups, back alleys, and hotel hook-ups on the road. The film quality is gritty and dark, the energy is frenetic, and everything feels like a hustle. But here’s the thing: the story arc of these six episodes, the gorgeous promise of the premise, is that the viewer, along with Shane and Ilya, will be brought from the darkness into the light.

These are dark times, my friends. All I have to do is open a news app on my phone, read a headline or two, and I want to stay hidden under the covers. The darkness threatens to swallow me whole, yet this silly little show has served as a reminder to me to speak out against the forces that keep us from being free. It has reminded me that joy is a weed that will spring through the cracks in the hardest of places. It affirms that every single person on planet Earth deserves to be loved out loud, just as they are, and that no matter how impossible a situation may seem, a happily ever after is always just within reach. So, if you’re inclined, I hope you’ll (in Shane’s famous words), “Meet me at the cottage.”

[Carita here. Also, in case you want to see the book's cover or buy the book--which Fated Mates hosts and guests call "the best sports romance ever"--click on the photo below. Last, please share your praise for Michelle and her post in the comments.]