Then, suddenly, my inbox was full of writers pitching me about it and my group chats were on fire about "the gay hockey show," so I figured I should check it out. I will say, as someone who is deeply allergic to tv shows that people describe as "heartwarming" or "necessary" or "a balm for our troubled times," I am very glad that the first few episodes were sold to me as simply "super fucking hot."
In keeping with Reid's books, Heated Rivalry does not hold back on the sex-not even a little. Some scenes are so unabashedly explicit that even Grindr has weighed in: The app recently posted screenshots from Episode 2, specifically a montage of Shane and Ilya sexting, paired with a caption that riffs on one of the show's now-iconic lines: "You were hard, weren't you? For how long? The whole episode?" An excellent question.