romance is the reason: “demystifying” heated rivalry’s popularity.
let’s start with some facts, shall we? romance is a MULTI-BILLION dollar industry. it is by far the highest earning fiction genre in literature, outselling the next closest genre (crime/mystery) by nearly double on an annual basis, with women as the primary writers, readers, and listeners. for decades, if not generations. if we extend this outside of books, women remain the primary creators, adapters, and viewers of romance movies and TV shows. if we extend this even further to fandoms, social media, edits, conventions – nearly all of it is created and voraciously consumed by WOMEN.
as we discuss the now global phenomenon that is heated rivalry, it is important for us to start there in order to point out how absurd it is that so many people are dumbfounded about women’s interest in the series, an MM queer sports romance. A WOMAN WROTE THE BOOK. WOMEN READ THE BOOK. there is no way to set the series’ popularity apart from the popularity of the romance genre, and there is no way to set the popularity of the romance genre apart from women.
in the midst of our collective dopamine spike, it’s impossible to ignore the casual and overt misogyny in the phrase “whoa, i didn’t know women would like this!” of course people didn’t or wouldn’t know. romance is a multi-billion dollar industry people are quite comfortable ignoring completely and/or treating as juvenile, nonsensical, “not really reading”, and ultimately useless, because it is what women like.
we don’t see this same level of surprise associated with mystery adaptations or comic book adaptations. no one’s asking why KNIVES OUT is popular, or wondering whether people will watch the next superman or batman or spider-man film. these are adaptations and IP-based art with massive built-in fanbases; their popularity is expected. more than that, there is lay and scholarly rigor being applied to studying these genres – to understanding the source and reference material being used to bring their adaptations to life, to inquiring about subgenres.
why not romance? it too has a massive built-in fanbase. it too has a plethora of source and reference material for its adaptations. subgenres galore.
but we know why.
WOMEN.
women write it, women read it, women want to see it.
and as a global society, we’re very comfortable ignoring what women like. even when it consistently makes an astronomical amount of money. even when it overperforms the overperformers. jacob tierney, the show’s creator, writer, and director has spoken about this ignorance specifically, with an additional emphasis on the complete lack of societal interest in what women find sexually interesting or appealing. despite romance effectively printing money year over year, care and curiosity about the genre outside of women ourselves has yet to be found. it’s also worth noting that prior to reading reid’s novels, tierney too didn’t know basically anything about the romance genre, including the popularity of queer romance written and read by women – neither did connor storrie (ilya rozanov) or hudson williams (shane hollander). but women know. we’ve always known. we know what we read. we know what we write. we know why we return to romance again and again. we fight for more access for non cis-white hetero women authors. we champion marginalized stories and voices. it is no surprise that this queer story is being shepherded by women. being watched and rewatched and analyzed and adored by women.
we know why heated rivalry is popular.
it’s the genre.
it’s us.
heated rivalry is proof of concept. it’s one of the surest we’ve ever witnessed. it is a faithful adaptation of an already popular romance novel. an adaptation brought to the screen by a filmmaker with an incredibly deft hand. it is the book onscreen. it has been particularly moving to see and hear women romance authors talk about the series, some of whom have written my favorite romance novels. to see and hear them talk about how meaningful it is for a creative to honor what they feel is core to the romance genre. to see someone care about what they write enough to want to bring exactly that to the screen. this only makes it more egregious to see the lack of curiosity about the romance genre upon the release of heated rivalry, as well as attempts to over-intellectualize romance genre conventions or speak over what romance authors and readers already know – the genre works and has been working for years. the series is doing best what the genre does best. it is popular because it is romance.
romance is the reason.
to highlight heated rivalry’s expert-level commitment to its source material and the romance genre in general, let’s review a few of the genre’s biggest conventions:
a happy ending
it’s clear many nonreaders went into the series with an expectation of trauma, sadness, and either a tearful ending or a cliffhanger for the finale, and it’s not difficult to understand why. 1) queer love stories onscreen (when we see them) tend to come tinged or drenched with trauma in attempts to mirror the realities of these very human journeys, but far too often neglect actual joy and happiness, seemingly only saved for hetero partnerships, and 2) most television shows are set up to hook audiences for the upcoming season by not fully completing a storyline. following the release of the heated rivalry finale, we’ve seen reply after reply and comment after comment noting “we need stories that have happy endings” like the ones we just witnessed.
might i introduce you to a genre that requires happy endings? the most notable convention of the romance genre is the happily ever after (HEA) or happy for now (HFN). the elation viewers are both rejoicing and crying out for already exists in every single romance novel. romance provides readers with an opportunity to witness a journey already knowing these two (or more) people will end up together. we enter with that premise. with that expectation.
in heated rivalry, tierney gives us precisely what rachel reid gives us in the novel: THE genre convention. and more than that, he provides us with two versions – a louder and bolder confession from scott and kip in episode 5, sharing their love with the world, and a quieter confession from shane and ilya in episode 6, sharing their love with one another. not only did this make for an extraordinarily satisfying finale for both romance readers and nonreaders, it makes rewatches feel like revisiting your favorite romance novel. you can jump into episode 1 again and again knowing you’re guaranteed effervescent and tender joy at the cottage – just like you can with reid’s novel.
a central love story
“ilya rozanov? shane hollander.” less than two minutes into the series, tierney delivers another genre convention – a central love story. we open with our love interests’ meet-cute and are quickly brought up to speed on the world around them. throughout the six episodes, tierney does not stray away from keeping shane and ilya’s developing love story front and center. even the inclusion of scott and kip’s story is meant to emphasize how meaningful their game-changing moment is for our central characters.
despite living in different countries, playing as rivals on different teams, and with their own personal stakes shifting and mounting, the world around shane and ilya never gets large enough to encroach on their love story. instead, it is their love story that gets bigger and more developed, that gets more and more screentime, culminating in a finale at the cottage that’s basically just them. shane and ilya win championships, and we don’t get way more hockey. ilya’s relationship with his family is imploding, and we don’t get way more russia. shane is coming to terms with his sexuality and navigating the pressure of being a biracial sports role model and we don’t get way more photoshoots or conversations with yuna or extensive time with rose. as the episodes progress, we simply get more time with shane and ilya. we find out more about what they feel for one another. we see the journeys they take to bravely stating their love out loud. tierney never pushes their love story to the side.
in far too many romance novel adaptations, we see what are supposed to be the central love stories pushed to the side by B and C and sometimes D plots, with a belief that audiences don’t only want to see love – they want to see what else is happening in the world around the main characters. but the romance genre tells us this is untrue and the swift and overwhelming popularity of the series echoes this as well – we’re here for the love story. we want to see the couple nearly all the time.
tierney approached his adaptation with romance readers and specifically readers of reid’s novel in mind. he understood his priority should be the priority of the novel, and the central love story is always the priority of a romance novel.
chemistry
the x-factor of the series is undoubtedly connor storrie and hudson williams’ electric and tender onscreen chemistry. all of us are losing our minds over what they’ve brought to our screens. however, i’m going to say something a bit controversial – that chemistry too is a genre convention. ask romance readers about their all-time favorite book couples or relationships and you’re likely going to hear them be described the way we’ve been speaking about hudson and connor’s shane and ilya. partners who can’t keep their hands off one another, with witty banter and silly jokes, providing unwavering emotional support. people who simply WANT one another. we know what it feels like for crackling chemistry to leap off the page and into our minds and hearts (as well as other parts).
we’re reacting so strongly to connor and hudson because they’ve brought the feelings we’ve believed for so long could only exist in books or in a small subset of romance TV and film to the screen in full force. we know how difficult or nearly impossible it is for actors to recreate or portray the magic we read about, and instantly know we’ve been given a gift in connor and hudson. two men who overdelivered on executing the genre convention. mirroring what we see in novels, including kisses we feel down to our toes and sex scenes that make us feel like we’re interrupting.
emotional tension
romance novels thrive on emotional tension. they’re all about the details – looks, ignores, things said, things left unsaid, miscommunication, small conversations, large revelations, text and subtext. tierney delivers onscreen tension with no pretense. for example, early in episode 1, the focus of both the 2008 and 2009 international prospect cups is an equal amount of time spent on shane and ilya seeing one another’s faces in the handshake line and saying when they’ll see each other next as there is announcing the tournaments’ winners and losers.
throughout the series, when necessary, the camera stands in for the eyes of each character, or serves as an omniscient third-person narrator. we see text messages as they’re being deleted. we see shane and ilya waiting to receive texts, or reading and deciding not to respond to texts for lengthy periods of time. the camera pushes in on faces for us to see rapidly changing emotions, blushes, tears shed and unshed, or holds on far-off stares. we wait with one character as they wait for the other to approach, building collective anticipation. we watch thumbs touch and words silently mouthed.
tierney follows the genre convention again and again, using the myriad filmmaking tools in his kit to create and emphasize emotional tension. he elevates the small details. more than that, by following the genre convention, he makes viewers have to pay more attention. if you look down or away from the screen, you will miss something. something small that’s actually huge. just like readers must read through all of the nuances of the love story in a book, tierney makes it so that you have to look at all the nuances of the love story onscreen to fully comprehend how shane and ilya’s feelings change, how their personal and collective obstacles are overcome (for now), and how they grow to come together by the finale. along with tierney, storrie and williams accomplish the nearly impossible – turning what is extensive internal dialogue in reid’s novel into camera movement and microexpression in ways that seamlessly allow viewers to understand the separate and collective journeys of shane and ilya falling in love over the years. emotional tension might be the area where tierney succeeds at being the most faithful adapter; truly admirable because it is the most difficult for creators and artists to execute and audiences to believe.
physical intimacy
last but most certainly not least, i can’t talk about the book or the series without talking about the sex. while open-door sex (explicit details described as if you're watching it through an open door) itself is not a convention of the genre, physical intimacy is. in a spicy romance like heated rivalry, sex is crucial for character development and the development of the central love story. tierney has spoken in detail about his desire to adapt reid’s sex scenes to the screen as accurately as possible, because it’s not just about seeing two beautiful men with their clothes off going at it – sex is the way shane and ilya get to know one another as young men and communicate before they’re comfortable opening up emotionally. and tierney succeeds.
in partnership with intimacy coordinator chala hunter as well as storrie and williams, heated rivalry delivers HOT, intense, almost hyper-real, and frankly stunning sex scenes packed with text and subtext. we learn important information about each character through requests, initiation, consent, positions, locations, as well as the absence of sex and sex scenes altogether. with their collaborative effort, we as viewers get sex consistent with the romance genre, with what we read in romance novels. the sex is treated as both plot (what’s happening chronologically) and story (what’s happening with their love story). it is the literal what they’re doing AND what they’re discovering about themselves and the other through these sexual experiences. because of this, we more acutely feel shifts in intensity in the sex scenes in later episodes as they’re a physical demonstration of how shane and ilya’s feelings for one another have grown over time. source material, choreography, safety, and chemistry come together to create sex scenes that feel lifted from reid’s novel.
if there’s anything outside of the romance genre setting heated rivalry apart from nearly all other romance novel adaptations or original romance media we’ve received within the past decade plus, the high-quality filmmaking from jacob tierney and his crew is where i’d start. the screenplay, cinematography, lighting, framing, editing, blocking, production design, mise en scène, sound design, music, and more are all on a level we generally do not see with romance TV or film budgets high or low. tierney clearly demonstrates his talents as a gifted filmmaker, collaborator, and director of people to bring forth a singular vision – in his words: queer horniness and happiness. he uses both his technical and narrative skills along with his gut instinct to create something masterful and meaningful.
the natural cinematic quality of romance novels is only enhanced in the hands of a gifted storyteller and filmmaker. in numerous cases, tierney uses the exact blocking from reid’s novel to block and frame his shots or the exact dialogue to bring the purest versions of shane and ilya’s love story as well as scott and kip’s love story to the screen. along with his filmmaking expertise, tierney is one in a line of white male gen X filmmakers who knows how to create a mean playlist – not only using needle drops to clearly describe the mood, tone, and atmosphere in scenes, but also specifically selecting tracks whose titles and lyrics add depth and subtext to what we’re watching. tierney’s fierce commitment to shane and ilya’s love story and the romance genre while also infusing the series with his creativity and personality are what make heated rivalry a rapid global success and very likely a generational piece of art.
thank you to romance authors for writing us lingering glances and kisses and heartfelt confessions on the page, and thank you to jacob tierney for honoring the romance genre by delivering exactly the same on our screens.
again, romance IS the reason.
romance will always be popular. learn to care about what women love.
