"Heated Rivalry" Is a Surprise (if Unofficial) Hit in Russia

The government currently ruling Russia has been understandably criticized for its attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. That hostility — homophobia as official government policy — is one of many reasons why the U.S. State Depaertment advises against visiting Russia. And while the country’s government is engaged in actively repressing sexuality, there’s plenty of evidence that a significant number of Russians are turning in to Heated Rivalry – albeit through unofficial means.

The show’s recently-concluded first season told the story of the romance between professional hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov — characters who hail from Canada and Russia, respectively. As Mary Ilyushina reports for The Washington Post, a number of viewers in Russia have been drawn to the series, even though there is no legally sanctioned way to do so there.

Broadly speaking, it isn’t shocking that a television that has become a phenomenon in Canada and the U.S. would also find enthusiastic audiences elsewhere in the world. (More on that momentarily.) But there may be a specific reason why Russian audiences may be tuning in: Ilyushina writes that Rozanov’s “fraught relationship with his homeland mirrors the lived reality of many viewers.”

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Russia is not the only country where audiences are finding ways to watch the show despite governmental opposition. Earlier this month, James Griffiths of The Globe and Mail chronicled Heated Rivalry‘s Chinese fans — despite the fact that the series is unavailable to watch legally in most of the country. This isn’t quite a samizdat situation, but it also isn’t that far removed from it. You might not think of watching Heated Rivalry as an act of political defiance, but for many people, it is precisely that.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…