In Heated Rivalry, Hudson Williams, left, plays Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie plays Ilya Rozanov.Crave/Supplied
It takes a certain amount of cognitive dissonance to carry on with the mundanities of life while we are forced to endure this rupture, to bid goodbye to the old world order, the one where the U.S. was a more benevolent (if deeply flawed) international force, motivated by not-always-horrible intentions. Where an aging and vindictive narcissist wasn’t trying to take over the world because he didn’t get the prize he wanted. Where the Canadian Prime Minister didn’t have to give an alarming, era-defining speech about this being the end of a nice story and the beginning of a brutal reality. Where the Canadian Armed Forces weren’t modelling a hypothetical invasion from the United States. Et cetera.
At this turning point for Canada and the world, with all of this swirling beyond our control, steely compartmentalization can be an effective strategy.
A juicy distraction can also help.
Heated Rivalry, a Crave show that you have probably read far too much about already (oh, but can there actually be too much HR discourse?), is a terrific series that you may have heard described as “the steamy gay hockey show.” While there are some rather, um, explicit scenes, especially in the first two episodes, this is definitely not smut. It’s a tender, smart – and funny – love story.
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And it’s one with enormous Canadian cred. It’s created by Montreal’s Jacob Tierney, based on fiction by Halifax author Rachel Reid. Hudson Williams, the breakout star who plays Shane Hollander, was born in Kamloops, B.C., grew up in Kelowna, lived in East Vancouver, attended Langara College, still gets his hair cut in East Van. He worked at an Old Spaghetti Factory out here, and Tourism New Westminster is capitalizing on that, launching a contest where you can win a gift certificate to that very restaurant. Ottawa Tourism’s Instagram bio now reads “birthplace of Shane Hollander.”
While Donald Trump blathers that “Canada lives because of the United States,” Americans are finding life in our little Canadian hockey series. Elbows up!
(When I realized Connor Storrie, who plays Russian hockey sensation Ilya Rozanov, wasn’t actually Russian, I was gobsmacked. Early on, someone told me he was from Odessa, which I assumed to be the city in Ukraine. In fact, Mr. Storrie is from Odessa, Tex. Yet another marvel about this show.)
In between glee-scrolling reels of stuffed animals reciting the “Will you come to my cottage this summer?” hospital scene, and shots of sports bars erupting over the sentence that I mumble to myself around the house at random, complete with Russian accent, the way you might sing a favourite song lyric – “I’m coming to the cottage” (the same line used by a clever IKEA ad served up to me on Instagram) – I received a text from a friend. “How can we support François?”
While Hudson Williams, right, has enthralled communities in his native B.C., co-star François Arnaud has been subjected to online harassment.Crave
By François, he meant François Arnaud, the Canadian actor who plays Scott Hunter, the skin-tight-jogging-shirt-wearing, smoothie-loving hockey veteran who (spoiler alert) comes out on the ice and on live TV after winning the Stanley Cup, or whatever it’s called on the show.
Why ever would François need our help?
This friend, who has gone quite deep down the Heated Rivalry rabbit hole, then told me about trouble in the fandom: There was some speculation that Mr. Storrie and Mr. Arnaud might be linked romantically, after they were photographed together at an airport. And some fans went nuts. (Or demonstrated just how nuts they already were.) Connor belongs with Hudson! They are the perfect couple! Mr. Arnaud was deemed the villain, and targeted with online harassment.
When asked about this by The The Canadian Press, Mr. Arnaud lamented that some younger fans might not understand the difference between fiction and real life. When a podcast host this week inquired whether he was single, Mr. Arnaud replied that it was none of his business (using language we can’t print here). Damn straight.
In the early days of the Heated Rivalry phenomenon, I worried about potential backlash. This show – so wonderful and wholesome (despite the action between the sheets, often minus the sheets) – had rocketed to international sensation status. It was a heartfelt Canadian antidote to the world’s nightmare. Would anyone try to take this tall poppy down?
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And then people who don’t get the distinction between TV and reality had to go and harass our François. This is why we can’t have nice things!
I don’t want to call this a controversy, because it’s nothing. But I do want to say: Can everyone chill and just enjoy something for once? There is so much darkness in the world, let’s just embrace the light wherever we can find it – even if it’s a small, low-budget love story that skates into our lives and tugs at our hearts.