A Canadian TV series highlighting a romance between two competing professional hockey players has unexpectedly resonated with Russian audiences, despite the ongoing crackdown on LGBTQ+ individuals in Russia and the prohibition of gay “propaganda.”
“Heated Rivalry” chronicles a clandestine relationship between an NHL player from Canada and a Russian player, and it has quickly ascended to the top three shows on Kinopoisk, Russia’s premier film and television streaming service. With an impressive rating of 8.6, it surpasses both Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and the drama “Landyshi,” which explores the war in Ukraine.
For many viewers in Russia, the series transcends simple entertainment; it offers a rare glimpse into queer experiences and relationships during a time when LGBTQ+ representation has significantly diminished within the country.
“I knew instantly that I wanted to watch it because it’s the only show featuring queer athletes at this caliber—top NHL players,” Galina, a Russian listener, shared with The Moscow Times.
“This isn’t just a story about two boys falling in love; it’s a substantial social drama,” she added, requesting anonymity for her safety.
Similar to the Oscar-winning 2024 film “Anora,” which features a Russian character that gained popularity domestically, “Heated Rivalry” has found success due to its cultural relevance.
One prominent character, Ilya Rozanov, a Russian hockey player, grapples with accepting his sexual identity while concealing it from his family and teammates.
In contrast to “Anora,” however, this series focuses on LGBTQ+ topics that are explicitly prohibited under Russian legislation.
In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court labeled what it deemed the “international LGBT movement” as “extremist,” effectively outlawing most public expressions of LGBTQ+ identities.
Despite this ruling, fans like Galina continue to seek out the show and connect through online communities.
Although the series is not available on Russian streaming platforms, viewers in Russia can watch it via the VKontakte social network, torrent downloads, or through pirated websites and Telegram channels. The sixth episode alone garnered over a million views on VKontakte.
Telegram has emerged as the primary platform for Russian-speaking fans, where they exchange memes, artwork, collages, and products featuring the main couple from the show.
The largest fan channel for “Heated Rivalry” boasts over 45,000 subscribers, with numbers spiking on December 18, according to analytics service TGstat.
This spike coincided with the airing of the season’s second-to-last episode, “I’ll Believe in Anything,” where Rozanov confesses to his Canadian rival, Shane Hollander, that Russia and his family could never accept them as an openly gay couple.
On Russian-language TikTok, over 6,000 videos were posted using the hashtag #HeatedRivalry by mid-January. Some users shared playful edits, while others discussed LGBTQ+ representation and their mixed feelings about Russia, along with personal anecdotes.
“A foreigner could never fully grasp what Ilya meant when he said, ‘Because of Russia’,” commented a TikTok user. “They won’t understand why he keeps returning to Moscow even when he doesn’t want to. They can’t comprehend the deep-rooted fear of disappointing one’s parents, like Ilya experiences.”
On Ficbook, a platform dedicated to fanfiction in Russian, dozens of “Heated Rivalry” stories have been published, covering a range of content from family-friendly to more adult themes rated NC-17.
The original novel by Rachel Reid, upon which the series is based, is still available on the major Russian online marketplace Ozon, and it has a high rating of 4.8 out of five.
Overall, LGBTQ+ literature is facing increasing challenges in Russia. Recently, the country’s largest publisher closed Popcorn Books, a young-adult imprint known for its well-received queer titles.
“Thank you for allowing me to read the printed edition,” one reader wrote in a review on Ozon’s website, while shielding his personal information.
Fans have also access to merchandise like pins, phone cases, mugs, and acrylic figurines featuring the characters, priced between 390 and 727 rubles ($5-$9).
However, the series has attracted criticism from conservative groups.
On January 9, Andrei Soldatov, the leader of the far-right Orthodox organization Sorok Sorokov, condemned the series for containing what he labeled “sodomite scenes” promoting “unnatural depravity.”
“Birth rates are already lower than death rates, yet we are still allowing the promotion of unnatural vice to be presented to our youth,” Soldatov proclaimed.
He mentioned that the movement is preparing to lodge complaints with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the media oversight body Roskomnadzor to seek a ban.
Alexei, an openly gay Russian, noted that such restrictions often spark greater interest rather than suppress it.
“For people my age in Russia, there’s a universe of limitations alongside a unique open world on the internet and Western culture that we can easily access,” Alexei, who also requested anonymity, stated.
He added that the narrative of a queer Russian athlete forced to hide his identity resonates strongly with younger audiences, many of whom cannot remember a time before the Kremlin’s crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community began.
“There’s a Russian hockey player in this story who conceals his sexual orientation. This theme is quite popular in fanfiction, which is incredibly difficult to control. That’s why it captures the interest of a younger Russian audience,” Alexei expressed.
“I feel like everyone in Russia knows multiple individuals from the music, sports, or pop culture sectors who, for various reasons, have to keep their identities hidden, just like the character Rozanov,” he continued.
Yaroslav Rasputin, an LGBTQ+ activist from Russia now living in exile in Georgia, remarked that the series’ success indicates a lack of queer content in the Russian landscape.
“There exists a significant demand for queer narratives, and government restrictions only exacerbate the issue,” Rasputin conveyed to The Moscow Times, noting that many fans of LGBTQ+ books, films, and series tend to be heterosexual women and girls.
“As it stands, the fewer LGBTQ+ productions that manage to break through in Russia, the greater the acclaim for those that do,” he concluded.
