The pop culture behemoth that is Heated Rivalry continues to make tracks and garner fans. Although the stars of the show – Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie – were ineligible to receive any Golden Globes for season one of the production, their presence at the ceremony was loud, and it included the duo presenting the award for best performance by a female actor in a supporting role on television. This gesture is symbolic of the immense support that women have provided in helping to make this show such a force, from writing the very books the series is based on to loyally fangirling everything about the production. Journalist Rhik Samadder observes that “love in a cold setting has a fairytale quality.” He continues, “it’s why the great Russian romances endure, though they aren’t relatable.” The show’s protagonists hail from Moscow and Montreal, and although these locations share in the cold and the snow, their queer cultural climates are disparate. And yet, both Russian and Canadian queers are making meaning out of the show’s plot. Real lives are being altered by fiction. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of Heated Rivalry’s “ravishing actors, charged glances, [and] buttocks like pneumatic hams” (Samadder’s words), you must admit that observing what this series is doing culturally is rather fucking amazing.
We are linking you to two stories that reflect the lived experiences of queers in Russia and Canada. They each showcase in different ways, and from different cultural contexts, how Heated Rivalry is aiding in the production of contemporary sexual subjectivities.
