‘Heated Rivalry’ Creator on Emotional Finale and Whether He’ll Write and Direct Season 2

Jacob Tierney breaks down Shane and Ilya’s visit to the cottage, why the season had to end there and if he’s planning to write and direct all of season two alone]

This story contains spoilers from episode 6, “The Cottage,” of Heated Rivalry

For fans of Heated Rivalry, who have been rooting for Shane and Ilya to get it together since episode one, it’s 50-minute emotional rollercoaster.

For the first time, these two characters give into the romantic and domestic vibes that have been building throughout the episodes. It’s still plenty sexy, but it’s emotional and real.

After a mutual love confession, a decision to have Ilya move to a Canadian team closer to Shane and plan to start a charity together as a way to soft launch they don’t actually hate each other, Shane’s father catches the pair together at the cottage. This leads the couple to Shane’s parents’ house, where Shane comes out as gay to his parents and admits he and Ilya are “lovers.” The episode ends with them literally driving off into the sunset, the weight lifted off their shoulders as they head into scene two.

“They get to be in love,” writer-director Jacob Tierney says about Shane and Ilya’s season one ending. “All that I wanted was the simplicity, of just letting them have a moment.”

Season one followed the source material, Rachel Reid’s novel quite closely, often using direct dialogue from the book.

Season two will follow Reid’s sequel The Long Game, but Tierney can’t get into too many details as he hasn’t started writing.

He’ll definitely direct all episodes of season two, but he might get help in writing the scripts. For season one, Tierney wrote and directed all 6 episodes solo.

“It’s possible that other writers will come in to help me out. We’ll see what the additional demands are, the logistics,” Tierney says. Heated Rivalry will continue to be as intimate and handmade as it was in season one regardless of what’s decided because it’s the only way he knows how to make a show.

In Rachel Reid’s book, the show jumps ahead to Shane and Ilya’s charity.

One’s just a TV reason, which is I don’t want to end with exposition. I was ending with news conference. I did write that, but Rachel Goldstein, my creative exec at Crave, called me, “Are you setting up season two? Don’t do that.” I was like, “Alright, I hear your tone of voice. I get it.”

I love this book, and so much of what I wanted to bring to it were the things that I remembered, that imprinted on me. What I remember was just this feeling of oh, they get to be in love. All that I wanted was the simplicity of that, of just letting them have a moment. They say it at the beginning, [but] they never get a moment. Just letting them drive together with Ilya’s hand on Shane’s neck and being sweet. That’s enough for me.

Yuna, Shane’s mom, really added to the story.

He is a tricky character. He’s so internal, and his struggles so internal. Yuna is too. They are actually quite similar. I felt like those two needed a moment together. Not just because of where we’ve come from, but also because of where we’re going, and how involved Yuna is in the rest of their story. How crucial a role she plays. My little gay heart just needed a moment with Shane and his mom.

Parental relationship important to show?

I was a child actor, he was a child athlete — you make so many decisions with your parents that are because of something you want and love. Whether it’s hockey or acting, and you do it before you know yourself. These parameters are put up around you and a world kind of builds itself around you as you’re figuring out who you are. There’s a lot of really easy ways for well-intentioned people to do things that aren’t great for their kids, their parents. The communication can be difficult. It’s really easy to be ungenerous with character like Yuna, and I don’t think that’s fair to her. I wanted to show her heart more clearly than I felt was on the page in the book, and also to show her similarities to Shane.

The other thing that I love about her is her [saying] “Enough, what are we going to do?” That wonderful part of her as well because it was not to change her character, but just to ground her and that relationship. Parents were something that I thought about a lot when I was writing this because we didn’t have a ton of money, and I had to fight pretty hard to keep Kip’s dad in the show, which was huge thing for me. I needed and wanted him there. Scott’s an orphan. Ilya has the relationship he does with his parents, and Shane’s parental relationship is complicated.

I want there to be a spectrum of parents dealing with these kids. I think that it lays the groundwork for what the book’s readers know is coming, but when Ilya’s talking about his dad in episode five and he says, “I wish he could have known me.” I think he’s acutely aware that, for Shane, you need to do this. You need to talk to them because you’re going to regret it. Even my monster father, I wish I’d told because you want them to know you.

Heated Rivalry has become appointment TV

It’s deeply surreal. Letterkenny, which had many seasons and stuff, it dropped six or seven in a row. I wondered if anyone noticed the episode I liked in the middle. I know people would consume it in one sitting, which is also amazing. I knew when HBO bought us that it meant we were going to be week-to-week, but Crave was going to do that anyway.

It feels so cool to be a part of a tradition of TV that I grew up with, of waiting for The X-Files to come on, of waiting for your shows. God, I remember waiting with such anticipation for Mad Men to come on or Veep or The Wire. These shows that you’d be on the edge of your seat waiting [for], remembering what happened last week and wondering what was going to go down. It feels very cool to be a part of that tradition. I realize I’m literally just naming HBO shows. Oh no, AMC, I guess I did mention Mad Men.

We’re in the cultural conversation because of that. I think it’s much harder to be when you just drop [all at once], and everybody reacts on their own time. Especially in a time of so much fucking TV to cut through. To be a show that people are talking about during the week, it’s crazy. I’m also kind of looking forward to it being done for the moment too because it’s very overwhelming.

I don’t think anyone can anticipate this, but we didn’t. It’s so good, but it’s not like we were like season three of Game of Thrones.

You wanted this story to be about queer joy and queer characters

I don’t know yet. I haven’t started writing yet, but I do call it Sex Scenes From A Marriage, so it’s definitely heavier. I don’t know if I’m going to go quite into Bergman route there, but I promised Rachel Reid I’d take this seriously.

She takes them seriously in the second book: “This is a real relationship and real relationships come with struggle.” It’s so compelling. I’m just excited to keep going on this journey with these characters. There’s definitely an element of sadness to what’s coming, of loneliness and isolation. Of Ilya learning a lot about himself, and Shane learning a lot about himself too. I’m excited, and I still think at its heart, these books and show, they want to entertain.

This is supposed to be fantasy romance, and I still want to keep it there. But I think part of the reason that it does work as entertainment is that we are taking this seriously, and that you’re on a journey with two people that you feel have earned these moments. I don’t think episode five would’ve had the impact it had if you hadn’t watched the four that came before it, you need to go through the real-time struggle of this with them so that you can feel that exhale when they say something true or sweet or kind.

How this show has changed the careers of Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie

Oh, the old calls are interesting. There’s a lot of nice stuff being pushed my way. We’ll see what comes of it. The nicest gift that I’ve gotten is that I get to continue to live in this world for a little while, and I’m very, very, very pleased about that. But yes, certainly [HBO chairman and CEO] Casey [Bloys] emails me, so that’s nice.

First name basis too.

Oh, my friend Casey? Who did you think I meant?

It’s been very nice, and that’s the beauty of being an actor is you get that stuff face on and they (Connor and Hudson) should. They deserve it. I think there’s some nice things coming my way too, which is great.

Anything from the show that you had hoped fans notice?

The sunshine line. (Tierney is referring to a line of dialogue from show’s third episode where a character tells Scott Hunter, the first player to come out, that he and his secret boyfriend both deserve sunshine). [It] really made me really happy that people got that. I don’t even think I told (producing partner) Brendan [Brady]. I just did it. I [thought] maybe somebody would notice [it was] the echoing that song (Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe in Anything,” which boasts the lyrics, “Give me your eyes / I need sunshine”).

I’ve never felt more observed in my fucking life. I want to crawl into a hole, but those moments are really nice. Those little things when [someone sees that]. That’s great. I’m not Taylor Swift. I do not have the attention span for that level of easter egg, but a little thing like that, that meant a lot to me because also that song means a lot to me. I love that song so much and to get to use it that way and to get it and then to see it, it was so nice. I got the sweetest note from the Wolf Parade guys about how happy they are.

I spoke with Spotify about some songs, and you have really made quite an impact with those streaming numbers.

It’s crazy. It makes me so happy that I picked all these songs I love. I’m happy to do this for Wolf Parade and Feist and Wet Leg. Peter Peter, our composer, who’s fucking amazing, and all these awesome French songs that are doing so well for themselves.

Heated Rivalry: Queer Canadian Series–Hottest on TV Now

‘Heated Rivalry’ Creator on Emotional Finale and Whether He’ll Write and Direct Season 2

PROFESSOR / CRITIC / AUTHOR

Heated Rivalry: Queer Canadian Series–Hottest on TV Now

Heated Rivalry wrapped season 1 with the show’s anticipated sixth episode, “The Cottage.”

Professional hockey rivals turned secret bond turned maybe more Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) get a moment away from the chaos to spend two weeks together, all alone, at Shane’s secluded cottage.

PROFESSOR / CRITIC / AUTHOR