A world that is possible
*Originally published in my March 2026 newsletter.
A pivotal scene in the much-hyped Canadian TV series Heated Rivalry, features a breathtaking kiss between two male characters. In the moments following a championship hockey game, the team’s captain signals to his love to join the rest of the players families as they swarm centre ice to celebrate their victory. This very public display of affection marks an historic moment in the fictitious professional hockey league, in which the player sends an unequivocal message: This man I love is my family.
Heated Rivalry’s creator, Jacob Tierney, evidently filmed two versions of the scene. In the first, the arena audience extras were directed to remain completely silent, in stunned shock. In the second, they were directed to erupt in raucous cheering and applause. The cast and crew unanimously determined that the second version would stand.
This was the world they wanted to portray.
This is the world I want to live in.
A world where it is possible that whomever one chooses to love is cause for celebration.
A world where we can act and react with generosity and kindness.
A world where we can anticpate outcomes that remind us we are surrounded by good people who want the best for others.
Esther Perel, commenting on why so many have been drawn to this show (on HBO, Heated Rivalry boasts over 10 million views as of early February), suggests we are longing to see stories in which we are not perpetually bracing for the trauma, the disappointment, the worst case scenario to play out. She describes the show as “corrective”: what we see is what we hope to see happen, a series of truly consistent happy endings (pun perhaps intended? Heated Rivalry is most definitely steamy erotica afterall…).
Emphasising and expanding upon Esther Perel’s perspective, cultural critic Jenka Gurfinkel, in an essay published in Maclean’s, writes:
Heated Rivalry offers a cinematic universe that references our own, but casts an alternate vision of a world that’s possible—a world of pleasure, mutuality, humanness, intimacy, creativity and joy…The show’s intimacy is not just in arousal, but in being known, understood and part of a heightened, ecstatic experience beyond ourselves.
If you too need respite from the dystopic realities we have been enduring…if you are desperate for hope…if you hunger for a world that is possible, just outside of our reach but within our capabilities…this show may just be the balm for you.
