10 TV Shows to Watch if You Loved Heated Rivalry
Obsession, competition, and tension you can cut with a knife – these shows scratch the same itch.
If you've just finished Heated Rivalry and you're not ready to leave Ilya and Shane behind, we've got you covered. Jacob Tierney's hockey romance, equal parts enemies-to-lovers tension, forbidden desire, and found family feels, has ruined us all for lesser love stories.
Thankfully, there’s plenty of TV that captures that same electric tension, drama and swoon-worthy queer romance. From Swedish princes and British schoolboys to elite Spanish athletes and closeted Marines, these ten shows will fill the puck-shaped hole in your heart.
1. Young Royals
Where Can I Watch It? On Netflix
If you came to Heated Rivalry for the forbidden romance between two men who absolutely should not be together but simply cannot stay apart, Young Royals is your next obsession. This Swedish drama follows Prince Wilhelm, who falls for Simon, a scholarship student at his prestigious boarding school. There’s just one little problem, being openly queer isn’t exactly on brand for the Swedish royal family. Over three seasons, you'll get the same gut-punch of watching two people fight for their relationship against impossible odds; and the same fabulous tension of those precious stolen moments. The finale landed so hard it had fans collectively losing their minds online for weeks. You've been warned.
2. Heartstopper
Where Can I Watch It? On Netflix
Where Heated Rivalry gave us grown men navigating their identities amid professional hockey's pressures, Heartstopper offers the softer, sweeter origin story. Based on Alice Oseman's graphic novels, the series follows bookish Charlie Spring and rugby lad Nick Nelson as they fall for each other at an English grammar school. Yes, there's sports. Yes, there's the questioning-your-sexuality arc. And yes, there's enough heart to make even the most emotionally guarded viewer reach for the tissues. It may be gentler than Heated Rivalry's steamy scenes, but the core of two people finding each other despite the world telling them they shouldn't? That’s the stuff.
3. Interview with the Vampire
Where Can I Watch It? On BBC iPlayer
This will speak to all the yearners out there, Interview with the Vampire absolutely nails the combustible chemistry between two people who are obsessed with each other in equal parts love and antagonism. Louis and Lestat's relationship spans decades and is passionate, toxic, tender, and absolutely impossible to look away from. It's explicitly queer, it's sexy, it's dramatic as hell, and the ‘I hate you but I literally cannot exist without you’ dynamic is enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers. It’s like if Shane and Ilya's hotel hookups spanned centuries.
4. Overcompensating
Where Can I Watch It? On Prime Video
If you want to get as close to Heated Rivalry as television allows, Benito Skinner's Overcompensating is the one. Benny Drama's debut follows a closeted college football player navigating the hyper-masculine world of sports while secretly questioning everything he thought he knew about himself. Sound familiar? The series is paced really well, and so perfectly captures the pains (and comedies!) of hiding who you are from the people around you. It's the chronically online cousin of Heated Rivalry, and we mean that as the highest compliment.
5. A League of Their Own
Where Can I Watch It? On Prime Video
Not the 1992 film (though that's great too), but the 2022 series expansion that takes the women's baseball league premise and makes it gayer. Much, much gayer. Following players in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II, this series delivers everything: the thrill of competition, the camaraderie of team sports, and multiple sapphic storylines. Heated Rivalry vibes for the WLW crowd.
6. Elite
Where Can I Watch It? On Netflix
Spain's answer to Gossip Girl has been delivering chaotic queer storylines since 2018, and if you're craving that sexy, messy, who's-sleeping-with-whom energy, Elite is it. Set at an exclusive Spanish private school, the series touches on class conflict, crime, and complicated relationships across multiple seasons. The queer representation is emphatic, with several MLM and WLW pairings that burn bright. The body count (literal and figurative) is high, and we're here for all of it.
7. Boots
Where Can I Watch It? On Netflix
Set in 1990, when being gay in the military could end your career (or worse), Boots is based on Greg Cope White's memoir The Pink Marine and follows Cameron, a lost teenager who impulsively enlists alongside his best friend. What unfolds is a nuanced exploration of identity and masculinity, as we watch a young man learning to survive in an environment designed to break him down and rebuild him into something 'acceptable.' It's a televisual journey you won’t regret taking.
8. The Boyfriend
Where Can I Watch It? On Netflix
Japan's first gay dating reality show is the sweetest thing. Nine men live together and each day, one gets selected to work in a coffee truck; and he can choose another cast member to run the truck with him that day, allowing them to get to know each other with the possibility of romance. There aren’t any rose ceremonies or manufactured drama in the way reality viewers are used to, which makes this one particularly unique in that it seems to encourage a slow-burn throughout. It's a quieter watch than the dramas on this list, but if you want to see real queer men falling for each other in real time, The Boyfriend is unreasonably charming. It’s the antidote to every chaotic reality show you've ever stress-watched.
9. Olympo
Where Can I Watch It? On Netflix
From the creators of Elite comes another Spanish drama, but this time set in the high-stakes world of elite athletics. Olympo follows young athletes at the ‘Pirineos Centre of High Performance’ as they compete for sponsorships, battle personal demons, and uncover freaky secrets about their institution. One standout storyline follows Roque, a gay rugby player who loses his spot in an international tournament because of his sexuality. It's soapy, it's sporty, and it's absolutely not afraid to go there.
10. GLOW
Where Can I Watch It? On Netflix
GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) is spandex, big hair, fierce competition and a love-hate dynamic between two women with such outrageous tension that it launched a thousand fan theories. Set in 1980s Los Angeles, the series follows a group of women recruited to star in a wrestling TV show, and while the primary romances are straight, the show excels at depicting the intense bonds between teammates, the physicality of performance, and the odd intimacy of people who spend their days throwing each other around a ring. Three seasons of two women who can't quit each other, even when they really, really want to. Sure, they’re not explicitly queer but remember, there’s always subtext.
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