“My biggest hope,” said Jacob Tierney of “I’ll Believe in Anything: The Making of Heated Rivalry Season 1” (Little, Brown and Company), “is that this book can be yet another example of how queer love stories and artistry can have real, lasting and far-reaching impact.”
asserted
stories → say → impact
In his first book, Tierney, the co-creator and showrunner of the smash Crave series adapted from Rachel Reid’s internationally bestselling Game Changers novels, has annotated the scripts he wrote for all six Season 1 episodes.
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he → adapt → episodes
The scripts appear in the standard industry format, with pale-blue text bubbles in the margins where Tierney provides fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes — about conversations with his fellow creatives and decisions made based on budgeting and circumstance.
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Tierney → appear → budgeting
The inaugural season follows longtime talented rivals on ice: Moscow-born Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Ottawa’s Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), who privately cannot get enough of each other.
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who → follow → other
Both are committed to keeping their sexually charged relationship a secret, but its emotional truth is one that becomes increasingly difficult for them to hide.
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them → commit → relationship
In a poignant scene late in the season, in which a distressed Ilya phones Shane from Moscow, Shane encourages him to speak in Russian so Ilya can express himself fully.
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Ilya → phone → himself
As Tierney reveals in an annotation, Storrie learned the entire five-minute passage phonetically, his Russian language coach, Kate Yablunovsky, telling Tierney, “He humbles me.”
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He → reveal → me
“Obviously I had no sense at the time, while I was writing the show, of how it would resonate.
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it → have → show
But the reason I was so enthusiastic about ‘Heated Rivalry,’ about the adaptation, about doing this, was the happy ending.
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I → heat → this
That’s what I loved about it,” Tierney told the Star from his Toronto home just days before he began shooting Season 2 of the streaming channel’s most successful original series to date, the most significant Canadian TV success story since “Schitt’s Creek.”
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he → ’ → Creek
“(It was) very appealing to write this kind of classic fantasy for queer people as an antidote to toxicity,” he said.
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he → write → toxicity
“There’s kindness, and the narrative chugs along toward joy in these characters’ lives.”
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narrative → ’ → lives
After reading an August 2023 piece in the Washington Post by Rachel Kurzius about Reid’s breakout hockey romance books, Tierney messaged the author on Instagram to ask if they had already been optioned for film or television.
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they → read → film
Once they made a deal, he said, “it happened way faster than TV normally does.
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TV → make → deal
“One of the first promises I made to Rachel at the beginning of our partnership was to take her characters seriously,” he continued, which was easy because “her story was emotionally rich, full of yearning and tenderness — and, of course, smut.”
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story → make → course
Not concerned with explaining gay sex to straight people, Tierney said, his intention was to show it “as truthful and hot.”
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intention → concern → it
“People who write for TV and movies don’t expect to have their work published,” he said.
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he → write → TV
When Little, Brown executive editor Bryn Clark, who has acquired bestselling memoirs by Elliot Page and Christina Applegate, told him there would be an appetite for it, he said, “it didn’t take a lot of convincing.
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it → acquire → convincing
It’s a very fun feeling to know that they’re going to publish my annotated scripts.
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they → ’ → scripts
Aptly, the book’s title comes from Canadian indie-rock band Wolf Parade’s anthemic song that is the thumping thematic heart of the show.
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that → come → show
Tierney said it was important to clear the music rights early on because he wanted to write to its sunshine metaphor — the characters deserved to move into the light of happiness.
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characters → say → happiness
Humour is integral to all of Tierney’s work, as fans of the TV series “Shoresy” and “Letterkenny” will attest.
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fans → attest → series
“Things don’t feel real to me unless they’re funny,” he said.
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he → feel → me
“Certainly, for this show, I was like, this should not be punishing, it should be fun.
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it → punish → show
Things feel realer to me when people are laughing and making jokes.”
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people → feel → jokes
Case in point: costumers created visually amusing fictional hockey jersey logos.
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costumers → create → logos
Shane’s team, the Montreal Metros, features stylized “M"s that appear to be hockey pants with a fleur de lis jockstrap that might double as a butt plug if viewed from the rear; and Ilya’s team, the Boston Raiders, features a phallic canon angled and ready to discharge.
uncertain
team → feature → canon
Tierney insisted that in a series about gay hockey players, “everything’s innuendo, and intentional dick jokes are part of the job.
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innuendo → insist → job
Humour is what lets people in and charms them.”
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what → let → them
Even though the structure of “Heated Rivalry” has a bait-and-switch element that does the opposite of what the romance genre typically demands, and instead leads with Ilya and Shane having sex before admitting their feelings, Tierney said that “rom-com-ery is also part of the DNA of the show.”
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ery → have → show
It’s particularly true for the storyline featuring Scott, captain of the New York Admirals and the first openly gay hockey player (François Arnaud), and his art historian boyfriend, Kip (Robbie Graham-Kuntz), because they cannot be together just yet.
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they → ’ → Admirals
As in Reid’s novels, the allyship of women matters to the queer characters, and Tierney conscientiously made their roles more robust as he was writing.
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he → matter → characters
“In my life,” he said, “those are some of the most important relationships that I have.
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I → say → that
And I know that it is not uncommon for queer men.
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it → know → men
We find safety in women, and that was definitely something that I wanted to explore.
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I → find → that
“Because it is difficult to externalize characters that are as interior as Shane and Ilya are,” he added, “one of the tricks of adaptation is to give them a friend, someone to talk to, or even to lie to.”
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one → externalize → friend
That is, he said, “more interesting.
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he → say → ?
You need an avenue for information, so there’s that cynical part.
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You → need → information
It leaves you with more places to go.”
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It → leave → places
He cited Svetlana (Ksenia Kharlamova), Ilya’s friend and occasional lover, as an example.
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He → cite → example
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
