Russian fans of “Passionate rivalry” might end up in jail if they publicly declare their love for the show, but that hasn’t stopped the gay romance between two hockey players from becoming a word-of-mouth hit — and some are subtly displaying their affection.
The show focuses on the relationship between Russian Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie, and Canadian Shane Hollander, played by Hudson Williams, who are rivals on the ice but lovers off it. Both actors have been named official torchbearers for the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina next month.
The series gained attention for its steamy sex scenes, but drew praise for its depiction of LGBTQ relationships – something that is strictly forbidden in the deeply conservative country.
“You feel like some kind of criminal when you watch the show,” one fan told NBC News during a video call earlier this month. “It looks like a protest, a kind of rebellion,” the Moscow native added.
NBC News agreed not to name the people interviewed in this story because they feared arrest.
Amid the crackdown on LGBTQ people in a country where “traditional family values” are the cornerstone of President Vladimir Putin’s regimeRussia’s Supreme Court banned what the government called the LGBTQ “movement” in November 2023, calling it an extremist organization.
Under the country’s criminal law, participating in or financing an extremist organization is punishable by up to 12 years in prison. A person found guilty of displaying symbols such as a rainbow flag faces up to 15 days in detention for a first offense and up to four years in prison for a second offense.
Hudson Williams, left, and Connor Storrie in “Heated Rivalry.”Sabrina Lantos/HBO MaxThere are currently 17 pending criminal cases related to LGBTQ “extremism” in Russia, according to the advocacy group Coming Out, and authorities in recent weeks have opened cases against the executives of online streaming services Kinopoisk, Wink, Ivi, Amediateka, 24TV and Beeline TV for allegedly promoting LGBTQ propaganda, state news agency RIA Novosti reported earlier this month.
Despite the risks, the 26-year-old fan said she has a small shrine in her Moscow home with photos and keychains dedicated to the show’s characters, who she first discovered on TikTok.
Made by Crave Media Canada and picked up by HBO Max in the United States, neither of which is available in Russia, the series draws fans to illegal streaming sites and messaging apps like Telegram, where one group has more than 45,000 subscribers.
Not only are the episodes available, but they are often subtitled in Russian within hours of their release in the United States.
When episodes arrive late, as was the case in the past when the Internet was shut down due to a drone threat, Telegram group administrators apologized.
Bell Media, which owns Crave Media Canada, did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment, nor did Telegram.
Despite viewers using illegal methods to watch the show, based on the books of Canadian author Rachel Reid, it has an 8.5 rating from 45,000 users on Kinopoisk, a Russian movie review site, similar to IMDb in the West.
Activists take part in an LGBT pride march in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2017.Valya Egorshin/NurPhoto via Getty Images fileAlthough the fan said she doesn’t directly reference the series on her social media and that it would be “quite dangerous to do so,” she added that she knows someone who features a poster with the name of the series in their Telegram stories. “I think if someone decides to pursue it, they can,” she said.
The show has already been criticized by Sorok Sorokov, a Russian Orthodox nationalist movement, which called for it to be banned earlier this month, saying its “unnatural depravity” would lower the country’s birth rate. It is unclear whether the Kremlin could ban an illegally broadcast broadcast.
For members of the Russian LGBTQ community, the series evokes feelings of both pride and fear.
“There is a world in which you can exist,” a 26-year-old gay fan said in a video call earlier this month, adding that in Russia “you can’t kiss your boyfriend on ice.”
Another 22-year-old member of the LGBTQ community warned that the risks remained real. “Like all queer content, it’s Russian roulette. It can be OK or you could get fined or go to jail. That’s what’s so scary,” he said, adding that you never know what you might be accused of.
This view was echoed by a Coming Out lawyer, who said that “the law in Russia is very selectively enforced” but that you face consequences if security services discover the content or if someone reports your identity to authorities. “Of those accused of extremism, more than half are not public figures,” they added.
Still, some subtly display their fandom for “Heated Rivalry,” which focuses on a sport beloved by Putin, a longtime hockey player, who proposed in March during a call with President Donald Trump that American and Russian skaters set to compete against each other.
On social media, some posted videos of themselves skating to music from the show.
Products from the series have now been adopted by fans of “Heated Rivalry” to subtly announce their allegiance to it.
A 33-year-old fan said he was wearing a sweater with characters from a classic Soviet cartoon about hockey rivalry. “If they’ve seen ‘Heated Rivalry,’ they’ll know right away why I’m wearing that,” he said.
He said he had posted about the “romantic” show on his Instagram account, but thought “nothing would happen” unless you were a public or government figure, adding that he had seen many social media posts from women who had been inspired to attend hockey games because of the show.
Some brands are also trying to quietly jump on the bandwagon, selling candles bearing the characters’ jersey numbers and publishing their products with images from the series premiere.
Meanwhile, Russia’s LGBTQ community is “still alive,” the 22-year-old said, but “it has gone underground.”
Henry Austin is a senior editor for NBC News Digital based in London.