{"id":284808,"date":"2026-01-15T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/284808\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T00:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:00:08","slug":"shane-and-ilya-wouldnt-have-kissed-until-episode-five-if-it-were-up-to-u-s-streamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/284808\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane and Ilya Wouldn&#8217;t Have Kissed Until Episode FIVE If It Were Up to U.S. Streamers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since December, 99.9% of my social interactions have revolved around gushing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jezebel.com\/what-are-you-doing-with-your-hours-until-the-5th-episode-of-heated-rivalry\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">about HBO Max\u2019s<\/a> Heated Rivalry.\u00a0The six-episode series, which follows a slow-burning and secret relationship between two hot gay champion hockey players, has made me new friends and strengthened my relationships with longtime friends. More importantly, Ilya and Shane\u2019s decade-long saga\u2014and its Cinderella-esque reception\u2014has left me feeling brighter, lighter, and more connected to the belief that, deep down, all humans are just flecks of stardust yearning to love and be loved. The people in my life who haven\u2019t watched it? I\u2019ve cut them off.<\/p>\n<p>Which is to say, thank God (she\/her) that creator Jacob Tierney followed his heart to Canada, because it sounds like U.S. streamers envisioned a boring, neutered show where the hot gay hockey players don\u2019t even get to kiss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be fair, though, I don\u2019t think this show could have been made in the U.S.,\u201d Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud, who plays Scott Hunter, told CBS Mornings. \u201cIt was set up at a big streamer before and they had so many notes and so many thoughts about what the show could be that Jacob decided to leave them and get it made in Canada.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a huge lesson for Hollywood people\u2014 that this is a niche show with no movie stars, and it\u2019s become a much bigger sensation,\u201d Arnaud continued. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want any kissing until episode five.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s an endless list of evils that continue to squash creativity in the U.S.\u2014private equity, artificial intelligence, and greedy CEOs cutting staff and budgets while giving themselves raises and bonuses. Add to the list big-wig streamers who seem to be run by little bitches scared of some steamy male-on-male makeouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since December, 99.9% of my social interactions have revolved around gushing about HBO Max\u2019s Heated Rivalry.\u00a0The six-episode series,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-284808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115896177512054393","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}