How Heated Rivalry just ended years of gay TV trauma

If you grew up in the '90s or '00s and loved a gay character on TV, chances are they ended up dead. The list is pretty endless, from Tara in Buffy and Lexa in The 100, to Poussey in Orange Is the New Black and Maya in Pretty Little Liars, plus every single named gay character ever introduced in The Vampire Diaries (seriously).

And, if you've experienced the heartbreak of any of these deaths, you'll be aware of Bury your gays - the trope that has plagued TV for years, involving killing off of LGBTQ+ characters in media, particularly immediately after finding happiness. While it's a trope that most often refers to lesbian characters, gay men and bisexual characters certainly haven't escaped it either.

A 2013 Guardian report examined Oscar-nominated performances of heterosexual characters compared to LGBTQ+ characters. It stated: "Of the heterosexual characters, 16.5% (59) die. Of the LGBT characters, 56.5% (13) die. Of the 10 LGBT characters who live, only four get happy endings. That's four characters in 19 years."

In recent years though, there has been more and more awareness of the trope, and what it means for representation.

For instance, Dan Levy, co-creator of Schitt's Creek, previously told E!: "I think for a long time I was watching nothing but tragedy befall queer characters on television, and the idea of creating a world where, in this particular case two men were falling in love with absolutely no push back, and to be able to depict how much joy that can bring, not just to the characters who are falling in love, but to the community itself who gets to watch it, was important."

But, now Heated Rivalry has come along and taken the world by storm, it feels like we've properly turned a corner.

In case you've been living under a rock, the wildly popular and incredibly sexy drama follows the high stakes romance between between two rival ice hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. Along the way, we also meet Scott Hunter and his beau Kip - and somewhere around episode 3, I was feeling pretty certain this was far too many gay characters for them to all make it out alive and well.

After Shane's accident on the ice in episode 5, I was convinced the end was nigh and was preparing to subject my household to levels of weeping not seen since I watched the opening scenes of Disney Pixar's Up. When that didn't happen, I became convinced it was Scott and Kip who would face some kind of tragedy - at the very least, a devastating break up.

But that didn't happen. Instead, the last two episodes gave us a wholesome, heartfelt ending that warranted some happy tears, with Shane and Ilya going to see Shane's parents and preparing for their future together. In addition, Scott showed off his relationship with Kip for the world to see, inviting him onto the ice at the most pivotal moment of his career and giving him a big old snog.

Obviously Heated Rivalry isn't the only series to have given us a happy ending for its LGBTQ+ characters. In recent years, we've seen the likes of Young Royals, Schitt's Creek and Heartstopper radiating LGBTQ+ joy.

But it does feel like there's been a shift to prioritise well-rounded storylines for LGBTQ+ characters, and Heated Rivalry is the culmination of this. The monumental success of the show proves once and for all that queer characters do not need to be ill-fated or shrouded in tragedy for a show to be successful.

For me, and I'm sure for a lot of other viewers, that's incredibly welcome. It feels like, in many ways, the real world is getting increasingly hostile towards the LGBTQ+ community, and I don't really want to see this reflected in entertainment. I'd rather an escape from it.

That's not to say LGBTQ+ media should only be fluffy and light. Heated Rivalry certainly isn't, after all. It balanced its tone beautifully, packing steamy sex scenes, light-hearted humour, high-stakes drama, and heartbreaking tragedy into six episodes, with the loss of Ilya's mother and his complex family dynamics proving central to the story's intricacies.

But I think it does signal that writers are taking more and more care with their gay characters, swapping cheap and shocking twists for well thought out storylines.

It makes me hopeful for the impact that LGBTQ+ representation will have in the future. If enough writers follow suit, we'll see more well-rounded queer storylines and characters in mainstream TV.

Crucially, we can finally be rid of the idea that queer lives are somehow less valuable, or that queer characters exist to serve the storylines of heterosexual characters, and focus on the story without being blindsided by an unnecessary, unfeeling death at every turn.

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