You’ve just finished your fifth re-watch of Heated Rivalry. You’ve subjected yourself to watching Joker: Folie a Deux for Connor Storrie’s five minutes of screen time (or you just watched this compilation). You viewed any one of the 15+ short films Hudson Williams appeared in, many of them famously gay for zero pay. But it’s not enough, and you need to experience a “Hudcon” detox. Here are four films that will hit the brain receptor that makes Heated Rivalry feel so electrifying, but help you wean off this intensely addicting show. 

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

My Beautiful Laundrette follows an interracial queer couple, played by Daniel Day-Lewis and Omar Ali, as they navigate the Thatcher years of London. The couple of My Beautiful Laundrette have different cultural backgrounds, creating conflict in this British classic. This parallels Shane’s Asian-Canadian and Ilya’s Russian identities causing tension in their relationship in Heated Rivalry.

Bleach blonde Daniel Day-Lewis roughishly licks his lover’s neck on the streets of London, similar to the playful ways Ilya expresses intimacy – kissing Shane on the ice or starting a sexy game of phone fellicio. Spoilers – both stories also feature a happy ending. The 1985 and 2025 couples end up together in their respective worlds, pursuing work that gives their lives passion and meaning. 

Point Break (1991)

After Connor Storrie filmed what appears to be an impromptu lip sync to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”, the clip went viral. Club nights blasted it on screens, Charli xcx recreated the dance, and Madonna herself liked the video. Viewers began to compare Storrie to Patrick Swayze, clamoring for a biopic. Similarly, Hudson Williams has been compared to a 90’s Keanu Reeves, with co-star François Arnaud captioning a photo of “Hudcon” with “my own private ontario.”

So, what better movie to watch than Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break? Famously homoerotic, this action film – a genre that is famously quite masculine – feels like the perfect pairing for Heated Rivalry. This is a show whose logline – rival hockey players fall in love – is immediately titillating because the world of hockey is so white, straight, and even combative to queerness.

Weekend (2011)

Heated Rivalry’s genius is that we are shown sex within the first fifteen minutes of the show, but we have to earn true intimacy. Intimacy creeps into the final episodes of Heated Rivalry, and every tear, every touch, and every soft murmur is that much more intense because of how much the couple are actively pulling away from each other. Weekend works in much the same way, as the main couple are introduced to each other through sex – a one night stand – but come to feel much more intense feelings about each other throughout the course of the runtime.

Andrew Haigh’s film also explores the loneliness that can come with being closeted, much in the same way Heated Rivalry’s dark hotel rooms show this isolation. Russell of Weekend grapples with internalized homophobia, similar to the ways in which Shane struggles with his limiting view of masculinity. The couple of Weekend eventually find true openness with each other, in the same way Shane and Ilya do.

The Handmaiden (2016)

Allegedly– before people with an undeveloped frontal cortex made him delete his profile– Park Chan-Wook’s The Handmaiden was included in Hudson Williams’ four favorites on Letterboxd. Queer romance is often more intriguing than heterosexual romance because of the yearning that occurs between the lines, as characters are forced to move more carefully when navigating these relationships. The yearning of Heated Rivalry is magnetic, particularly for female viewers, as it adds significant tension to the story and makes the intimate scenes that much more erotic. Where Shane and Ilya share a water bottle, Lady Hideko buttons Sook-hee’s corset – these simple actions igniting electricity between the characters.

The 2016 film features intimate scenes that are erotic, energetic, and never shy away from showing zealous lust between the characters. Heated Rivalry‘s perfectly choreographed sex scenes are similarly remarkable. Spoilers– The Handmaiden ends on a happy note, with the women embarking on a journey to freedom. Similarly, Heated Rivalry ends on a tender look at Shane and Ilya quite literally riding off into the sunset together. These beautiful endings are refreshing choices, showing queer lives that continue, unbridled by any homogeneous flattening of their lives.