The Heated Rivalry special edition box set is real, which means you can own Shane’s bottom eyes forever

Here’s the bad news: fewer queer shows are being greenlit these days, and even the ones do make it tend to suffer from the one season cancellation trend plaguing Netflix and other big streamers. We’re introduced to queer characters, we immediately become invested in them, and then out of nowhere, they’re gone forever.

But don’t worry, because there’s some good news, too! While streaming services these days are apt to quietly remove queer content from their platform for no discernible reason, physical media is here to stay. And for Heated Rivalry‘s many fans, that’s a relief.

Yesterday, we got word that the promise of a special edition, 4K Blu-Ray box set of the beloved gay hockey drama is not, as some assumed, a hoax. While fake copies of Rachel Reid’s books have been subject to rip-off reprintings across TikTok, the Heated Rivalry box set is very real, and as of now, very available for pre-order.

To be honest, there wasn’t much of a threat that Crave, the Canadian streamer that greenlit the show, or HBO Max, its American streaming home, were going to suddenly dump one of their biggest streaming successes. But you never know. More importantly, we now have a reason to splurge on a piece of physical media that comes with unreleased scenes, bloopers, and a very saucy poster of Shane Hollander hitting Ilya Rosanov with his finest pair of yearning bottom eyes. It can all be yours on November 24th for the very sexy price of $69.99. If you want to forgo the 4K edition and see those butts in a slightly lower resolution, you only have to wait until October 20th and pay $30.95.

How about we take this to the next level?

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Sadly, however, it doesn’t look like we’re going to get any old school-style commentary tracks from Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, or Jacob Tierney. Maybe they’re saving that for the Season 2 box set? We can certainly dream!

When the box set was first announced in June, there was widespread skepticism around whether the plans to release a hard copy of the show were actually for real—especially since Crave wasn’t behind the release. Now we know that the box set, released by distributor Alliance Home Entertainment, is more than legit. “I should just give them the numbers to my bank account at this point,” one fan joked.

An understatement! We can almost hear the sound of gay bank accounts being drained of their last $30 across the country.

There is a catch, however: since it’s physical media, it does come with an 18+ rating—though some have speculated that it’s just a gimmick in line with the retro VHS sleeve holder. Either way, the show remains available to stream for the foreseeable future.

Even if we’re facing more backlash for LGBTQ+ shows and representation in this political moment, that doesn’t stop even our worst enemies from knowing what Heated Rivalry proved last winter: money talks. At this point, Heated Rivalry merch (to say nothing of book sales) is its own booming industry, and we’re predicting that the box set sales are only going to underline that fact.

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