Already hooked to HBO Max’s Heated Rivalry? These 5 queer romances should definitely be on your watchlist next

Heated Rivalry has probably taken over your brain already.

The HBO Max drama throws you straight into Shane and Ilya’s on ice war, off ice pining and all that very queer, very intense longing.

If Heated Rivalry has you craving more shows where love is messy, dramatic and queer, you are not alone. You can jump from the rink into five very different worlds next, from blood-soaked New Orleans streets to royal Swedish dorm rooms.

Here are five queer romances that should sit right next to Heated Rivalry on your watchlist and keep that same ache going.

These 5 queer romance shows like Heated Rivalry should definitely be on your watchlist next

1. Interview with the Vampire:

If Heated Rivalry is about two hockey stars who cannot stop orbiting each other, Interview with the Vampire is that same obsessive gravity, just stretched over centuries and drenched in blood.

The AMC series takes Anne Rice’s famous vampire story and fully leans into the queerness that older versions only hinted at. Here, Louis and Lestat are not coded, hidden, or “maybe” anything. Their relationship is openly romantic, sexual and deeply complicated.

Louis is a wealthy Black man in 1910s New Orleans who becomes a vampire after falling under the spell of Lestat, this very dramatic, very stylish immortal who thinks humans are beneath him.

Once Louis joins him, the two form a unit that looks like a couple to some people and like “roommates” to others. They run businesses, build a life and raise the teenage vampire Claudia, but their love story is full of power games, abuse and constant fights about what it means to be a monster.

What makes this such a strong follow-up to Heated Rivalry is how clearly it links queerness, power and survival. Louis carries racism and homophobia from his human life.

Becoming a vampire lets him step outside those rules and gain control, but it also traps him in a relationship where Lestat uses that power over him. The show does not shy away from explicit intimacy between men and does not treat it like a side plot. It is the core of everything.

Like Heated Rivalry, Interview with the Vampire is not just about who kisses whom. It is about two people who love each other, hurt each other and keep choosing each other even when it makes no sense.

If you liked watching Shane and Ilya try to balance ambition, desire and pride, Louis and Lestat will feel like that, only darker, queerer and even more extreme.

The synopsis for the show reads,

"A vampire from New Orleans reunites with an ailing reporter to recount a life of bloodlust and toxic romance with the sinister Frenchman who turned him."

2. Dickinson

Heated Rivalry shows how hard it is when your heart wants one thing and the world expects something else. Dickinson takes that same struggle and drops it into the 1800s, then adds weird humor, modern slang and a very intense romance between two girls.

The Apple TV series follows poet Emily Dickinson as a young woman, but it is not some slow, serious period drama. It is chaotic (i.e., very Gen Z in an unusual way), colourful and very aware of how queer and messy Emily’s life might have been.

The main love story is between Emily and her best friend, Sue Gilbert. They start as close friends, then fall in love, then have to deal with the fact that Sue ends up marrying Emily’s brother for money and security.

The show dives into that push and pull where you love someone, you want them, but family, money and society keep twisting everything. While Emily writes poetry and tries to be taken seriously as a writer, she is also dealing with the pain of watching the girl she loves live in the room next door as her sister-in-law.

Just like Heated Rivalry plays with performance and pressure on the ice, Dickinson plays with performance in daily life. Everyone is acting. Emily acts like the “odd” daughter, Sue acts like the perfect wife, and both of them are hiding a romance that does not fit into their world.

The series uses beautiful costumes and detailed sets, but breaks that “serious” vibe by throwing in rap songs, slang and even a personified character of Death in a carriage.

Under all the jokes, though, the heart is simple. A queer girl is trying to figure out if her love is allowed to exist. If Heated Rivalry made you feel the ache of wanting something that feels both right and impossible, Emily and Sue will give you that same knot in your chest, just with ball gowns, secret bedroom scenes and poems that feel like late-night texts.

The synopsis reads:

"In this coming-of-age story, Emily's determined to become the world's greatest poet."

3. Young Royals

Heated Rivalry shows two famous athletes trying to balance a career, a public image and an off ice love story that could explode their world. Young Royals basically asks the same question, but in a Swedish boarding school with a crown prince instead of a hockey star.

If you liked the emotional side of Heated Rivalry and the feeling that love is always bumping into duty, this one should be very high on your list.

Young Royals follows Wilhelm, a fictional Swedish prince, who is sent to Hillerska, an elite boarding school. There, he meets Simon, a day student who is from a working-class background.

Wilhelm is soft, confused and not fully aware of his sexuality yet. Simon is already out to his family and friends and just trying to live his life. Their friendship slowly shifts into a secret relationship, full of stolen moments and quiet comfort.

The tension really hits when Wilhelm becomes the crown prince after his brother dies and a private video of him and Simon gets leaked. Overnight, their relationship turns into a national scandal.

Wilhelm has to choose between protecting the monarchy’s image and standing beside the boy he loves. Simon has to decide if he can stay with someone who keeps him hidden. The show leans into all that teenage intensity, but it treats their feelings as serious, not a passing phase.

What makes Young Royals a great follow-up to Heated Rivalry is how it treats queerness with care but awareness that society may not always be supportive. Wilhelm is not ashamed of loving Simon. He is terrified of what that love means for his role. The romance is sweet, but the stakes are huge.

If you were drawn to how Heated Rivalry showed Shane and Ilya chasing glory while trying not to wreck each other, Young Royals gives you that same path, only with royal duties, choir scenes, and a prince who wants a “normal life” with the boy he loves.

The synopsis for the TV series reads:

"Prince Wilhelm adjusts to life at his prestigious new boarding school, Hillerska, but following his heart proves more challenging than anticipated."

4. Fellow Travelers

Heated Rivalry hurts in a sports drama way. Fellow Travelers hurts in a history lesson way. If you want something heavier after the hockey drama, this limited series packs in queer love, politics and the very real dangers that came with being gay in the mid twentieth century.

It stretches one relationship across four decades and multiple crises, from witch hunts in the 1950s to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

The story starts with Hawkins Fuller, known as Hawk, a successful man working in politics who carefully keeps his sex life with men hidden. He does everything to stay safe, from avoiding emotional ties to making choices that protect his career first.

Then he meets Tim Laughlin, a young Catholic man, and they start a relationship that never really settles into something simple. Hawk helps Tim get work, but also betrays him when government offices go after suspected queer employees.

What follows is a long on-and-off situationship. Hawk marries a woman and has kids, trying to keep his position. Tim moves through phases of faith, military service and later queer activism. The show does not hide the fact that their connection is full of power imbalances and bad choices.

At the same time, it gives space to other queer characters like Marcus, a Black journalist, Frankie, a drag artist who becomes an activist, and Mary, a woman trying to protect her own relationship. Through all of them, Fellow Travelers shows how different identities collide with the politics of the time.

Like Heated Rivalry, this series uses intimate scenes between men as a key part of the story instead of cutting away. Sex is about control, fear, comfort and sometimes love.

If you were hooked on how Heated Rivalry explored two men trying to hold on to both their career and their feelings, Fellow Travelers shows what happens when the world is much less forgiving and survival sometimes wins over romance. It is intense, emotional and a strong next step if you want a queer drama that leaves a mark.

The synopsis for the Apple TV+ reads,

"Follows the lives and volatile romance of two different men, through purges, wars, protests, and plagues, overcoming obstacles in the world."

5. First Kill

If what grabbed you in Heated Rivalry was the “I’m supposed to hate you, but I cannot stop thinking about you” energy, First Kill might be your perfect rebound show. It has teenage drama, forbidden romance and old school vampire myths, but flips one huge thing. The queer girls at the center are not punished just because they love each other. They fight for that love.

First Kill is set in Savannah and follows two families that have basically been at war forever. The Burns family is monster hunters. The Atwoods are vampires. Juliette Atwood is a young vampire who does not really want to embrace her role.

She survives on blood pills and is scared of doing her official “first kill” even as her body changes and her urges grow stronger. Calliope, or Cal, Burns is training to be a legacy monster hunter and wants to prove she can handle a real mission.

Juliette quietly crushes on Cal, while Cal notices something off when she sees Juliette’s blood pills. Thanks to a party game, the two end up kissing in a pantry.

It is supposed to be a simple teen moment, but both of them go into that room planning a kill. Instead of staking or biting each other, they end up starting a relationship that both families are firmly against.

The show keeps the classic vampire as queer symbol idea, but updates it. Juliette, hiding her hunger and trying to delay feeding, feels a lot like a queer kid trying to hide a part of themselves from family.

Later, when Cal’s family tries a ritual called a “severing” to break the bond they believe Juliette’s bite created, it feels very close to forced conversion attempts. Through all of this, their queerness itself is never framed as the real problem. The problem is fear, hate and old grudges.

If Heated Rivalry made you obsessed with the idea of rivals falling for each other while the people around them freak out, First Kill takes that same idea and adds blood, magic and a full on monster hunter clan. It is dramatic, a bit wild and very clear that queer girls get to be the heroes of their own story.

The synopsis for the series reads:

"Falling in love is tricky for teens Juliette and Calliope: One's a vampire, the other's a vampire hunter — and both are ready to make their first kill."

Heated Rivalry gives you rivals who cannot stay away from each other, steamy scenes and a very queer heart beating under all the ice. Once you finish the season, you do not have to lose that feeling.

Interview with the Vampire, Dickinson, Young Royals, Fellow Travelers and First Kill all bring their own bag of romance, identity and high stakes. Some are soft and poetic and some are brutal and political, but every single one puts queer love in the center.

If Heated Rivalry has already hooked you, these five stories are ready to keep you watching, feeling and maybe crying a little more.