Missing ‘Heated Rivalry’ Already? This Charming, Raunchy Hockey Sitcom Is the Perfect Replacement

Heated Rivalry has become a surprise streaming hit, a watermark series in the evolution of queer storytelling that also highlights a little game we Canadians call "hockey" (while taking the term "stick-handling" to another level). But with the sports romance having wrapped up for now, and news on when the inevitable Season 2 will air unavailable, where does one turn for a replacement series? How about one that's almost exactly like Heated Rivalry, a crude, sharp, and outrageously funny show where "bromances" heavily outweigh "romances." That series is Shoresy, and it's not as far removed from Heated Rivalry as you might think.

'Shoresy' Brings Its Lead Out of the Shadows

Shoresy is a spin-off of the Canadian sitcom Letterkenny, which revolves around the titular rural Ontario town. The premise is simple, with text stating, "There are 5000 people in Letterkenny. These are their problems," as each episode opens. Those 5000 are split into groups, like "Hicks" (farmers) and "Skids" (drug addicts). Shoresy (Jared Keeso) is among the "Jocks," a talented hockey player with a foul mouth and a penchant for hurling insults — "chirping" — at opposing players, and his teammates, on the ice (personal favorite: "You're the reason shampoo bottles say 'do not eat'"). There's no depth to Shoresy whatsoever, a one-note character whose face is never even seen clearly.

So the decision to feature Shoresy as the lead in the spin-off was, as Bell Media executive Justin Stockman said, "the most bizarre idea." But Shoresy was the number one character associated with Letterkenny merchandise, and since so little was known about him, it offered a clean slate for co-creators Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney (sound familiar, Heated Rivalry fans?) to work with. And so, in 2022, Shoresy moved from Letterkenny to Sudbury, taking a job with the Sudbury Bulldogs, a Senior AAA-level hockey team. The team is in real danger of being shut down, which comes with losing 20 straight games and running dead last in a four-team league. So, to save the team, he bets the general manager, Nat (Tasya Teles), that the team will never lose again if he is given a chance to take control.

Shoresy comes close with players who share his motto of "hate to lose," but the team ultimately loses its final regular-season game to their rivals, the Soo Hunt. However, the city has embraced the underdog Bulldogs and their willingness to give it all, regularly filling the arena and prompting Nat to agree not to fold the team. That doesn't happen if Shoresy remained the one-note character he was in Letterkenny. Instead, this is a Shoresy who is visible, not only on the outside where his face can (finally) be seen, but on the inside as well, adding a depth to the character that doesn't diminish his fiery antics on the ice, but does much to explain the loyalty and genuine care he has for his teammates, bordering on the inspirational. It's a depth that cuts right to the heart, especially in Season 3, where Shoresy suffers two concussions in a short timeframe and is forced to retire as a player, literally breaking down after rallying the Bulldogs to a national championship.

‘Shoresy’ Is a Groundbreaking Hockey Show in Its Own Right

Shoresy exists in the real hockey world, and the authenticity the series brings to it is remarkable. The hockey action itself is spot-on, from the action to the chirping, and it extends off the ice and into the locker room as well, where hockey's time-honored traditions, crass jokes, and brotherhood play a large part. And while the NHL remains the only major North American men's sports league that has never had an openly gay player, you get the feeling that the guys on the Sudbury Bulldogs would simply give a gay teammate the gears (which is generally backed up by a 2019 study of gay hockey players).

Shoresy is not nearly as overtly groundbreaking as Heated Rivalry, but it does have its own progressive ideals. Women, for starters, hold key leadership positions that are typically held by men — Nat as general manager, Ziig (Blair Lamora) and Miig (Keilani Elizabeth Rose) as her two assistants — as well as the position of sports journalist that covers the team for the Sudbury Star, which falls to Laura Mohr (Camille Sullivan). And like Letterkenny before it, Shoresy earns plaudits for its inclusion of fully-realized First Nations characters, with actress Kaniehtiio Horn serving as producer and tasked with ensuring the show's Indigenous characters are written and portrayed realistically. The only thing Shoresy is missing that Heated Rivalry has is the graphic sex scenes, but if you believe the things Shoresy's said about other players' mothers while chirping, it's not all that far off from those either.