[PREVIEW] 'Heated Rivalry' & 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' S3 Reunion

On this week’s Rich Text podcast, we’re talking about a spicy new television show, and a “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” reunion special that dangled the possibility of spice and instead fed us white bread. First, we get into “Heated Rivalry,” a Canadian sports romance show that has broken out into the mainstream since it’s first two episodes dropped (on HBO Max for U.S. viewers) on Nov. 28. The show, created for Crave by actor/writer/producer/director Jacob Tierney, is based on the second novel in romance writer Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series. “Heated Rivalry” follows two rising hockey stars of Major League Hockey (a fictionalized NHL): Canadian Shane Hollander, who plays for the Montreal Metros, and Russian Ilya Rozanov, who plays for the Boston Raiders. They meet during their rookie years, and the tension is basically immediately palpable. They quickly end up developing a very public heated rivalry (see what we did there?), while entering into a private situationship that spans years.In this episode, we get into why “Heated Rivalry” has broken through into the cultural conversation so quickly, the insane chemistry between the lead actors, whether it matters that this queer romance was written by a woman in a genre largely consumed by straight women, and why more romance shows should take the genre as seriously as Tierney clearly did.Then we move on to the much-anticipated, but deeply disappointing, season 3 reunion of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.” As fans of the show who have been breathlessly following the adventures of MomTok both on-screen and off, we had high hopes. But unfortunately, this reunion special offered a lot of throat-clearing and very little that actually cleared much of anything up.The hour-long special, hosted by Stassi Schroeder, gave us… nothing? We were left with multiple frustrating back-and-forths that only ended when Stassi stepped in — not to ask a follow-up question, but to simply move right along to the next segment. It left us wondering who is to blame here: The filming schedule? The fact that the cast is holding back for Season 4? The host? The editing? All of the above?Before we wrapped up, we also got into some of the far-more-interesting off-screen “SLOMW” news, including the big Fruity Pebbles reveal, and Jessi and Jordan’s dual Viall Files appearances.Timestamps for easy listening:0:00 — “Heated Rivalry”50:06 — “SLOMW” S3 Reunion1:16:45 — “SLOMW” non-reunion gossipHope you enjoy! xoShare Rich TextIf you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Patreon!Give us feedback or suggest a topic for the pod • Subscribe • Request a free subscription