Maybe it’s the way he folds his clothes as he undresses. Or how he only ever drinks ginger ale.
It could be the way he shifts his gaze when he talks to his parents, but stares intently into Ilya’s eyes. And how he’s described as “not the most sociable” and “boring,” but is actually quite funny — once you get to know him.
It’s so subtle, chances are you didn’t even pick up on it. Because it’s also not explicitly acknowledged in any of the episodes. But yes, Shane Hollander, the fictional Canadian hockey star played by Hudson Williams on Crave’s smash hit Heated Rivalry, is autistic.
Rachel Reid, the Canadian author behind the Game Changer book series that inspired the show, has previously confirmed on Reddit that while she didn’t set out to write Shane as neurodivergent, “he’s probably autistic.” But she said she doubted he’d “ever realize it himself.”
“I wasn’t particularly informed about that sort of thing. He was just uptight/anxious/focused etc.,” Reid wrote in an AMA on the Heated Rivalry subreddit in November.
“I then went through the long and complicated journey of getting my neurodivergent oldest child diagnosed, and I learned a lot then, and since. So by the time I wrote The Long Game, I had a better understanding of Shane, I think, and I realized that, yeah, he’s probably autistic.”
Reid wasn’t available for an interview Wednesday. But she has said in a few interviews that Shane is autistic, and that Williams played him that way. She told Wired magazine it’s not explicitly stated because “I don’t think the character of Shane would be aware of it himself, or it’s not something that he would be looking into.”
And Williams confirmed his portrayal of Shane in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, saying that he took inspiration from his own father, who is neurodiverse.
“I love my dad to death, and I’ve always felt very connected to him. He has a sensitivity to him that is very boyish. I think when I read the script, I took a huge page out of living my life with him,” Williams, of Kamloops, B.C., said in the Dec. 16 interview.
“Rachel [Reid] has said [Shane] is autistic, so I think I knew how it should look. I empathized with him a lot, immediately.”
‘Treats it with remarkable precision’
It would be an understatement to merely call Heated Rivalry popular. The show about two hockey players pitted against each other on the ice, but who develop a secret relationship outside the rink, is more of an obsession that’s taken over the airwaves, internet and pop culture in general.
It’s Crave’s most successful original debut series of all time, and has already been renewed for a second season. Videos about the show on TikTok and Instagram regularly get millions of views. Celebrities are fawning over it, and singer Miley Cyrus has said she wants in on the soundtrack for Season 2.
Now, in addition to the overall love for the show, many fans are praising its nuanced, subtle portrayal of neurodiversity. As some have pointed out, Shane’s autism isn’t a plot point, a weakness or a stereotype — but it is present in everything he does.
It’s seen from the first episode — when Shane doesn’t understand that Ilya is flirting with him until he makes it, um, explicit — to the season finale, when Shane cooks eight hamburgers for two people because that was the recipe said to do.
“Shane waits for information that is explicit, unambiguous, complete. This is not naïveté. It is autism. And the show treats it with remarkable precision,” journalist Anni Malter wrote on Substack.
“This portrayal contributes meaningfully to contemporary conversations about autism in media, demonstrating how autistic characters can be written and performed with authenticity, intention and respect,” wrote advocate Amanda McGuinness on Instagram.
The Canadian streaming sensation Heated Rivalry — which centres on two gay professional hockey players — has been a big hit with viewers, who have ranked it among the highest-rated episodes of all time on IMDB.
The importance of representation
Katherine L’Etang, who is autistic and has two autistic children, told CBC News that people unfamiliar with neurodiversity may not have even have picked up on it, but that for those who “get it,” it’s wonderful to see.
“His need for sameness in his drink of choice, his so-called flat affect and his silent overwhelm in the last episode at the dining table were all just so incredibly relatable to someone like me, a late-diagnosed, high-masking adult,” said L’Etang, who lives in Maple Bay, B.C.
She added that she appreciated how series author Reid confirmed Shane’s autism, instead of downplaying his presentation or labelling him as simply having quirks.
“It was deeply refreshing.”
Others have applauded Heated Rivalry for the fact that neither Shane’s character development nor the plot is centred on autism at all, noting that it’s a nice change from other media portrayals of neurodiversity.
It’s something Williams said he kept in mind when he was preparing to play Shane. In a recent interview, he said that when he read the scripts, he didn’t think the autism needed to be explicitly acknowledged because it seemed obvious enough.
“Sometimes autism’s portrayed in movies with quirky head movements, weird blinks and weird inflections. And it’s like, OK…? That is sometimes truthful but that’s always the reach. That’s always the way it’s expressed,” Williams told Glamour magazine in December.
“And it’s like, no, sometimes it is flat affect. It’s just being immobile in your seat and taking 10 seconds to move your hand to do something because you don’t know what this movement looks like or means.”
Imagine a world where the two best male hockey players in the country weren’t just rivals, but were also in love with each other. The new Canadian TV show Heated Rivalry brings the idea to life.
