The cure for winter blues? Some good old-fashioned screen time, and maybe living vicariously through film and TV characters stealing away to a cottage for a romantic interlude.
In the finale of Heated Rivalry, titled “The Cottage,” Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) tells Canadian fellow athlete Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), “I’m coming to the cottage,” referring to the lakefront home where Shane invites Ilya to spend the offseason with him. On the surprise-hit show about a secret romance between rival hockey pros, Shane’s cottage offers a sanctuary away from prying eyes, allowing Ilya and Shane to test the waters on bringing their decade-long secret relationship out of the shadows. Outside, the pressures and risks of publicly revealing their relationship loom. But inside, they are untouched by such concerns, and therefore free to be together.
Ilya isn’t the only one who accepted an invitation to the cottage. Heated Rivalry, produced by the virtually unknown Canadian streamer Crave and then licensed by HBO Max, where it premiered in late November with little promotion, has become the talk of the town. Celebrities from Pedro Pascal to Ayo Edebiri have expressed love for the series on social media. “You’re Ilya and I’m Shane,” Andy Cohen told Anderson Cooper as they celebrated New Year’s Eve together on CNN. When asked what she was watching in a recent Instagram video, Donatella Versace replied, “Is that even a question? Take me to the cottage already.”
With no premiere date in sight for Heated Rivalry’s next installment, the fourth season of Bridgerton will offer audiences another cottage to visit when it arrives in two four-episode drops: the first on January 29, and the second on February 26. In the new season, Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) whisks Sophie (new cast member Yerin Ha) away to the Bridgerton family’s country estate, referred to as “my cottage,” after saving the maid from an assault by her new employer. Upon first seeing the palatial property, Sophie observes that “cottage feels somewhat…misleading.”
An already injured Benedict falls ill overnight, and Sophie nurses him back to health as they share the kind of intimate moments only afforded to them inside the confines of the cottage. When they return to polite society, with Benedict getting Sophie a job working for the Bridgerton family, they remain physically close but are emotionally distanced by social class. “I do miss our time in the countryside,” a uniformed Sophie opines.
