So you have finished Heated Rivalry and the flat feeling has set in. Let me be honest before anything else: nothing is going to replace it. Nothing fills that particular hole, and anyone promising you otherwise has not felt it. What I can give you is eighteen things that come close in one specific way or another, sorted by what you are actually missing rather than by star rating, because “more MM romance” is not a useful instruction when the problem is that you want those two particular men back.
I am French, and I have been writing about MM romance in French for years. I write in English here too now, because it turned out a lot of you were reading me anyway. I watch a great deal of this, across Thai, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and European productions, so nothing on this list is here because an algorithm suggested it.
What You Are Actually Missing
It is worth naming, because it changes what you should queue up next. Heated Rivalry works on three things at once, and most recommendation lists only replace one of them.
The rivalry. Two people at the top of the same profession, who are measured against each other publicly and who want each other privately. That competitive frame is rarer on screen than you would think.
The secrecy. Not a misunderstanding keeping them apart, but a career, a country, a family. The obstacle is structural, so no conversation fixes it.
The timeline. Years, not weeks. The show earns its ending because you watched them fail to leave each other alone for a decade first.
Almost nothing gives you all three. So the honest way to sort a list like this is by which of the three you cannot live without, which is exactly how the sections below are built.
In this guide
- → What you are actually missing
- → If you want the same intensity
- → If you want love under public pressure
- → If you want something gentle afterwards
- → If you want the long, devastating one
- → If you want something you have not seen before
- → The classics, if you have somehow missed them
- → Sorted by format
- → Sorted by trope
- → Sorted by how much you want to suffer
- → Frequently asked questions
If You Want the Same Intensity
These four come closest to the thing Heated Rivalry does: adults, real consequences, and a relationship that costs something. Start here if you are not ready to come down yet.
10DANCE 2025 · Japan
Two competitive ballroom dancers cannot stand each other. One rules the standard category, the other owns Latin. To master all ten dances they have to train as a pair, and the imposed closeness dismantles both of them one step at a time.
Released in December 2025 and it took off immediately.
KinnPorsche 2022 · Thailand
Kinn, heir to a mafia family, ends up hiring Porsche as his bodyguard after Porsche saves his life. Porsche is a student drowning in debt, and he walks straight into a violent world he has no map for. Between the jobs and the power games, the animosity between them turns into something closer to obsession.
Content: violence, coercion, a power imbalance the show is fully aware of. 18+.
The production that made Thai BL an international phenomenon.
Soul Mate 2026 · Japan
After wrecking his best friend’s life, Ryu leaves Japan and nearly dies before a Korean boxer pulls him out of it. Two men carrying very different injuries find each other, lose each other and find each other again, across ten years and three cities: Berlin, Seoul, Tokyo.
Very recent, released in May 2026, and still under the radar.
Oh, Otto! 2025 · Belgium
Otto, 26, has just been dumped by his first love. For the first time in his life he throws himself into queer nightlife in Brussels: apps, drag, leather, dark rooms. An adult exploration with nothing sanded down for a general audience.
Content: 16+, explicit sexual scenes, nudity, drug use.
Hard to reach right now if you are outside Europe. There is no US platform yet, the original is in Dutch, and English subtitles exist because the series toured festivals with them. Worldwide rights are with Eyeworks, so a deal may well come. It does look likely to land on a platform that serves it in English, and I will update this article as soon as it does.
If You Want Love Under Public Pressure
The other half of what makes Shane and Ilya work is that they cannot be seen. Both of these are built on exactly that: two people in love with an audience permanently pointed at them.
Young Royals 2021 to 2024 · Sweden
Prince Wilhelm is sent to a boarding school and meets Simon. What grows between them becomes dangerous the moment public image, family duty and a leaked intimate video all start pulling in the same direction.
Content: anxiety, intense psychological pressure.
Red, White & Royal Blue 2023 · United States
Alex, son of the American president, cannot stand Prince Henry. When a scandal threatens the diplomatic relationship between their countries, the two are ordered to perform a friendship for the cameras, and the fake smiles start turning into something neither of them planned to admit.
Mainstream production, and one of the biggest queer romance releases of 2023.
If You Want Something Gentle Afterwards
Sometimes the correct next watch is the opposite of what you just finished. Nothing in this group will hurt you. Low stakes, soft light, and people being kind to each other for whole episodes at a time.
Heartstopper 2022 to 2024 · United Kingdom
Charlie falls for Nick, the school rugby star. Shy messages, a friendship that quietly stops being one, and two boys working out who they are, told with enormous gentleness.
Handles mental health, eating disorders and coming out with real care.
Here the Whole Time 2026 · Brazil
Felipe, a gay teenager, has to share his home for fifteen days with Caio, the neighbour he has been in love with for as long as he can remember. One summer, one crush, and the slow work of learning to like yourself.
Its English translation won the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative award for best translated young adult book.
Full guide to the film: where to watch it, the English dub, the cast and my review.
Read the book: Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins, the novel it is adapted from.
Duang With You 2026 · Thailand
Duang studies decorative arts, falls in love at first sight, and decides to win over Qin, a jazz student who turns down everyone who approaches him, coldly and without exception.
Dating Game the Series 2025 · Thailand
A shy video game developer, far more comfortable with the worlds he builds than with people, ends up in a real romance he never saw coming.
If You Want the Long, Devastating One
One entry, because nothing else on this list asks for as much or gives back as much. Clear your calendar.
The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi 2019 · China
Wei Wuxian comes back thirteen years after his own death and finds Lan Wangji waiting where he left him. Together they investigate supernatural mysteries, a war neither of them has recovered from, and everything they never managed to say.
Fifty episodes, a very large cast, and the first few episodes ask for patience.
Read the story instead
The show cannot say out loud what the book says plainly. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is the uncensored source, fully translated into English across five volumes, and the romance is explicit rather than implied. There is also a full-colour manhua if you want the story with the art. Both are the obvious next step once the last episode has finished with you.
If You Want Something You Have Not Seen Before
Queer horror, a ghost marriage, dead teenage detectives, and a reality show. None of these is a straightforward romance, and that is the reason they are here.
Leviticus 2026 · Australia
Two teenagers in an evangelical community fall in love. When conversion therapy begins, something supernatural surfaces, and it wears the face of the person each of them wants most, which is to say each other.
Content: conversion therapy, religious homophobia, violence.
Ninety-two percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and IndieWire ran its review under the headline “Queer Horror Is Heated Rivalry Meets It Follows”, which is either a coincidence or a sign you should trust this list.
Marry My Dead Body 2023 · Taiwan
A fairly macho police officer accidentally picks up a red envelope and finds himself married, under a local funeral tradition, to the ghost of a young gay man. The two of them have a case to close, and one of them starts caring far more than he intended.
A huge critical and commercial success in Taiwan.
Dead Boy Detectives 2024 · United States
Two ghost boys refuse to move on to the afterlife and set up as paranormal detectives instead. It is an ensemble supernatural comedy rather than a romance, but Edwin is openly queer and his feelings for Charles run underneath the whole season.
Not a romance as such. If you need the couple front and centre, this is not it. It is queer, though, openly and without apology.
Cancelled after one season, but the story closes well enough to be worth it.
The Boyfriend 2024 to 2025 · Japan
Nine gay and bisexual men live together and run a coffee truck while the production stays out of their way and lets connections form at their own speed, without manufacturing drama.
The Classics, If You Have Somehow Missed Them
Three films that turn up on every queer cinema list, and that are on this one for a specific reason: all three are built on love with a time limit, which is the mechanism Heated Rivalry uses too. One thing to know before you start any of them: this is prestige queer drama, not genre romance. The contract is different, and the guaranteed happy ending is part of what you are giving up. Watch them when you want to feel something rather than when you want to feel better.
Tell me how they end before I commit
Fair enough, and no plot details below, only the shape of each ending. Brokeback Mountain is a tragedy and does not soften it. Call Me by Your Name is bittersweet: nothing terrible happens, but it was always going to end and it does. Moonlight is the gentlest of the three, open rather than sad, and it stops exactly where you most want it to continue. If you need someone to be all right at the end, take Moonlight.
Call Me by Your Name 2017 · Italy and United States
Northern Italy, 1983. Elio is seventeen and spends his summers in his family’s villa. Oliver arrives as his father’s research assistant and stays six weeks. That is the whole plot, and it is enough.
Written by André Aciman, adapted by James Ivory, and one of the most quoted final scenes in queer cinema.
Brokeback Mountain 2005 · United States
Wyoming, 1963. Two young ranch hands take a summer job herding sheep on a mountain and come down changed. The film then follows them for twenty years, through the wives, the children and the few days a year they manage to steal.
Three Academy Awards, and the reason half of queer cinema exists in the shape it does.
Moonlight 2016 · United States
Three chapters in the life of Chiron, growing up Black and gay in Miami. A childhood, an adolescence, and a man in his thirties sitting across a diner table from the only person who ever saw him properly.
Best Picture at the Oscars. Also on Hulu and several free platforms in the US, depending where you are.
Sorted by Format
This matters more than people admit. After a show that ran on a decade of buildup, a ninety minute film can feel thin no matter how good it is, and a fifty episode series can feel like being asked to move house. Pick the shape of the commitment first, then the story.
One evening, a film
10DANCE, Red, White & Royal Blue, Here the Whole Time, Leviticus, Marry My Dead Body, Call Me by Your Name, Brokeback Mountain, Moonlight
A weekend, a short series
Oh, Otto! (7 ep.), Soul Mate (8 ep.), Dead Boy Detectives (8 ep.), KinnPorsche (14 ep.)
Several weeks, a full run
Heartstopper (24 ep.), Young Royals (18 ep.), Duang With You (12 ep.), Dating Game (12 ep.), The Boyfriend
A genuine project
The Untamed (50 ep.). Nothing else here compares, and nothing else here pays off the same way.
Sorted by Trope
If you came out of Heated Rivalry knowing exactly which mechanism did it to you, this is the faster route. Most people who loved the show are chasing one of the first two.
Rivals and enemies to lovers
Secret relationship, forbidden love
Slow burn that takes years
The Untamed, Soul Mate, Brokeback Mountain, Dead Boy Detectives
Friends to lovers and first love
Opposites attract
Forced proximity
Sorted by How Much You Want to Suffer
The most useful axis, and the one no streaming platform will ever offer you. Be honest with yourself about which row you are in tonight.
Nothing is allowed to hurt me
Heartstopper, Duang With You, Dating Game, The Boyfriend. Nobody dies, nothing is punished, and everyone is trying their best.
A little, in a nice way
Red, White & Royal Blue, Here the Whole Time, Marry My Dead Body. Real stakes, soft landing.
Properly, please
Young Royals, 10DANCE, KinnPorsche, Dead Boy Detectives, Oh, Otto!. Something is going to be lost along the way.
Ruin me
The Untamed, Soul Mate, Leviticus, Brokeback Mountain, Call Me by Your Name. Do not start these on a Sunday night.
I want something I cannot predict
The Untamed for the Chinese fantasy epic, Leviticus for the queer horror, The Boyfriend for reality television that is somehow kind, Marry My Dead Body for a ghost marriage played as a buddy comedy.
I want adults, not teenagers
Oh, Otto!, Soul Mate, KinnPorsche, 10DANCE. Most MM television is set in school. These are not.
What to Watch After Heated Rivalry: Frequently Asked Questions
Is there anything that is genuinely like Heated Rivalry?
The closest are KinnPorsche, for the adult register and the relationship that can never be shown, 10DANCE, for the competitive rivals-to-lovers frame, and Young Royals, for the secret relationship under public scrutiny. Nothing on screen currently gives you the rivalry, the secrecy and the ten year timeline all at once. If that combination is the whole point for you, the honest answer is to read the books instead, because they go much further than the show does.
Do I have to watch subtitled shows?
For most of this list, yes. The strongest MM television is being made in Thailand, Japan, Korea and China, and dubbing is patchy. Heartstopper, Young Royals, Red, White & Royal Blue, Dead Boy Detectives and Leviticus are the ones you can watch in English without reading.
Which of these is on Netflix?
Most of them: 10DANCE, Heartstopper, Young Royals, The Untamed, Soul Mate, Here the Whole Time, Duang With You, Dating Game, Marry My Dead Body, Dead Boy Detectives and The Boyfriend. Red, White & Royal Blue is on Prime Video, KinnPorsche is on iQIYI, Oh, Otto! is on Streamz and Canal+ depending on your country, and Leviticus is still a cinema release, out through Neon in the US since June 2026. Catalogues vary by country, so check yours.
Why is the romance in The Untamed so subtle?
Chinese broadcast rules do not allow explicit same-sex relationships, so the adaptation cannot state it. Everything is in the looks, the framing and what the two of them do for each other. Fans call it subtext, and once you see how much the show gets past the censors, it becomes its own kind of pleasure. The novel it is based on has no such restriction and is fully translated into English.
Do all of these have happy endings?
No, and the difference matters. Everything in the first five sections gives the couple a future. The three classics at the end do not make that promise, and there is a spoiler-free breakdown of how each one lands inside that section. If you came out of Heated Rivalry wanting reassurance rather than damage, stay above it.
Is there a second season of Heated Rivalry?
More of the Game Changers universe has been confirmed for adaptation after the success of the first season, though details are still thin. In the meantime the story continues on the page: The Long Game picks Shane and Ilya up ten years in, and Unrivaled follows it.
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What did you watch after Heated Rivalry? Tell me what worked, and especially what you think is missing from this list. I am always taking recommendations.
New to the genre? Start with the map.
