Romance television has consistently evolved over the years, delivering fantastic stories that remain impactful long after their conclusions, and a great example of one of the greats in the genre is Heated Rivalry. The impeccable romantic series that has consumed most modern audiences’ thoughts follows hockey stars Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) as their fierce professional rivalry quite quickly becomes a deeply passionate and emotionally complicated love story. But as good as Heated Rivalry genuinely is, there are quite a few romance shows that are simply better.
Shows like the emotionally devastating work of art, One Day, and the epic sci-fi series focused on love and human connection, Sense8, are just two series that embody all the best elements of romance, quite easily surpassing even a cultural phenomenon such as Heated Rivalry. Whether through memorable chemistry, raw vulnerability, or purely ambitious storytelling, the shows on this list stand as far better watches than the brilliant icon Heated Rivalry.
Advertisement
‘Interview with the Vampire’ (2022–Present)
Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt and Jacob Anderson as Louis de Pointe du Lac in a car in Interview with the Vampire.Image via AMC
Interview with the Vampirestands as the ultimate romance watch for anyone who desires a fantastic story about love and absolute chaos. The AMC hit centers around the weary New Orleans businessman Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), who turns into a vampire and falls into a dangerously obsessive relationship with his maker, the charismatic and deeply manipulative Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid).
Interview with the Vampire delivers a gothic horrorthat absolutely stuns. The show literally lacks nothing. It is rife with heaps of tension, stakes, sensuality, drama, and a romance—no matter how toxic—that can melt anyone into a puddle of goo. Interview with the Vampire ranks high above Heated Rivalry because it reaches a level of psychological depth and emotional intensity that very few romances dare to even attempt, marking it as a romance series that earned its place on this list for its masterful writing, chemistry between leads, and heartbreakingly epic romance story.
Advertisement
‘Outlander’ (2014–2026)
Caitriona Balfe as Claire with Sam Heughan as Jamie holding each other at the waist in Outlander Season 8Image via Starz
This sci-fi fantasy maintains a constant bout of emotional intensity that keeps viewers locked in. Outlander centers around the married combat nurse from 1945, Claire Beauchamp Randall (Caitríona Balfe), who finds herself thrown back in time to 1743 Scotland, where she becomes entangled in Jacobite politics and eventually falls in love with one of the bravest Highland warriors to ever exist, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).
With a romance both epic and sustained, Outlander definitely knocks Heated Rivalry out of the water. Action, fantasy adventure, mystery, sci-fi, and a romance that defies time, Outlander has earned its place near the very top of peak romance TV. While Heated Rivalry is a mesh of concentrated, clandestine intensity, the adventurous romance series excels in burning sensuality, high stakes, years of tested devotion, and is written as an ever-evolving partnership. Outlander resonates extremely well with romance fans as they witness an emotional connection between two people that constantly feels epic, making it a league above even the icon that is Heated Rivalry.
Advertisement
‘One Day’ (2024)
Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall share a romantic moment in a still from One Day.Image via Netflix
One Day has to be one of the most brilliant romances ever created that has never truly gotten the attention it deserves. The remarkable romance series follows Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall), who meet on graduation night, separate the next morning, and then meet over the course of many years—the series revisiting them on the same day.
While Heated Rivalry wields an immediate burn filled with lust and salacious hook-ups, One Day brings to the table a much slower, more complex romance. The series captivates audiences with the brilliance of its structure, often making them feel as though time is romance’s most cruel collaborator. One Day stands above Heated Rivalry because it treats slow-burn romance like a part of the story rather than just a trope. The Netflix series is swooningly romantic and heartbreakingly tragic, a near-perfect adaptation of its source material that is genuinely masterful. Heated Rivalry is no doubt a thrilling romance series, but One Day dominates most in the genre due to astounding chemistry and emotional impact.
Advertisement
‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ (2023)
India Ria Amarteifio and Corey Mylchreest as Charlotte and George standing side by side looking at each other in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton StoryImage via Netflix
This Bridgerton prequel is a fantastic romance series with lavish visuals and glamorous romance. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Storyfocuses on the young Charlotte (India Amarteifio), who is married off to King George (Corey Mylchreest) and enters court expecting purely political duty, and instead discovers a relationship shaped by tenderness, institutional pressure, distance, and her spouse’s deteriorating mental health.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Storyis genuinely adult and sorrowful, a romance that masterfully surpasses Heated Rivalry for its epic love story.Viewers have actually frequently dubbed the show a true masterpiece that remains the best romance in the entire Bridgerton franchise. Heated Rivalry may be the hotter, leaner romantic watch, but Queen Charlotte is fuller, sadder, and is more interested in what devotion, and almost desperate, feelings of love look like when happily-ever-after is only halfway there.
Advertisement
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Advertisement
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
Advertisement
🎭Ethan Hunt
Advertisement
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
Advertisement
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
Advertisement
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
Advertisement
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
Advertisement
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
Advertisement
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
Advertisement
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
Advertisement
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
Advertisement
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
Advertisement
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Advertisement
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Advertisement
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Advertisement
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Advertisement
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Advertisement
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Advertisement
‘Normal People’ (2020)
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal as Marianne and Connell staring at each other at a party in Normal People.Image via Hulu
Normal People is one of the most underrated Hulu romances on its platform. The brilliant drama centers around Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal) and Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) as they grow up in the same Irish town but occupy very different social positions. As they navigate their secret teenage relationship, it unexpectedly mutates into a long, painful, formative bond across school, Trinity College, shame, class anxiety, sex, and periods of damning separation.
Advertisement
Heated Rivalry is all heat and steam in its lust-filled romance, but Normal People stands as a series that takes on more emotional observation, delivering devastating scenes as ordinary misunderstandings transform into life-shaping wounds. Normal People brings haunting realities to screens, offering audiences romance in one of its rawest forms. Heated Rivalry may be the ultimate immediate, sexy, sharp romantic watch, but Normal People surpasses it in emotional layered realism, intimacy, and painfully authentic character growth.
‘Heartstopper’ (2022–Present)
Kit Connor as Nick and Joe Locke as Charlie with a dog in the park in Heartstopper S3E7.Image via Netflix
This incredible romance drama may be too cute for words, but it definitely stands as one of the most sincere watches on this list. Heartstopperfocuses on Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor), who may have started out as classmates, but grew into a friendship that slowly turns into tooth-achingly sweet love.
Advertisement
Heartstopper is well-known for its tenderness. The Netflix teen romance actually builds its world around vulnerability, making it less embarrassing than it might otherwise be, especially for teenagers. Heated Rivalry is a queer good time that is rife with spice, but Heartstopper ranks above it purely because it’s one of those rare romance shows that understands softness as rigor. It’s a magical series that shows the epic joys and heartbreaking decisions that come with consuming first love. Heartstopper exudes wholesome chemistry and communal warmth that make it feel totally singular. Heated Rivalry may bring all the burning heat, but Heartstopper definitely outmatches the tantalizing watch for its delivery of emotional literacy, trust, and a healthy approach to queer romance.
‘Sense8’ (2015–2018)
Will and Lito kiss at a pride parade in ‘Sense8’Image via Netflix
Sense8 may be one of the most ambitious sci-fi watches ever created, but it also happens to be one of the most underrated romances out there. The incredible series centers around eight strangers around the world—including Will Gorski (Brian J. Smith), Nomi Marks (Jamie Clayton), Riley Blue (Tuppence Middleton), Wolfgang Bogdanow (Max Riemelt), Sun Bak (Bae Doona), Kala Dandekar (Tina Desai), Capheus Onyango (Toby Onwumere), and Lito Rodriguez (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) as they realize they can share, knowledge, sensation, and ultimately danger across continents.
Advertisement
Sense8 surpasses Heated Rivalry because the series is practically love itself. Its story centers around connection—romantic, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Sense8 is an underrated work of art that few romance dramas can even live up to in the realm of emotional vulnerability. The series is an epically powerful romance for its belief that emotional connection can transcend isolation, fear, and distance. Sense8 is the perfect addition to this list as one of the few romance shows that can even come close to Heated Rivalry, let alone outmatch it.
‘Nobody Wants This’ (2024–Present)
This rom-com is genuinely one of the most romantic watches on this list. Nobody Wants This follows agnostic sex podcaster, Joanne (Kristen Bell), as she meets recently single rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody), and unexpectedly finds herself falling deeply in love.
Nobody Wants This wields a chemistry between leads that definitely matches Heated Rivalry‘s quite well, but the series is just a bit better because it stands as one of the sharpest recent examples of adult rom-com television. Rife with crackling banter, Nobody Wants This is frequently praised for how it captures a fantastically healthy relationship. While Heated Rivalry is much more forbidden and far more enticingly carnal, Nobody Wants This brings epic humor to the table, being more maturely awkward and better at showing off comedy without ever hindering the romance.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login