Book Blog #421: I'll Believe in Anything: The Making of Heated Rivalry Season 1 by Jacob Tierney

 

Title: I'll Believe in Anything: The Making of Heated Rivalry Season 1

Author: Jacob Tierney

# of Pages: 364 (ebook)

Genre: Nonfiction

Rating: ★★★★☆ (GR: 4 stars)

Synopsis: Based on Rachel Reid's blockbuster Game Changers book series, Heated Rivalry premiered on Crave and HBO in late 2025 and immediately took the world by storm. I'll Believe in Anything takes readers behind the curtain, showing how Tierney, his producing partner Brendan Brady, and the entire Accent Aigu team drew on a deep reverence for Reid's work, impeccable casting, clever sets and costume design, and thoughtful sex scene choreography to both rewrite the playbook for adapting romance novels to the screen and obliterate the long-held misconception that queer love stories have limited appeal.I'll Believe in Anything answers all the questions fans of this groundbreaking series have been asking. How did Tierney interweave Ilya and Shane's rivalry with Scott and Kip's love story to create the ultimate television moment? Where did the idea for that incredible Canadian Olympic fleece originate? And what does it look like for a full team, led by Tierney and Brady, to plan, choreograph, and film some of the best sex scenes in television history? Featuring annotations on scene directions, intimacy choreography, costume insights, and more, alongside Tierney's never-before-seen scripts, this book gives fans a brand-new way to come to the cottage!

Review: Reading this book is just reading the script for Heated Rivalry, with occasional notes from the writer/director Jacob Tierney. The most interesting parts were seeing what was changed/cut from the original script (not much) and how much this show was made from Tierney loving and relating to Rachel Reid's story and characters. 

I was expecting some in-depth analysis on each scene, but instead Tierney's commentary reveals how much was influenced by the budget constraints/scheduling conflicts and how much he put himself into the show while staying true to the source material. It was interesting to hear his thoughts on which scenes he felt were realistic vs fantasy from his perspective as a gay man.

Overall I enjoyed it (since I also enjoyed the show) but only would recommend this to people who are huge fans of the show (and wouldn't mind "rewatching" the show through reading the script).