From The Office’s Tim and Dawn to Gilmore Girls’ Lorelai and Luke, there are some TV couples who were so adorable and perfectly matched that we were rooting for them from their very first episode together. Long-form television is a great medium for telling love stories, because it gives the audience plenty of time to follow the development of a relationship. Movies and novels are confined to a single one-and-done narrative, but viewers of a TV show can live with their favorite characters for a decade — sometimes even more — and they start to feel like close friends.
The “will they or won’t they?” couple is a staple of the sitcom genre. From Sam and Diane in Cheers to Ross and Rachel in Friends, TV shows can spend years and years following the complicated relationship timeline of an on-and-off couple. And it’s not just sitcoms that tell good love stories; romance can be a great component of drama, too. Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler had a doomed courtship based on their shared love of scamming and scheming in Better Call Saul. Some TV couples had such great chemistry that we wanted them to get together from the beginning.
As soon as he was introduced in the first season, Glenn became one of The Walking Dead’s most beloved characters. He was kind, innocent, adorably nerdy, and always did the right thing. So, when the group holed up on a farm and Glenn fell in love with the farmer’s daughter, we were instantly rooting for them. Glenn and Maggie’s love story was faced with plenty of tragedy, from their separation after the prison battle to Glenn’s untimely death by Negan’s barb-wire-wrapped bat Lucille, but their love for each other was always pure and heartfelt.
Storytelling requires conflict, and sitcoms about married couples usually create that conflict between the couple. Everybody Loves Raymond is a perfect example; Ray and Debra are constantly arguing, never on the same page, and don’t even seem to enjoy each other’s company. Rob and Laura Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show are a refreshing antidote to that trope. For Rob and Laura, it’s “us versus the world,” not “us versus each other.” It’s a much healthier dynamic that all couples should aspire to, and it makes them really easy to root for.
Based on the novel by David Nicholls, One Day follows the 14-year on-and-off relationship of Emma and Dexter after they meet at a graduation ball. It’s clear as day to the audience that these two are perfect for each other, but it takes years before they can see it for themselves. They share spectacular chemistry from the moment they meet, and although they drive each other up the wall sometimes, they always come back together. They rely on each other; whenever one of them receives some news, good or bad, the other is the first person they want to tell.
Buffy and Angel were a great couple, but the best romance in Buffy the Vampire Slayer was between Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay. Buffy fans delighted in watching Willow and Tara’s friendship gradually blossom into something more. The show’s portrayal of Willow and Tara’s relationship was groundbreaking for network television at the time. It was rare that a same-sex couple was depicted on TV the same way a straight couple would, without being treated as a gimmick or a novelty. Buffy simply showed Willow and Tara to be two people in love.
Primarily, The Good Place is an in-depth exploration of ethics set in a possible afterlife. It examines the philosophy of morality and the difference between right and wrong through time-tested thought experiments like the trolley problem. But the show is also a touching love story. Eleanor and Chidi meet after they’ve died and gone to the afterlife. From the outset, they have fizzling romantic chemistry, and they’re a good contrast to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Much like Albert Brooks in Defending Your Life, they don’t get their happily-ever-after until their lives are already over.
Lorelai and Luke were the central romance at the heart of Gilmore Girls. Their love story spanned multiple seasons as their friendship grew into a more intimate connection. At first, it was just a passionate fling, but they eventually embraced each other as soulmates. Lorelai and Luke are a prime example of the tenet that opposites attract. Whereas Lorelai is positive and optimistic and upbeat, Luke is cynical and pessimistic and curmudgeonly. They balanced each other out perfectly, and had fantastic chemistry from the beginning, so we couldn’t wait to see these two get together.
Schitt’s Creek is the ultimate feel-good show, and David and Patrick’s romance is one of its most heartwarming storylines. Before he met Patrick, it was a running gag that David had a long and storied dating history that hadn’t yielded much success. But once Patrick came into his life, he fell in love. Movies and TV shows have a habit of imbuing unnecessary tragedy into gay love stories, but David and Patrick’s romance thankfully avoided that. The only conflict in their relationship came from David’s own insecurities that he needed to overcome to achieve true happiness.
Leslie and Ben’s romance in Parks and Recreation is a perfect example of the enemies-to-lovers trope. Ben comes to Pawnee to slash the city’s budget, and as a dedicated public servant, Leslie fights him every step of the way. They admire each other’s commitment to their work so much that they end up falling in love. Leslie and Ben became Parks and Rec’s power couple. Usually, TV shows create conflict between couples by making one of them a workaholic, but Leslie and Ben are both workaholics, and often work together.
When Breaking Bad’s prequel introduced Jimmy McGill’s lovable love interest, Kim Wexler, who wasn’t in the original series, there was just one question on our minds: what would happen to Kim? Jimmy and Kim had a really endearing dynamic built on their shared love of pulling scams on unsuspecting marks. Their story ends in tragedy when one of their schemes goes a step too far and Kim realizes they’re bad for each other. But, as Jimmy points out as he desperately pleads with her to stay, they love each other.
After the American remake of The Office got Jim and Pam together, the writers manufactured all kinds of unnecessary drama with lies, homewreckers, marriage counseling, and a bitter falling-out. Their British predecessors, Tim and Dawn, never had that problem. From the very first episode, it was clear that Tim and Dawn were soulmates and Dawn was making a huge mistake marrying Lee. Tim and Dawn share the same goofy sense of humor, but Lee doesn’t have much of a sense of humor at all (and when he does make a joke, it’s usually misogynistic).
It took a long time for The Office to finally get Tim and Dawn together. Tim asked Dawn out in front of everyone and embarrassed himself. He made one last-ditch attempt to win her over by asking her to stay with him instead of going to America with Lee. But all that disappointment just made it all the more thrilling when Dawn finally realized she was with the wrong person and came back to Tim at the Christmas party.
