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TV can capture love—and lust—like no other medium, as the recent frenzy over the hockey romance Heated Rivalry has proven. TV allows, famously, for a longer will-they-won’t-they dance that could take weeks, months, or even years; it can also encompass the lasting love of a lifetime. This Valentine’s Day weekend, settle in with some of the best, whether their love is of the forbidden, star-crossed, tragic, opposites-attract, or longtime variety. A few suggestions:
David and Patrick, ‘Schitt’s Creek’
Their halting flirtation over municipal business document filing turns into an entrepreneurial partnership and, finally, one of TV’s most beautifully lived-in relationships. Soon Patrick (Noah Reid) is performing a gorgeous acoustic cover of Tina Turner’s “The Best” at an open mic, locked in on David (Dan Levy), in a scene that ranks as one of TV’s most romantic moments ever, and their wedding is also among TV’s best, thanks to some high-fashion officiating from David’s diva mom Moira (the late, great Catherine O’Hara).
Where to Watch: Disney Plus
Coach and Tami, ‘Friday Night Lights’
Sexual chemistry is one thing (and these two certainly have it). But then there’s the special spark of looking like a couple who has been through it together, who can fight but still support each other with all their soul, and who would be standing together at the end of the world, staying connected even as they fight to help and protect everyone around them. That’s Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife Tami (Connie Britton), who will make you understand the astronomical stakes involved in coaching a high school football team, and ushering teens into being good adults.
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime
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Chandler and Monica, ‘Friends’
Forget Ross and Rachel and their tiresome “we were on a break” back-and-forth. The real star couple of Friends was Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Monica (Courteney Cox), whose surprise hook-up at the end of the fourth season revitalized the series. A season of clandestine romance and slow leakage of the news—”they don’t know that we know they know”—made for some of Friends’s greatest farce. (I never get tired of the scene when Phoebe and Chandler pretend to seduce each other in hopes of breaking each other.) The proposal, eventually, is so well-earned that it rings with real emotion, as if two of your real friends have finally found happiness.
Where to Watch: HBO Max
Hot Priest and Fleabag, ‘Fleabag’
Surely there is little more hopeless than a (very hot) flirtation with a (very hot) Catholic priest, but that is where Fleabag’s emotional spiral ends in the final season. What’s startling about this relationship between our unnamed main character/creator (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and the man known only as Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) is the vulnerability and depth afforded to these two idiosyncratic souls as they briefly connect. It all makes for one perfect finale.
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime
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Jim and Pam, ‘The Office’
An office crush can turn a soulless slog into an everyday rom-com, and no one embodied this better than Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer). The tension built through the tiniest moments—glances across the office, shared jokes to break up the monotonous day—and, in an unusual move for a sitcom romance, their relationship was allowed to progress before our eyes. After a few false starts, they actually got together, got married, and had kids, keeping viewers rooting for them the whole time.
Where to Watch: Peacock
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Lawrence and Issa, ‘Insecure’
We first meet them in their twenties, when Lawrence (Jay Ellis) is struggling to find a job and Issa (Issa Rae) is scraping by while working for a nonprofit. Anyone who’s been there can see that they’re doomed, a sacrifice to coming of age in a 21st century urban setting, but their angst is heartbreakingly relatable, and very watchable.
Where to Watch: HBO Max
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Miss Piggy and Kermit, ‘The Muppet Show’
No one else on this list is definitively going strong after 50 years together, as evidenced on Disney Plus’s recent Muppet Show revival special. (Not even the very game Sabrina Carpenter can lure Kermie away.) Perhaps it’s due to the eternal youth of being a puppet, Miss Piggy’s insatiable jealousy, the endless renewal of starting from scratch in many iterations of TV shows and movies, or their opposites-attract dynamic, but whatever their secret, they’re a couple for the ages.
Where to Watch: Disney Plus
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Mulder and Scully, ‘The X Files’
FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) set the template for a new kind of will-they-won’t-they couple as they clashed over their views of the supernatural forces they were investigating—he’s a believer, she’s a skeptic. While sitcoms had given us Sam and Diane (Cheers) and light dramas had given us Maddie and David (Moonlighting), The X Files proved that no one roots for a relationship quite like sci-fi fans. In fact, X Files fans would give us a word for it: “shipping.”
Where to Watch: Disney Plus
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Olivia and Fitz, ‘Scandal’
On a show known for insane plot twists, the affair between Washington fixer Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and President Fitz Grant (Tony Goldwyn) took viewers’ breath away more than any stolen election or long-buried secret. Though their relationship was toxic and tumultuous, you can’t deny the romance of a man willing to routinely risk his position as the leader of the free world for you.
Where to Watch: Netflix
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Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’
There’s something special about a stable sitcom couple, and Uncle Phil (James Avery) and Aunt Viv (originally Janet Hubert, then Daphne Maxwell Reid) were a cut above the others. They not only happily took in their nephew Will (Will Smith) and parented him like their own; they also served as role models for him and their own children, eschewing the bickering-couple trope in favor of a partnership of true equals. Their love stayed strong even when Aunt Viv was famously recast in season 4.
Where to Watch: Disney Plus
Eleanor and Chidi, ‘The Good Place’
A classic opposites pairing: Eleanor (Kristen Bell) is vapid, selfish, and amoral, while Chidi (William Jackson Harper) teaches ethics for a living. But here, the stakes are raised when they learn that they’ve been paired together as “soulmates” for their stay in “the good place,” where they will literally share a house and an afterlife. The Great Beyond turns out to get a number of things wrong, but suffice it to say that this coupling isn’t one of them.
Where to Watch: Peacock
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