Your favorite TV romances and why?

[Sakrysta]

the who-will-she-pick triangle of Christy/David/Neill (Christy)

That one didn't work for me precisely because I had read the book and knew how it should turn out. So if she ultimately chose David, I would have been mad at them for changing the story, and if she ultimately chose Neill, there wouldn't have been any surprise. That show started out so good, and just...

Niles and Daphne to me is yet another example of a show having you root for adultery. Just not my idea of romance.

 

[Starbreaker]

Aeryn and John from Farscape. Just a great evolution to these characters.

Pam and Jim from The Office. They're just awesome.

 

[Othello]

Alan Shore and Denny Crane- the love between two best friends and the best comedic pairing on tv.

Sam and Diane from Cheers. True comedic gold wrapped in two totally different people. Sweet and funny.

Winnie Cooper and Kevin Arnold- that show perfectly captures what it's like to be a kid who falls for the girl next door.


Lex and Lana on Smallville. They ended it WAYYYYY too soon. There was a TON more they could have gotten out of that pairing. Lex's one true shot at love and he blows it. Knowing what he could have (Lexmas) and what actually happened is tragic. But I can imagine choosing the same direction after being shown I couldn't save the woman I loved and had to see her die. Sticking it to that hypocrite Clark has it's bonuses too.

 

[mimic]

Xander/Anya (Buffy) - Anya is just hilarious and she and Xander were fun together. I put off watching Hells Bells for a long time - despite the awesomeness of Anya's wedding vows.

Joan/Adam (Joan of Arcadia) - They started to mess with the relationship toward the end of season 2 but I really liked it up until then. It's been a while since I have seen the show so I don't remember why I liked it, just that I did.

Jim/Pam (The Office) - I like how they tease each other.

 

[Warp Coil]

Wesley & Fred (Angel)
Willow & Oz (Buffy the Vamire Slayer)
Roslin & Adama (BSG)
Tyra & Landry (Friday Night Lights)
Sydney & Vaughn (Alias)
Jack & Kate (Lost)
Desmond & Penny (Lost)
Luke & Lorelei (Gilmore Girls)

 

[Joy]

the who-will-she-pick triangle of Christy/David/Neill (Christy)

That one didn't work for me precisely because I had read the book and knew how it should turn out. So if she ultimately chose David, I would have been mad at them for changing the story, and if she ultimately chose Neill, there wouldn't have been any surprise. That show started out so good, and just...

I think the worst part of it was how the show ended on that darned cliffhanger. And then for it to be continued 10-or-so years down the line with a new Christy, a new David, a new... well... EVERYONE, except Neil and one or two of the Cove inhabitants. That was just downright WEIRD.

At least the storyline finally got wrapped up (though I still haven't actually gotten to SEE it; just the first two of the three).

Joy

 

[TheGodBen]

Niles and Daphne to me is yet another example of a show having you root for adultery. Just not my idea of romance.

Not really, the show had your rooting for Niles to leave Maris because she was controlling him and destroying his happiness for her own selfish wants. Niles only started pursuing Daphne after he and Maris separated in season 3, and only after Maris started seeing other men and flaunting it in the society pages. The only time that Niles made a move on Daphne while he was "normally" married was during season 1's A Mid-Winter Night's Dream, after Maris had kicked him out of the house and brushed him off on his attempt at an apology dinner, and the message at the end of that episode was that Niles shouldn't give up hope for his marriage. And in the end their marriage was destroyed by Maris' affair with Dr Schankman, at which point Niles still almost grovelled for Maris to take him back.

As you can tell, I was a big Niles/Daphne 'shipper.

Odo/Kira was sweet at the right times. I liked Josh/Donna in the West Wing, they had good chemistry. George Michael/Maebe were good until it was revealed they weren't actually cousins.

 

[propita]

To go from two people working together, to friends, to friends with benefits , to lovers, to *gasp* (at least figuratively) an old married couple... not that I mean the last one in a bad way...

Again, sounds like me and Hubby, but skip the "friends with benefits" and go from "friends" to "lovers"...to acting like "an old married couple."

 

[cardinal biggles]

Jane Canary & Joanie Stubbs

I'd have been very interested to see where they went with this if Deadwood had been renewed for a fourth season. OTOH, I'm also a bit skeptical; Milch's track record on relationships isn't terribly solid; they tend to fall apart when he runs out of ideas (I'm looking at you, NYPD Blue).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The problem with TV romances (or other fictional romances) is that to keep them at the center of the story, there has to be a wedge between our lovers...but the wedge is often imposed by the outside or contrived. The best romances are ones where the wedge is created by who the characters are as people.

Examples:

Crichton and Aeryn - the wedge was their differing expectations for how people should live, created by their respective societies.

Dexter and Rita - the wedge is what Rita doesn't know about Dexter (but the audience does).

Bill Adama and Laura Roslin - ok, no wedge (except for pesky external problems such as cancer and survival) but it was just cool.

 

[Trubinator]

Crichton and Aeryn - the wedge was their differing expectations for how people should live, created by their respective societies.

I agree with this. But more than that, I like to point to Farscape whenever people use Moonlighting as an example for why you can't put leads together in a TV show. That line is such bullshit, especially when you consider that John and Aeryn had their first kiss in ... what, like episode seven of the first season. But then you see shows like Bones where they tease and toss and turn endlessly for five seasons when they could be exploring stuff. It's a shame Farscape never made it mainstream...

 

[1001001]

Jim and Pam.

 

[Random_Spock]

Mulder & Scully: I think M&S probably had the finest natural chemistry in the history of TV. And while the progression of their relationship was a tad trying at times, they still ended up roughly where they should be at the end.

Yep. So seconded there... it drove me nuts at times . But at least things turned out well in the end.

The problem with TV romances (or other fictional romances) is that to keep them at the center of the story, there has to be a wedge between our lovers...but the wedge is often imposed by the outside or contrived. The best romances are ones where the wedge is created by who the characters are as people.

Examples:

Crichton and Aeryn - the wedge was their differing expectations for how people should live, created by their respective societies.

Dexter and Rita - the wedge is what Rita doesn't know about Dexter (but the audience does).

Bill Adama and Laura Roslin - ok, no wedge (except for pesky external problems such as cancer and survival) but it was just cool.

*ugh* Yea I know. I just hate when tptb put in those kinds of things into the storyline itself. It ends up driving fans up a wall -- and even at times, away from the show itself.

Wesley and Fred- I really identify with the whole unrequited love thing. Of course, once the love ceases to be unrequited, and it looks like they could finally be happy, Whedon has to go and rip my fucking heart out.

I was such a shipper for these two and it broke my heart when Fred got affected by Illyria. The only solace was when she got a conscience of sorts and took on Fred's form and let Weasley make love to her one last time. So fricken sad.

 

[KITT 1013]

Remington Steele & Laura Holt (Remington Steele)
Sam Malone & Diane Chambers (Cheers)
Dave Nelson & Lisa Miller (Newsradio)
Fox Mulder & Dana Scully (The X-Files)

 

[Kegg]

Crichton and Aeryn - the wedge was their differing expectations for how people should live, created by their respective societies.

But the moment they bridged that, they had to keep throwing in new wedges to make it interesting. Aeryn's relationship with the two Crichtons, or the fallout from the whole coin toss at the end of the third season.

Without those they may have run out of material after the of the second season

Spoiler: Farscape S2

which may be why she died then? I don't know?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

But more than that, I like to point to Farscape whenever people use Moonlighting as an example for why you can't put leads together in a TV show. That line is such bullshit, especially when you consider that John and Aeryn had their first kiss in ... what, like episode seven of the first season.

And I couldn't help but notice they had sex pretty quickly after that. Yet the sky didn't fall and the conflict did not abate and the drama was not destroyed. When the character conflict stems from the characters - as it should - sex spoils nothing. We get our fun, and the poor characters get something. At least we don't have to pity them, right?

Hello, Chuck. Please take notes - you don't need the UST crutch. Let Chuck and Sarah do the deed. If you have the writing talent you should, it won't make any difference.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Angel & Darla on Angel. "The Trial" is absolutely heartbreaking. I think that, had Darla survived, she & Angel might have lived happily ever after.

Ned & Chuck (Pushing Daisies)

For me, that show and especially that romance, were too cloying & saccarine.

Buffy and Angel - I like the beauty and the beast aspect to their relationship. I like the fact that he's hundreds of years old and a creature of the night and she isn't. I like that it's doomed.

For the most part, I never bought their relationship. The problem was that the writers almost never seemed to be able to make both of them fully fleshed out characters at the same time. When Angel was on Buffy, he didn't really have a personality (except when he was evil). He was just the handsome vampire for Buffy to pine over. (I'm more of a Buffy/Xander 'shipper myself.)

When Angel got his own series, he got a real personality but Buffy was usually treated as this distant, romanticized ideal. That was fine when it was used as comic fodder for the other characters, such as Angel & Spike's constant bickering over her in Season 5 (particularly in "The Girl in Question") or Cordelia & Wesley's spoof of the Buffy/Angel romance in "Fredless." ("Kiss me!" "Bite me!" "How about you both bite me?") However, it was difficult for me to root for Angel to get together with such an intangible ideal, particularly when Buffy in the flesh was such an ignorant, know it all bitch in "Sanctuary." The only episode that ever sold me on the Buffy/Angel romance was when Angel became human in "I Will Remember You."

Gaius Baltar & the various Sixes

I would kinda disagree here. It was always only Caprica Six that he loved.

No. I believe his true love was Head Six. But I'm a big fan of the various Baltar/Six romances. I love the scene in "Pegasus" where he gives that speech, "She was a Cylon and she changed my life."

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I hesitate to mention it since nothing ever really came of it but I do really wish the Star Trek: The Next Generation writers had genuinely done something with Captain Picard/Dr. Crusher.

Niles and Daphne to me is yet another example of a show having you root for adultery. Just not my idea of romance.

Not really, the show had your rooting for Niles to leave Maris because she was controlling him and destroying his happiness for her own selfish wants. Niles only started pursuing Daphne after he and Maris separated in season 3, and only after Maris started seeing other men and flaunting it in the society pages. The only time that Niles made a move on Daphne while he was "normally" married was during season 1's A Mid-Winter Night's Dream, after Maris had kicked him out of the house and brushed him off on his attempt at an apology dinner, and the message at the end of that episode was that Niles shouldn't give up hope for his marriage. And in the end their marriage was destroyed by Maris' affair with Dr Schankman, at which point Niles still almost grovelled for Maris to take him back.

As you can tell, I was a big Niles/Daphne 'shipper.

I think it also helped that we never saw Maris. She became such a bizarre, inhuman... thing that it was difficult to sympathize with her.

Also, it's interesting to note that the Daphne/Niles romance was not originally part of the plan. When the writers were trying to come up with what Niles' reaction would be to Daphne, they just thought it would be funny if he had a little crush on her. In fact, I don't even think Niles met Daphne in the 1st episode. (I only mention this because I think this is another factor that separates the Daphne/Niles romance from the current crop of pro-adultery storylines that seem to be central plotlines on Glee & Mercy.)

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Michael & Maria on Roswell. They were what made that show fun. Max & Liz were too boring. (And the less said about Isabel/Jesse, the better.)

 

[DevilEyes]

Gaius Baltar & the various Sixes

I would kinda disagree here. It was always only Caprica Six that he loved.

No. I believe his true love was Head Six. But I'm a big fan of the various Baltar/Six romances. I love the scene in "Pegasus" where he gives that speech, "She was a Cylon and she changed my life."

I always thought he really loved Gina, even though he loved her because she reminded him of Caprica, but a wounded and broken one that he hoped he could help and save. I think he actually loved Caprica, but wasn't really aware of it at the time, and when he gives Gina that speech about his love for Caprica, he was at the point in his life when he first started to consider his relationship with Caprica as love. And that was the first time he actually allowed himself to be open with his feelings for a woman, because she was vulnerable and broken and helpless and he enjoyed the savior role.

I believe he loved them all - Caprica, Gina and Head Six - because he was never really emotionally able to separate them from each other, even if he was aware, on the rational level, that Gina was not Caprica Six.