Billie Doux: My favorite television couple ever, like this is a surprise, is...
Buffy and Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy's relationship with Spike was long term, complicated, funny, surprising, sexy, everything I ever wanted from a pair-up. The only other love story that I have enjoyed as much is Claire and Jamie and their time travel romance in Outlander (season two photo on the top right, featuring Claire's unforgettable Valentine's Day-like red dress).
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| Spike and Buffy, season six, Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
Morella: Wall-E and Eve in Wall-E near the end of the film.
Shari: Claire and Jamie are probably my favorite couple that is still on television. But I loved Olivia and Peter from Fringe and if we go in the way back machine, I loved Michael and Nikita. Actually, I loved both versions of Michael and Nikita. (FYI, version one and version two.)
Billie Doux: Yes, wayback machine, Michael and Nikita for me, too. The first one, though. I never got into the reboot.
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| John Crichton and Aeryn Sun, Farscape |
Juliette: Best and hottest TV kiss ever was Jess and Nick in New Girl, and they’re one of my favourite couples too. Also Crichton and Aeryn from Farscape, who are also incredibly hot and had amazing chemistry.
Shari: I never saw New Girl but Crichton and Aeryn were definite favorites.
Billie Doux: Here's one I bet that most people wouldn't mention – Angela Bassett and Ralph Fiennes and their kiss at the end of Strange Days. Moving and beautiful.
Shari: I loved the movie but they wouldn’t make my list. But I would like to volunteer Veronica and Logan from Veronica Mars.
Mikey Heinrich: I've been thinking about this one a lot, and came up with the realization that I didn't have one. And then I realized that I did.
It's arguably a cheat on the question, but my heart belongs to Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood on Legends of Tomorrow. Not because I think that they loved one another romantically, to be clear. But because it was clear that they loved each other and neither of them could give less of a damn who knew it.
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| Nate Heywood and Ray Palmer, Legends of Tomorrow |
When Neron vowed to hurt Ray by hurting the person he loved most, he hurt Nate. And that was enough to break Ray's will and give in. When Ray knew it was time to leave the show with his actual romantic love, Nate not only understood and let him go, but was also capable of stating – clearly and unequivocally – that he was letting Ray leave and grow because he loved him. Their final exchange, 'This sucks, but I love you,' is the most moving thing that that show ever did. No other show has ever even attempted to show open, non-toxic, masculine love in the way that Legends did without apology for years.
Part of this, I admit, is a me thing. Because platonic male friendship is one of the things that I kind of suck at. I freely admit that I gave up on the idea of romantic love a very long time ago. But I'm fundamentally a Ray by nature. And I still, when feeling alone in the night, take comfort in the thought that my Nate is out there. Somewhere.
Mothra: Jamie and Claire are way up there for me, too. They had that initial, scorching "will they or oh come on of course they will" chemistry, but the story has allowed them to stay together, age together, and stay happy together. It's such a nice change when TV so frequently pulls happy couples apart. Jamie and Claire don't yet have a happy ending, but they show how it's the happy in-between that matters.
I also loved Logan and Veronica, and I hope I'm not alone in thinking that The Terminator is a romance. As far as favorite episodes go, I'll probably think of more, but the one that I might just re-watch on Valentine's Day is "The Constant" from Lost.
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| Logan Echolls and Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars |
An Honest Fangirl: I also had to put thought into this one. I absolutely adore shipping and seeing those dynamics, but when I tried to think about my favorites, I realized that the vast majority are not canon in any way, shape or form. Sure, I'm very fond of Chloe/Lucifer (Lucifer), but I'm really great at picking the Zuko/Katara (Avatar) and Steve/Bucky (MCU) ships of the world. So I'm going to talk about a specific date.
On November 5th, 2020, I was very sick and in quarantine because I didn't know if I had covid or not. I didn't have a TV, but I had my phone and my laptop and YouTube had full episodes of uncensored Hell's Kitchen that I was watching to distract myself from the fact that we still didn't know who won the election after two days. And then, around 10 pm, my phone started to blow up from multiple friends that I hadn't talked to in over five years.
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| Castiel and Dean, Supernatural |
See, Supernatural is the most important show in my life. It got me through some very dark periods, it brought me to this site, it introduced me to the concept of organized fandom and fan fiction, it's how I met some of my very best friends... it's a very foundational part of who I am as a person and as a creative. And I shipped the hell out of Destiel. I never ever expected it to become canon, because ships like that never did, but it still brought me joy and I loved viewing their interactions through that lens. It had been my main ship for a decade at this point.
November 5th was when the episode "Despair" aired, and Castiel told Dean that he loved him right before he (Castiel) died. Now, sure, we can debate still over whether or not he truly meant it romantically or if Dean reciprocated it, but this is Valentine's Day, damn it! We're gonna consider it both romantic and mutual. AND I DIDN'T GET TO SEE IT LIVE! A DECADE OF SHIPPING AND I MISSED IT!
What I did get to see was Tumblr absolutely explode. I really don't know how to describe the feeling on the site beyond sheer giddiness mixed with a fever dream mixed with six shots of espresso. Especially when more election news started to come out. Everyone was screaming and celebrating and making jokes and memes and suddenly I was 15 again. It's now one of my favorite memories.
Samantha M. Quinn: You have all named a ton of my favorites, Buffy and Spike, Claire and Jamie, John and Aeryn, Veronica and Logan, and Chloe and Lucifer. Each have a lot of great qualities, although we don't know the ending for Claire and Jamie yet. Buffy and Spike and Veronica and Logan could be taken as both a happy ending or tragic ending depending on how much of their associated media you consume. I kind of have a rule about not celebrating ships with tragic endings.
But is romance in television just about the ending? I mean there are tons that never consummate their romance that I've shipped. Dean and Castiel was never one of mine, but I get it. I was into Kara and Lena (Supergirl), which never happened in the show.
For me though, if I was going to chose my favorite couples here are my top five:
Cait and Vi from Arcane
John and Aeryn from Farscape
Claire and Jamie from Outlander (sure they aren't over yet... but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt)
Waverly and Nicole from Wynonna Earp
Tara and Willow from Buffy (they break my tragedy rule, but I'm not sure I care)
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| Tara and Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
Victoria Grossack: I'm not much of a romantic, but two love stories stood out to me in recent years. One was the Five and Lila romance in the last season of The Umbrella Academy, not because these two were necessarily meant for each other – although maybe they were – but because they became partners as they made the best of a difficult situation. I loved how these two, each who had so much trouble trusting anyone, learned to lean on each other.
The other romance that haunted me for a long time was the couple in the rom com Love at First Sight. In a way Oliver and Hadley are the opposite – a short time, obvious couple, although again they had some hurdles to overcome. I enjoyed that movie so much that I was willing to try other rom coms. But it's just not my genre.
Still, I must mention Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle of Pride and Prejudice.
Mark Greig: One romance that will always stay with me is Xena and Gabrielle. Over six seasons we saw them go from complete strangers to the most devoted friends to a couple so powerful they would kill the gods, break all of reality, and defy the network censors themselves to be together. Even when Xena lost all of her humanity and was damned to be a demon of Hell, she waged war against Heaven just to ask Gabby if she still wanted to go out with her. Truly, no one did love like them.
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| Gabrielle and Xena, Xena, Warrior Princess |
Billie Doux: Well, there you have it. What do you guys think? Did we mention your favorite, or miss it completely?
And Happy Valentine's Day!
I only thought of it afterwards, but Ted and Alexis' breakup scene in Schitts Creek is counterintuitivly one of the most beautifully romantic things ever.
ReplyDeleteTwo people who love each other so much that they refuse to even consider standing in the way of one another's dreams
Agreed. I loved that on Schitts Creek. It was just terrific.
DeleteOh, Billie, I so agree about Angela Bassett and Ralph Fiennes! That kiss was beautiful!
ReplyDeleteBuffy and Angel forever!
ReplyDeleteIf I had to go with one, I'll just go with the most recent one I've seen which I fell in love with and that's Sheila and Joel from Santa Clarita Diet. But if we can include our personal all-times I'd have to pay my respects to Mr and Mrs Coach from Friday Night Lights, and also Ben and Leslie from Parks & Rec.
ReplyDeleteThere's so many more if we're expanding the scope to supporting cast but that's a little too easy and I can't be bothered to think of all of them.
My all time favorite tv couple is Chuck and Sarah from Chuck. Just something about them really spoke to me. I think it was because it was the first time I had seen the combination of nerd and spy, and it was beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite kiss, or at least an iconic one, is Damon and Elena in the rain on The Vampire Diaries.
For Mikey, I don't think it's a cheat at all: I also don't ship them romantically, but Nate and Ray hold a special place in my heart as well. It's so pure and rare to have two straight guys be able to say I love you on tv.
While I don't ship Destiel, I enjoyed Cas's "I love you." because it showed how much Cas cared about Dean. Cas's true happiness was so awesome, but so heart-breakingly sad (I mean what followed). Supernatural is also what brought me to this site.
There are so many others that I keep thinking of like Juliet and Sawyer from Lost or Booth and Brennan from Bones or Charlotte and Dan from Lucifer. I am sure there are many more that I am forgetting.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Oh, Charlotte and Dan is a good one! The waffle bracelet still makes me cry.
DeleteBooth and Brennan too. I soured a little on how the transition from "flirting" to "I'm pregnant!" was handled, but those early seasons were fantastic.
Me too! The waffle bracelet, that scene, and Amenadiel's "Let's go home." gets me every time!
DeleteI enjoyed all the seasons of Bones, but like most shows, the best were in the beginning.
Mulder & Scully (The X Files). I mean, come on.
ReplyDeleteDavid & Maddie (Moonlighting).
Steed & Emma (The Avengers).
Those are probably my top three; I'm suffering from a rotten cold and my head is so clogged and so tired I can't remember anything. But for good measure, I'll throw in the ultimate bromance, Kirk & Spock.
I'm sure there are others that I really liked, and they'll probably come to me eventually, but there you go.
Though this show went off the rails, Scandal had Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn with flames coming from the tv with the fiery chemistry they had. I'd get the chills every time their leitmotif played!
ReplyDeleteWell, Jamie & Claire and John & Aeryn are the obvious ones. But I'd like to highlight a few others:
ReplyDeleteLaura Roslyn and Bill Adama in Battlestar Galactica
Selim and the Jinn in American Gods (the show was uneven, but they were hot coupling). And as a pairing (though they weren't really a couple), Laura Moon and Mad Sweeney were a blast.
So much yes on both of those from American gods!!
DeleteI did like Xena more than Hercules, and now even more knowing how the main characters' actors behave today! The Xena and Gabrielle relationship was so good. It makes want to watch the show again.
ReplyDeleteI think even back in the day we knew Lucy was a excellent person, I'm happy to hear Renée is as well since there is very little about her online.
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