TV Series That Give Us #RelationshipGoals
No relationship is perfect. But for viewers tuning in for just 30 minutes to an hour, they can seem like they are.
Some comedies, like Amazon’s Catastrophe, Fox’s New Girl, and Hulu’s recently ended The Mindy Project, prove that the perils of dating, marriage, and parenting are far from the bill of Norman Rockwell–hued goods many of us were sold as children. The humor in those series, however, is something that critics clearly appreciate: Catastrophe is Certified Fresh at 100% for each of its three seasons; New Girl’s review count has dipped as its seasons have gone on, but dedicated critics have kept its score high; and Mindy has an 87% Fresh Tomatometer score.
Meanwhile, shows like NBC’s This Is Us, ABC’s black-ish, and former NBC series Friday Night Lights remind us that some couples do get relationships with marks almost as high as their Tomatometer scores if they’re willing to put in the work. Even teen dramas, like former Fox series The O.C. and Glee, are known for their devotion to the intricacies of relationships. And then there’s Homer and Marge Simpson, who have been going strong for decades and seem to have not aged a day.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’ve gathered a list of TV shows that offered the best portrayals of coupledom in all its funny, messy, emotional, complicated glory.
The series are arranged first by Tomatometer score, then alphabetically where the show does not currently have a series score.
Which is your favorite TV couple and why? Tell us in the comments!
Synopsis: An unplanned pregnancy turns a weekend tryst into a serious commitment for an Irish woman and an American tourist in...
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Synopsis: A comedy-drama following a chaste young woman who is accidentally impregnated via artificial insemination as she struggles to inform her...
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Synopsis: Creator Peter Berg's drama centering on the players and coach of a high-school football team in Dillon, Texas, a small...
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Synopsis: A lesbian couple head up a multiethnic family comprised of a biological son and a few adopted kids....
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Synopsis: A successful family man worries that his four children are losing touch with black culture because they are growing up...
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Synopsis: A married British combat nurse time-travels between World War II and 1743 Scotland, where she falls for a Scottish warrior....
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Synopsis: A look at love and happiness through the eyes of two people who haven't been successful with either one....
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Synopsis: A sitcom following the lives of a group of detectives in a New York precinct, including one slacker who is...
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Synopsis: Sitcom centered on Jess Day, a sweet but naive twentysomething, who shares a loft with three guys....
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Synopsis: The Pearson family's generational story unfolds in this emotional drama. In moments of joy and heartbreak, revelations emerge from parents...
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Synopsis: A comedy-drama following a large and imperfect family as they tackle the challenges of raising kids and starting over after...
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Synopsis: A mockumentary following the inner workings of the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Ind. From the creators of...
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Synopsis: A sitcom about an ob-gyn who wishes her personal life were as successful as her professional one and matched the...
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Synopsis: A mockumentary-style sitcom chronicling the unusual kinship of the extended Pritchett clan, a brood that includes patriarch Jay; his younger...
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Synopsis: This period drama, set in the English countryside which is centered on the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and...
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Synopsis: Doctors at a Seattle teaching hospital hone their bedside manners on and off the job in this medical drama....
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Synopsis: Musical comedy-drama about the misfits who make up a high-school singing club and teacher Will Schuester, the one-time glee-club star...
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Synopsis: An enchanting sitcom about beautiful, nose-twitching witch Samantha Stevens, who moves to the suburbs to be with her strait-laced mortal...
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Synopsis: This hugely successful, multi-Emmy-winning sitcom is set in a friendly Boston bar run by Sam Malone, a former Red Sox...
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Synopsis: Following her suicide, Mary Alice Young keeps tabs on friends and family she left behind on bucolic suburban Wisteria Lane....
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Synopsis: An often copied, rarely duplicated classic about TV writer Rob Petrie at home and work is as close as it...
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Synopsis: A suburban Chicago family is pestered by nerdy, nosy neighbor Steve Urkel in this long-running spin-off of 'Perfect Strangers' (Harriette...
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Synopsis: Teenage Will moves from the tough streets of West Philadelphia to a posh mansion in Bel-Air, California....
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Synopsis: A Taiwanese family deal with culture shock after moving from Washington, D.C., to Orlando during the '90s....
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Synopsis: One of television's top-ranked series and the recipient of numerous Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations, "Friends" is a...
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Synopsis: Set in Stars Hollow, a storybook Connecticut town populated with an eclectic mix of dreamers, artists and everyday folk, Gilmore...
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Synopsis: Based on the best-selling series of young-adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar and executive produced by Josh Schwartz ("Chuck," "The...
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Synopsis: A man named Ted tells his kids how he met the love of his life, through flashbacks, years in the...
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Synopsis: TV's first great sitcom centered on a zany New York housewife who wants desperately to get into showbiz and her...
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Synopsis: The sly, hip, often imitated romantic dramedy about an ex-model and a PI who team up to run the Blue...
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Synopsis: An idealistic lawyer living in the affluent Orange County takes in a troubled L.A. teen....
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Synopsis: Based on the award-winning British comedy of the same name, this acclaimed sitcom is told through the lenses of a...
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Synopsis: A loving but imperfect working-class family led by its `domestic goddess' mother was the basis of this classic, long-running sitcom....
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Synopsis: The story revolves around four sassy New-York based women, Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha who are in search of love,...
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Synopsis: Matt Groening's subversive, animated satire about Springfield's hapless first family became a cult favorite when it premiered on Fox in...
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Synopsis: An Emmy-winning chronicle of the angst-ridden lives of 1980s baby boomers in Philadelphia. Creators Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz drew...
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Synopsis: Drama about a 12-year-old boy coming of age in the late 1960s and early '70s....
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