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Much has been said, as this decade has drawn to a close, about the depths of stupidity and inanity that have been the driving force of today’s popular media. It’s true—the aughts have seen reality television become the medium of choice for mindless entertainment, and a platform where the only necessity for becoming a star is having no shame. However, secretly, I believe that we are actually living in one of the great eras of television. With the growing popularity of serial shows on cable networks that used to be film channels (HBO, AMC, etc) the bar has been raised for the level of writing, acting, and production values we demand as an audience. Intricate serials like Lost proved that a show didn’t have to be a procedural to be popular.

One of my favorite things about watching long-term scripted dramas is they have the time to slowly develop relationships and plotlines over hours and hours of screen time, and years and years of real time—a luxury that film does not have. And one of my favorite character interactions that I prefer to see play out over years instead of minutes is the romance. When we, as fans, follow a show and emotionally invest in the characters, the emotional payoffs just get larger and larger.

For the sake of organization, I have divided couples that I enjoy into three categories:

The Chase: These are couples where the primary dynamic is one where they are never quite together, or only together briefly until they break up. This can be used as a cheap trick to keep people watching the show, because it's the easiest sort of romance to write. When it's done well, though, it's very exciting. Often in this category, one person in the couple is more invested (the chaser) and the other is more squirrely (the chased).

Happy Together: This is rarely seen in television, which is understandable, because it’s tricky to keep a relationship in stasis interesting. It’s unfortunate, though, because I love watching happy couples. I like couples who love each other, are good for each other, and devoted. The couples in this category do sometimes meet, court, fight, break-up, etc. but for the majority of time that they know each other, they are together and happy. Some of the couples on this list are married for the entire duration of the show.

Bad for Each Other: These couples may be together, or not, but they really oughtn’t be, because it is all going to end badly. For these couples, we're not entertained by romance so much as the train wreck that will inevitably follow. It takes a couple of really intriguing characters to keep me interested when I know I should be rooting against them.

Naturally, there will be spoilers.