Poll: Who’s the worst couple on TV right now?

Ah, l’amour.  There’s hardly a show that goes without it, these days, because let’s face it — viewers love love. And every show wants to have that iconic pairing, or the Ross and Rachel, if you will. The David and Maddie. The Mulder and Scully. The Booth and Brennan. Shows want to make a couple that is so epic it is what their show will be remembered for, because let’s face it — we all live for that.

But for all the epic couples that television has given us, there are just as many, if not more, couples who are, well, really awful. When I e-mailed the rest of the writers at CliqueClack for ideas, the fact that I merely mentioned the Pacey/Joey/Dawson debacle  was enough to give some of them traumatic flashbacks.

What makes a bad couple is up for debate as well. For me, it’s a few things. An instant way to get a couple hated on is if they stand in the way of another couple that is a fan favorite (anyone remember the good old days of Veronica Mars when Veronica went out with anyone not named Logan Echolls?).  Coming out of left field is a pretty good way to make a couple loathesome too. You think you have two characters who couldn’t care less about each other and all of a sudden they’re going at it like rabbits? Why, you ask yourself, why? And then there’s the classic reason couples fail — writers try too damn hard. They might like a couple, sure, but fans aren’t going to support a pairing that completely morphs a beloved character into a new person. They aren’t going to support a pairing that makes no sense. Fans don’t care about how showrunners feel, they want a couple that works together. And showrunners who disagree with their fans, understandably, get upset, and try to force that couple harder than ever. And that always leads to major, major implosion.

When I initially suggested this idea, the nominations amongst the CliqueClack team flew so thick and fast some rules had to be set. One, it couldn’t be a couple that was just a personal weird vendetta (thus eliminating my random aversion to Shawn and Juliet on Psych, or Deb‘s hatred of Lily and Marshall on How I Met Your Mother) — it had to be a couple that had some sort of consensus of hatred behind it — perhaps not from all fans, but at least from a sizable portion of them. Relationships that had already ended (permanently — if they’re on-again-0ff-again, we counted them) were out (ta ta, George and Izzie), as were relationships from shows that were no longer on the air (sparing you re-living your Dawson’s Creek-induced trauma). And the couple in question couldn’t be an obvious red herring couple that was meant to act as an ultimate catalyst for the rue couple of the show to get together. (Like, for instance anyone who has ever dated Booth on Bones. Those relationships are all a ticking time bomb and we know it — why add insult to injury?)

Agree? Disagree? Need to vent your frustration? Think we missed a couple? Let us know! We totally accept write-ins.

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Nov 18, 2010 @ 13:40 EST5EDT