When Romance Starts Feeling Like a Chore
Television loves a couple you’re supposed to root for, but that doesn’t mean every writers’ room knocks a storyline out of the park. It’s not that every difficult pairing is badly written, but there’s a fine line between compelling chaos and a romance that drags the whole series down. Today, we’re here to talk about which couples did the latter.
1. Ross and Rachel
Ross and Rachel are iconic—they just aren’t tolerable. Their constant cycle of longing, miscommunication, and reunion dragged on so long that the relationship became an endless will-they, won’t-they that everyone got sick of.
2. Carrie and Big
Carrie and Big had the kind of glamorous dysfunction that was clearly meant to feel irresistible. The only problem was that audiences saw it for what it was: toxic. Their romance (if you can call it that) seemed fueled by avoidance, mixed signals, and grand gestures that arrived just in time to restart the same old mess.
3. Elena and Damon
There’s no denying that The Vampire Diaries knew how to sell intensity, and Elena with Damon had plenty of it. The thing is, their relationship felt so dramatic, so all-consuming, that it tipped into self-parody. By the end, it was enough.
4. Ted and Robin
Yikes, way to ruin an entire show in one awful closer. Part of the frustration with Ted and Robin came from how often the show insisted on revisiting them. They had moments of charm, yes, but the relationship kept returning long after it seemed clear that wanting different lives might actually matter.
5. Ezra and Aria
Pretty Little Liars really thought we’d root for these two? The show presented Ezra and Aria with sweeping sincerity, but their dynamic came with so many glaring problems that the romance felt impossible to enjoy. When a couple needs that much narrative insistence, you know there’s an issue.
