Samantha’s Top 10 TV Couples of 2020

2020 was a rough year both on and off-screen, but there were a few couples that made television feel like a wonderful escape. These couples all had their fair share of hardships and struggles, just like the rest of us, but they also found hope in even the darkest places. Perhaps that is what brings each of them to my top 10 list this year. 

Love is the most enduring force on the planet and seeing these couples find it this year was definitely a quarantine highlight. From haunted lesbians to star crossed lovers, these are the 10 couples I loved seeing on-screen in 2020. 

1. Jamie and Dani (The Haunting of Bly Manor)

Jamie and Dani’s tragic love story was the heart of The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Centering a lesbian love story in the year’s most anticipated horror series is a revolutionary choice that I am unbelievably grateful for. Their romance begins the moment they first lay eyes on each other as the narrator tells the audience that it feels as if they already know one another. 

Over the course of the season, we watch Dani and Jamie fall in love until the final episode puts all the pieces of their story into place, revealing that Jamie had been telling the story all along. If their brief happy ever after and everlasting love didn’t have you sobbing, then I’m not sure if we can be friends. 

Dani: You’re my best friend and the love of my life. 

While representation for sapphic women definitely needs to expand past conventionally beautiful white women, Jamie and Dani are a step in the right direction.  

2. FP and Alice (Riverdale)

FP and Alice, my high school sweethearts turned enemies turned back to friends turned lovers. I love Riverdale for all its chaos, but these two finally getting to be a couple during Season 4 was one of the best parts of the show this year. 

In spite of their continually underused screentime, FP and Alice have quite a few moments of domestic bliss this year.

Season 4 was cut short due to the pandemic, but we’re expecting to see what we would have seen on the remainder of Season 4 on the first few episodes of Season 5. Though it’s been announced that Skeet Ulrich will be leaving the show, it looks like there’s definitely still hope for these lovebirds. 

I’ll always want to see more of these two amid that special brand of Riverdale madness, but the breadcrumbs we got this year definitely made life a little sweeter. 

3. Sergio and Raquel (La Casa De Papel)

Honestly, get you a man who will go to war with the government after he thinks they’ve killed you, who will then also carry out the world’s most elaborate plans to get you out of police custody once he learns you’re alive. 

While Sergio and Raquel only are physically together on flashbacks on La Casa De Papel Part 4, the entire season is filled with anticipation for their reunion and their love for each other and their team. Sergio even calls Raquel his wife.

Call me what you want, but at the end of the day, I will never get tired of this heist thriller turned epic romance.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go impatiently wait for Part 5. 

4. Catra and Adora (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

You guys, their love literally saved the world.

The final season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power choosing to go all the way with Catra and Adora is just something that is so special to me. It’s a love letter to all the classic sci-fi romance tropes all wrapped beautifully in a children’s show. 

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power teaches viewers several lessons about mental health, how to treat yourself and your loved ones and people who are different from you, and how to do the right thing.

And the vehicle that the show uses to teach those lessons is a queer love story where two girls falling in love literally restores all magic and goodness to the galaxy. 

Catra’s redemption arc and the joy of getting to see Adora and Catra finally get to choose each other definitely made my world better this year.

Plus, it’s also just really nice that these two aren’t the only queer couples or characters on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Trust me, if there’s one LGBTQIA person in the room, there should also be at least 6 of their queer friends around too. 

5. Michael and Book (Star Trek: Discovery)

This pairing is pretty new, but I am absolutely obsessed with them.

After being flung 930 years into the future and a year ahead of her crew, Burnham finds herself entangled with Cleveland Booker, a handsome alien vigilante set on righting the wrongs in this new galaxy. 

While we don’t really get to see what happened between them during the gap year we missed in Michael’s story, seeing them explore their feelings for each other all while helping the less fortunate along the way has been a pleasure to watch. 

Burnham: You feel like home. 

Book: So do you.

Seeing Michael get to be truly happy in love and experience what it’s like to be in a healthy and balanced relationship is especially refreshing after having to watch her struggle with the toxicity of Ash Tyler for two seasons.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is hitting a lot of home runs, and this relationship is definitely one of them.

6. Will and Deanna (Star Trek: Picard)

Okay, I’m sneaking these two on here for myself.

I became a big Star Trek fan over the last two years, and Star Trek: Picard is one of the new shows I was looking the most forward to this year, especially for this episode.

Much of Star Trek: Picard focuses on telling a new story set 30+ years after the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as it should, but Star Trek: Picard Season 1 Episode 7, “Nepenthe,” serves as a necessary mid-season rest for our heroes and a heavy dose of nostalgia for fans of both shows. 

Will and Deanna got married in the last Star Trek: The Next Generation, and though Star Trek: Picard shows that they’ve faced much heartache, it also shows that their relationship is stronger than anything life could possibly throw at them.

In spite of losing their firstborn, Will and Deanna still live a happy life taking the time to slow down and give their daughter, and any friends who come knocking, the best of what they can offer. 

Watching their love continue to grow all these years later fills me with hope. 

7. Clarke and Lexa (The 100)

I’m sure some of you are thinking that this one’s a stretch, but in the veritable hellscape that was the last season of The 100, this final symbolic reunion between Clarke and Lexa is a bright moment amidst the bleakness that the show went out with. 

Clarke: I don’t want to be alone. 

God!Lexa: You’re not. 

Clarke and Lexa may never have gotten the happy ending that they deserved, but the acknowledgment that Lexa was the greatest love of Clarke’s life feels like some small bit of solace for the fans of that relationship. The 100 certainly went down in flames, but this relationship is what it will be remembered for in the end.

Clarke and Lexa were soulmates and even mysterious godlike aliens that consume or destroy every race in the galaxy know it. 

8. Sterling and April (Teenage Bounty Hunters)

Teenage Bounty Hunters is Netflix’s latest short-lived dramedy that deserves so many more seasons than it got. On the show’s first and only season, Sterling begins an arc of self-discovery through falling in love with the girl that she thought was her arch-nemesis. 

Once Sterling confesses her feelings for April, April not only reveals that she’s a lesbian, but that she reciprocates those feelings for Sterling. I’ve never seen a show handle religion and queer/sapphic storylines with such realism, and I’m devastated that we won’t be getting more of these two. 

The very specific trauma that comes with being raised in religion and realizing that you’re LGBTQIA+ is real and hard to get right on television unless you know what you’re doing.

Teenage Bounty Hunters not only does that with Sterling and April but it never negates either girl’s faith in the process. It is never about whether their sexuality lessens their relationship with God, but about what their parents and peers would think if they knew. 

Sterling and April’s relationship is so refreshing, and I’m definitely going to miss them. 

9. David and Patrick (Schitt’s Creek)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, David and Patrick are simply the best.

Schitt’s Creek had its sixth and final season in 2020, going out by choice with the story that they wanted to tell. The whole final season centers around David and Patrick’s wedding and the Rose family antics leading up to it. 

In the end, they were all changed by this small town for the better, and they found themselves in the process.

David falling in love with Patrick and building a life with him is one of the most beautifully done romance arcs in any sitcom. Schitt’s Creek treated these two with the same love and attention and breathing room as straight couples get on every other show, which is still so rare to see on television. 

I’d like to just bask in this sweet domesticity for the rest of time, if y’all don’t mind. Now, who do I call for a Schitt’s Creek Christmas movie where David and Patrick host everyone at their cute little home?

10. Allison and Ray (The Umbrella Academy)

The improvements that The Umbrella Academy Season 2 made upon Season 1 are practically innumerable.

One of my favorites though is the relationship between Allison and Ray. When the Hargreeves siblings are all thrown back in time at different points in the span of a few years, they’re separated from each other and left to find their way alone in the 1960s. 

In that time Allison finds Ray. The two fall in love and even get married before Allison is reunited with her superfamily. 

Allison had kept the truth about who she was from Ray, but by the end, he learns everything about her. While it’s a lot for Ray to take in, he still loves and accepts Allison for everything that she is. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to protect each other, even if that means being torn apart. 

I’m hopeful that Season 3 will find a way to bring these sweethearts back together. 

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What were your favorite TV couples in 2020? Did your OTP make Samantha’s list? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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