Sarah’s Top 10 TV Couples of 2020

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve almost reached the end of the year, and that means it’s time to look back and celebrate our favorite TV couples of 2020.

Despite production delays and new challenges filming the type of romantic scenes we’re used to, 2020 was actually an excellent year for romance on the small screen. This has been especially true for queer romances, making 2020 a surprisingly exciting year for LGBTQAI+ representation.

2020 saw huge things happen for some long-time favorites, launched a few new ships, and gave us poignant goodbyes to some others.

Because of all that, putting together my personal list of favorite TV couples was both a joy and incredibly hard because there are so many great couples I didn’t have space to include. But I’m not complaining. I’d much rather have an embarrassment of riches than be stuck scraping the bottom of the barrel.

In celebration of love and the exhilaration of a great story, here, in no particular order, are my 10 favorite TV couples of 2020. (There are some spoilers ahead, so be warned)

1. Waverly and Nicole (Wynonna Earp)

Waverly Earp and Nicole Haught’s relationship on Wynonna Earp has always had a special kind of magic.

From the unmistakable onscreen chemistry between Dominique Provost-Chalkley and Kat Barrell to the sweetness and joy Emily Andras and her team guide their story with, Wavery and Nicole have a quality about them that can make the most resistant cynic melt and most jaded soul swoon.

Even in their darkest moments, Waverly and Nicole are a source of light on the show. These two soulmates are the transcendent romantic heart and beautiful irresistible force offering a hopeful addition to the show’s themes of fate and destiny.

Now in its fourth season, Wynonna Earp continues to find new depths to explore in Waverly and Nicole’s relationship and can still manage to take our breath away. 

After their steamy reunion on Wynonna Earp Season 4 Episode 2, “Friends in Low Places,” and despite supernatural happenings that temporarily turn Nicole into a frog, Nicole and Waverly’s relationship feels more grounded, more mature, and a little less ethereal.

It is still magical, but there is a new weight behind it that makes it feel more intimate and urgent.  

It all culminates in a perfect proposal that seems to pull every moment of Waverly and Nicole’s relationship into the room with them, making their simple unplanned living room proposal feel like the grandest of romantic gestures.

It is everything fans have been waiting for and everything this beloved ship deserves.

2. Ray and Nora (Legends of Tomorrow)

Writing about Nora and Ray for this list is bittersweet since Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 gives us some of their best moments, both as characters and as a couple, but is also their last season and series regulars. 

A classic enemies to lovers romance brought to life by the fantastic chemistry of real-life husband and wife Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford, Nora and Ray are among the most heartwarming and uplifting ships of 2020. 

Ray sees good in Nora she doesn’t know is there until she meets him. And, like any good idealist, Ray inspires Nora to be the best version of herself. The version he sees when no one else does. He helps her break down cynical walls and step out of her father’s shadow so she can find her voice and chart her own path.

His faith in her is so stalwart that she can’t help but believe in herself eventually, too.

Every step of their relationship feels earned and organic right up to their wedding on the sweetly irreverent Legends of Tomorrow Season 5 Episode 7 “Mr. Parkers Cul de Sac.”

Nora and Ray’s final episode is one of the most difficult goodbyes on a show that has seen many of them. It’s a testament to the great characters Ray and Nora are and to a beautiful romance between two unlikely lovers. 

3. Ivy and Harley (Harley Quinn)

We finally have an onscreen adaptation of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s romantic relationship. That alone makes them one of the most exciting ships of the year.

To say that we’ve been waiting a long time for this ship to set sail would be a massive understatement. There have been countless adaptations of Harley and Ivy over the years, but never with more than romantic subtext in any of them.

Until now, on Harley Quinn Season 2. After a few angsty episodes, the season ends with Harley and Ivy officially an onscreen couple for the first time, and it is absolutely worth the wait.

The Harlivy we get on Harley Quinn is slow-burn true to who these characters are and all the brash chaos that has defined their relationship up to this point.

Of course, their first kiss as a couple would come as they speed off into the sunset with the police on their tail, leaving mayhem in their wake. Would you expect anything less?

The best thing about Harley Quinn Season 2 ending with Harley and Ivy as a couple is the Season 3 renewal that came a few months later. The kiss in the convertible is just the beginning.

We have a whole season of impulsive Harlivy shenanigans and exuberant madcap romance to look forward to next year. Hell yeah (sorry, Kiteman). 

4. Jake and Amy (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

Jake and Amy have always been endgame. From the very first episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, any savvy TV viewer knew that.

We might have known the ultimate destination from the start, but the ride and all the stops along the way have been full of warmth and laughter that continues to enchant and surprise us even after seven seasons.

Jake and Amy are each other’s favorite people and biggest fans. Just one look of complete awe and adoration from Jake when he looks at his wife says it all. Seriously, get you someone who looks at you the way Jake looks at Amy when she goes full nerd.

Their differences are their strength as he helps her loosen up and be more spontaneous, and she inspires him to be more responsible. All qualities that will be important after the birth of their first child on the season seven finale, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 7 Episode 13, “Lights Out,” 

Parenthood is the next stop for Jake and Amy, and they will almost certainly meet it with the same humor, love, and affection they’ve met every milestone in their relationship with since they first got together back in Season 3.

5. Beth and Randall (This Is Us)

Randall and Beth are what the youngsters call #RelationshipGoals. It’s not because they are perfect, not because they don’t have problems, but because neither of those things is true, and they still always manage to come out stronger for it in the end.

After a tumultuous This is Us Season 3, where the couple came as close as we’ve seen to breaking, they have been a solid team ever since. They take on life’s challenges together as partners and as parents.

It’s a good thing they have each other, too, because there has been a lot thrown at them in the last year. Enough to break less resilient couples.

Randall and Beth are an aspirational TV couple rather than an idealized one.

There aren’t many real-life couples like Beth and Randall, but what makes them great are the things they have to work on, like trust, honesty, and commitment. They choose to keep working to be better partners even when they fail, and that’s something we have the power to do as well.

It’s a relationship that touches our hearts both because they are so wonderful to watch on screen and because they give us hope that maybe we can have some version of that with our partners too. 

6. Catra and Adora (She-Ra and The Princesses of Power)

In its brilliant fifth and final season, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power confirm what fans have known since Season 1, that Catra and Adora’s story is a love story and always has been.  

A slow-burn for the ages, Catra and Adora spend most of the series as friends turned enemies. They don’t even begin to find their way back to each other until Season 5 when Catra joins Adora in the rebellion and starts down a path of redemption.

Once reunited, they begin to heal their relationship and find the bond they’d had before. Elevated by Aimee Carrero and AJ Michalka’s stellar voice work, their journey together is vulnerable, tender, and poignant.

It all leads to the final episode with their epic declaration of love as the world ends around them and a kiss that saves the universe.

Straight or queer, their story always had the makings of a great romance, but being a queer story, especially one so central to a show targeted to kids, it’s also groundbreaking. The fact that it’s a story showrunner, Noelle Stevenson, wasn’t even sure she’d able to tell initially makes it all the more meaningful.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to hear the word “stay” again without feeling a tug at my heart or think about Catra saying “Hey Adora” without my chest clenching just a little, and I’m absolutely fine with it.

7. Elena and Syd (One Day at a Time)

One Day at a Time Season 4, sadly its final season, has a few different relationships to celebrate.

Penny and Max are back together, Avery and Schnieder are having a baby, and even Alex has his first girlfriend. They are all wonderful, but my favorite ship on One Day at a Time remains the one it’s always been, Syd and Elena.

Every bit as adorable and nerdy as they are during Seasons 2 and 3, this queer teenage romance is also the show’s most established and stable relationship. There is something really wonderful and reassuring about that, something I especially appreciated this year. 

There is no real angst or dramatic milestones for Elena and Syd this season.

Maybe there would have if the season hadn’t been cut short because of COVID, but in the short beautiful season we get, the closest we came to angst is the quickly abandoned decision to break up when they graduate after they barely make to two days without talking.

What makes them one of 2020s great couples is just seeing them in love. Angst and conflict are all well and good, but sometimes all the drama you need is two loveable dorks on a rooftop holding hands.

8. David and Patrick (Schitt’s Creek)

Dan Levy has described Schitt’s Creek by saying, “In Schitt’s Creek, we are writing a world that examines the transformational effects of love when the threat of hate and intolerance has been removed from the equation.”

There is no better way to describe what makes David and Patrick so special than Levy’s own words.

David and Patrick are stronger, more confident people for loving each other. The positivity and hope that radiates from their relationship is a balm to the heart and a safe escape from a world that isn’t always as kind as we might want it to be.

People can sometimes underestimate just how much happy, joyful queer stories like this one can mean to queer audiences, who until recently had very few examples to look to.

As Wynonna Earp writer Noelle Carbone pointed out while on a panel at the Eh Con Canada convention, “We undervalue how much emotion and drama a queer audience can get out of a happy ending because it isn’t the standard.”

It’s something the writers of Schitt’s Creek clearly understand, though. There is no finer example of the power of a happy ending and a joyful queer story than David and Patrick and their sentimental, deeply moving wedding on the series’ finale, Schitt’s Creek Season 6 Episode 14, “Happy Ending.” 

It is a beautiful conclusion to a story that often feels like being wrapped in a warm hug and a perfect goodbye to one of TV’s great couples. 

9. Kevin and Captain Holt (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

If Jake and Amy are Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s inevitable opposites-attract couple, Holt and Kevin are the surprisingly charming fan favorites who couldn’t be more perfectly matched.

Holt and Kevin are the first couple we meet on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the couple that has been together the longest. However, even after seven seasons, there are still new layers to their relationship discover and new facets to explore.

Each season the show reveals some new endearing quality about them that underscore just how in love they are and how deep their devotion is to each other.

Because neither is given to grand gestures or big displays of emotion, every romantic peek we get into how they feel about each other is just a little sweeter and a little more touching than if they wore their feelings on their sleeves. It’s delightful.

With amazing comic timing from Andre Braugher and Marc Evan Jackson, hysterical scenes with their dog Cheddar, and masterful dry wit, Holt and Kevin are also one of the funniest couples on TV. 

Funny, romantic, sweet, and with their own special brand of passion, it really doesn’t get better than Captain Holt and Kevin.

10. Issa and Lawrence (Insecure)

This may be a controversial choice given the pregnancy bombshell from Lawrence’s ex and their relationship’s ambiguous status at the end of Season 4. Frankly, before Insecure Season 4, Issa and Lawrence wouldn’t have even been a consideration for this list.

For two and half seasons, I’ve been content to see them grow as individuals and root for them as friends. Then Insecure Season 4 Episode 8, “Low Key Happy,” happened and changed everything.

With beautiful cinematography, an excellent script by Natasha Rothwell, and perfect performances from both Issa Rae and Jay Ellis, “Low Key Happy” is the reunion I didn’t know I needed for a ship I didn’t realize I was rooting for.

Partly that’s because we see a bit of the connection that brought them together in the first place, but more than that, it’s because it highlights the people they’ve become and who they can finally be for each other.

The Issa and Lawrence of Season 1 aren’t capable of the honest, vulnerable conversation they have on “Low Key Happy.” But since then, they’ve grown and, in the process, become the potential partner they couldn’t be for each other before.

I don’t know if the pregnancy twist will end this nascent reunion before it starts. I do know Season 4 Issa and Lawrence can navigate it in a way that Season 1 Issa and Lawrence never could, and that just might mean there’s hope.

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Who are your favorite couples of 2020? Let us know in the comments.

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