Marshall & Lily (Jason Segal & Alyson Hannigan) of “How I Met Your Mother”
Of all the relationships on this sitcom, Marshall and Lilly’s was the most steadfast. They had their rough patches, including their transition to parents, but they always managed to make time to hang out with their core group of friends. They even entertained often in their mostly clean apartment. My husband and I are usually too exhausted to keep our apartment in a company ready state. I feel like we should start having “messy home happy hour” and hope everyone gets drunk enough not to notice the goldfish cracker crumbs.
Glenn & Maggie (Steven Yeun & Lauren Cohan ) of “The Walking Dead”
Glenn and Maggie have saved each other numerous times from flesh eating walkers and still have time to get hot and heavy. My marriage vows include loving my husband in sickness and health, but I’m unsure if we could survive a zombie apocalypse. I’d like to say I could kill a zombie to save my husband’s life, but I’d probably get killed first.
Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles (Angie Harmon & Sasha Alexander) of “Rizzoli & Isles”
This is one of the few shows my husband and I watch together because we just love the actors’ on-screen chemistry. Yes, I know they’re not married to each other, but there’s definitely a womance going on. The two are complete opposites. Jane’s idea of fun is watching a baseball game while Maura would rather go shopping for Manolo Blahniks. Because they love each other, Maura will watch the game with Jane, and Jane lets herself get dragged to boutiques. My idea of compromise in our marriage is reading a book on the couch next to my husband while he watches football.
Angela & Hodgins (Michaela Conlin & T.J. Thyne) of “Bones”
On the surface, these two seem like a pair from “Beauty and the Geek,” but Angela’s got brains and beauty. They are endearingly cute in the Jeffersonian Institute’s forensic lab and manage to find each other sexy while studying flesh-eating bugs and reconstruction skulls. In fact, they often sneak off into the Institute’s storage rooms for trysts. I tried once to convince my husband to sneak off during work to make out, but he wasn’t having any of it. Probably a good call on his part.
Earl and Countess of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern) of “Downton Abbey”
Robert and Cora Crawley are a genteel British couple, but they flaunt tradition but actually sleeping in the same bed. No matter how pigheaded the Earl is, Cora manages to patiently convince him to do what’s right. Whether it was accepting their youngest daughter’s elopement to the chauffeur or convincing him that Lady Mary can confidently run the estate, Cora never rushes things. Patience is definitely not my strength, but I’m working on it.
Who are your favorite TV couples?