From The End of the F***king World to 13 Reasons Why: How streaming TV made dysfunctional couples the new normal
Forget Romeo and Juliet, Monica and Chandler and dismiss all the notion of love you've endeared and cherished all this while. Because here is what love is, a toxic, dysfunctional and a rather inappropriate relationship that makes it to the hashtag of #Couplegoals right from our TV screens to our social media apps. If you don't have enough drama for chaos and if no one knows about how messed up you are together then are you even in a relationship?
Gone are the days when TV was your escape from reality. Even more, gone are the days when you would see Prince Charming fall in love with a beautiful damsel. Now you aren't even getting that story in children's books and for all the right reasons. With a dawn of awakening and realization, especially among the TV fraternity who are in power to dictate the way society feels, couple goals have been redefined.
Ask a millennial hooked to Instagram, their couple goals will feature one of the fictional couples that I will be mentioning below. What is breaking right now are earth-shattering utterly dysfunctional people coming together and labeling love to be something chaotic, neurotic and shocking. Here are the top five picks of TV couples who are trending on #Couplegoals and they are everything we were warned about on what love truly isn't. Hinging on an impaired conception that love is crazy, wild and very much a nonsense.
James and Alyssa
17-year-old James is convinced he is a psychopath and is geared up to kill humans. His first target is Alyssa, a teenager with a snappy personality to piss people off. We later find out that she suffers from an abusive relationship with her stepfather and James saw his mother kill herself when he was a child. The duo is the characters from Netflix web series brazenly titled 'The End Of the F***ing World.' This is one of the best shows to watch currently because of the coming of age road trip flick and the dark comedy stirs ample emotions in less than three hours. But if you look at their journey of two teens running away from home and getting looped into a murder of a rapist, the plot was already twisted with such distorted protagonists coming together and developing an unconventional love story. Even though we don't see them delving in high school romance, they kiss and fight and James even attempts to kill Alyssa so many times. Alyssa gets a random stranger to have sex with just to make James jealous. They go to extreme lengths to protect each other though, even if that means smacking and bullying the other and finally, taking a bullet for love.
Clay and Hannah
After season 2 of '13 Reasons Why' we are pretty sure Clay has lost his mind and needs medical help because the girl he loved is dead and he sees her as though she were alive. The story itself begins with the suicide of Hannah Baker and in the first season, Clay hears Hannah talk about the reasons why she committed the act. The story constantly flashes back to when Hannah was alive and Clay gradually realizes that he loved her and so did she, but none confessed. In season 2, his obsession with the dead girl becomes so serious that he actually begins to have conversations with her. His girlfriend Skyye, who is battling her own mental issues, points out that he is in love with a dead girl and she can't compete with someone who is dead and perfect. A love story between a living and the dead can never be couple goals, but here we are, swamped with the common hashtags, even more, romanticized with Selena Gomez's song 'Back to You.'
Jughead and Betty
When 'Riverdale' first aired we were eager to see the love triangle between Betty, Archie, and Veronica but that anticipation did not last when Betty started dating Jughead Jones and the 'Bughead' soon raged the social media timelines of #couplegoals. But as season 2 unfurled, the show lost its charm along with bidding Bughead as clearly the worst couple on TV because they were no longer solving crimes together, having flings, building trust issues and constantly hiding secrets. The tiresome season of 'The Blackhood' was not anything like solving the murder of Jason Blossom in season 1 when Betty was honest with Jughead about her dark side. He even kissed her nail-mark scars. But with season 2, it was all about hiding the biggest secrets from each other and we know those aren't our definition of "I wish I had a relationship like that."
Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen
Here's the big question. Why do you root for them? The 'Incest of Thrones,' pardon, 'Game of Thrones' saw the aunt and nephew bone each other. Granted that they make a great couple as positive characters to the series commanding power, authority and good looks, it still does not subtract the fact that Bran had a vision which revealed Jon Snow is actually the son of Lyanna Stark, not Ned's. That means, his father is probably Rhaegar Targaryen, Dany's older brother, who supposedly kidnapped Lyanna after she was betrothed to Robert Baratheon. If that's true, then Daenerys is Jon's aunt. Are you still sure of the hashtags now?
Archie and Veronica
Yet again Riverdale features and this time it is 'Varchie.' It's a head-scratching moment to even think why they are still together since all along season 2, Archie just wanted to please Veronica's corrupt father, Hiram Lodge. Hiram cleverly drives Archie away from his friends and family, making him do what he wanted to be done. There's a tremendous lack of trust and communication in this relationship, which isn't that unheard of but is pretty toxic in the long-run.
Chuck and Blair
A long time ago when 'Gossip Girl' was my bible, I was smitten by Chuck and Blair and longed for my own Chuck Bass. I even posted #Relationshipgoals to one of their memes and Facebook ruthlessly reminds me of my doings with 'on this day memories.' Chuck and Blair gifs are one such memory. They are still the power duo somewhere in the hashtags. Both Chuck and Blair seemed like they were compatible because both were villainous and manipulative but going back to it now, Blair didn't deserve the man she ended up with. Chuck Bass attempted to rape Jenny and even Serena. How is that forgivable? Chuck was abusive to Blair and even sold her for a gamble to his uncle. The evilest thing Blair has done is banish Jenny Humphery from the Upper East Side. No way those are goals.