The best relationships start out as friends, right? Well, at least they’re definitely the most fun to watch on TV…
The start of the 2014 TV season was brimming with friendships budding to turn into more. And while some panned out to a steamy sizzle, others were left to simmer until next year. Here are seven of the cutest friendships this TV season that teased us with their crazy romantic chemistry, and kept us coming back week after week.
April and Jackson – ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Talk about a slow burn. As the odd-men out in a hospital that clearly didn’t want them around, April and Jackson initially bonded as the only people who would willingly tolerate each other. And though most people found April’s neurotic enthusiasm irritating, Jackson always kind of thought she was charmingly amusing.
We’ve been rooting for these besties to become more since the epic Alex-Smackdown-of-Season-7, but after years of playful banter and months of wedding day dramz, we all waited with baited breath as Jackson shockingly interrupted April’s wedding ceremony to tell her he loved her. We had to wait two more long, frustrating months to find out her answer, but in the end we got more than we could have ever bargained for when we found out that our AppleJacks secretly ran away and tied the knot! Those crazy kids…
Oliver and Felicity – ‘Arrow’
DC fans know that Green Arrow and Black Canary are fictional soulmates in the comic book verse, but that didn’t stop us from spotting something fresh between Oliver and his adorably nerdy friend Felicity. One’s a geeky tech whiz and the other’s a billionaire playboy vigilante, and after a couple of seasons of inching them closer together, we can’t help but hope that as the TV show continues to write its own canon, something surfaces from this season finale’s epic “love” tease.
Caroline and Stefan – ‘The Vampire Diaries’
Caroline has been Stefan’s foxy blonde bestie for a while now, but there was always something about the sparkle in their snark that left us wondering if it could ever lead to more. This season more than ever, we saw Caroline starting to give in to the idea that she might have feelings for her handsome BFF, but considering he’s been kind of busy trying not to get sacrificed, Stefan’s had other stuff on his mind at the mo’.
Here’s to hoping that next season leaves everyone a little more time for some lovin’. Because seriously, even Lexi is on board to set sail this Steroline ship.
Juliette and Avery – ‘Nashville’
Presented in the pilot as the two divalicious foes to watch out for, who would have thought that by the time season 2 rolled around, more than anyone else, we’d be rooting for these two pint-sized brats to make it work? Selfish and single-minded when it comes to their career, somehow their friendship has turned them both into better people. We appreciated watching them tell it to each other straight and never sugarcoating life’s challenges, but always supporting each other through the hard times. And as we watched them filter through each terrible relationship, we kept rooting for them to finally acknowledge the piping hot chemistry we had spotted all along.
The tease finally played out in the second half of the TV season, and we got the chance to see these two as a healthy, stable couple– their first relationship of equals. And though things kind of fell apart in the finale, we hold out hope that these besties can find their way back to each other again.
Mindy and Danny – ‘The Mindy Project’
The sexual tension between everyone’s favorite tiny doctors has always been boiling, and this TV season we saw their love-to-hate-you bickering turn into a hate-to-love-you airline affair. They were oh so wrong for each other in all the oh so right ways, and though they’d never match up on paper, watching them play out their When Harry Met Sally friendship turned romance on screen was magical.
The Mindy Project teased us with the friends’ budding romantic feelings all season long, and even after Danny’s Secret Santa Aaliyah Dance proved to be the icing on this gingerbread house of love, his insecurities continued to get the best of him throughout the year. We weren’t surprised when the ole curmudgeon kept flopping on his face for the entire season with one romantic mishap after another, and after finally getting together, and even more quickly breaking up, for now at least, the teasing is finally over, and we have the promise of an Empire State declaration of love.
Kalinda and Cary – ‘The Good Wife’
Kalinda Sharma doesn’t have a lot of friends, and she’d like you to know that that’s the way she likes it. What started out five years ago as a very patronizing relationship where Kalinda tolerated the fresh-faced Harvard-grad at best, over the years turned into a friendship that was built on mutual understanding and respect.
Cary’s always been in awe of Kalinda’s mysterious nature and fiery spirit, and Kalinda’s learned to appreciate Cary’s genuine intentions and kind heart amidst a world of lies and backstabbing. And after a little bit of scheming left a few open wounds early this season, the friends made up and finally took seasons of romantic teasing to the next level. But while we’ve always been sure of Cary’s feelings, we’ve been on the fence with the slippery Kalinda from the start, and after some season finale revelations regarding Kalinda’s manipulations, their relationship is sure to take an interesting turn this upcoming year.
Meryl and Maks – ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy swept us up this Dancing With the Stars season with their too-real chemistry and adorable friendship. It was a classic beauty and beast scenerio (not that anyone would ever call Maks’ looks beastly!). She was the shy, demure girl, he was the grizzly, angry man, but together through the power of dance, we watched them turn into a confident, feisty woman and a loving yet insecure teddy bear.
It’s always a little weird shipping people IRL, but can you blame us? Check out that freestyle and tell me that isn’t the embodiment of twue luv. THAT ALMOST-KISS. Swooooooon. After dodging the question for weeks, we finally found out from Wendy Williams that they actually AREN’T dating. Sigh. And even though Meryl maybe, probably has another figure-skating boyfriend back home, even Carrie Ann Inaaaaahba agrees: these two should totes get married and make giant, angry figure-skating Russian babies. BRANDY IS ALREADY CRYING.
