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Original poster

Toxic couples in tv shows

103 replies

Soubriquet · 14/12/2023 20:20

What tv show couple are heralded as “end game” but are actually quite toxic to each other.

I’ll start with Piper and Alex from Orange is the new black. Yes they are cute together and yes they love each other, but they really are toxic to each other too.

OP posts:
catscalledbeanz · 15/12/2023 00:45

I think Pam and Mick are awful. He's kind suffering and patient, indulgent. She doesn't give a f how he is

therealcookiemonster · 15/12/2023 01:09

glossylipps · 15/12/2023 00:26

Romeo and Juliet 😂

not least because romeo was a paedophile.

lipsticktractor · 15/12/2023 01:19

Dawn and Pete (Gavin & Stacey)

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TV
justheretoread111 · 15/12/2023 02:06

Can’t believe no one has said Ryan and Marissa!

smellmel22 · 15/12/2023 07:44

yorkshireshire · 14/12/2023 23:21

rose and her Billy Zane one in Titanic. That's not a nice set up. He's vile and she's cheating with Jack.

That's because she didn't want to be with him. She was pressured into it for financial gain by her mum. There was always a huge power imbalance because he was so much older and wealthier than her. She didn't love him.

smellmel22 · 15/12/2023 08:19

@Dotcheck yes I agree. He definitely mocks and controls her and she has the attitude that he's just sooo lucky to be with her.

The one that really got me was when he stole and rewrote her essay because he thought it was crap. Who does that!

Actually quite a few of the couples on TBBT are quite unkind to each other but I suppose that's supposed to add to the humour.

determinedtomakethiswork · 15/12/2023 08:30

mbosnz · 14/12/2023 23:38

Giles and Mary in Gogglebox.

Yes, Mary is absolutely awful. She just can't stand him, but she's too financially comfortable to leave.

determinedtomakethiswork · 15/12/2023 08:32

catscalledbeanz · 15/12/2023 00:45

I think Pam and Mick are awful. He's kind suffering and patient, indulgent. She doesn't give a f how he is

It's a parent-child relationship really isn't it?

catlovingdoctor · 15/12/2023 08:33

Bingandbang · 14/12/2023 21:09

Carmella & Tony soprano

Not to mention Chris and Ade

LyndaSnellsSniff · 15/12/2023 08:38

Every single relationship in Last Of The Summer Wine.

tanstaafl · 15/12/2023 08:39

@WandaWonder

Not Going Out?

PuppyMonkey · 15/12/2023 08:40

I hated the main couple relationship in Daisy Jones and the Six and the supposed happy ending - now that his wife had died, they could finally be together.

But the clothes were fantastic, so …

Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong · 15/12/2023 08:44

Dotcheck · 14/12/2023 23:20

Me too!!! They are both quite mean to each other. You get the feeling that if Penny gained some real confidence with her intelligence, the balance would be off and they would crumble

Show quote history

I think the opposite sometimes, she lords it over him all the time that she is more attractive, he is supposed to be the lucky one but she just settled for him.

EnjoyingTheSilence · 15/12/2023 08:56

Carrie and Big. Aiden was too good for her

AnnaMagnani · 15/12/2023 09:02

Margot and Jerry have a fantastic supportive relationship in The Good Life.

Tom however is unrelentingly shit to Barbara.

Thursa · 15/12/2023 09:32

Debra and Raymond. What a waste of space he was! I could barely watch it. We did call it Everbody Hates Raymond in our house.

Den and Angie, Eastenders.

WHALESURPRISE · 15/12/2023 10:13

It always amazes me that the narrative around Ross and Rachel is that HE was awful and manipulative and controlling. He didn't like her working with Mark because he (correctly) guessed that Mark wasn't so bothered with helping out her career as getting into her pants, and she refused to acknowledge that was even a possibility.

Meanwhile she a) basically tricked him into breaking up with a freshly shaven-headed Bonnie THEN says she can't even think about getting back together with him until he agrees their break up was all his fault

b) tries to sabotage his wedding

c) tells him he's not allowed to date anyone else while she's pregnant

I'm sure there are more.... Anyway she's way worse!

DappledThings · 15/12/2023 10:25

Most examples here are missing the point aren't they?

OP asked What tv show couple are heralded as “end game” but are actually quite toxic to each other.
Ones like Shiv and Tom from Succession are always portrayed as horrendous from the beginning, nobody is seeing them as a goal and missing the toxicity.

Marmiteidea · 15/12/2023 10:30

stemmedroses · 15/12/2023 00:20

John and Mary in Fr Ted obvs 🤣

What was wrong with John and Mary’s relationship?

I mean they got married in a church and I’d imagine and they stayed together forever. That is the very definition of a good healthy Irish relationship 🤣🤣

PrincessHoneysuckle · 15/12/2023 10:43

Howard and Bernadette.The big bang theory.
She was bitchy and condescending to him.I really didn't like them together he deserved more

SerafinasGoose · 15/12/2023 10:46

alrighthen · 14/12/2023 23:25

@SerafinasGoose why mummy and daddy pig? Is it because he’s such a bore and she’s so endlessly patient?

Yep! And because he's insufferaby pompous and thinks he's an expert in absolutely everything. Poor Mummy Pig - I'd just have to kill him ... 😡

SerafinasGoose · 15/12/2023 10:53

Turefu · 14/12/2023 23:32

I think they both make a great couple. Each of them has what they want from their marriage. He provides her with comfortable home and she runs their household sufficiently and flatters Lady de Burgh , to keep Mr Collins in her good books.

Show quote history

I'm with @Turefu on this one. Charlotte and Collins is a transactional agreement and it works for them both.

If there's a couple who really are toxic to each other in that novel/TV adaptation, I'd say Mr and Mrs Bennet was it. She is a vapid fool with no intellectual or emotional intelligence whatsoever. He's contemptuous of her, and most of their children, and really doesn't give a shit about the precarious economic situation his female relatives find themselves in. At least marrying the daughters off, as Mrs B is so keen to do, will ensure their comfort and protection. But Mr B is more concerned with 'making sport for our neighbours': he'll be dead by the time that situation comes about so who cares, right?

A horrible husband and father.

ThreeRingCircus · 15/12/2023 10:57

Giles and Mary in Gogglebox.

I agree with this. I hope it's mostly for effect but if Giles spoke to Mary the way she does to him there would be uproar!

AristotlesWife · 15/12/2023 10:59

Chuck and Blair in Gossip Girl! I ‘shipped’ them so hard as a teen and then rewatched recently and felt sick.

smellmel22 · 15/12/2023 11:20

I feel like Giles and Mary just epitomise a couple who have been together for donkeys years and generally piss each other off with their little ways. But they do love each other. You can see Mary getting irritated by him but then again he seems to deliberately try to say things that will wind her up. Don't think it's toxic, just their dynamic after several years together.