Happy almost Friday! It’s TMP time! The Thursday Movie Picks blogathon was spearheaded by Wandering Through the Shelves Blog.
The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you’re up to it one of each. This Thursday’s theme is… Romance Tropes Television Edition: Love Triangles
I have to say I’m not really a fan of love triangle in movies. I feel like it’s just so clichéd and often a result of lazy writing. I mean, there are SO many of them that it’s hard to find one that actually has a reason to exist. When I was writing my romantic drama Hearts Want, I made sure to avoid anything resembling this trope. Looking at some lists of TV love triangles… popular shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Vampire Diaries, Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, etc. all feature love triangles. Good thing I avoided watching all those shows!!
In any case, here are my picks:
BEHIND HER EYES
Ok, I have to admit that one of the reasons I’m participating this week is just so I can post about this crazy, twisty psychological thriller that just dropped on Netflix earlier this month. The British miniseries is based on a 2017 novel of the same name by Sarah Pinborough and dayum, it’s really of the most bonkers thing I’ve seen in a long time! Apparently when the book first published, the hashtag #WTFthatending was trending on Twitter, and well, there’s a good reason for it!
The love triangle is between Louise (Simona Brown) and her psychiatrist boss David (Tom Bateman) AND his wife Adele (Eve Hewson). After meeting David at a bar, they immediately had a sexual relationship… and days later she bumps into Adele (literally) on the streets. I find some of the episodes dragging a bit, I think tightening it to a 4 instead of 6 episodes might make it more efficient.
But man, nothing could prepare me for the finale! There’s another important character in the series called Robert (Robert Aramayo) who’s Adele friends shown in the flashback scenes. I feel like this show is best experienced if you know as little as possible about the story. Borrowing Bette Davis in All About Eve... “fasten your seatbelts it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
BEVERLY HILLS, 90210
I was in high school when this show hit its peak of popularity. I was still living in Jakarta at the time and there wasn’t many options to watch on TV. So naturally I watched whatever American shows that were available (MacGyver, A-Team, Melrose Place, etc). I often thought everyone in the US lived like these group of friends in Beverly Hills, ahahaha. It’s quite ironic that I ended up in Minnesota, given Brenda and Brandon Walsh moved from MN to CA 😀
In any case, so the love triangle between Brenda/Dylan/Kelly were all the rage back then. If Twitter were around back then, I bet there’d be polls whether you’d be Team Brenda or Team Kelly. Looking at pics of Luke Perry is kinda sad though, I still can’t believe he’s already gone 😦
In any case, I don’t give a flying f*** which girl I want Dylan to pick, as again I find the whole love-triangle thing SO corny!
FRIENDS
I didn’t realize how many love triangles there were in Friends, but apparently there are a bunch of them that this article actually went so far as ranking them! 😀
Well I’m just going to list two I remember on the top of my head…
Rachel/Joey/Ross
Poor Ross walked in on Rachel + Joey kissing… I mean we all know how long the geeky paleontologist has been in love w/ Rachel for ages!!
Monica/Chandler/Richard
I gotta admit I find the whole Monica/Richard thing a bit awkward. And not only because of the over-two-decade age difference between Courtney Cox and Tom Selleck, I just don’t feel the chemistry. But then again, I find the latter years of Friends not as engaging as the earlier ones.
So which are YOUR favorite love triangles on TV?
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FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Whoa, we share a pick with Brenda/Dylan/Kelly. I do miss Luke Perry. He was a good dude. I kind of preferred Dylan with Kelly though I think Kelly was best with Brandon. I wasn’t into Brenda much but I so prefer her over Tori Spelling. I didn’t watch the most recent reboot or whatever they did last year or 2 years ago. What’s the point of watching it without Luke Perry?
I am happy that his son Jack aka Jungle Boy in All Elite Wrestling is doing well as he is really popular with wrestling fans as part of Jurassic Express with Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt. And they use Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy” as their entrance music.
Very cool that we both have 90210! Yeah it’s so sad about Luke Perry, he seemed like a goos guy too.
I didn’t watch the recent reboot either, I mean I only watched the show as a teen as there wasn’t much to watch back then 😆
Wow I didn’t know that about Perry’s son. I actually looove Tarzan Boy, that’s one of my all time fave 80s songs ever!
Just watch AEW Dynamite on Weds. at 8PM on TNT or watch him on AEW Dark on YouTube every Tuesday night. He looks like his dad but with long curly hair. Girls love him.
Okay I’ll check it out! He definitely looked a lot like his dad but w/ long curly hair. He’s really ripped too which I guess makes sense as a wrestler, as Luke was extremely slim, almost skinny.
I don’t have Netflix but that show sounds crazy and wacky.
I was never a 90210 regular viewer, enough to know who the various actors were but that was about it. I do remember the whole Dylan/Brenda/Kelly mania and the fact that it was widely acknowledged that Shannen Doherty was an incredibly difficult woman. A fact borne out when she had an equally contentious relationship with her coworkers on Charmed. Very sad about Luke Perry.
I thought Friends would be all over today, I didn’t use it because of that, but this is the first I’ve seen it turn up. A very fun show with actors who had remarkable chemistry with each other. I wasn’t a fan of the Rachel/Joey pair up since it was always obvious she would and should end up with Ross. The show lagged a bit in the middle years but I thought it finished strong.
This was tough for me and I blanked for a while (probably because I forgot this was a TV week and had three films picked out-Trouble in Paradise, Design for Living and The Old Maid-that fit so well) and almost sat it out until I remembered these three from long ago that I watched in reruns as a kid.
Our Miss Brooks (1952-1956)-High school English teacher Constance Brooks (Eve Arden) is hopelessly enamored with handsome but obtuse science teacher Phillip Boynton (Robert Rockwell). They exist in a sort of limbo land where Mr. Boynton takes it for granted that Miss Brooks will always be there. That is until Connie moves to a new school and the gym teacher Gene Talbot (Gene Barry) tries to sweep her off her feet. At last Boynton’s dander is riled up enough to fight for her.
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963)-High school student Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) is hopelessly in love with Thalia Menninger (Tuesday Weld) who hardly acknowledges his existence while Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James) likewise pines for him. Even after Thalia moves away and Dobie, as the title says, constantly falls for a series of beautiful and unattainable girls Zelda continues to yearn.
Petticoat Junction (1963-1970)-When crop duster Steve Elliott’s (Mike Minor) plane crashes near the Shady Rest Hotel in Hooterville he’s taken in to recover by proprietress Kate Bradley (Bea Benaderet) and her three daughters Billie Jo (Meredith MacRae), Bobbie Jo (Lori Saunders) and Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning). During his convalescence he and Billie Jo start to date but once he decides to stay in town, he realizes it’s Betty Jo that he really loves.
Hey Joel! I’m not a fan of Rachel/Joey pair up either, I felt like the writers just ran out of ideas when they wrote that 😆
Wow you stumped me this week. Somehow I hadn’t even heard of any of the shoes you mentioned. Ok maybe I had heard of Petticoat Junction but thought it was a film.
I hated 90210, there’s nothing realistic about that show and high school in the States were nothing like that. I even remember news people interviewed kids at the actual schools at Beverly Hills 90210 and they all made fun of the show because it’s so fake. Lol! But it was such a huge show back in those days. I didn’t care fore the first few seasons of Friends, I thought it became funny when Ross and Rachel broke up and I watched it regularly. But the last two or three seasons were crap, I don’t even remember how the show ended.
As for my favorite love triangle story line in TV shows, the only one I can think of is JUSTIFIED. During its first couple of seasons, there was a love triangle storyline between the leads.
Ahah, I only watched 90210 as a teen as there wasn’t much to watch back then in Indo 😆 Obviously it’s not realistic at all, but then again when I watched a Netflix movie set in high-school called Kissing Booth it was also super fake it’s ridiculous. I can’t imagine anyone on earth living like that, it was laughable!
Wow I didn’t expect there would be a love triangle in a show like Justified. But then again it’s a popular trope that people love to watch.
Justified’s love triangle was a bit differently than the usual cliche storyline in other shows. The relationships between the leads became more sinister as the show progresses. Lol!
I’m familiar with these shows but I’ve never watched any of them.
You didn’t watch Friends? I feel like it’s one of those shows that’s so popular people might know the characters’ names even if they don’t watch it regularly.
I’ve only seen Friends from your picks but yes! Such a good choice. For me, Rachel and Ross were a forever couple but I really enjoyed the love triangle with Joey!
I agree with your dislike of the trope though, I think done well, it can be really interesting but a lot of the time it feels like drama for the sake of drama.
I always feel bad for Ross given how genuinely in love he was for Rachel! It seemed like it took forever for them to finally get together.
Generally speaking I feel like love triangles are just corny, but I think people love watching them for some reason.
Nice list! I prefer the earlier seasons of FRIENDS to the later ones too. The writing started to dumb everyone down rather than make them more mature. I’m completely in the minority of fans who liked Joey and Rachel, but that’s mostly because I abhor Ross. Richard’s appearance to entice Monica to choose him was quite random too.
Hey Katy! Yeah I think FRIENDS did get dumber towards the end, I think the lustre was wearing off. Ahah, poor Ross, he’s such a dweeb, but he really did love Rachel. Come to think of it, it’s crazy how they all end up being way more than friends, which is ironic given the show’s title.
Netflix keeps advertising Behind her Eyes to me. I really need to check it out. 😅
Well you should! But be careful of spoilers when you’re browsing online, best to go into it as blindly as possible.
I have seen all these shows.
I had read the book so was anticipating the Behind Her Eyes adaptation and I thought it was a pretty good one. And what a fitting title right. I do enjoy books with WTF twisty type of endings.
Have you got around to seeing Behind Her Eyes yet? I’d love to hear what you think. It’s VERY twisty!!