By Julissa Treviño
My So-Called Life
My So-Called Life, possibly one of the best shows of the ’90s unfortunately cancelled after its first season, follows 15-year-old high schooler Angela (a pre-Romeo and Juliet Claire Danes) and her dramatic teenage life. She, of course, falls for the cutest guy in school, Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto, long before he began his terrible music career), who, in the show, memorably can’t read. The unfolding of drama in the show includes their slowly developing and destructive relationship, in which Jordan never tells Angela that he likes her. He once tells her, “I’m not that into you,” though we all know he is. His pride and bad-boy reputaion prevents him from expressing his love for her. And the show ends before he ever tells her he loves her, but for diehard My So-Called Life fans, his sweet face will always read, “I love you, Angela.”
Wonderfalls
Niagara Falls is one of those places tourists seem to love, but Americans seem to ignore. But Wonderfalls actually made me want to go there. The show is a clever, underrated comedy about a young woman who discovers objects with animal faces that talk and tell her to do things. It’s actually a lot better than it sounds. Under her nose, her brother Aaron (the ridiculously attractive and talented Lee Pace), a philosophy enthusiast getting his PhD and still living with his parents, and her best friend, Mahandra, start a fling. And while Aaron seems to be strongly attached to Mahandra, she denies their relationship, often completely ignoring him. It isn’t until the last episode (which actually never aired–it’s another prematurely-cancelled show) that she accepts that they love each other.
Friends
It seems that in every episode of Friends, Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) went back and forth from loving to hating each other, though deep down they were always in love. It may have taken Rachel an entire season to find out Ross was in love with her, but surprisingly, she found out from someone other than Ross. Throughout the seasons, the two, nonetheless, realize they love each other and even tell each other that, but it takes them the whole series to realize they belong together. Why those two spent so many episodes denying their love for each other, no one will ever know. And even Joey denies his love for Rachel to be a good friend to Ross.
Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl is a show you hate to love. Over the last few episodes, the show’s writing and topics seem to get more and more ridiculous, but equally entertaining. What we learned last season is that while Blair (Leighton Meester) was trying to get back with Nate (Chace Crawford), Chuck (Ed Westwick) was falling for her. And as we know from season two, she fell in love with him too. Their sexual relationship and games perhaps fueled them to be in love in the first place, but it also made them completely incapable of saying, “I love you.” In season two, the characters are literally unable to say those three little words to each other. And even more frustrating, they would be a perfect match if only they didn’t deny their love. At least here, though, the characters are mutually too proud of admitting their true feelings.
Deadwood
Based on the historical town of the same name, Deadwood follows several real characters to aptly show Western life with impressive visual and epic storytelling. In the first season, Seth Bullock (remarkably played by Timothy Olyphant), town sheriff and co-owner of a hardware store, and Alma Garrett (Molly Parker), the widow of a claim seeker, begin a brief relationship after one night they spent together. While they obviously have a connection throughout the show, the two are forced apart after Bullock’s wife (though, she is only his wife because he married her after she became a widow to her brother) and her son arrive in Deadwood. They never express their feelings for each other because it would cause a scandal in town, and so, they go on about their business and rarely even speak, though they still love each other.
-Julissa Treviño