What’s Worth Watching: The Fault in Our Stars Is Date Night TV

The Fault in Our Stars (Saturday, Feb. 21, 8/7c, HBO)

Let’s assume you indulged (or were indulged by) your significant other last weekend and were among the throngs attending the opening of 50 Shades of Grey as an unorthodox Valentine’s celebration. Whether you succumbed to its naughty allure or snickered your way through it, don’t you deserve a night at home, snuggling up to an authentic feel-good/feel-bad tearjerker?

HBO complies with the pay-cable premiere of last year’s smash romantic drama about teens who meet and fall in love in a support group for young cancer patients. Critics were generally positive toward this smartly written—by (500) Days of Summer‘s Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber—and impeccably cast adaptation of John Green’s YA page-turner. Shailene Woodley proves her breakout performance in The Descendants was hardly a fluke; her irrepressible Hazel has great chemistry with Ansel Elgort’s former athlete, Gus. And honestly, if you’re an ugly crier, isn’t it safer to watch something like this from the confines of your couch anyway? (Topic for later discussion: Why did this succeed when Fox’s attempt to cash in on the trend with Red Band Society so miserably failed?)