Fall Ship Watch: 10 Couples We’re Rooting for This TV Season
Fall TV is in full swing. That means we are reuniting with our favorite broadcast TV characters and meeting new potential TV friends. More importantly, we have ships to ship! There are some new contenders in the new fall shows, but also ships from shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Fire, Fire Country, and more that need to get their act together. And by act, we mean they need to put their faces on each other’s faces and get to kissing!
Real life is so stressful, and we turn to our favorite weekly soaps and dramas to escape. In celebration of our shows being back on or premiering for the first time, this is our Fall TV Ship Watch of the couples we’re already rooting for and the ones that need to go ahead and get together because we can’t take the tension anymore.
Morgan and Detective Karadec, High Potential
There’s a lot going on in the first couple of episodes of High Potential, but the unconventional consultant paired with the “by-the-book” cop is a TV tale as old as time. From Castle to Bones, we know that the professional friction Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) and Detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) are currently experiencing will eventually pave the way to sexual tension that will probably not be properly dealt with until Season 3. But listen, tropes are tropes for a reason. They are successful, and we love when they pay off. It’s not a question of whether these two will kiss but when.
Julian and Olympia, Matlock
Speaking of tropes, anyone in the mood for a second chance romance? The tension between exes Julian (Jason Ritter) and Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) is very thick in the new Matlock. We don’t know the exact circumstances that led to their divorce, but we know that they are on good enough terms to keep working in the same office every day. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it is actually indifference, and there still seems to be some feeling simmering for these two. It’s buried under a lot of resentment and hostility, but we wouldn’t mind seeing Matty (Kathy Bates) use some of her superpowers for rekindling romance here.
Dr. Max Bankman and Avery Morgan, Doctor Odyssey
Doctor Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson) and Nurse Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo) are going to be making waves right off the bat in the new Ryan Murphy series. If you expected to us to watch Joshua Jackson headline a new series and not ship him with the closest costar off the bat, then where have you been for the last 20 years? Obviously, there will be something dark and twisty going on with this boat (because they’re on a literal ship!), but we will take all the steamy romance we can get with our maritime emergencies!
Dr. Oliver Wolf and Dr. Josh Nichols, Brilliant Minds
In the year of our lord 2024, it should be entirely possible for two gay doctors to work at the same hospital on the same TV show and not be expected to hook up. However, the main character in Brilliant Minds, Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto) has face blindness. That makes meeting people at bars or in random other places extremely difficult. We doubt Oliver is going to find the love of his life during his daily Hudson River swims, so work makes the best place for a meet-cute. Enter Dr. Joshua Nichols (Teddy Sears). These two start off not vibing with each other at all, and it is giving close-proximity enemies-to-lovers. That means we have to ship, sorry not sorry.
Maggie and Cal, Sullivan's Crossing
It took more than half a season for Maggie (Morgan Kohan) and Cal (Chad Michael Murray) t0 kiss, but he was still grieving his dead wife, and Maggie didn’t know how long she was going to stay at the Crossing. Now there’s a pregnancy and a lot of miscommunication between the two of them. It is a giant mess, but these two need to figure out how to get on the same page because it is so painfully obvious to everyone around them that they have deep and meaningful feelings for each other. They need to put all their cards on the table and realize that what they both want most is to be together. They are both so smart, and this should not be as hard as it seems to be for them.
Sam and Violet, Chicago Fire
Another couple that has already hooked up but can’t seem to figure out how to actually be together is Carver (Jake Lockett) and Violet (Hanako Greensmith) on Chicago Fire. We give props to Violet for coming into the Season 13 premiere ready to work things out, but there’s definitely something deeper going on with Carver than he’s letting on. These two also just need an honest conversation with each other to put things right. It kind of makes us wish we could do a group TV couples therapy session and just get all of our favorites to pull their heads out of their butts and get out of the way of their own happiness.
Bode and Gabriela, Fire Country
While we are on the topic of communication issues, please meet the poster couple for not saying what they mean when they mean it. Bode (Max Thieriot) has finally figured out that he needs to be building a post-prison life for himself and not because it’ll save other people. He figured it out just in time for Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) to walk down the aisle to marry Diego (Rafael de la Fuente). Though the Season 3 premiere is titled “What the Bride Said,” we’re not 100 percent sure whether Gabriela actually said “I do.” Considering the fact she was kissing Bode just days before the ceremony, it is so obvious these two are not over each other or ready to move on. It’s going to break Diego’s heart, but it’s better for Gabriela to realize how she feels before lawyers have to be involved in the breakup.
Jules and Mika, Grey's Anatomy
Jules and Mika had a moment in the Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 finale and shared a hot kiss in the Season 21 premiere, so we’re making progress with these two. We already know that neither Mika (Midori Francis) nor Jules (Adelaide Kane) are the best at communicating, so we’re going to go ahead and put them in the hot mess category because no intern at Grey Sloan Memorial has ever been able to have a drama-free launch to a relationship. Considering the fact that they both have already had romantic relations in the workplace, we expect they are going to find some way to make this a mess as well. We are still optimistically hoping for the best, though.
Benson and Stabler, Law & Order: SVU
After 25 years, it feels like yelling into the abyss to say that Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) need to get together. We went over a decade thinking that it would never be possible. Then Meloni returned as Stabler and the first episode of Organized Crime killed off his wife, paving the way for Elliot and Liv to be together. It’s been three seasons since then, and we are still living off of prolonged looks and ambiguous statements whenever the shows crossover. This is our official plea, Law & Order gods, to finally, finally, end our suffering and just let these two be together. You know they belong together. We know they belong together. Even the characters know they belong together, so let’s just make it happen and then we can all rest in peace!
Buck and Eddie, 9-1-1
We have not been waiting two and a half decades for Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) to get together on 9-1-1, but sometimes it feels like it. The chemistry between these two has been there since Eddie showed up in Season 2, but for five seasons, it felt like these two would never make it to a canon-official romantic relationship. Then 9-1-1 moved over to ABC, Buck came out as bisexual last season, and the Buddie shippers experienced what true hope feels like for the first time. Eddie’s sexuality is still in question, and the man clearly has some things to work on after dating his dead wife’s doppelgänger last season. It may be a minute before it can officially happen, but the clock is ticking to see if 9-1-1 will pull the trigger and let these two smooch. We can already hear the screams from Twitter (okay, X) now if this miracle actually happens.
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