There’s nothing better than an evening in spent watching a rom-com. They’re, as the name suggests, the perfect mix of heartfelt romance and hilarious comedy. Nothing ever goes disastrously wrong, but they give you a chance for a little cry and 9 times out of 10 you get a happy ending.
However, sometimes we want to switch up the rom-com movie for a TV series that has the love and laughter of our favourite romance movies. And over the last few years there’s been some truly exceptional rom-com series. From teens experiencing love for the first time in Netflix’s Sex Education to the hilarious Emily in Paris, where Emily finds love in France, there’s no end to the romance series to keep you occupied.
And here are our 10 favourite rom-com series for your next night in.
The best rom-com series to watch now
Emily in Paris
Where to watch: Netflix
Fantasy fodder for anyone who's ever dreamed of moving to Paris and sharing a croissant with a good-looking Euro-stud on the steps of Montmartre. (Does Montmartre have steps? We've never actually been.)
Lily Collins plays the titular character, a marketing exec who moves to Paris from Chicago and swiftly dumps her long-distance boyfriend in favour of a life of romantic complications amid the boulevards and boulangeries.
It doesn't help that her main squeeze (and neighbour), chef Gabriel, is in a relationship with her friend Camille, but if love came easily, there wouldn't be room for five seasons and counting.
Bridgerton
Where to watch: Netflix
While Bridgerton might not be aiming for big belly laughs, it would be a mistake to overlook its comic charm. To be fair, there's a lot going on to distract you.
As light and delicious as a plate of macarons (and dressed in the same colours), it's the antidote to staid period drama, bringing sexual yearning to the fore and feeling no shame whatsoever in raiding the romance genre for classic storylines. (The bourgeois girl and the bachelor duke! The posh boy and the maid! The pair who go from friends to lovers!)
Best of all, the show's full-throated championing of diverse casting overcame decades of fusty objections with a simple "get over it", and opened the door to fresh opportunities and fresh viewing experiences for us all.
Feel Good
Where to watch: Channel 4
Mae Martin's courage in being their authentic self (they're trans non-binary) reaps enormous dividends in this funny, truthful and painful semi-autobiographical love story.
It follows Mae, a Canadian stand-up comic working in Manchester, and George (Charlotte Ritchie), a middle-class woman who has only ever dated men until she meets Mae at a comedy club.
Rather than shove in the usual misunderstandings and contrivances as romantic obstacles, Mae's PTSD and history of substance abuse, and George's fear of coming out form the spine of the story. Sounds harrowing? Isn't harrowing!
Him & Her
Where to watch: BBC
A romantic comedy with almost no arc, set in one room. Stefan Golaszewski’s Him & Her follows the warm, meandering conversations between lazy-ass twentysomethings Steve (Russell Tovey) and Becky (Sarah Solemani), two ordinary Londoners with ordinary flaws and bad habits. (You'll be desperate to chuck Steve's sheets in the wash.)
Interrupted constantly by their odd neighbour Dan (Joe Wilkinson) along with Becky's sister Laura and her fiancé Paul, over four seasons the pair negotiate being relatively abnormal in a world full of strange people, building up to the climax of Laura and Paul's wedding day.
Starstruck
Where to watch: Disney+
It would be easy to dismiss Starstruck as a gender-reversed Notting Hill. It absolutely is that, but it's so much more. Unabashed romcom fan Rose Matafeo co-wrote (with Alice Snedden) and stars in the BBC Three series.
It follows Jessie (Matafeo), a New Zealander working as a nanny and cinema usher in the UK, who has a drunk one-night stand with someone who – wouldn't you know it? – turns out to be international movie star Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel).
Over three seasons they try to balance fame, real life, wealth, poverty and the unavoidable attraction that always seems to bring them back together despite their best intentions.
Sex Education
Where to watch: Netflix
Occupying a strange, mid-Atlantic place where high-school students don't wear uniforms but all have British accents, Sex Education was a stylistically clever hybrid of teen romance, sexual curiosity, gender questioning and good old soapy drama that appealed far outside the young target audience.
Asa Butterfield stars as Otis, an unassuming boy living in the shadow of his urbane sex-therapist mum and absent father. Despite being inexperienced, Otis has the book-learnin' to offer valuable sex and relationship advice to his classmates.
Among the stellar supporting cast are his love interest and business partner Maeve (Emma Mackey), gay best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa, exploding into the public consciousness), and an assured, slinky Gillian Anderson as Otis's mum.
Big Boys
Where to watch: Channel 4
Jack Rooke's semi-autobiographical comedy certainly has its share of romance, but at heart it's an unconventional bromance, between closeted and shy gay student Jack (Derry Girls' Dylan Llewellyn) and Danny (Jon Pointing), the straight, sexually confident mature student he shares accommodation with.
Jack is balancing his insecurities with grief for his late father; Danny has troubles of his own buried beneath his cocky exterior. If you don't think it's a love story then you haven't been watching closely enough.
Lovesick
Where to watch: ITV
Whoever agreed to call this loveable show Scrotal Recall deserves a slap. It was swiftly retitled Lovesick, but never got the audience it deserved. Johnny Flynn stars as Dylan, a landscape gardener who, after being diagnosed with chlamydia, agrees to contact all his former sexual partners to let them know. With much of the story told in flashback, it's not so much about one romance as several – and the changing attitudes and lives of Dylan and his friends. But there's also the unresolved matter of Evie (Misfits' Antonia Thomas), Dylan's friend who is engaged to someone else, but, but, but…
The Office
Where to watch: BBC
Don't worry, we haven't lost our marbles, we know The Office isn't *technically* a romcom, it's a workplace comedy. But alongside the era-defining mock-documentary about clueless and delusional boss David Brent and his attempts to manage an unmotivated team of paper salespeople in Slough, there is the sweet and sincere throughline provided by the only two normals: underachiever Tim and receptionist Dawn. Their attraction, flirtation and eventual declaration of love plays out at perfect pace, with natural obstacles and a glorious, punch-the-air conclusion that revolves around an unexpected set of oil paints and a Post-it note. *Sigh*...
The Big Bang Theory
Where to watch: Disney+
Taking the formula that made Friends work – boys and girls living across the corridor from each other The Big Bang Theory threw in a double fish-out-of-water situation and watches the sparks fly. Penny is a Z-grade actress working as a waitress who has plenty of intelligence but very little education; Leonard is a successful academic scientist with a show-stealing neurodivergent flatmate and no clue about how to succeed with women. They were made for each other, and over an extraordinary 12 seasons and 279 episodes, we follow their romance and eventual marriage alongside similar journeys for their friends Howard and Bernadette and Sheldon and Amy. Nerds in love were never so adorable.
