Modern Love: My List of Best TV Couples Since 2000

Every week we have the opportunity to tune in and see our favorite characters go through the same struggles of life in thirty minutes or an hour. And while we see a lot of ourselves in them, there is also a feeling of relief that it is not us having to make the tough decisions at the end of the day.

This is especially true when it comes to love. The complications that some of our favorite characters experience are heartbreaking and heartwarming. While we can't always put ourselves in their shoes, we can definitely see with our eyes what they go through.

Couples especially face a lot when it comes to romance and so this hub is dedicated to the modern couples who make love work through every struggle and triumph imaginable.

How I Met Your Mother is one of my favorite shows. It has a certain heart to it that many shows these days are severely lacking. While it is nearing the end of it's run, there are still many great moments to look forward to, namely meeting the mother. But now I would like to focus on the real sweethearts of the show: Marshall and Lily.

Marshall and Lily remind us all of the most sickeningly sweet couple you could meet. They share every single detail about each others day, they have traditions for each part of their relationship, and they have a hard time lying to each other. While this connection is hard to imagine in the real world, it is also becoming harder to envision in TV land.

What I admire most about Marshall and Lily is the fact that they met in college and from that moment on decided to be together. It was not easy as they broke up, found each other again, planned a wedding, suffered family drama and then struggled with conceiving.

Their trials have brought them closer together and currently in season seven they are awaiting the birth of their first child.

Luke and Lorelai's names seem to fit together so effortlessly, it's no wonder that they finally got together after seven long seasons of flirting, dating, fooling around, and avoiding their issues. This couple is unique because their relationship reflects the modern situations of so many people looking for love. Luke is a single, blue collar dad and restaurant owner while Lorelai worked her way up to being a hotel owner after her parents disowned her for becoming a teen mom.

Luke and Lorelai are sweet because they were actually friends before getting involved so they already had a connection that was quite effortless. What complicated matters was Lorelai's off/on relationship with Rory's dad, Christopher who she eloped with in season six as well as Luke's broken engagement and lingering commitment issues.

However, they some how met in the middle and found a way to get together after years of missed signals and false starts. While we know they ended together, there was still that uncertainty in seeing them stay together after the final credits. I would like to think they did stay together.

The Office may be a knockoff of a British show but the relationship between Jim and Pam is most certainly all-American. Again, they started off as friends and developed into something more after Pam's broken engagement and Jim's failed office romance.

What I appreciate about Jim and Pam is that even though they were crazy about each other, they tried as hard as possible to avoid crossing the lines while they were with other people. Jim and Pam had a shared connection simply because they told the same jokes, laughed at Dwight, and had the same feelings about Michael Scott's crazy office reign.

They went through their fair share of ups and downs as Pam wen to art school, Jim got promoted, and then Pam got promoted. All during these times they finally got together, engaged, and married. Now they have two children and are living quite well.

Bones is a very interesting show but without the relationships between the characters, it's quite drab. I give it credit for still being a dynamic and interesting show seven seasons in. While Bones and Booth are great, I personally enjoy Angela and Hodgins' relationship.

Initially, I was like everyone else who thought Hodgins didn't stand a chance with the free-spirited daughter of a rock star. It was not necessarily because he was a nerd but just that his conspiracy theories and aversion to authority was just too much for most people to handle.

However, he got it together and the finally began dating. Everything was going fine until Hodgins had sudden urges to put a ring on it and they got engaged. Unfortunately, Angela had an urge as well. She tried to hide her first marriage to a very attractive island man and that was the beginning of their demise.

Angela moved on and started seeing another squint while Hodgins marveled at what could have been. However, a pregnancy scare brought them back together as Hodgins was willing to be with Angela and her baby. She wasn't pregnant but they were definitely together again.

Now they're married with a real baby and a real future.

Sex and the City is such a reductive title for a show that is about so much more. While there is a big dose of sexuality and sexual relations, it also deals with the complexities of modern women pursuing careers, friendships, social acceptance, and romance. My favorite character would have to be Miranda. To me she was the most realistic of the bunch and not to mention her boyfriends seemed better than the others.

The one guy that I enjoyed seeing with Miranda the most is Steve. Even though they initially hooked up under very fling-like circumstances, it was obvious they were destined to be more than that. She shooed away his advances while slowly falling for his simple charms. While their initial coupling didn't last that long, they remained friends.

Of course we all know that all ex-couples say they try to be friends and really end up only awkwardly running into each other. However, Steve and Miranda managed to support each other's ambitions and tragedies such as his bar opening (alongside my favorite Carrie boyfriend, Aidan) and the sudden death of Miranda's mom.

As much as they deny their lingering feelings, they end up conceiving their son Brady and finally marrying before series end. Even though their marriage takes a few hits in the first movie, they end up together after all.

I love this next couple simply because they were willing to take on each other's faults and anxieties without hesitation. Brenda Leigh Johnson has to be one of the toughest people to handle while Fritz is easily approachable.

They were acquaintances after meeting several years ago on a mutual police and FBI case when Brenda was in Washington. However, when she was transferred to major crimes in the LAPD they reconnected and started dating.

It was never easy as Brenda's boss was her married ex-lover who for some reason or another is still insanely jealous of Fritz and their relationship. Also Fritz is a recovering alcoholic who was just trying to put one foot in front of the other.

Somehow, their mutual love and respect for each other and their work drew them together against all obstacles and crazy relatives to have a successful and dynamic marriage.