Then, the episode ends. They turn to their own partner, sitting peacefully beside them, and say, “Thank God we’re not like that.”
This is the central paradox of romantic drama as entertainment:
Romantic drama has long been dismissed as "women's entertainment"—a ghetto of frivolity. Critics sneer at the "Hallmark template" (big-city career woman returns to small-town bakery, falls for flannel-wearing widower) or the "CW melodrama" (whispered secrets in rain-soaked parking lots). But this dismissal misses the point.