Right in time for Valentine's Week, Entertainment Weekly has a pretty good article in the current edition that talks about "shippers," those fans of a TV series that desperately wants two main characters to hook up in a relationship.
"Castle" (ABC, 10 p.m.) is a good example. Now in its third season, there are fans who are anticipating not if, but when, Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) finally get together.
The danger of that, of course, is the "Moonlighting" effect. When Dave and Maddy finally got together, the series went into a downward spiral from which it never recovered. On the other hand, there's the opposite effect: Series like "Bones" took so long to get the main characters together that you finally lose interest after so many seasons of teasing.
Shippers can get divided even amongst themselves, as you have the "Team ___" vs. "Team ___" effect. For example, on "The Vampire Diaries," fans are split over which vampire brother they want Elena to hook up with. Years earlier, fans of "Buffy" were similarly split between Angel and Spike. Eat your heart out, "Twilight."
Besides Castle and Beckett, here are some other couples we're waiting for:
Tony and Ziva, "NCIS": Fans have been clamoring to see movie-buff Tony and malapropism queen Ziva get together for a while now, and it seems like the producers may have waited too long for it to happen. It's the sort of series (given its No. 1 ratings) that would easily survive the hookup, because the focus of the show is still the case of the week. (Fans also await an Abby-McGee reunion).
Peter and Olivia, "Fringe": What says love better than erasing your own existence and changing the history of two universes, just to save the woman you love? Thanks, Peter, for setting the bar pretty high for the rest of us. It's funny, because Olivia has pretty good chemistry with Lincoln Lee, her new partner, a super-nice and sharp guy. Even Peter admits they're pretty good together. We'll have to see how this one plays out.
Ted and his future wife, "How I Met Your Mother": Enough already with the teasing on this one.
Who are your favorite TV non-couples?
MONDAY'S BEST BETS: "Castle" is a two-parter and follows "The Bachelor" (ABC, 8 p.m.).
Ted doesn't get the girl on "HIMYM," (CBS, 8 p.m.) but maybe Barney does as Becki Newton guest stars as his blind date, followed by an all-new night of comedies and "Hawaii Five-0" at 10 p.m.
"House" (Fox, 8 p.m.) follows up last week's stabbing of Chase, while "Alcatraz" deals with a mad bomber at 9 p.m. NBC has two hours of "The Voice" beginning at 8 p.m., followed by "Smash." The CW has new episodes of "Gossip Girl" and "Hart of Dixie."
At 9 p.m., PBS airs the documentary "Slavery By Another Name" at 9 p.m., narrated by Laurence Fishburne.
On cable, there are new episodes of "Being Human" and "Lost Girl" on SyFy from 9-11 p.m.
