What’s Your Favorite Romantic Tale with a Happy Ending?

Spoilers below for episode 2 of season 3 of the HBO comedy-drama, Crashing.

I’ve been watching the show Crashing since the beginning. I like Pete Holmes’ comedy (if you don’t know who that is, perhaps you know him from the superhero sketches from his previous show–see photo), and I thought it would be interesting to watch the story of a comedian trying to build a career from scratch while encountering and interacting with real comedians.

Luckily, that’s exactly what the show is! There are lots of little touches that I wouldn’t have otherwise known about comedians, such as how they might need to hit the streets selling tickets just to be allowed on the stage and how being a warm-up comedian for TV show audiences is a decent way to pay the bills.

In addition to that, one of the pleasant surprises of the show is the romance. Last season featured an up-and-down romance with another comedian that was fun at times and tough to watch at others (not because it was poorly written…it was just very awkward at times).

And then came the second episode of the third season. I think it may be one of my favorite romantic episodes of any show, ever.

In short, Pete meets a woman while returning a coat. They have some nice banter, and they decide to get coffee. Coffee turns into a day-long date of them walking around New York.

TV shows have conditioned me to expect the worst when I’m rooting for the main character and they meet someone new. We’ve all seen how this works in most comedies: It starts off great, and then some big revelation happens or you realize one of the people has been lying to the other the whole time.

But in this episode, while I was prepared for disappointment, it doesn’t happen. Pete and the woman have a lovely day together, genuinely connecting with each other. They do something I hope we’ve all done a few times in our lives: Embracing a connection and saying yes to the experience. It’s beautiful to watch it unfold.

I know that relationships–on TV and in real life–aren’t perfect, and if Pete continues to date the woman, they’re going to discover things about each other that they struggle with. I’m fine with that.

But for now, I’m so happy that there’s a half-hour of romantic comedy television that’s pure, unadulterated happiness.

Can you think of other examples of this? I’m trying to think if there are any episodes like that in The Office, and there probably are, but even with Jim and Pam, there’s usually some obstacle or will-they-won’t-they element to the episode. The only instance of that in this episode of Crashing comes from you, the viewer–there’s nothing manipulative at all about the script.

Maybe it’s just me–feel free to prove me otherwise. In the meantime, if you’re in the mood for 30 minutes of love, I highly recommend watching season 3, episode 2 of Crashing. You don’t need to watch anything before that episode for it to make sense.

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