TV’s 20 best slow-burn romances

Sorry to everyone else on this list, but Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are the greatest slow-burn couple in television history. Their burn was so deliciously low and slow that even after they finally kissed (in the seventh season! That’s a glacial pace!), it wasn’t totally clear if and when they got together. Eventually, there was a convoluted pregnancy storyline that somehow both confirmed the relationship and made it even more opaque. But the pair’s perpetual “It’s Complicated” status is part of what made the show a success even as the lore began to fall apart. Mulder and Scully’s deep, unshakable bond encompasses but is deeper than romance. They’re soulmates, inextricably bound together in a genuine life partnership that transcends all other relationships in their lives, equally dedicated to each other and their all-consuming but often fruitless mission. That’s the stuff of legends right there. The X-Files creator Chris Carter’s longtime resistance to the partners’ romance (and later, his cruelty in arbitrarily breaking them up and getting them back together in the movie and revival) somehow made the slow burn all the more delicious, keeping fans invested with passionate declarations and loaded touches and longing looks, much of it thanks to Duchovny and Anderson’s insane chemistry. [Mary Kate Carr]