Best Of
The Best Romance Shows Worth Your Time
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
Romance is the genre most badly served by streaming rows, because "romance" gets used for four completely different things: the slow ache, the sweeping costume drama, the comfort watch, and the one where the couple is actually the least interesting part. Sorting by that distinction is more useful than sorting by year.
So this is not a list of 2026 premieres. Two of the shows below did finish this year, and I have said so. The rest are simply the best romantic television available, with verified years, networks and season counts, arranged by the kind of feeling you are after.
If you want it to hurt
Normal People is twelve half-hour episodes about two people in Sligo and then Dublin who keep failing to say the thing. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal do most of it in silence. What it shares with everything else here: intimacy. What is different: it refuses to give you a clean resolution. Choose it if you want the most precisely observed relationship on television. BBC Three and Hulu, 2020, twelve episodes.
One Day follows Emma and Dexter on July 15 of every year for twenty years, fourteen episodes, adapted from the David Nicholls novel. The structure is the whole trick and it works. Choose it if you liked Normal People and want a version with more plot. Be warned about the ending if you have not read the book. Netflix, 2024, fourteen episodes.
Fleabag is not marketed as romance and the second season is one of the great love stories anyway. Six episodes, Andrew Scott, a confessional booth. Choose it if you want something funny that ambushes you. BBC Three, 2016 to 2019, two series.
If you want to be swept up
Bridgerton is Regency London as a fantasy, with a new central couple each season and an aesthetic budget that is doing a great deal of the work. What is different from most period romance: it is unembarrassed. Choose it if you want spectacle and a guaranteed happy ending. Netflix, since 2020.
Outlander finished in 2026 after twelve years, which makes it one of the longest-running romantic dramas on television. Time travel, Jacobite Scotland, and a central marriage the show actually stays interested in rather than treating as a starting pistol. Choose it if you want something enormous to disappear into. Starz, 2014 to May 2026.
The Great is Catherine the Great as a black comedy, with Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult in a marriage that is equal parts affection and attempted murder. Three seasons. Choose it if you want costume drama with teeth. Skip it if you need historical accuracy. Hulu, 2020 to 2023, three seasons.
If you want comfort
Nobody Wants This is Kristen Bell and Adam Brody as an agnostic podcaster and a rabbi, and its virtue is that both people are adults who talk to each other. Two seasons so far. Choose it if you want a modern romantic comedy that is not built on a misunderstanding. Netflix, since 2024.
Heartstopper concluded in July 2026 after three seasons and a closing film, and it stayed gentle the whole way through, which was the hardest thing it could have done. Choose it if you want something kind, particularly to watch with a teenager. Netflix, 2022 to 2026, three seasons.
Starstruck is Rose Matafeo as a New Zealander in London who sleeps with a film star by accident and then has to keep bumping into him. Three series, half-hour episodes, genuinely funny. Choose it if you want the best modern British romantic comedy nobody has heard of. BBC Three, 2021 to 2023, three series.
If you want something bigger than the couple
Crash Landing on You is a South Korean heiress who paraglides into North Korea and is hidden by an army captain. Sixteen episodes, and the supporting village is as good as the leads. Choose it if you have never tried a Korean drama and want the one everyone recommends first. tvN, 2019 to 2020, sixteen episodes.
Jane the Virgin is five seasons of telenovela plotting with a real family drama underneath, and the love triangle is the least of what it is doing. Choose it if you want a long-haul comfort show with a hundred episodes to get through. The CW, 2014 to 2019, five seasons.
Two more worth knowing about
If you want something shorter than everything above, Fleabag's second series is six half-hours and does more with a romance than most shows manage in five seasons. And if you have already worked through the English-language list, Crash Landing on You is the gateway rather than the destination: Korean romantic drama runs to sixteen-episode single seasons with an actual ending, which is a format almost nobody in the West offers.
One warning about ongoing romance shows in general. A series with no end date has a structural problem, which is that it needs the couple to stay unresolved. That is why the best entries on this list are the finished ones. Normal People, One Day, Fleabag and Heartstopper all know where they are going. The long-runners are enjoyable and they are a different kind of commitment.
Where these stream
Romance catalogs rotate more than most genres, particularly the British and Korean titles. Where a show streams changes, and the title page on BingeNext shows current US options.
Which one tonight
If you want the best-made one, Normal People. If you want to feel good, Starstruck. If you want a long project, Outlander. If you want something to watch with someone else, Nobody Wants This.
If you are picking with a partner and cannot agree, BingeNext has a couple mode built for exactly that: you both put in what you like and it finds the overlap, with a reason for each pick and where it streams. The free tier includes three couple runs a month.
Topics covered: best-of, 2026, romance, love, heartwarming, genre
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.