The Shows That Shape Us: Style and Structure in Small Screen Romance

Once upon a time, there was a little love triangle between a girl named Bella, her vampire Edward, and a werewolf named Jacob. But even before the Twilight era, there were the Salvatorre brothers, first penned by author L.J. Smith and published in 1991, though their epic love for Elena Gilbert only hit the zeitgeist post-Twilight’s OG pub date in 2005, when the CW’s The Vampire Diaries brought them to life in 2009. Still with me? 

Though one of the first book-to-small-screen adaptations that caught like wildfire, it certainly wasn’t the last. You can’t hit ‘next episode’ on Prime or Netflix lately without stumbling on the latest romantic escapade that first played out on fictional pages in your neighborhood Barnes & Noble. 

From The Summer I Turned Pretty to Fourth Wing’s upcoming small screen adaptation, all romance genres are getting the silver screen treatment. But…

The way it’s structured was simply meant to be cinematic. Love is a universal theme that endears audiences of all ages to its characters. And there’s literally something for everyone: contemporary best friends to lovers, boy/girl-next-door, cowboys, fantasy, enemies to lovers, second chance, redemption…if it’s been written, there’s some agent somewhere looking to sell those screen rights because there’s an audience for it. Auto-built-in, if it comes from a booktok phenom, on top of that, which studios love.

But at its heart, pun intended, there’s a reason all that marketing works. Larger than life love, even if it’s in a small-town romance, pulls us in because we’re rooting for a happy ending. The world needs one of those (or multiple, on repeat, preferably). Much like procedurals, romances are formulaic: Person meets love of their life, they’re forced into a situation that requires too-close-for-comfort proximity, they fall in love! Some external force or internal hang-up—or both—gets in their way, one or both make a grand gesture to reunite, and they live happily-ever-after. Then, depending on the show’s structure, the cycle either begins again as they’re torn apart by some new external force (Virgin River), or the show focuses on a new central couple leaving them to their happy ending (Bridgerton).

Romance shows offer an optimistic view coupled with a serious dopamine rush that comes with the thrill associated with falling in love—even if it’s vicariously. It’s all about the journey, and when it comes to novel adaptations, we get double the fun via two different mediums and interpretations. 

Where the TV adaptations veer from their novel counterparts is the opportunity to flesh out supporting characters and emphasize plot over interiority. This can mean that sometimes, the adaptations veer from their source material, for better or worse.

Bridgerton’s Netflix debut in 2020 secured its status as belle of the ball, the steamy regency era romance feeling fresh amongst its streaming compatriots. Sure, Outlander, based on Dana Gabaldon’s epic series, had its own loyal following since 2014, but it didn’t secure the same audience numbers and global appeal of Bridgerton. Adapted from Julia Quinn’s books by Chris Van Dusen, the Bridgerton family has captured a wide audience with stories that run the gamut from romantic to familial love ties. It’s also highly stylized through tone and a soundtrack of orchestral pop music covers that elevates its themes. 

Another stand-out TV series is Jenny Han’s love triangle phenom The Summer I Turned Pretty based on her eponymous trilogy. Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah brought the internet back to Cousins Beach over and over again as young love meshed with the torn-between-two-brothers trope. The nostalgic nod to adolescent summers in beach mode paved the way for E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, a teen thriller with strong romantic threads recently adapted for Prime by Julie Plec of CW lineage. 

Then there’s the sport section: Alice Oseman’s rugby player meets his dream boy in the Heartstopper series, and Off Campus is based on Elle Kennedy’s best-selling series about hockey players set at Briar University. The tropes are endless, as are the internet memes involving the casts of these intense adaptations that have all ages binging into the wee hours. And with the upcoming Rebecca Yarros cult romantasy hit Fourth Wing getting its own spin on the streaming dancefloor via silver screen makeover of its fictional pages, along with Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, the romance genre isn’t showing any signs of slowing in the adaptation arena. 

And we’re here for it, apparently. Because who doesn’t love love? While you may not have rights to a novel, studying both their fictional form and how they translate to the screen is excellent practice for screenwriters. It’s also an open invitation to try out another medium for your story. If you’re strictly into scripts, why not see what a fictional adaptation can do for revealing characterization and plot? 

Keep reading, keep watching, and always keep writing!