Slow Burn

There is something about a slow burn that gets me every time. The longing glances. The way you can almost feel the heat rising when fated couples get within a few feet of each other. I live for that. Here are some of my favorite slow burn couples in no particular order.

Kate & Anthony (TV Series: Bridgerton)

Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series is still on my TBR list so I can only comment on the television adaptation of “The Viscount Who Loved Me”.

One of the reasons I loved the second Bridgerton TV series slightly more than the first (though I enjoyed them both) was because I got to watch Kate and Anthony trying to fight what we all knew was their inevitable HEA.

One scene that revealed the magnetic pull they had on each other is what I call the “pinky scene” - that scene when Anthony walked past Kate and their pinky fingers moved ever so slightly toward each other. It’s like their bodies understood what their brains would not yet accept.

Yu Shu Lien & Li Mu Bai (Movie: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)

There are a lot of things I adore about this couple. Besides both of them being masters of swordplay, they are also masters of repressed passion. At one

point Li Mu Bai takes Yu Shu Lien’s hand and places it on his cheek and whew! The emotion on his face speaks volumes about the torment he is feeling because he can’t be with the woman he cherishes.

I also appreciate the respective ages of this couple. Michelle Yeoh was about thirty-eight years old when she played the role of Yu Shu Lien, and Chow Yun-Fat was around forty-five years old when he played Li Mu Bai. The fact that the characters were mature added a layer of authenticity to their feelings.

Theirs wasn’t the rash, untested, fickle love of youth. Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai had been through some stuff. They had truly experienced life. So much so that when Li Mu Bai said to Yu Shu Lien, “I'd rather be a ghost drifting by your side as a condemned soul,

than enter heaven without you.” - You knew he meant it!

Alicia & Julio (TV Series: El Gran Hotel)

Love is a universal language. I accidentally stumbled upon the Spanish (as in made in Spain) TV Novela, El Gran Hotel and immediately became hooked on Alicia & Julio’s love story.

This was an upstairs/downstairs, across class lines romance, full of angsty moments. One thing I loved about this series is that Alicia and Julio had a soaring theme song that played whenever they kissed, embraced or were just yearning for each other. The music set the right mood for their romance. It took three seasons for them to finally get together, during which time they solved several murder mysteries and unearthed a truckload of family secrets. But all of the drama was worth it to see them finally run off together.

Whitley & Dwayne (TV Series: A Different World)

Ahhhh, Whitley and Dwayne.

One of my biggest gripes is that there are so few period/historical screen adaptations centered around people of African ancestry. Moreover, those that do exist tend to only show that part of Black history involving slavery, as if Black people have no other stories.

Though the color blind casting in shows like Bridgerton and Mr. Malcolm's List gives me some hope, I am waiting for someone to adapt for the screen, historical love stories that were originally written with characters of African ancestry, like the romance novels of Beverly Jenkins.

Until then, my final slow burn couple is the only one from a show set in modern times and the only one from a sitcom - Whitley and Dwayne.

I loved A Different World. It was one of the few shows that showed the diversity of the Black community.

There was Whitley, the daughter of an old-money Black family from the South; Dwayne, a math whiz from a blue collar working class family; Freddie, the hippie daughter of a White mother and Black father; Ron, the son of a business owner and Kimberly, the aspiring doctor and daughter of a police officer, to name some of the show's characters.

The show also tackled current issues - everything from colorism to the A.I.D.S. epidemic - and still managed to be engaging. As the students of fictional Hillman College navigated life on campus, Dwayne and Whitley went from being frenemies, to friends, to lovers, to exes, to lovers again and finally to husband and wife. Their road to marriage was paved with shattered souls, though. (Whitley literally dumped her fiance, Byron, at the altar on their wedding day so she could be with Dwayne.)

Whitley and Dwayne’s relationship was ripe with unforced errors, and I wouldn’t condone a lot of their shenanigans in real life, but it made for great comedy and drama. I also sighed with relief when they chose to finally be together. I still felt kind of bad for Byron, though.