NEW YORK — One is the loneliest number and three's a crowd. But a dynamic duo is a match made in heaven, especially when it's found on a TV show. From the crop of new fall series, here are a few fun couples you'll enjoy pairing up with:
He's an eager-beaver goofball. She's an adorable worrywart. They're siblings who helped raise each other in a dysfunctional home. Now, in adulthood, they're back together joining forces to raise Kate's young daughter and keep viewers laughing. Nat Faxon (as the hyperactive Ben) and Dakota Johnson (as over-responsible Kate) share such chemistry you'd swear these actors are brother and sister.
Gavin Doran is the courtly owner of a grand apartment house in Manhattan. Olivia is his elegant wife. You would be thrilled to be a tenant in their building — that is, if you can overlook a certain devilish streak they share. Played with deft creepiness by Terry O'Quinn and Vanessa Williams, Gavin and Olivia are just the sort of landlords to lock you into a lease you'll never ever be able to break.
Joe (David Krumholtz) and Louis (Michael Urie) are partners in their architecture firm and best friends since high school. Louis is gay and Joe is straight, and each has his own romantic partner. But as they work, pal around, and squabble with each other, it seems clear: This is their primary relationship.
As played by Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, this pair clash with style. Lamb is craggy and creased, Savino is dapper and smooth, and as they go about their business from opposite sides of the law, they're finding Las Vegas isn't big enough for both of them. It'll just have to grow.
Jack Shea is a habitual bungler who, well into adulthood, still hopes to rise above his failures and make his father proud. Now Tony (played by J.K. Simmons) is retiring from his family business, Mr. Jiffy Fix, with no one but his son (Kyle Bornheimer) to take up the reins. Under Tony's jaundiced eye, can Jack change his ways and keep the company going, or will he put Mr. Jiffy Fix in a hopeless fix?
In this umpteenth variation on the Holmes canon, Jonny Lee Miller plays the famous detective as an irascible P.I. in modern-day New York. Lucy Liu is his rehab caretaker (Holmes has some personal problems) with her own share of regrets. This twosome would rather be anywhere but in each other's necessary company. But it turns out they're a good team at busting bad guys (as they might have guessed had they read those classic Holmes tales).
Unbeknownst to her, he saved her life years ago. Now Keller, in hiding and long presumed dead, tries to find an antidote to his distressing condition: When he gets riled, he turns beastly. But Cat (Kristin Kreuk), now a homicide detective, isn't sweating those details. She admires how Keller (Jay Ryan) likes to help people out. Plus he's hot. Nothing tame about her feelings for him!
Dr. Coleman has a veterinary clinic, and good thing: He much prefers animals to people. How lucky, then, that his closest companion and "medical assistant" is an anthropomorphically motivated monkey. Justin Kirk stars as Dr. Coleman, while Crystal seems born to the role as Coleman's second banana.