Netflix/Freeform/The CW

We watch television for a lot of different reasons — the drama, the romance, the twists and turns, the tweets — but in 2018 another word comes to mind: self-care. When you're only one more push alert away from a nervous breakdown, it's nice to be able to disappear into a fictional world where pretty people make out with other pretty people and deal with their own drama for a bit.

This kind of escapism isn't just entertaining — it's vital to our overall health and happiness. So of course we get a little too emotionally invested in the TV couples that bring us so much joy. As the year comes to a close, MTV News is celebrating the small-screen romances that redefined hashtag-goals and made 2018 a little more bearable.

Spoilers for many, many television shows past this point.