14 Love Triangles To Watch For A Marvelously Messy Valentine’s Day Viewing Experience
Valentine’s Day is upon us, making now the perfect time to indulge in all things romance. While it’s fun to go for a nice meal, eat chocolate, and get pampered, one of the best ways to celebrate the season is by watching your favorite love stories on film and TV. When it comes to picking what to watch, it can be hard to narrow things down, which is why we’re here to help point you in the right direction. Though there are plenty of remarkable romances out there, there’s something special about titles featuring love triangles. Who can resist the yearning, the competition, the will-they-won’t-they drama of a romantically tangled trio? Sure, they’re often messy, but sometimes it’s the mess that makes a movie or show so irresistible in the first place.From longtime classics that everyone knows and loves to more recently released titles that have gotten everyone talking, we’ve assembled a list of the must-see love triangle movies and shows that will do everything from break your heart to make you yell at the screen to have you stand up and cheer as the final credits roll. Without further ado, here are 14 of the best love triangle titles to stream for a perfectly chaotic, tangled, and engaging Valentine’s Day celebration.
Bridget Jones’ DiaryIMDb Rating: 6.7
Renee Zellweger finds herself in a love triangle for the ages (Hugh Grant and Colin Firth?! COME ON!) in this near-perfect romantic comedy. Bridget (Zellweger) resolves to improve her life and keep a diary at the start of the New Year, but when she falls for her philandering boss (Grant) and finds herself picturing a life with upstanding lawyer Mark Darcy (Firth), things get more interesting than she ever imagined. Witty, sexy, and downright hilarious, it’s bound to jump onto your list of faves.
[Stream Bridget Jones’ Diary ] Everett Collection
Based on Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel of the same name, Bridget Jones’s Diary is a 2001 rom-com film that follows 32-year-old single British woman Bridget (Renée Zellweger) as she attempts to change her life at the start of a New Year, documenting her efforts in a diary as she goes. In the process, she becomes increasingly torn between desire for her womanizing boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and a growing affection towards the reserved yet deeply loyal Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).
where to watch Bridget Jones’s Diary
Photo: Netflix
When it comes to love triangles, there are many to be found throughout all of Bridgerton. The Shondaland regency romance series centers on the loving and close-knit Bridgerton family as they navigate life and love as influential nobles in 19th-century London. With complicated dalliances and romantic entanglements in every season — including Season 2’s fiery and sometimes difficult to watch love triangle between Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and sisters Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran) — the series has no shortage of juicy drama and titillating action to behold.
where to watch Bridgerton
Photo: Everett Collection
Love triangles can be complex as is, but when you’ve got one between a Vampire Slayer and two vampires, things are bound to be a whole lot messier (and more entertaining). In 1997-2003 supernatural horror drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is the latest in a long line of young women chosen by fate to take on the world’s evil, supernatural entities. With help from her Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), close friends Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon), and additional allies, Buffy learns to embrace her destiny while reconciling with romantic feelings for vampires Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Marsters) throughout the series.
where to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Photo: Everett Collection
One of the earliest and most enduring love triangle tales is undoubtedly the 1942 romantic drama film Casablanca. This Academy Award-winning title centers on Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American expat and nightclub owner in Casablanca, Morocco, and his poignant predicament of whether or not to help his former flame, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), and her fugitive rebel husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) escape the Nazi Germans tailing them.
where to watch Casablanca
Photo: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection
We’re still burning up over the steamy and spectacularly tangled love triangle from Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 sports romance Challengers. The movie follows tennis star-turned-coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) as she tries to help her tennis champion husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) break a losing streak that will pit him against Art’s former best friend and Tashi’s ex, the washed-up Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). Challengers takes viewers through the years of the trio’s marvelously messy relationship from their up-and-coming teen years to their hard realities as adults with a charged history between them.
where to watch Challengers
Photo: Everett Collection
The WB’s 1998-2003 teen drama series, Dawson’s Creek, is well known for its love triangles, namely the ones between aspiring filmmaker Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek), his childhood best friend, tomboy Joey Potter (Katie Holmes), and the mature new girl nextdoor Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams), as well as the one between Dawson, Joey, and Dawson’s wisecracking longtime friend Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson). The show follows all four of them through the years as they go from teens growing up in the small New England town of Capeside to coming-of-age and chasing their dreams as young adults living away from home.
where to watch Dawson’s Creek
Photo: HBO
Issa Rae’s critically acclaimed 2016-2021 comedy-drama series Insecure follows the awkward moments, highs, and lows of two African American women and longtime best friends Issa (Issa Rae) and Molly (Yvonne Orji) as they experience life and love in Los Angeles, California. As the series progresses, Issa finds herself torn between staying with her long-term boyfriend, Lawrence (Jay Ellis), or moving forward with other potential romantic options.
where to watch Insecure
Photo: Mubi
If you like a love triangle with pain, chaos, and plenty of terrible decisions, then you’re sure to enjoy this sultry romantic drama that throws a queer couple’s marriage into disarray as German filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) cheats on his English printer husband Martin (Ben Whishaw) with a younger woman, a French schoolteacher named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos). As Tomas begins a passionate affair with Agathe, he has trouble letting go of Martin, thrusting all three into a toxic relationship where no one will come out unscathed.
where to watch Passages
Photo: A24
If you’re looking for a love triangle full of heart, humanity, and yearning, then Past Lives is the title for you. Celine Song’s Academy Award-nominated 2023 romantic drama film follows childhood friends Nora Moon (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) from their days as childhood friends in South Korea through Nora’s move with her family to Canada and the different directions their lives take from there over the course of 24 years. In that time, Nora begins a serious relationship with a fellow writer (John Magaro) in America, forcing all of their relationships, pasts, and futures to be questioned during one transformative week together in New York City.
where to watch Past Lives
Mavis (Michelle Buteau) and Luca (Marouane Zotti) in Survival of the Thickest. Photo: Netflix
In Michelle Buteau’s Netflix Original comedy-drama series, stylist Mavis Beaumont (Michelle Buteau) attempts to rebuild her life after a breakup by pursuing a successful career, establishing strong relationships, and radiating self-love. Along the way, Mavis gets embroiled in a messy love triangle between her cheating ex, Jacque (Taylor Selé), and her new Italian lover, Luca (Marouane Zotti).
where to watch Survival of the Thickest
Photo: New Line Cinema/courtesy Everet
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there’s a love triangle in The Notebook because the bond between Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams) is just that epic, but there is indeed another suitor in the mix. Based on Nicholas Sparks’s 1996 novel of the same name, The Notebook is a 2004 romantic drama film that follows the unlikely but passionate romance that occurs between mill worker Noah Calhoun and wealthy heiress Allie Calhoun in the summer of 1940. Due to disapproval from Allie’s parents and Noah’s leaving to serve in World War II, the two drift apart, and Allie gets engaged to another man (James Marsden). But while time has passed, feelings still linger as fate reunites Noah and Allie, calling her current relationship into question.
where to watch The Notebook
Photo: Amazon Studios
One of the most chaotic and messy love triangles in recent media has to be the Conrad-Belly-Jeremiah conundrum of The Summer I Turned Pretty. This Prime Video Original coming-of-age romantic drama series, based on Jenny Han’s novel trilogy, begins with Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung) on a life-changing summer different from all her previous years at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, as she finds herself forming new romantic connections with her longtime crush Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney) and Conrad’s younger brother, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno).
where to watch The Summer I Turned Pretty
Photo: Netflix
We simply can’t talk about love triangles without mentioning the iconic “Team Edward” vs “Team Jacob” dilemma throughout The Twilight Saga. It all begins with the 2008 vampire romantic fantasy film Twilight, in which 17-year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington, where she finds herself drawn to her mysterious and otherworldly classmate Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Things, of course, grow complicated with the revelation that Edward is a vampire, forcing him to eventually keep his distance to protect Bella, giving room for Bella’s childhood friend (and… a werewolf, gasp), Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), to shoot his shot throughout the subsequent films. It’s camp, it’s fun, it’s always worth a rewatch for Valentine’s Day and beyond.
where to watch Twilight
Photo: Park Young-Sol/Netflix
This entertaining spin-off of Netflix’s To All the Boys film series follows Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart) as she earns a full scholarship to the Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS) so she can follow in her late mother’s footsteps and attend school alongside her long-distance boyfriend, Dae Kim (Choi Min-yeong). What ensues is a coming-of-age story full of plenty of drama, fun characters, and multiple messy love triangles. From the Kitty-Dae-Yuri (Gia Kim) triangle to the love square that develops in Season 2 between Kitty, Yuri, Min-Ho (Sang Heon Lee), and new transfer student Stella (Audrey Huynh), there are all sorts of tangled relationships to behold and enjoy, so make sure to tune in and keep up with them as XO, Kitty continues to develop over time.
where to watch XO, Kitty
Maddy Casale is a Chicago-based writer and comedian who covers everything from animated series to Hallmark movies. Follow her on Duolingo @MCasale.
