Love is in the air at Fanbase Press! In this magical month of romance and enchantment, the Fanbase Press Staff and Contributors decided to stop and smell the roses. Throughout the week of Valentine’s Day, a few members of the Fanbase Press crew will be sharing their personal love letters to the areas of geekdom they adore the most.

Dear You’re the Worst,

I wasn’t looking to fall in love with another TV show. God knows there are way too many on my “To Watch” list already. I guess I was just looking for a fling: a random episode of a random show to pass some time on a weeknight. My Facebook feed had been flooded with ads for you in recent days, and your much-anticipated final season—you’d been on four years already, but I’d never even heard of you before.

You seemed like you could be fun, though. Something light, maybe a little immature, but probably at least good for a laugh. So, I decided to check out your first episode and see what all the fuss was about. I wasn’t looking to fall in love with a TV show.

I wasn’t looking, but it happened. I kind of hate how much I love you. You weren’t supposed to be an emotional investment. You weren’t supposed to be the show I binged all four seasons of. You weren’t supposed to be the show I looked forward to every Wednesday night. Your characters were supposed to be silly and shallow. I wasn’t supposed to get emotionally invested in them.

But after just one episode, I was completely hooked on the love story of Jimmy and Gretchen. I almost never ship couples anymore. More often than not, I find TV romances to be forced and not believable. But with Jimmy and Gretchen, it was clear from the beginning that these two terrible, awful people were perfect for each other, and I wanted to see them make it work. And with every pitfall, every heartbreak, and every clueless stumbling towards the next relationship milestone, my ship grew stronger.

It was more than just them, though. As you progressed through the seasons, you just got deeper and more intense. In the first few episodes of Season 2, Edgar’s unrequited crush on Lindsay, and the lengths he goes to please someone who clearly has no interest in him—I thought that hit a little close to home. But then, a few episodes later, suddenly we’re dealing with Gretchen’s clinical depression, and it was like a punch in the gut. Seeing her struggle to function semi-normally in her daily life, seeing Jimmy completely fail to understand what she’s going through, but try his damnedest to help anyway, because in his own terrible, misguided way, he really does love her… It’s something I know all too well.

And we just kept going deeper. Edgar’s PTSD. Jimmy and Gretchen’s breakup. You’ve broken my heart so many times, but I keep coming back. In fact, part of what makes you so difficult to watch sometimes is also a big part of why I can’t look away. The emotions and experiences you portray are real in a way that few other shows manage to capture.

It’s not all heartbreak, though. You’re honestly one of the funniest shows on television. And you’ve managed to bring us some of the cleverest and most innovative TV episodes I’ve seen. One of your episodes was done practically all in a single, unbroken take. Another showed the same events from Edgar’s eyes that, just a week before, we’d seen through Jimmy’s eyes in a drastically different way. More than one episode has gone through the whole first act or more, following completely new characters and a completely new, unrelated story, leaving us wondering how they tie back in with the established show. These things may seem gimmicky to some, but they’re done so well that it’s always a joy to watch.

I know you’re coming to an end soon. I feel like I’ve only just discovered you, but you’re already nearly halfway through your final season. I don’t know what I’ll do without you. But I’m sure I’ll be coming back to revisit old episodes, and even re-binge the entire series, many more times in the future.

So, what I’m saying is… You’re the Worst? You’re the best.

Yours sincerely,
Steve