It takes two, baby

After suggesting in yesterday's post that Brody & Carrie might be the best 1-2 character combo in all of television right now, I started thinking about some of my favourite character pairings. The characters who bring out the best in each other, the characters who are simply electric whenever they share the screen.

A good character pairing isn't necessarily made up of the top-billed characters on the show (Esposito and Ryan are great on Castle, for example), nor does it need to be a mixed-gender pairing (though mixed gender pairs seem far more common, at least to this non-researching blogger).

I was really just thinking about a pair of characters who light up the screen when they share a scene, who just seem to fit perfectly together, who bring out the best (and sometimes the worst) in each other. So here are seven character pairings I love to bits. Feel free to agree or disagree and list your own favourites in the comments below.

Brody & Carrie, Homeland: The pair who inspired this post. Positively electric every time they appeared on screen together - from early in the season when they shared entire episodes together (The Weekend, the episode in which Brody and Carrie head out to the country together, was a phenomenal hour of television) to the brief, emotional scenes they shared in the last couple of episodes.

Mulder & Scully, The X Files: It was clear from Season 1 - episodes like Ice and Darkness Falls - that there was a charisma about David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson; something about the two of them, investigating the paranormal, just worked. Their relationship (professional mostly, emotional occasionally) made the show more than it could've been with any other lead pairing, as Special Agents Doggett & Reyes can tell you.

Raylan & Boyd, Justified: I've written before about the entertaining relationship between the two leads on Justified, comparing the grudging respect between Givens and Crowder to the peculiar chemistry between Batman and The Joker in hit film The Dark Knight. I think they were meant to do this forever.

Jerry & George, Seinfeld: If you were a Seinfeld fan in the mid-90s, then you'll know that most of the best moments came when the gang were hanging out at Monk's Café. And the best moments at Monk's Café usually involved just Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza (Jason Alexander). Don't believe me? Just check out this classic scene (NSFW). "I don't have a job, I got no place to go. You're not in the mood? WELL, YOU GET IN THE MOOD."

Walt & Jesse, Breaking Bad: The third season of Breaking Bad is a phenomenal collection of episodes, but one of the standouts is an episode titled Fly which dealt with, erm, a fly. Walter spots a fly in the meth lab and refuses to let Jesse leave until the fly is caught, for fear that it might contaminate the entire batch. What follows is one of the most interesting, gripping episodes of the show to date, and a showcase for Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul.

Homer & Bart, The Simpsons: The only pairing on this list which could be credited with making strangling your child an acceptable form of punishment. And while Homer works with just about any other character, episodes like Bart The Daredevil and Bart Gets An Elephant prove that there's nothing like a good father-son story.

McNulty & Bunk, The Wire: One scene - and one scene only - proves why these two are so good together, and it's this one (NSFW).

So, who are your favourite character pairings on TV? Share them in the comments below.

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