Belligerent Sexual Tension/Live-Action TV

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Examples of Belligerent Sexual Tension in Live-Action TV include:

  • Cheers, Cheers, Cheers. Practically the television Trope Codifier; most television shows since have mimicked the hostile romance between Sam and Diane.

Sam: You are the nuttiest, the stupidest, the phoniest fruitcake I ever met!
Diane: You, Sam Malone. are the most arrogant, self-centered, son of a b...
Sam: SHUT UP! Shut your fat mouth!
Diane: Make me!
Sam: Make you....My God, I'm, I'm gonna, I'M GONNA BOUNCE YOU OFF EVERY WALL IN THIS OFFICE!!
Diane: Try it and you'll be walking funny tomorrow.... or should I say funnier.
Sam: You know, you know I always wanted to pop you one! Maybe this is my lucky day, huh?
Diane: You disgust me! I hate you!
Sam: Are you as turned on as I am?
Diane: More! (followed by The Big Damn Kiss)

  • Xena. Ares. SO VERY much.
  • It isn't canon, but depending on whether you can fight your way through all the Ho Yay or not, Merlin and Arthur's relationship either reads as this or as Vitriolic Best Buds
  • The Mighty Boosh. Sweet, handsome Vince Noir and awkward Loner Howard Moon are made for each other. Everyone in the Boosh universe, naturally, can see it except them.
  • Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl seem poised to play Will They or Won't They? for the remainder of the series.
    • As of season three, they are Happily Married... except without the actual marriage part.
  • Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres, the Official Couple on Star Trek: Voyager (sometimes it appeared they were the only couple on Voyager). Even after they got married.
  • A subplot of one Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode involves Chief O'Brien being forced to work with a female Cardassian engineer. The two spend the entire episode bickering and sniping at each other. He interprets her apparent hostility as typical Cardassian disdain for humans. She interprets his apparent hostility as O'Brien coming onto her, since apparently Belligerent Sexual Tension forms the basis of Cardassian courtship. (The Garak/Bashir slashers proceeded to have a lot of fun with the implications of Garak arguing with Bashir over literature for three years.)
  • Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran of Stargate SG-1. With Vala the Jerk with a Heart of Gold able to annoy Daniel (in a way no one else quite could) into losing his cool. Also none of the other cast really expect them to get together, but Mitchell did sometimes tease Daniel about it.
    • They actually took the Belligerent part of this trope quite literally in Vala's first episode with a spectacular fight sequence unlike anything ever seen in the show. Lampshaded right off the bat by Vala with; "You know, we could just have sex instead."
  • Helen Magnus and Nikola Tesla of Sanctuary. Sure, they have different opinions about bringing vampires back. And yes they did have a few arguments about this (Nikola once said "Magnus has shot me more times than I can count"). But still, he is the only one who gets on her nerves that much and gets away with it. Not to mention that lately she seems to realize that she cares about him. And that grabbing his arms and pulling him closer to her during a little quarrel they had is completely acceptable...
    • Taken to another level and possibly made canon with their Now or Never Kiss in the season 4 finale
  • Bela Talbot had it with both Winchester boys in Supernatural. She shot Sam and he still had dirty dreams about her. The trope was almost invoked word for word when Bella offered Dean "angry sex".
    • Dean's relationship with Cassie in the first season episode 'Route 666' seemed to fall under this.
    • Whenever Meg and Castiel show up in the same episode, this is their default behavior toward each other. This includes insults, occasional physical violence, and wall-slamming kisses.
  • John Crichton and Aeryn Sun in Farscape's first Season. Both seem to be jerks and Type A tsunderes in varying degrees.
  • Mal and Inara (deredere) on Firefly, with the added wrenches of Inara being a Companion and Mal being terrible about long-term commitments.
    • Further complicated by Inara telling Mal she supported Unification, which was essentially the event which destroyed Mal's faith in God and humanity. Also, she's a Buddhist and he's a misotheist.
    • Kaylee and Simon occasionally fit this. Funnily, neither are particularly Tsundere or Jerkish on their own, but come off with shades of it when they try to make a stab at starting a relationship.
    • Wash and Zoe's relationship started like this, before progressing into the mostly-amiable marriage shown on screen.
    • There is, curiously, quite a bit of sexual tension between River and Jayne, and hoo boy is it belligerent, what with the chest slashings and ball-grabbing.
    • Word of God has said that some tension is suggested between Simon and Jayne.
  • House and Dr. Cuddy.
  • Luke and Reid from As the World Turns. They are constantly snarking at eachother but everyone knows they will end up together.
  • Kyle and Max in Living Single. At times, they took turns as to who was the Jerk and who was the Tsundere in various episodes.
  • Alex Drake and Gene Hunt in Ashes to Ashes. Observe.
  • On Northern Exposure, Dr. Joel Fleischmann and Maggie O'Connell's long-simmering UST was severly impeded by a) his tendency to deal with his severe Fish Out of Water status with fits of jerk behavior, and b) her severe resistance to relationships after the deaths of several previous boyfriends (which she believed to be her curse).
  • Chad and Sonny on Sonny With a Chance. Sonny is definitely Type B, with her tsuntsun side only triggered by Chad and occasionally Tawny. Come to think of it...
    • As Chad was only introduced in the 2nd episode, Sonny and Tawni actually came first for this. As of the end of Season 1, it looks like some movement in the Chad/Sonny relationship is happening, a remarkably quick Relationship Upgrade for this type of couple (assuming they don't muck around for another season or 2 denying their obvious feelings for each other).
  • Emerson and Simone from Pushing Daisies might qualify. You can almost picture that woman holding a tight leash around Emerson's neck.
  • Moonlighting, anyone? As stated above, can lead to Shipping Bed Death.
  • Nathan and Kelly in Misfits are many fans' apparent One True Pairing. What with him being a snarky and immature Jerkass Woobie and she an aggressive, telepathic Tsundere chav, the ensuing clash of issues and attitude problems is an unexpected joy to behold.
  • Buffy and Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • Buffy and Angel started that way, too, though they got over it right quick. Xander and Cordelia stayed that way even when they were dating.
  • Lee Adama and Kara Thrace of Battlestar Galactica could easily blow the ship to pieces with the force of their BST (which remains belligerent even after they've had sex, and he deals with her sudden marriage to someone else).
  • Tony and Ziva in NCIS.
  • Robin Hood and all three of his Love Interets: Isabella, Marian and Kate (in that order).
  • Malcolm and Nicola in The Thick of It.
  • Damon and Elena on The Vampire Diaries have enough BST to burn a house down. It is doubtful they'll ever get together as she's dating his brother and he...y'know, kills people.
    • That's probably true, although that Damon snapped Elena's brother's neck right in front of her(though he did get better) and they still engage in the same behaviour after awhile suggests that, though it really should, that is probably not a deal breaker for them.
    • Very unlikely, given that Elena and Stefan are the show's prime couple and the producers therefore have a vested interest in promoting and maintaining them. Given the notion that Elena and Stefan are True Soul Mates it would be detrimental to Elena's character were she to suddenly ditch Stefan for Damon. That's not to say that sometimes some almost wish it would happen as Stefan often seems fairly boring next to his brother.
    • in "As I Lay Dying" Damon is dying of a werewolf bite, Elena kisses him thinking he was genuinely near death but Katherine cure him. Stefan is out of the picture as he recieved the cure from Klaus and he is Klaus' new wingman as payment. Damon and Elena now seem to be a good possibility if Elena sorts out her feelings.
  • Puck and Quinn on Glee
    • Or Rachel and Quinn.
  • Wendy and Hodges on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The common theory is that at some point Wendy will have to either kiss Hodges or punch him. Possibly both.
    • The former, it turned out.
  • Rick Castle and Kate Beckett from Castle scream this trope at the top of their lungs every episode. Oddly enough, each has acknowledged their attraction, if only to themselves, but circumstances conspired to keep them from doing anything about it.
    • For the first season, anyways—it quickly switches to just plain Unresolved Sexual Tension soon after.
      • They still trade plenty of banter, innuendo and snark, though.
  • Temp worker Misawa Katsuko and vice-president Igarashi Akeo from Haken no Oscar fit this trope perfectly.
  • The Mentalist: Lisbon has yelled at Jane more times than there are episodes. Jane does some sort of Bunny Ears Lawyer trick that is likely to get both of their asses fired about as often. Doesn't mean they wouldn't kill and die for each other.
  • Community- Britta: "Jeff and I don't have sexual tension. We just argue all the time."... And then they hook up.
  • Anyone who saw the crossover between Power Rangers Time Force and Power Rangers Wild Force knows that Eric and Taylor fit into this trope pretty well, most noticeable in their first few interactions.
  • In the jiang hu TV series Chinese Paladin III, both leads are Type A tsunderes. It's particularly bad for the hero, since at the beginning the heroine knows more kung fu than him...
  • Rory and Jess from Gilmore Girls started out as a mild form of this trope. They bickered over music, books and television before admitting that they really liked each other. And to a lesser extent, this was also how Rory and Logan initially got to know each other.
    • Paris and Doyle's relationship is a more straightforward example.
  • Lynda Day and Spike Thomson from Press Gang.
  • Another Steven Moffat example: River Song and the Doctor from Doctor Who, who clearly care for each other very deeply but also spend a considerable amount of time snarking at and bickering with each other Like an Old Married Couple, which they may very well be (it's hinted at in a few episodes). Interestingly, the male half of the couple in question appears to be the Tsundere in the relationship.
    • Also, the Doctor and Amy a fair bit, despite the fact that she's been either engaged or married most of the time he's known her, and a child most of the time she's known him. And he's 900-something and a Time Lord, though (both?) of those problems also apply to River Song.
      • It gets better. River Song is a Time Lady, and Amy and Rory's daughter. She's kidnapped as a newborn baby in Season Six, and raised as a Laser Guided Tykebomb aimed at the Doctor. Whom she kills, and then sacrifices all her remaining regenerations to save.
  • Alex and Ellen on Family Ties.
  • Played with on iCarly with the Sam and Freddie relationship. They do nothing but bicker, whilst Sam routinely abuses him, punches him, bullies him and does things like hit him with tennis racquets and throw him out of tree houses. They share their First Kiss in season two but it's not a result of Slap Slap Kiss. In season 4 Sam suddenly kisses him in the middle of a speech he was giving about how she needs to put her feelings out there. Because he thought she liked another guy.
    • The relationship is then explored in iDate Sam & Freddie, and they lose the "Sexual Tension" part of the equation and instead are constantly Belligerent with each other, annoying Carly who is the one they rope in to try and fix the fights, until she gets fed up at the end of the episode and delivers a Reason You Suck Speech to Sam and Freddie and the idea of them dating.
  • Moist von Lipwig and Adora Belle Dearheart in the Film of the Book Going Postal. In the book ... it's a bit more complicated.
  • Niles and CC in The Nanny.
  • Avon and Servalan of Blakes Seven, and how. They spend most of the last two seasons either kissing or trying to kill each other; sometimes they don't even bother to separate the two.
  • Sam has this with both Ainsley and Mallory on The West Wing, and Josh and Donna have their share of it as well.
  • Clark and Lois of Smallville bicker constantly. That their Unresolved Sexual Tension will eventually become very much Resolved is a Foregone Conclusion from the moment she appears.
  • Niles tries to instigate this intentionally in Frasier after he and Daphne have an argument that leaves him trembling with arousal. Daphne, being Oblivious to Love as usual, doesn't get it and winds up acting even more sweet and polite than usual, thinking that Niles keeps insulting her because he's depressed. Fail.
  • Dr. Cox and Jordan of Scrubs. They were married and got divorced, but kept up this trope even after their relationship officially ended. They also kept sleeping together, had two kids, move back in together, and basically stayed married in every sense but the technical. And they love this trope so much that when Jordan insists they stop fighting for their son's benefit, the other characters treat it as if they have stopped having sex. Fighting is sex to these two.
  • Ted and Zoey in season 6 of How I Met Your Mother, combined with a mild form of Dating Catwoman. Abated briefly when they got together, only to mutate into a full-blown Destructive Romance.
  • Claire and Alex of McLeod's Daughters
  • The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries: Frank Hardy & Nancy Drew. Dear GODS, Frank & Nancy. The first time the Hardys & Nancy Drew met, Nancy throws Frank to the floor. All episodes featuring the trio inevitably have Nancy & Frank getting seriously on each others' nerves — until they finally share a kiss at the end of "Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom".

Nancy: ARGH!!! Frank Hardy is the most exasperating...annoying...frustrating...
Bess: ...cute.
Nancy: NO! (pause) Well, maybe a little...

Myka: What is it with you two?
Pete: Man, I hate her!
Myka: Right...

  • Michael Westen and Fiona Glenanne of Burn Notice. Starts out as Working with the Ex, goes through full-blown Destructo-Nookie, into Battle Couple, and ends Season 4 with Fi's non-fatal Heroic Sacrifice to keep Michael from becoming what he hates just to save her.
  • Jon and Ygritte in Game of Thrones. Aside from the fact that he's on the Night's Watch and sworn to defend the rest of Westeros from Wildlings like her, he's also sworn a vow of celibacy - something she doesn't hesitate to needle him on constantly. They're also both fully aware of Jon's unspoken attraction to her, and Ygritte keeps baiting him endlessly.
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