Nancy Guthrie
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Published
February 21, 2026
1:01 PM PST
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Updated
February 21, 2026
1:45 PM PST

This month, love is in the air — especially on the new Ryan Murphy series, Love Story.

This new anthology is part of Murphy’s ongoing American Story franchise and centers around real-life love stories, with its first season following the passionate romance and tragic demise of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette.

But that got us thinking: if Love Story gets subsequent seasons, what real lovers should Murphy focus on next?

Thankfully, Watch With Us is here to help, and we give away ideas for free. These are our four picks for the real romances we’d like to see told on Love Story.

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Ben Affleck is no stranger to a high-profile romance — but not all of them have ended happily ever after. Over the years, the Justice League actor has proven that he can still be on good terms with an ex despite breaking up. In a February 2020 New York Times profile, he showed his support […]

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

I mean, duh. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez‘s decades-long, on-and-off love story did get somewhat of a film adaptation in Lopez’s bewildering autobiographical feature This Is Me … Now. However, we feel like Murphy should take a crack at it, from writers and creatives who are a bit more removed from the emotions of it all.

Lopez and Affleck are truly fascinating: their time together began when they dated for a couple of years after filming the disastrous Gigli, then endured once more in a happily-ever-after, true-love-never-dies sort of way with a marriage in 2022. Then, three years later…it was over again. Still, Lopez and Affleck can’t seem to stay out of headlines together, even as he bounces between her and ex-wife Jennifer Garner. Affleck’s sheer commitment to juggling two beautiful women named Jennifer is weirdly endearing, and we’d like to see it in series format.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

This one is sort of a gimme, but it’s somewhat shocking that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s chaotic love story has yet to receive the narrative treatment. The coupling of the British royal and the Suits actress was highly controversial in England, especially by the British press and royal inner circle, who disapproved of Meghan’s less aristocratic background.

While the couple did get to bare all in the 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, it would be interesting to see their story in a way that doesn’t scream so much “direct brand management.” Let’s see all the ugly details, and you know that Ryan Murphy isn’t shy about showing some ugliness.

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart

We’d be remiss if we didn’t include one Old Hollywood love story, because those guys were getting shacked up with one another and cheating on each other all over the place. But Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were perhaps the quintessential Old Hollywood couple, having met on the set of the 1945 film To Have and Have Not, where they displayed sexual and romantic chemistry unlike anything before.

On that set, old Bogie fell for the dashing Bacall — who was a whopping 25 years his junior — while still married to his third wife. Bogart and Bacall starred in several movies together, such as The Big Sleep, and they remained with each other until Bogart died in 1957. Their romance has since been lionized in countless interviews with Bacall before she passed away in 2014, so why not devote a serial dramatization depicting their love story?

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Here’s a famous romantic couple that was passionate, caused the most legendary band of all time to break up and ended in senseless tragedy; it’s bewildering that they still haven’t gotten a major series or film drama treatment. (Maybe that will change with Sam Mendes‘ The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event starring Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono?)

Ryan Murphy is a master at peddling in gaudy sensationalism, and it feels like narrativizing the story of Lennon and Yoko Ono would be right up his wheelhouse. Maybe it would be good, maybe it would be horrifically bad — who knows. We just wanna see what happens if and when he tries. But please, Ryan, don’t cast your perpetual male muse Evan Peters as John!

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Gabourey Sidibe fans are reeling after news surfaced that her husband, Brandon Frankel, was diagnosed with cancer. The couple, who recently welcomed twins, have been sharing glimpses of their journey. Sidibe has seemingly been showing unwavering support as Frankel undergoes recovery. Social media has quickly filled with supporters sending love as the family faces a frightening diagnosis.

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Frankel Shares Hospital Selfies And Early Detection Story

On Friday, Gabourey Frankel opened up on Instagram about being diagnosed with Stage I Papillary Thyroid cancer following surgery to remove the tumor. The father of twins, who shared selfies from his hospital bed alongside Sidibe, explained that doctors caught the cancer early — but only because he refused to be dismissed.

“I refused to ‘wait and see,’” he wrote. Frankel added, “I made the calls [and] leveraged connections. I chased cancellations [and] made a LOT of noise. It worked.”

The surgery went well, and while the pathology showed a more aggressive cell type, Frankel is already focusing on recovery and being present for his family.

Instagram Explodes With Support For Gabourey Sidibe And Family

Fans ran straight to Brandon Frankel’s Instagram comment section to pour out love and support, flooding it with messages of encouragement. Some celebrated that his cancer was caught early. Meanwhile, others shared heartfelt prayers and heart emojis, showing solidarity with Gabourey Sidibe and her family. And, of course, many echoed his message about advocating for your health and never taking access or early detection for granted.

One Instagram user @kenishiarashauna said, “I’m so happy you are okay for yourself and your family!“

This Instagram user @cpdiva69 added, “Soooo glad that you advocated for yourself and for sharing this with the rest of us!!!!!“

And, Instagram user @seananthonybaker commented, “🙏🏿🙏🏿💪🏿💪🏿 complete healing & restoration. 🙏🏿”

Meanwhile, Instagram user @baobanger shared, “Omggggg glad that you are alright! ❤️❤️❤️❤️”

While Instagram user @karina.aguiar29 said, “Sending my best wishes to you Brandon ❤️❤️ wish you all the best“

Finally, Instagram user @tarra71 wrote, “Prayers for a speedy recovery and total healing 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽”

What Else Has Brandon Frankel Shared?

The couple, who married in 2021 and welcomed twins Cooper and Maya in April 2024, have been leaning on each other through the process. Frankel emphasized the critical role Gabourey Sidibe played, calling her the backbone of their family during his appointments, surgery, and recovery.

“I don’t know how anyone does this without that kind of love and support,” he wrote, crediting Gabourey Sidibe for holding everything down while he navigated the medical system.

Frankel’s post didn’t just share his personal journey — it was also a critique of the healthcare system. He pointed out that early detection saved his life, but only because he had insurance, access, and people to help move things faster.

“Healthcare shouldn’t reward the loudest, the most connected, or the most financially secure,” he wrote.

He urged his followers to advocate for themselves and be proactive. His message landed hard: luck and means shouldn’t be the difference between life and death.

RELATED: Love To See It! Gabourey Sidibe’s Husband Has Been Praising Her For Their Twins Nonstop (Photos)

Not all masterpieces are created equal. For every classic movie that you can watch over and over again, there’s one that you’ll watch once and never again. Whether it’s because of their subject matter or the presentation of it, these masterpieces can be exercises in endurance that test your emotions.

Real-life and fictional tragedies, traumas and acts of violence are all perpetrated in these masterpieces. While many of them may be far less explicit than the average action or horror film, the ways in which the filmmakers are able to depict the unsettling material will rattle and remain with you far longer. If you haven’t seen any of these ten masterpieces, you should, but one time will be more than enough.

‘The Virgin Spring’ (1960)

Image via Janus Films

Ingmar Bergman‘s infamous, Oscar-winning rape-and-revenge drama The Virgin Spring famously inspired the horror film The Last House on the Left. While that Wes Craven-directed piece of pure exploitation may actually be harder to watch than Bergman’s film, there’s something about the elevated filmmaking of The Virgin Spring that makes it all the more unsettling in the long-term. It’s an arthouse film, not something designed to shock and appall, but rather be studied and examined, and the closer you examine it, the sicker you’re likely to feel.

Set in medieval Sweden and based on a 13th-century ballad, the film follows a young woman who is sexually assaulted and murdered, with her assailants later unknowingly taking shelter at her parents’ home. This act of horrific violence begets violent retribution from the parents, and the film leaves you feeling empty at the futility of what has been accomplished by its end. The fact that it is all so stunningly acted and vividly photographed, by Bergman’s long-time collaborator Sven Nykvist, never once makes it any more palatable or less harrowing. The Virgin Spring inflicts itself on you, and it is hard to wash away.

‘Come and See’ (1985)

Image via Sovexportfilm

The anti-war masterpiece Come and See is as effective a representation of the brutality and damage wrought by armed conflict as has ever been made. While some war films may downplay the visceral levels of carnage, Come and See puts it on full display and never flinches away from it. War is hell, and the movie wants you to know it, no matter how hard it might be to watch.

It is set during World War II and told from a Soviet perspective, as a young Belarusian boy joins a resistance movement and bears witness to the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the reciprocal violence it inspires. The final film by director Elem Klimov, Come and See finds no excitement or tension to be mined from depicting war, and instead offers only devastation and despair.

‘Grave of the Fireflies’ (1988)

Image via Studio Ghibli

Grave of the Fireflies is another harrowing WWII film, but one whose tragedy unfolds in a more quiet and more sorrowful manner in comparison to the shocking violence of Come and See. An animated film produced by Studio Ghibli, it relates the civilian cost of war from the perspective of two young siblings in Japan, and if you understand the nature of this list, you know nothing good awaits them.

After the American bombing of Kobe, brother and sister Seita and Setsuko find themselves in dire straits after the death of their mother. Left without food or shelter, their struggle to survive is reflective of the realities faced by many civilians in war-torn countries, a subject not often reflected in film, especially from Western cinema. Grave of the Fireflies is heartbreaking, and its ghosts will haunt you with phantom emotions long after.

‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)

Image via Universal Pictures

One last wartime drama that few will find themselves rewatching, Steven Spielberg‘s Schindler’s List, is one of the filmmaker’s greatest achievements as a director, and undoubtedly his most harrowing to watch. The Holocaust is a subject that few filmmakers dared to touch before this film, and many that did after fell prey to emotional manipulation bordering on exploitation. Spielberg’s film avoids those pitfalls, and while it may certainly massage the truth behind its real-life story, it is an undeniably empathetic masterpiece.

Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi party and a wealthy industrialist who would save the lives of over 1,000 Jewish citizens by employing them in his factory. He would eventually go bankrupt as a result of his humanitarian cause, and later became immortalized in Spielberg’s film, which was based on the novel Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally. The film is as technically impressive as any of Spielberg’s work, but here the director uses his keen eye for visual storytelling for greater emotional purpose in chronicling the true horrors of the Holocaust, making it vivid in a way no textbook could. Schindler’s List feels even more urgent in this modern era of denialism.

‘Happiness’ (1998)

Image via Good Machine

Todd Solondz has never been a filmmaker to shy away from audacious or awkward material, and his black comedy masterpiece Happiness has both in full supply. An ensemble film following three separate narratives, the film is alternatively cringey, uncomfortable, and downright horrifying, shining a light on subject matter that many filmmakers wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.

Following the lives of three sisters and the issues they separately face, the film deals with sexuality, harassment, assault and, most infamously, pedophilia. It is that latter subject, handled in such a casual yet upsetting manner, that makes Happiness such a discomforting watch. Despite the film’s deft ability to mix harsh humor amid its mortifying storylines, it cannot lessen the impact with which it will make you squirm in your seat, itching for relief.

‘Mysterious Skin’ (2004)

Image via TLA Releasing

Gregg Araki‘s Mysterious Skin, adapted from the novel by Scott Heim, also deals with the sexual abuse of children, however, in a manner and tone vastly different from Happiness. The film has been lauded for its portrayal of how this form of violent trauma can have long-lasting psychological effects. While the filmmakers took great pains in depicting the most horrific actions in a way that suggests far more than it explicitly shows, the film is still uncompromising and emotionally devastating.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and future Oscar-nominated director Brady Corbet play two young adults whose shared experience of abuse as children has deeply affected both their lives in different ways. One of them engages in unhealthy sexual experiences, while the other has completely repressed his memory of the event. Through their parallel journeys, Mysterious Skin examines the reverberating effects of trauma, and while it manages to find traces of hope within its narrative, it never negates the tragedy that underlines it.

‘United 93’ (2006)

Image via Universal Pictures

Paul Greengrass‘ visceral film depicting the events that took place on the ill-fated flight United 93 on 9/11 was a painful viewing experience when it was released in 2006, only five years removed from the tragic events, and it hasn’t lost any of its potency since. Far from an exploitative or glossy Hollywood bastardization, the film is both a tense thriller and a queasily realistic recreation that honors the lives lost on one of the most infamous days in American history.

Using the same cinema vérité style that Greengrass had honed on his previous films Bloody Sunday and The Bourne Supremacy, the film juggles multiple characters and locations as it details the events leading up to the hijacking of the titular flight. Eventually, it focuses solely on the efforts of those heroic passengers onboard who fought back against their hijackers, depicting it with brutal authenticity without any hint of bombastic embellishment. United 93 is a white-knuckle thriller that drops into the pit of your stomach and makes you never want to experience its thrills again.

‘Incendies’ (2010)

Image via Entertainment One

Before he became synonymous with sci-fi epics, Denis Villeneuve directed some incredibly provocative and disturbing films, none more so than his gutwrenching masterpiece Incendies. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad‘s play of the same name, the plot was inspired by real events that occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, and as such is unflinching in its depiction of atrocities committed by extremists. While the turns in the narrative are something akin to a Greek tragedy, the content is horrifically historically relevant.

Structured as a mystery, the film follows a twin brother and sister as they attempt to find a previously unknown sibling to honor the wishes of their deceased mother. Concurrently, the film details the mother’s harrowing experiences of torture and assault while a prisoner of war. The film’s notorious plot twist could easily have come off as cheap shock value in less skilled hands, but under Villeneuve’s direction, it is a shattering emotional climax that is impossible to forget.

‘The Act of Killing’ (2012)

Many documentaries manage to capture the horrific realities of all manner of subjects with an urgency that is often unattainable in narrative films. Films like Shoah or The Thin Blue Line expose ugly truths with words straight from the mouths of those who lived through the events. Joshua Oppenheimer‘s singularly affecting film The Act of Killing is even more unsettling for how it lets those who committed atrocities speak for themselves, and even recreate the acts themselves.

Filmed in Medan, North Sumatra, the documentary details the mass killings that took place in Indonesia between 1965 and 1966 as part of the country’s transition to the New Order. More than just a series of talking heads recounting the killings, the film instead has the perpetrators reenact their murders, confronting them with the violence and exposing their impunity. It is an extremely difficult film to watch, cataloging now the actual events but instead interrogating the acts of killing and the banality of the evil behind them.

‘Mass’ (2021)

Image via Bleecker Street

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It is both upsetting and completely understandable that Fran Kranz‘s impeccably written and acted masterpiece Mass has gone so underseen. In dealing with the subject of school shootings, the film dives headfirst into a subject that has torn the fabric of American society and inspired virulent debate. Though the film does not directly depict any of the violence that its characters seek to understand, unlike Gus Van Sant‘s equally damaging Elephant, it studies the pain and grief that result from it in distressing detail.

Reed Birney and Ann Dowd play the parents of a school shooter, while Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton play the parents of one of his victims. They all come together to discuss the tragedy, trying to find understanding years after the senseless violence. The film interrogates many of the discussion points that have become common refrains in the wake of such real-life tragedies, but never once does it become a didactic or tedious lecture. It treats its characters and subject matter with ultimate empathy, which makes it necessary viewing that many will find unnecessary to repeat.

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Mass

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Release Date

October 8, 2021

Runtime

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111 minutes

Director

Fran Kranz

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Premiering in 1999, The Sopranos quickly cemented itself as one of the most influential dramas ever made. Although every character was great, Adriana Le Cirva (Drea de Matteo) was a personal favorite, being the closest thing to a wholesome person this world had. This made her death all the more devastating, and it was just as difficult for the crew to say goodbye to one of their greatest leads, who gave everything she had during her final scene. Even by the standards of a show known to push boundaries, her death stands out as an emotional and tragic demise for a truly lovable character, one whose horrific fate hammers home just how terrifying a life of crime can be for everyone even remotely involved.

Few Characters Were More Innocent on ‘The Sopranos’ Than Adriana

In any kind of story with morally gray characters, you need a genuinely good and idealistic person to balance things, and no one did this in The Sopranos better than Adriana. While not blind to the criminal lifestyle of her partner, she was hardly involved in the mob life, and there was an innocence to her that not even the literal children like Meadow (Jaime Lynn-Sigler) or AJ (Robert Iller) possessed. Yet, she could also be incredibly naive, and in a violent show like this one, the more intimate abuse Adriana suffered made me constantly fear for her safety. As the walls started to close in, I knew a confession and confrontation between Adriana and Christopher (Michael Imperioli) was likely inevitable. Still, I was left terrified at how it would unfold.

Their emotional final scene together, for which both actors won an Emmy, was just as heartbreaking as I had initially feared, but the writers also made an important decision afterward, which worked to great dramatic effect. By not showing the conflict Christopher faces, instead saving his discussion with Tony (James Gandolfini) for a future flashback, it makes the phone call and his claimed suicide believable. Of course, this is a mob show where anybody could be killed, but just like Adriana herself, I’d held out hope that she would get away from it and live a happy life. The episode even plays with this idea by showing a brief dream sequence where she escapes before cutting to the shot of her in the car with Silvio (Steven Van Zandt), at which point her destination becomes clear to both herself and the audience.

Killing Adriana Was Hard on Everyone

Image via Max

In the deadly world of The Sopranos, dark moments are to be expected, but that does not mean they will be easy to stomach. Nobody was left quite as heartbroken to lose Adriana as series creator David Chase, who broke his one rule by having the scene pan away just as the fatal shots were fired. Recently, Drea de Maetto revealed in the documentary Wise Guy that another version of the scene where Adriana escapes was filmed to avoid leaks.

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But she quickly deduced that her time on the show was probably nearing its end. Still, once her last day finally arrived, the actress was ready, and she openly encouraged Steven van Zandt to drop all restraint and deliver the most devastating hit in the series. For many viewers, myself included, not seeing her final moments is a relief, but this emotional farewell by the cast and crew strongly contrasts with their characters. Within a few episodes of her death, Adriana is reduced to a historical footnote, and her own partner, who sacrificed so much for the mob, is later killed anyway for being a liability.

The Execution of Adriana Shows the Darker Side of ‘The Sopranos’

Image via HBO

At first glance, one might wonder why the death of Adriana hits so hard in The Sopranos, especially since it was building for an entire season, and she was far from the first character to get whacked. What makes her demise so much more devastating is just how much hope had been invested in such a tragic character. Unlike either Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore) early on or Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi) later in the same season, there is no honorable last drink with friends or a quick mercy killing. Rather, it’s just a woman realizing the true nature of her lover and the mob he serves in all its horrifying clarity, just as it becomes too late to change anything.

While I’ve always loved mob stories, scenes like this serve to remind us just how terrifying a criminal lifestyle feels in reality. By the end of the series, almost every character is either dead, imprisoned, or left under witness protection and forever looking over their shoulder. Gangster films like The Godfather or Goodfellas might make the mob life seem worth all the trouble it brings, but The Sopranos was made long after the golden age of the mob had ended and had become almost irrelevant. Therefore, such a warning about the show holds up even more today, a full generation after it first aired.

The Sopranos is available to stream on HBO Max in the U.S.

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Release Date

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1999 – 2007

Network

HBO

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Showrunner

David Chase

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Directors

Tim Van Patten, John Patterson, Alan Taylor, Jack Bender, Steve Buscemi, Daniel Attias, David Chase, Andy Wolk, Danny Leiner, David Nutter, James Hayman, Lee Tamahori, Lorraine Senna, Matthew Penn, Mike Figgis, Nick Gomez, Peter Bogdanovich, Phil Abraham, Rodrigo García

Writers

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Michael Imperioli, Jason Cahill, Lawrence Konner, David Flebotte, James Manos, Jr., Salvatore Stabile, Toni Kalem, Mark Saraceni, Nick Santora

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