Series three, which returns later this month, similarly picks up seconds after those final moments, then jumps forward two years. There, the pair have had a messy split and are navigating life in each other’s orbits, all while their mutual friends are having weddings and babies.
Watching series three, I find myself fixating on the show’s relationship with “the meet-cute” – that classic romcom device of a dramatic yet adorable first interaction that signals something significant is on the horizon. We live in an age when apps are perceived to have de-romanticised dating, so people seem to ignore problems in their relationships if they happen to meet their partners the old-fashioned way, meaning in person. Tom and Jessie remind me of that. Their story is so good, so romcom-y, that they constantly overlook the fact that they’re just not that compatible.
I say all this to Matafeo; it’s something I’ve often discussed with friends, but rarely seen explored in pop culture. “Oh my God, yeah!” she says, with the enthusiasm that infects most of her answers. “I think that you put on a pedestal these moments of ‘Oh, but it’s so romantic!’ I have sadly – not sadly, maybe soberly – come to realise that romantic love is very, very different to long-lasting relationships.”
Take series three, where the subject of having kids proves to be a sticking point for the couple – one that is passive-aggressively raised by Tom and dismissed by Jessie, who simply doesn’t care enough to discuss it.
Rose Matafeo on Series 3 of Starstruck, Independent UK