Like Brother And Sister / Live-Action TV

• On Angel:
  • Cordelia and Wesley bicker and taunt each other mercilessly, but they are good friends, and are always there to defend each other in times of danger. If it wasn't for the accent difference, they could almost be brother and sister.
  • Cordelia and Angel were also like this for the first two seasons of Angel, which led to some viewers being displeased when their relationship changed to a romantic one from partway through the third.
• Arrow. When Thea Queen makes a drunken pass at Tommy Merlyn, he turns her down because she's like a kid sister to him. Which is just as well given that she's actually his half-sister, a fact only revealed after Tommy's death.
• Babylon 5: Captain John Sheridan and his Number Two, Susan Ivanova, are best friends, confidantes, and comrades-in-arms, and have walked through fire together. There's also not a hint of romantic interest in each other on either side. This is played for pure hilarity when Sheridan has a midnight brainstorm and comes barging into Ivanova's quarters babbling about his brilliant plan, only for Ivanova, who's wearing some fairly skimpy nightclothes, to point out that she might want to go change first. Whereupon:
  Sheridan: Oh, uh, right. Sorry, I hadn't noticed.
  Ivanova: Thanks, I'll just... wait. What do you mean you didn't notice?? What am I, chopped flarn? I mean, okay, granted, I don't have any interest in you, and you don't have any interest in me, but if you're going to come barging in here in the middle of the night, the least you could do is say, 'Nice outfit, Ivanova!' and then go on a tear!
  Sheridan: [utterly flummoxed] Uh... nice outfit, Ivanova!
  Ivanova: [stalks away, muttering] You are such a... [indecipherable grumbling]
• Sheldon and Penny in The Big Bang Theory. In the episode "The Intimacy Acceleration", they conduct an experiment designed to make people fall in love by asking each other a few personal questions. They don't fall in love, but reflect more about their friendship, and they both admit that they look on each other like a brother and a sister. At her wedding with Leonard, he makes a point of telling her that she's extremely important to him.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine:
  • In "Tactical Village", Peralta claims that Amy Santiago is like a sister to him. Boyle isn't convinced, and Peralta later admits he does have feelings for her.
    Boyle: That's what Luke said about Leia.
    Peralta: Hey, Luke didn't know! No one knew!
  • However, Jake Peralta and Gina Linetti are actually this. They grew up together and he got her hired at the Nine-Nine. She even refers to Jake's grandmother as "Nana".
  • He also has this dynamic with Rosa Diaz, whom he met in the police academy and has been tight with ever since. She even describes him as her closest friend in the world. Despite her seeming to be his "type" (a beautiful, deeply competent Latina who could kick his ass), they're very clearly just friends, to the point where she brings him as moral support when she decides to come out to her parents. (When she panics and instead claims that Jake is her boyfriend, the sheer awkwardness and lack of romantic chemistry is very much Played for Laughs.)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Buffy and Xander after Season 2. For the first two seasons it's a bit one-sided (Xander's in love with Buffy during this time).
  • Xander and Willow also end up like this. They start off more like Platonic Life-Partners, but as the series progresses they drift apart a bit, and form close relationships with other people. They remain part of the same group of True Companions.
  • Spike and Dawn had a relationship like this once Dawn got over her Precocious Crush, with Spike developing a fierce protectiveness over the youngest Scooby. Their relationship became strained in Season 7, but picked up again in the comics.
• In Clarissa Explains It All, Clarissa and Sam's relationship is like this. They are very close, to the point that Clarissa just lets him enter her room unannounced through the window using a ladder. They share their feelings and trust each other blindly. They go on a date once, because Sam briefly develops a crush on Clarissa and they decide to try it, but the date turns out to be really awkward and the unpleasant kiss they share is best described by Sam as like kissing his sister if he had one.
• Community: Annie was always friendly with Troy and Abed (and was previously in love with the former and briefly attracted to the latter), but the three of them develop a strong siblinglike relationship after Annie moves in with them in the third season. Instead of romantic tension, Annie instead participates in their shenanigans. After Troy is Put on a Bus Annie and Abed are frequently seen together as close roommates; when the two of them search for a replacement roommate, Annie pitches her brother, saying Abed is like a brother to her already.

• Crashing (UK) uses this as a Zig-Zagging Trope. Childhood Friends Anthony and Lulu swear up and down that they're Like Brother and Sister. They say it so often and so insistently that you might briefly consider the possibility it could be true. But they also flirt with each other constantly. When Lulu tries to get with other guys, Anthony responds like a Crazy Jealous Guy. They go so far as to confess their feelings for each other and then cover it up with "Just Joking" Justification. The other characters treat their relationship as suspect because Everyone Can See It. In order to sooth his concerned girlfriend, Anthony claims: "The idea of having sex with Lulu always has and always will make my penis want to go all the way back up inside. It would be like touching up a monkey I raised myself." At the end of the season, they hook up.
• Most celebrity/pro dancer couples on Dancing with the Stars have been known to become something like this, with Season 21's Bindi Irwin particularly referring to her partner Derek Hough as "the best big brother" (he is thirteen years older than her). Hough reciprocated, as he took a liking to her boyfriend Chandler Powell, keeping an eye on the relationship and reminding Chandler to treat Bindi well. (Bindi and Chandler are now married with a baby, so it seems to have worked out.)
• Doctor Who:
  • Donna and the Doctor, although they were often mistaken as a couple. She was one of the first companions in the revival not to view the Doctor as a romantic interest, and these two characters had a very close platonic friendship.
    • Reinforced even further in "The Giggle" when the Doctor proudly refers to Donna's husband Shaun and daughter Rose as his "brother-in-law" and "favorite niece".
  • "The Vampires of Venice" subverts it: Rory is not happy about having to pose as Amy's brother for a ploy, since he's her fiancé, thank you very much.
• Tom Branson and Mary Crawley (who are in fact siblings-in-law) eventually reach this relationship in Season 6 of Downton Abbey — so much so that they drop the "in-law" part of the equation and simply refer to each other as "my brother" and "my sister".
• The Expanse: Parodied when Jim and Naomi disclose their romantic relationship to the other two members of their crew. Jim was especially worried that Amos, who blindly follows Naomi's every word, might take issue. However, Amos assures him that Naomi is like a sister to him before immediately noting that he'd still have sex with her given the opportunity. Jim just has this brilliant "wtf?" expression on his face.
• Firefly:
  • Mal and Zoe. They appear to have been Platonic Life-Partners until Zoe married Wash, but since Zoe unflinchingly chooses Wash over Mal in War Stories, it's safe to assume that, much like Xander and Willow above, Mal and Zoe's relationship has been demoted. After Wash dies in Serenity, it's quite possible that Zoe and Mal's relationship will return to Platonic Life-Partners status. Though that might have been less Zoe choosing Wash over Mal and more her unflinchingly making a logical decision for the sake of the whole crew: she knew Mal was a lot tougher than Wash and that she could take over his duties if need be, whereas they only had one pilot.
  • Also, Mal and Kaylee, and their actors in real life. Leading to this exchange in the Big Damn Movie (though it's somewhat jarring, as both of them have seen each other naked):
    Kaylee: Goin' on a year now, I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!
    Mal: OH GOD! I CAN'T KNOW THAT!
    Jayne: I could stand to hear a little more.
• Frasier: Frasier Crane and Roz Doyle.
  Roz: You've always been just like a brother to me. Which is weird, I know, because we slept together...
• Friends:
  • Joey and Monica in later seasons. This is mainly because Monica gets together with Chandler, whom Joey considers his "brother", and the trio form a mini-family within the True Companions. Monica feeds Joey for years; they include a "Joey Room" in their new house, and frequently act as his older siblings.
  • To a much lesser degree, Rachel/Chandler and Phoebe/Chandler, though they may be too much of The Friends Who Never Hang to count, though Chandler did walk Phoebe down the aisle at her wedding when she had no other father figures to do it.
  • Phoebe and Joey are a mix of a sibling-like dynamic and Platonic Life-Partners. They are clearly secure enough in their friendship for her to practice kissing him when he's auditioning for a role.
• The bitterness is almost palpable on Game of Thrones when Catelyn states to Ned that Littlefinger is like a brother to her. Ouch!
• Kurt Hummel and Mercedes Jones in Glee. Although the interest in them being a couple is completely gone by Episode 3 when Kurt comes out of the Transparent Closet... they stayed the closest (platonic) friendship in the show for quite a while.
• Grey's Anatomy: For a while this is what Alex and Jo both invoke to describe their feelings towards each other. Yeah, right. As soon as Jason enters the picture, Alex has a Green-Eyed Epiphany, and the burgeoning Unresolved Sexual Tension develops quickly into a full-blown Relationship Upgrade. On the other hand, Alex really does have this kind of relationship with Meredith, especially once they're the only two left of the original five interns.
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: After a brief Ship Tease, Hercules and Xena decide they're Better as Friends and become this.
• How I Met Your Mother:
  • Ted and Lily. Notable in that, since Lily's been Marshall's girlfriend since the day he and Ted became roommates, and Ted and Marshall have been Heterosexual Life-Partners for almost as long, Ted and Lily have been basically brother- and sister-in-law since college. Highlighted when Lily broke up with Marshall and moved away for a time. After their reconciliation, Ted harbored resentment towards Lily for leaving him as well and then assuming her reconciliation with Marshall automatically applied to Ted.
  • Marshall and Robin, in contrast to her Better as Friends with Ted and Will They or Won't They? with Barney. For a bonus, they—like real siblings—have a similar background, both coming from northern, hockey-playing regions (Minnesota and Canada respectively) which allows for shared nostalgia sometimes.
  • Though inappropriate at times with her just to mess with her, Barney and Lily’s relationship is also strictly platonic.
  • From what is seen, Tracy the Mother also developed this relationship with Marshall and Barney.
• In the Hallmark version of Jason and the Argonauts, Atalanta prepares to confess her love to Jason and is overjoyed when he replies that he loves her too... but has a decidedly different reaction when Jason goes on to say that they are this trope (he actually says "you've always been as dear to me as a brother", ouch).
• Kamen Rider Build: Among the heroes' Family of Choice, Sento and Banjo have this dynamic with Misora (in spite of the initial Ship Tease). Both see Misora as the little sister to be teased and protected, while Misora treats them as big brother figures whom she teases and admires, and they are all close enough to be the ones to bring the other back to their senses.
• In the final season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Bobby Goren is seeing a psychologist as a requirement for keeping his job. She inquires into his relationship with his adored partner, Alexandra Eames, and at one point straight-up asks Goren if he's in love with Eames. Goren, flustered, insists that he does love her but that she's like his big sister; it's left ambiguous as to whether he's telling the truth.
• In Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, this is the dynamic that the writers seemed to initially want for Amanda Rollins and Dominick "Sonny" Carisi (once she stops just being plain annoyed with him). Lots of childish bickering, lots of Amanda having to clue Sonny in on how SVU works, etc. However, it gets complicated pretty quickly, as it slowly becomes clear that Carisi has feelings for her, and more complicated as he steps in to be a Parental Substitute for her daughters and it's implied Rollins may reciprocate but Cannot Spit It Out. The show bucks the franchise's usual Platonic Life-Partners dynamic in favor of a more traditional Will They or Won't They? one, starting with Carisi almost confessing his feelings in season 19, and then Amanda nearly blurting hers out in a fight in season 21. They have their Relationship Upgrade in season 22, after Carisi has left SVU for the DA's office, and as of the season 24 fall finale, are happily married.
  • Despite most fans rather pretend them to be a couple, Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler are this trope. The two have a very close friendship, Elliot's family view Olivia as their friend as well, and it was never made a drama that Elliot was spending more time with Olivia than with his own wife. When Elliot left the SVU, Olivia was devastated. When the two meet each other again many years later, Olivia still feels deeply hurt that Elliot disappeared from her life. The show, however, picking up on the shippers' wishes, has retconned much of their partnership to make it an All Love Is Unrequited situation, and arguably bordering on Romantic Plot Tumor by season 24.
  • In one episode involving African refugees, a little girl and a young man have a special bond due to having both survived hell at the hands of militias in their home countries (him as a Child Soldier, her as a sex slave). The man outright refers to the girl as his little sister.
• On Leverage this plays out between Eliot and Parker with Eliot playing the role of a protective big brother. They even manage to have interesting conversations while on the job:
  Parker: What's sexting?
  Eliot: I am not having this conversation with you, Parker.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel and Elrond have a very close platonic bond as friends, having known each other for centuries since Elrond was a young orphan half-elf boy and Galadriel took pity on him and gave him water.
• Two contestants in MasterChef Australia's fourth season, Ben and Emma, have this relationship. Emma regards Ben as her brother and mentor, and broke down when she realized she would have to face him in an elimination challenge. Ben, for his part, was willing to drop out of the competition and let go of his dreams so that Emma could stay.
• Merlin:
  • Guinevere and Merlin become this. They probably have the healthiest relationship on the show, and both were prepared to die for the other within the first four episodes of the show.
  • Arthur and Morgana sort of have this, but it's debatable and their relationship evolves over the series. Considering that Morgana is Arthur's father's ward, she's essentially his foster sister. (Actually, she's his half-sister, so a literal application of this trope, but they don't know that for some time.) Luckily Mordred already exists in Season 1 and is probably about half Arthur's age at that time, so there will be no need for either Morgana or Morgause to seduce Arthur and bear his child for the sake of the plot.
• The Middle:
  • Sue Heck's first boyfriend was Brad Bottig, whom it seemed everyone but her could tell was gay, but romance was never really the nature of their relationship. There was likely a point that her inability to recognize this eventually turned to Selective Obliviousness until the point he was willing to open up about it. He was constantly an ear for her to share any and all guy troubles she had and their friendship continued throughout college as well. It came to the point that he was a way better friend to her than her actual best friend Carly (who pretty much disappeared after Season 6 sans a one-off cameo in a Season 9 episode).
  • People mistakenly thought this was the nature of Sue’s relationship with brother Axl’s best friend Sean Donahue too, but they both have clearly harbored romantic feelings for each other for a long time. The two have both been too uncertain to act on them. That itself has led into an overly long and exhausting storyline about it.
• A Million Little Things: Gary Mendez and Delilah Dixon clearly have a very close personal relationship that is not of a romantic nature.
• Mouse (2021): Ba-reum tells Bong-yi he sees her a little sister when she asks if he wants to marry her.
• My Roommate is a Gumiho: Woo-yeo and Hye-sun. They've been friends for centuries as fellow gumiho, and maintain it even if Hye-sun is now human. She looks out for both him and Dam and is never a romantic rival, even falling in love with Dam's friend.
• On NCIS, Ziva tells Ray that Tony and she are like brother and sister. He's visibly stunned (put them together for five minutes and it's kind of obvious this isn't true).
  • She and Mcgee do rather fit this trope though.
• Jess and Schmidt from New Girl. The prospect of them hooking up has become an object of shame and disgust to them and everyone who knows them. Also, Winston and Cece eventually develop into this, with their "classic Winston and Cece mess-arounds" and Winston agreeing to be one of Cece's bridesmaids at her wedding to Schmidt.
• No Tomorrow: Hank and his internet girlfriend turn out to be this way in person. They decide to be friends instead.
• Once Upon a Time: Red and Charming, particularly during Season 2, where she's his Lancer and Consigliere. It probably helps that she's his wife's best friend.
• Luke and Rani on The Sarah Jane Adventures are, of course, very close friends, but there's not a hint of attraction from either side between them. Also, Luke is still pining after Maria and Rani has rather intense Unresolved Sexual Tension with Clyde. Which, unfortunately, ends up being literally unresolved after Elisabeth Sladen died and the show was shelved.
• Schitt's Creek: Stevie and David. They had a brief romance and have become best friends, and she plays matchmaker with him and Patrick. She also becomes close to the rest of David's family, including his father, who sometimes includes her when referring to his kids. Patrick even goes so far as to ask her blessing when he's going to propose to David.
• Elaine and Jerry from Seinfeld. They tried dating, but it didn't work out. The show teases them once or twice, but they're mostly just best friends.
• Invoked and averted in episode of Selfie, with the UST-laden relationship of Eliza and Henry. Eliza asks Henry to go out to get a drink (planning on setting him up with someone else) and coworker Larry says she wants Henry. Henry says they're like brother and sister, then he realizes that isn't true and says they're "like cousins." While Eliza and Henry have a close, supportive friendship like brothers and sisters, they also have sexual chemistry, unlike brothers and sisters (most of them).
• Sherlock: Sherlock and Mary end up as this; since her relationship with John is very important to her, and she doesn't want to lose him, she helps Sherlock and John with their relationship since she knows that Sherlock's important to John and that John's important to Sherlock.
• Chloe and Clark in Smallville, from around Season 5. Chloe used to harbor a childhood crush on Clark, but she grows out of it as she gets older.
• C.J. and Toby on The West Wing are this, rather blatantly, since they're in a group of True Companions which is closely modeled on a nuclear family. How they actually got to be friends (years before the show started) is frustratingly never mentioned, just like Josh and Sam, or Jed and Leo.
  • Jed Bartlet and his long-time secretary Mrs. Landingham frequently acted this way. Dolores was often the only person, aside from his wife, that could talk back to Jed without him getting angry. In their case, how they met is eventually revealed via a flashback and it confirms that Dolores effectively declared Jed her younger brother.
    Jed: Why do you talk to me this way?
    Mrs. Landingham: Because you never had a big sister and you need one.
• Conversed for laughs in Wizards of Waverly Place to clean up the residue from Jalex Ship Tease inserted into the scene. Alex and Justin have popped themselves into a movie. Their parents overhear a conversation about the two new characters:
  "... they have such chemistry."
  [Laugh Track]
  "It's like they grew up together."