I Graded The Best (And Worst) TV Text Conversations From The Last Decade
Texting. It's no longer revolutionary to see onscreen, thanks to early trailblazers like BBC's Sherlock and the CW's Gossip Girl. For most of us, it's the default way to shoot off a quick thought or conduct a deeply intimate conversation alike. And yet, it can sometimes feel like TV shows will just never get the nuances of modern-day texting quite right. Tropes like the "bamboozled Boomer" or the "blasé Gen Z keyboard warrior" fail to capture the multilayered, often weird role digital communication plays in all of our lives.
Or, maybe it's just that we can't get used to our fictional characters carrying fictional conversations that we aren't privy to, little screens inside our slightly larger ones. But text messages can be a visually striking as well as emotionally productive method of making a modern-day viewer feel what you want them to feel — and know what you want them to know.
Here are some memorable texting moments on television from the last decade or so, scored by their effectiveness as an actual message and as a plot device.
1.The Bear (Season 1): Carmy and Sydney make up
Realism: 9/10. The lone question marks, the lack of punctuation, the inexplicable extra spaces after "No acid," the brazen, tender assholery...this is exactly how a tortured chef f-boy and his protege would text in 2022. But the real question is: Why don't either of them have cases on their phones? It seems like a catastrophic accident waiting to happen.
Effectiveness: 10/10. Not only do their texting styles illustrate their characters' personalities (Sydney's matter-of-fact sarcasm juxtaposed against Carmy's botched attempt at emotional intimacy), but it's a great lead-up to one of the best endings to a TV season I've seen. It's a relief to see some sort of resolution after the previous episode's clusterfuck of chaos, and the scene where Sydney steps back into the kitchen is one for the history books.
My overall rating: This gets a 10/10, resounding "We accept that you're a prisoner to your demons" from me. Is Carmy negging Sydney slightly by couching his apology with a critique? Possibly. But do we accept that this is a launching pad for his character growth for a very, very anticipated Season 2? Absolutely, yes chef.
Watch The Bear on Hulu.
2.Killing Eve (Season 2): Villanelle teases Eve
Realism: 7/10. It's not that a psychopathic serial killer wouldn't text like this in real life, it's more that no one is operating with the same off-the-cuff digital messaging genius as Villanelle — there are just too many layers of digital irony to unpack.
Effectiveness: 10/10. At this point in Season 2, Eve is just on the eve (haha) of accepting that she's just as unhinged as Villanelle. But before that, she has to hit her absolute lowest point — which includes Villanelle teasing her over text about her terrifying descent.
My overall rating: This gets a 10/10 for style alone. Villanelle's creative use of emoji, the effortlessly European "Vx," and the cheekiness of it all. It's almost like she's texting as a Gen Z-er who texts like a millennial because it's funny — a testament to her high IQ and status as an icon.
Watch Killing Eve on Hulu.
3.And Just Like That... (Season 1): Carrie texts ghost Samantha after spreading Big's ashes
Realism: 4/10. Samantha's one-word answers and unavailability in past texts makes sense for a woman who's probably as busy as she is, now that she's moved onto bigger and better things (and away from Carrie's BS). Also, incredibly realistic that Carrie goes to Samantha's contact page to text her instead of, I don't know, doing something normal. But where Darren Star loses points is the fact that we, the audience, know Samantha will never appear on the show. So, what's the point of having Carrie care more about texting her friend than mourning the death of her husband?
Effectiveness: 5/10. It's a touching moment between estranged friends, but the real-life drama behind Samantha's disappearance from the show makes the whole plot device of Samantha being the "text friend" feel hollow. Not to mention it's toward the end of the finale, so the emotional resolve of the entire season hinges on this somewhat ridiculous exchange.
My overall rating: 4/10. Carrie gets some props for being inadvertently hilarious (again, she's just spread her husband's ashes).
Watch And Like Just That... on HBO Max.
4.Succession (Season 3): Roman sends his dad a dick pic
Realism: 9/10. The expression on Logan's face as he receives what can only be his son's "ricotta dick" is priceless — it's like he can't fathom why someone would do something like that, as evidenced by his bewildered, "Are you a sicko?" in the confrontation that follows. Roman's ridiculous reaction to his mistake gets absolutely no notes. It's perfect in every way.
Effectiveness: 9/10. The way Roman tries to save face afterwards is peak comedy. But this not-so-harmless display of...toxic masculinity? Severe mommy issues? Weird power fetishes? Actually sets off an intricate chain of political consequences, as does everything in the show, threatening Logan's confidence in him and his potential standing in the company.
My overall rating: 10/10. In addition to being a laugh-out-loud moment, we also got a great meme out of it, the influence of which remains pretty strong in Twitter replies.
Watch Succession on HBO Max.
5.Conversations with Friends: Nick sends Frances a Joanna Newsom song
Realism: 3/10. While I know Nick's character is meant to be mysterious and aloof, I just can't imagine a well-adjusted person in their 30s texting like this. No punctuation or emoji. No sarcasm, humor, or emotional indicators to be found. Just text, floating in plain space. Hopefully, the only reason Nick had to resort to sending an audio-only Youtube video is because Joanna Newsom's music is not available on Spotify.
Effectiveness: 0/10. It's confoundingly awkward, with no discernible service to the plot. It doesn't help us understand the characters, least of all Frances, for whom it appears to strike a sad chord. But, like many things about Frances, we can't understand why she feels the way she feels, and the moment feels devoid of any real emotion except our frustration.
My overall rating: 1/10. Everybody in this show texts like they're dying, and it genuinely took me out of the story.
Watch Conversations with Friends on Hulu.
6.I May Destroy You: Arabella texts Biagio after being "stealthed" by Zain
Realism: 10/10. It's uncomfortably raw in the way that makes this show outstanding. Like, what else are you going to text your Italian drug-dealer kind-of boyfriend? Her and Biagio's relationship is impossible to forget. It's not forced or fake — it's the text that pretty much sums up the essence of their (and every) situationship, and her turmoil is masked in the innocent flirtiness of it all. And the smiley with the nose? Ugh, she's really in pain.
Effectiveness: 10/10. Michaela Coel gets everything about Gen Z right, from our posturing on social media to the unabashed emotional manipulation, even in private text conversations. Just like every other virtual interaction in the show, it illustrates how hollow the digital realm can make us, especially seeing as she's just had sex (nonconsensually, as it's later revealed he removed the condom without her knowledge) with someone else, and Biagio is the first thing on her mind. It's ill-advised, but somehow therapeutic at the same time — Coel has built Arabella up as such a full-fledged person with her own unique relationship to sex and technology that we can all relate to the utter toxicity of the situation.
My overall rating: 10/10. Makes me want to watch this show for the first time again.
Watch I May Destroy You on HBO Max.
7.Sex Education (Season 1): Everyone sees Ruby's vagina
Realism: 3/10. The text itself needs investigating. In fact, we don't even really know it's a text — only that it goes out to the whole school. On closer look, it looks like it could be...an Evite? Images in text don't pulsate like this one does, and the animation of the text is not something that exists in our world of texting. Not only would the sender have to edit, resize, and caption the vagina, but also animate it, most likely through a third-party app, and send out the edited image. High schoolers do not do this. (Or do they?)
Effectiveness: 8/10. Dubious realism aside, Sex Education manages to create an incredibly empowering moment that connects all the characters, and teaches its audiences an important message about slut-shaming and solidarity.
My overall rating: 8/10. Creating wholesome, educational moments about sexual topics is pretty much what the show does best, and I love how they chose to tackle this very modern-day issue.
Watch Sex Education on Netflix.
8.Russian Doll (Season 1): Nadia texts her ex back
Realism: 8/10. Nadia's raunchy GIF here was animated for the show's purposes, so it's a little hard to see her going into her GIF keyboard on a hungover morning and firing it off. I like imagining that such a lewd, yet funny scene wouldn't be available on the default phone settings, so she may have downloaded this GIF especially for occasions like this or even made it herself, which would be spot-on for her code-obsessed character.
Effectiveness: 8/10. Nadia's nonchalant detachment from almost everybody, most of all her romantic partners, is reflected in her texting style and the way in which she does choose to engage, in this case with rudeness. I love how they ditched the text bubbles and matched the sparse, darker mood of the show. Nadia would hate text bubbles!
My overall rating: 10/10. I love when quick-fire moments like these are executed perfectly and glide seamlessly with the plot and character.
Watch Russian Doll on Netflix.
9.Silicon Valley (Season 6): Monica texts Richard...or does she?
Realism: ?/10. In the series finale, Monica gives Richard a framed text from the beginning of the deal that could finally launch Pied Piper to the public and make them all billionaires. But Richard notices that there are only three dots when he originally sent four, which means his compression software has become powerful enough to bypass all encryption and essentially destroy all of society, sending the gang on a wild goose chase to destroy Pied Piper before it launches. Is this possible? I sure as heck don't know. What's especially terrifying, though, is the fact that the show is known to dig deep when it comes to research. And so far, in all the coverage of the show I've seen, no one has definitively said that this couldn't happen in real life.
Effectiveness: 10/10. Series finales can sometimes bite off way more than they can chew, but this 47-minute-long episode, kicked off by this text, just about pulls it off. And it contains everything that makes the show great: intense moral conundrums, a frenetic Richard losing his grip, plenty of biting one-liners from Gilfoyle, and, of course, sabotage.
My overall rating: 10/10. It's a great, if not superbly pessimistic, ending to one of the sharpest scripted shows on TV, and I'm not sure it could have ended any other way, considering that it constantly draws scary parallels to real-life developments in tech.
Watch Silicon Valley on HBO Max.
10.Veep (Season 6): Selina finds out Andrew's cheating on her via text-to-voice
Realism: 10/10. Despite their political acumen, Selina and her accomplices are all, at the end of the day, a bunch of Boomers. So it's only natural that the entire (vice) presidential party is exposed to Andrew's affair with Selina's portraitist via his inability to figure out voice-to-text. Why would anybody ever want their texts read aloud? We'll never know, but Selina's slimy ex-husband gets what's coming to him here, and it's gratifying and hilarious.
Effectiveness: 10/10. It's peak Veep: lascivious, over-the-top, and just plain gross. It comes at a pivotal moment in the show — Selina is on the cusp of receiving her own commemorative library, and of course, her cheating ex mucks it all up for her by way of the ensuing #MeToo-style political scandal that follows the portrait artist's firing.
My overall rating: 10/10. If not just for Sam Richardson's perfect delivery of the line, "That was a long one. She must be at a light."
Watch Veep on HBO Max.
11.The Sex Lives of College Girls (Season 1): awkward Parent's Weekend dinner
Realism: 7/10. Although I'm doubtful four college freshmen would be close enough at this point in the year to accuse each other's parents of incestuous tendencies, it's impossible to say. Group chats are an absolutely lawless place.
Effectiveness: 9/10. I loved this episode because it features a perspective that's rare when it comes to depictions of college life: low-income students. Kimberly's poorer background is thrown into sharp relief at this fancy dinner with everyone's parents, and while the adults squabble, the girls can see what's going on beneath the surface (literally as well as figuratively, since they're texting under the table) and work to support each other.
My overall rating: 9/10. It wouldn't be a Mindy Kaling production without the protagonist's staunch, unabashed horniness leading things along. Bela's brashness adds some trademark humor to the situation, as does Leighton's ability to poke fun at her own family.
Watch The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max.
12.Broad City (Season 4): Abbi gets a text from her boss while on shrooms
Realism: 5/10. Having never been on mushrooms, I cannot attest to whether or not my world would turn into a colorful, animated wonderland in which a text from my boss, played by Wanda Sykes, would look and feel ("Reality... permeating......") like my face melting off into a series of calendar pages.
Effectiveness: 10/10. Everybody loves an animated episode, and this one, illustrated by Mike Perry (who also does the iconic intro!), is especially wonderful. Glazer and Jacobson take a couple of creative risks with form in the show's penultimate season that, in my opinion, may or may not have changed television forever. In true Broad City fashion, a text from Abbi's boss sets off a series of bad trip events for the girls, including but not limited to: a ruined threesome (Ilana's worst nightmare in this world) and a cat murder.
My overall rating: 10/10. No episode or moment of this show will ever hear a bad word from me, especially when it's as whimsical, beautiful, and full of nudity as this one. 10 out of 10, would trip again.
Watch Broad City on Hulu.
13.Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Season 1): Rebecca accidentally texts Josh
Realism: 4/10. I understand it's for comic effect and visibility, but it's just a fact that no one, not even the most out-of-touch millennial, uses emojis like this. Nor do they text confessions to their friends in the style of long-winded exposition. But in a way, maybe it shows Rebecca's true unhinged nature.
Effectiveness: 8/10. Not only does this mix-up give way to a scheme to delete the text from Josh's phone before he notices, but two musical numbers, "Textmergency" (which is self-explanatory) and "You Stupid Bitch" (because even though she manages to save the text from Josh's eyes, everything undoubtedly goes wrong).
My overall rating: 6/10. This episode aired in 2016, which is a little old for our purposes, but still new enough to know slightly better than to include a ghost of Steve Jobs to deliver a rather heavy-handed message about technology ruining our lives.
Watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Netflix.
14.Atlanta (Season 2): Al checks up on Darius at Teddy Perkins' house
Realism: 9/10. Donald Glover's experimental masterpiece of a show is perhaps best known for seamlessly weaving the hyper-real with the surreal. And the text shot itself is among the most realistic I've seen, with no gimmicks or attempts to shield the classic iPhone notification. And as with all of Glover's work, no detail goes unmissed. Darius' very Darius lock-screen is a piece by artist Justin Richburg, who previously collaborated with Glover on Childish Gambino's "Feels Like Summer" music video. Even the "U" in the text is a perfect touch.
Effectiveness: 10/10. Just like everything else in this terrifying episode, Alfred's text jars. It reminds Darius (and us) that there's a whole other world outside of Teddy Perkins' mesmerizing but terrifying house, and that Darius is essentially risking his life just to get a vintage piano. It increases his sense of urgency, eventually leading up to (spoiler alert!) the discovery of Teddy's disfigured brother in the basement.
My overall rating: 10/10. This text exchange enhances the viewing experience and doesn't take me out of the plot, even though I wanted it to because I was pooping my pants with fear.
Watch Atlanta on Hulu.
15.Euphoria (Season 1): Nate catfishes Jules
HBO
Realism: 8/10. The rampant lowercase, abbreviations, and clumsy flirtation feel very much like two teens falling in love with each other, even though it really is the work of a sociopathic fraudster trying to make Rue's BFF fall in love with him for his own personal gain. It's strongly implied that the two have moved off the app, even though Nate's screen name still appears on screen.
Effectiveness: 10/10. The split-screen cinematography makes this scene especially harrowing, since you can see in real time the difference between Jules' innocent joy and Nate's...well, pure evil. Nate's casual weaponization of the online persona and Jules' complete trust in this internet stranger feel devastatingly true to today's world (even if the subsequent child porn framing doesn't so much).
My overall rating: 4/10. Say what you want about the writing, gratuitous nudity, and absurdly morbid plot, but in my opinion, Euphoria's hyper-minimalist texting style feels like the closest depiction (stylistically!) of how Gen Z actually communicates I've yet to see. Nate's actions, however, are just too anger-inducing not to be condemned.
Watch Euphoria on HBO Max.
16.Ms. Marvel (Season 1): Kamala and Bruno text about AvengerCon
Disney Plus
Realism: I'll be damned if I ground these texting sequences with a realism rating. Director and executive producer Adil el Arbi took inspiration from Into the Spider-Verse and Scott Pilgrim, and the sequence above doesn't feature a single phone screen or flashing text bubble. Instead, Kamala and her best friend Bruno's conversation is seamlessly integrated into the visual text of the scene in the form of twinkling stars and flashing neon lights.
Effectiveness: 10/10. In addition to being absolutely gorgeous and a dream to watch, this text advances the plot and also establishes the nature of Kamala and Bruno's friendship, as well as her relationship with her strict parents.
My overall rating: 12/10. Ms. Marvel is a groundbreaking show in that Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan, played by Iman Vellani) is the first Muslim superhero in the MCU — but the show's visuals are also completely out of this world. In the future, I'd love to see if we can do away with tiny blue bubbles and get more of this.
Watch Ms. Marvel on Disney+.
17.The Summer I Turned Pretty (Season 1): Conrad "booty-calls" Belly
Realism: 9/10. The text screen itself is pretty standard, and the fact that the show leans into the "real" texting aesthetic is kind of refreshing. The "u" in "u up" being lowercase in definitely native to these middle-parted beach-house-owning Gen Z'ers, confusing message aside. Plus, Belly would also totally be the type to have...what is that, flowers, for a lock screen?
Effectiveness: 6/10. The booty-call implication of the text clearly annoys Belly, as it should, but it's never addressed. Instead, Conrad acts like this is a totally normal way to preface an emotional apology, which it definitely isn't. The ensuing confrontation is pretty devoid of any important plot advancements we haven't already seen, and is full of cringey dialogue like, "Stop texting me. It's triggering."
My overall rating: 5/10. There are simply too many emotional threads going on in episode to really process this moment properly, and Belly and Conrad's weird cat-and-mouse chase is bordering on exhausting. Plus, I just simply can't get behind making out with a guy and also have a thing for his older brother.
Watch The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video.
18.The Baby-Sitters Club (Season 1): Stacey warns the gang about the Baby-Sitters Agency
Realism: 7/10. The blue text bubble itself feels real and is a delight to watch pop up on screen. But as with most children's media, there are going to be some sacrifices when it comes to creating a pleasing visual scape, and in this case, it's the ID photos in the group text. Are they realistic photos? No. Would preteen girls even have Apple ID profile photos at all? Unlikely. But do I mind? Not one bit.
Effectiveness: 10/10. It's refreshing to see 13-year-olds texting like actual 13-year-olds. They're just young enough that using "4" in lieu of "for" is cute and not cringe-worthy (and not nearly old enough to use it ironically). Stacey's follow-up "MOBILIZE!!!!" has the innocence and the heart of a group of enterprising gals banding together to defeat a rival babysitting gang — which is the only thing that pre-college age young people should be doing, IMHO.
My overall rating: 8/10. It's wholesome. And this beloved reboot, may it rest in peace, blends the nostalgia of the books and old show (the girls also use an iconic landline phone for all their club duties, a vintage find that Claudia allegedly bought on Etsy) with today's sensibilities.
Watch The Baby-Sitters Club on Netflix.
19.I Love That for You (Season 1): Jackie struggles with autocorrect
Realism: 7/10. It's supremely annoying when a show includes a text scene where the two characters, despite having an established relationship, appear to have no previous text history whatsoever. So not only does Vanessa Bayer's whimsical comedy thankfully nail that small but very important element, but it hides some jokes in there as well. How Jackie managed to type "IRQ" when the "q" key is so far from "l" is a mystery.
Effectiveness: 7/10. It technically advances the plot along, as Jackie tries and fails to pitch Crystal Buddies to Patricia in their ensuing lunch meeting, and her increasing desperation is reflected in her "duck"-riddled texts.
My overall rating: 7/10. Molly Shannon's comic frustration and inability to figure out autocorrect, in addition to the fact that Patricia completely ignores Jackie's chaos, revives the overplayed "duck" autocorrect joke and saves the scene from being completely unmemorable.
Watch I Love That for You on Showtime.
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