As audiences search for an escape from the never-ending doomsday headlines, television creatives are looking at what brings people together instead: namely, love.

“It seems so hard to open your phone and not see something that is really upsetting,” says “Nobody Wants This” creator Erin Foster. “It makes sense that there would be this draw toward things that make you feel good. Romance makes us feel good.” 

Romance can have many different definitions, depending on the show — some filled with emotional arcs, others sharing compelling bedroom stories. For this year’s love-centric titles, those two things go hand in hand. “Bridgerton” Season 4 had to tackle the task while also addressing the power difference between Benedict (Luke Thompson), and the maid he falls in love with, Sophie (Yerin Ha). 

“It was important to see Benedict stepping outside of his privilege and realizing he really needs to take care of Sophie and help her feel safe, which was growth for him and for Sophie,” says showrunner Jess Brownell. “We wanted to see her owning her desires, taking agency of what she wants and when she wants it.”

Intimate moments can also be used to set the tone of a story. “Ryan [Murphy]’s idea from the beginning was always to make it tasteful and classical,” reveals “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette” executive producer Brad Simpson. “We wanted to evoke the love scenes from our favorite movies, and we looked at classic love stories of the ’70s and ’80s. Their love scenes would not be chaste, but they didn’t need them to be explicit to make them real.” 

Intimacy coordinators are a vital part of that process. Lizzy Talbot, who worked on “Love Story,” compares love scenes to any other choreographed pieces that show character growth. 

“You learn something about the character by the choices they make during these scenes as much as anything else — perhaps even more so because they are often high stakes and in extremely vulnerable moments,” she says. “It’s physical dialogue because, so often, our actions tell a story our words don’t have the capacity for.” 

Sometimes, being sexy has nothing to do with nudity. In “Nobody Wants This,” Foster believes Noah’s (Adam Brody) desirability stems from his strength as a partner — i.e., buying your partner a bedside table can be as sexy as a good kiss. 

“The bedside table is the kind of romance every woman wants. It’s a man who’s listening to you,” Foster says. “It’s not someone who does the generic thing but someone who is paying attention to your wants and needs.” 

You can’t talk about modern romance without considering “the female gaze.” That doesn’t mean including salacious shots of hot men; instead, it’s about making sure the women’s perspective feels equal, if not paramount, in the storytelling.

“It’s about building a sense of yearning and longing, and rooting the attraction between two characters in who they are as people,” Brownell describes. “Watching the physical act of two bodies coming together is not the point for us. It’s about what it feels like, intimately, for the woman and for the man to be in that space.” 

It’s important to ground romance in reality, which means detailing the struggles of a relationship and how those issues are navigated.

“The obstacles between John and Carolyn were genuine and authentic, and put so much stress on their relationship. It was important to treat them as real people with real problems,” explains “Love Story” co-boss Nina Jacobson. “We definitely made the choice that they would find a way back to each other, even with all that came between them. That was the optimism and the earnestness that we wanted.” 

Foster adds, “Finding romance in the sweetness of your life and in the mundaneness, and being in it with somebody else — that’s the healthiest kind of love story to tell. That is what love feels like in the best-case scenario.”