If that’s happening mid-series, I’ve only really seen America do this.
Unless it’s already implied at the beginning or it occurs to a side-couple, I don’t even think it should happen. At least not in a romance series. The whole point of the genre is to put investment into a forming relationship from the start. Even if it’s developing on the sidelines. As a romance, it promises viewers that the main couple is worked on from the beginning to end.
If it’s a romance that’s meant to be about a main character moving on from one relationship onto another, then it should only be done in one of three ways in my opinion:
- break the old relationship off at the start
- depict a character in a problematic relationship during the series while having them befriend someone else throughout from early on (No cheating though, obviously. Not that it doesn’t apply, but almost everyone hates it so just don’t)
- get viewers invested but break it off at the very end with good reason so that the entirety of the series is still spent on that couple even if they aren’t endgame.
