The Conners Wasted Ben and Darlene (How Season 5 Can Fix This)

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Although Ben and Darlene are technically some of the most important characters on The Conners, season 4 wasted their chemistry, and season 5 needs to fix this issue now that they are married. Ever since Roseanne became The Conners, the sitcom spinoff has used Ben and Darlene as its central couple. Although Roseanne’s widower Dan remarried, his new wife Louise was not utilized as a replacement for the show’s former title character.

Instead, Sara Gilbert’s fan-favorite Darlene became the de facto lead character ofThe Conners, and her messy on-again, off-again relationship with Ben replaced Dan and Roseanne’s romance as the focus ofThe Conners. In theory, this change could have allowedThe Conners to focus on members of the sitcom family’s younger generation and would have effectively allowed Darlene to replace Roseanne as the main character. However, the chaotic messiness of Ben and Darlene’s romance prohibited this change from occurring until the tail end ofThe Conners season 4.

Related: The Conners Season 5 Can Finally Honor Roseanne’s Legacy

While Ben and Darlene have been the central couple of The Conners since Roseanne’s death, the series has wasted their potential by having the couple break up and make up (often with too much venom and vitriol) instead of growing together. While this did allow Darlene to undergo some character development while she was single in The Conners season 4, the plot led to an underwhelming and rushed reunion for the duo at the end of the outing. Now that they are married, Ben and Darlene’s inconsistency is something that the sitcom spinoff now needs to fix in The Conners season 5.

Initially co-workers at a local newspaper, Ben and Darlene butted heads as soon as they started working