As much as I love a happy ending, there’s something about love unfulfilled that I love even more. Heartbreak, thwarted souls torn apart by circumstance or fate… that longing and grief brings a whole different kind of satisfaction to me as a reader or a viewer. Because sometimes it’s not about happiness, it’s about being denied happiness and trying to find a way to live your life despite that. For most of us, I think that’s a more realistic proposition. Because, as the Rolling Stones once said, “You can’t always get what you want.”

One of the most romantic movies of all time is Roman Holiday. And, spoiler alert, there isn’t a happy ending. (Also? Rosebud is a sled, the ship hits an iceberg, he’s been dead the whole time and Darth Vader is Luke’s father.) I ache every time I see it, and I relish that ache. Joe and Ann cannot be together. We know this. It is impossible. He’s a reporter and she’s a princess. But their madcap adventures are no less gorgeous, and their love is made all the more poignant for it. When Joe drops her off around the corner from her quarters and they have that desperate moment…god, it kills me. And Gregory Peck is so noble, so very much the measure of a perfect man.

For more contemporary examples, there are couples like Firefly’s Mal and Inara. He’s no Gregory Peck and she’s not a princess by any means, but in the 14-episode run of the series and the feature film that followed, we still know that they can’t work out. As much as there is a palpable attraction between them and a connection, they are just too fundamentally different to make a go of it. And unlike the battle of Serenity Valley, where Mal was willing to fight a losing battle to the end, the war for their hearts is one where they’ve laid down their arms and walked off the field. Mal thinks Inara is really just a whore in fancy clothes, Inara values her independence and her pride, and never the twain shall meet. God, that’s awful. But I can’t help but root for them, and Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin make such a visually stunning pair.

Then there are some of my favorite soap opera couples, for whom the intensity of emotion is so much that it, not class differences or prejudices, is what keeps them apart. ATWT’s Carly and Jack are a whirlwind of passion, dysfunction, judgment and impulse, and they don’t necessarily work together in the domestic sense. Happily ever after always seems to be just out of their reach. And my absolutely favorite World Turns pairing, Simon and Katie…? As much as they care about each other, he’s not cut out to settle down. He and Katie are at different places in their lives. I know he can’t stay, but that doesn’t make me love every time he returns to her life any less.

And I keep returning to these stories. Not because I suddenly expect the ending to change, but because even though they don’t quite “get there,” the journey these characters take is compelling enough.

With the news of a Charlie’s Angels reboot being conceived for next year’s TV season, I can only continue to shake my head at how Hollywood is out of ideas. I mean, this is an industry that is remaking films that came out in the ’80s. I don’t care if it’s a horror movie like The Stepfather or the Chace Crawford-Julianne Hough re-imagining of Footloose (just typing that gave me hives), I don’t understand why it’s necessary.

Sometimes a reboot or remake does strike gold — look at JJ Abrams‘ wildly successful and awesome Star Trek — but it takes a very special balance of great script, great cast and originality to make something like that work. You never want to give the impression that your project is a case of, “Oh, shit, we have nothing on our roster so let’s dust off something old.”

As much as I can joke about how Jonathan Jackson’s return to General Hospital as Lucky is his extended audition for a 21 Jump Street movie, I’m actually quite serious: He would be great for such a project and if I were casting it, he’d be a lock as a 21st Century Tom Hanson (a permanent lock, even!). Fresh-faced Amber Tamblyn (ex-Emily, GH), who was pushing Jump Street herself by playing a cop on ABC’s short-lived The Unusuals, would also be perfect in an all-new role or even a modern variation on Penhall’s abrasive but good-hearted girlfriend Dorothy — now a cop herself instead of the stay-at-home spouse.

The series ran for four years, has a cult following, but also isn’t so sacred that touching it would make people freak out. And given the right story, it could be a great film. Especially if they got Johnny Depp to stop pretending that’s not where he started his career and he could make a cameo appearance as Captain Jenko (the original Jump Street squad captain before Steven Williams‘ Fuller). It could be dark, edgy, but also with a strong thread of wit: just like the show.

Of course, given the trend Hollywood seems to follow with its television show-to-movie pitches, it would end up more like a camp comedy, like the Charlie’s Angels movies and Dukes of Hazzard: lampooning the show rather than embracing what people loved about it. I was truly horrified by Dukes, as that series was a huge part of my childhood, and seeing earnest daredevils Bo and Luke reduced to idiotic buffoons was painful.

What would be less painful would be to see Hollywood actually start producing and releasing more fresh material instead of defaulting to tired remakes. There are hungry, talented writers out there just waiting to be discovered. The film industry just has to take a chance and…cut loose.