As someone who has had to learn and grow through maladaptively relationship-hopping my way between a bunch of very intensely intimate situations (bad idea, but I did technically speaking still learn a LOT), not telling basic information to the person you trust most in the world for dumb reasons is actually super common, particularly in unhealthy relationships, which are a dime a dozen in the real world. I’ve also noticed that sometimes even an otherwise healthy couple will avoid telling each other important information under extreme duress, it just takes a lot more to get them there.

The biggest difference between media and reality I would argue is just the increased frequency of toxic relationships and / or high-stress situations (which, as stated, can introduce toxicity into an otherwise healthy relationship). For the most part people don’t want to watch a couple make pancakes with their kids followed by a light morning walk in the woods on a Saturday morning, and when they do, it’s usually a secondary experience as a contrasting leadup or resolution to the more dramatic situation.

My worry right now is producers attempting to introduce a strong sexual component to this show. I say this even as someone with my own hypersexual tendencies and typical enjoyment of lascivious media. The asexuality on top of the agendered nature of the protagonist is fairly central to the story, and I’m LIVING for their interrelationship with the spaceship bot that is extremely similar to a “like an old married couple” / “belligerent sexual tension” trope just without the sexual component. An ace couple with that much chemistry is just amazing in ways I don’t have words for but I can absolutely see some media exec trying to say it won’t sell as well without a sexual aspect and I’m crossing my fingers they’ll get told where to stuff it.