Is Star City 2026's best TV romance? A viewing guide
Yes — after Star City's Season 1 finale, TV Guide argues Anastasia and Sasha's Soviet arranged marriage delivers 2026's most surprising TV romance, outshining Bridgerton and Off Campus. This guide explains why the For All Mankind spin-off became the year's standout love story and where to stream every episode on Apple TV+ now.
Key Takeaways
- TV Guide's Maggie Fremont calls Star City the year's best TV romance after the finale "The Wolves."
- Cosmonauts Anastasia Belikova and Sasha Polivanov begin as a state-mandated marriage of convenience on Apple TV+.
- Their arc builds from allies to lovers through letters, a presumed death, and a border-crossing rescue.
- Season 1 is now streaming on Apple TV+, even as July 13 brings a crowded slate of new premieres.
- For more streaming picks, browse our Streaming & TV Alerts coverage.
What makes Star City's romance stand out in 2026?
Between the swoony fourth season of Bridgerton and the college hockey hit Off Campus, romance fans have had plenty to watch in 2026. Yet TV Guide argues the year's best love story may live inside an alt-history Soviet space drama.
Star City, a spin-off of Apple TV+'s For All Mankind, follows the space race from the Soviet side in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Minutes after Anastasia Belikova (Alice Englert) becomes the first woman to walk on the moon, officials order her to marry fellow cosmonaut Sasha Polivanov (Solly McLeod) — she cannot remain the country's most famous single woman.
He is a reckless playboy; she is reserved and awkward. Both know they have no real choice. The show treats their pairing as a marriage-of-convenience story with a bleak, bittersweet tone, and writers slowly turn the impossible match into the season's emotional center.
How did Anastasia and Sasha's story reach its finale?
The relationship turns in Episode 4, "Dark Forest," when a drunken, heartbroken Stasia and an angry Sasha fight — and kiss. A tender morning after in "Bite Your Elbow" is cut short when Sasha leaves on a secret nine-month Venus mission without telling her.
His letter, read aloud later in the season, lands with Persuasion-level yearning: "I had no one to write to before, but now it seems I do." When Sasha appears to die aboard Venera, Stasia grieves — until she hears his voice from orbit while stationed on a Soviet space station.
The finale escalates into spy-thriller territory. Stasia hijacks a descent module to reach Sasha near the Finnish border. He helps wounded comrade Lakshmi escape, then turns back rather than leave Stasia to face arrest alone. TV Guide calls the ending ridiculous, rash, and unmistakably romantic.
Where can you watch Star City after the finale?
All eight episodes of Star City Season 1, including finale "The Wolves," are now streaming on Apple TV+. The series finished its first-season run ahead of a busy Monday, July 13 lineup that included premieres such as Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro, All American's final season, Hot Ones: Extra Heat, and Rabbit Hole, per TV Insider and The TV Cave's daily guides.
If you skipped the show during launch, the full season is available to binge now. Fremont's verdict is clear: after what befalls Stasia and Sasha, Star City cannot hide that it is about as romantic as television gets — even inside a somber period piece about espionage and paranoia.