I talked about this in the Greenie thread, but I guess this is the best place to say it.
I liked both couples the same for very different reasons.
First of all Ephram needed to be in a relationship in Season 2. If he wasn't I would have ended up disliking Amy even more and I would be annoyed by Ephram and his pining over her. She didn't want to be with him, he needed to move on.
Next I don't mind how Ephram and Madison met each other. Ephram is not social butterfly, he can't find girl that easy. He's definitely the guy that would have to wait for the girl to end up at his door. So totally normal. And if he was with girl from school - it would be Ephram and Laynie 2. The girl would realize pretty quickly that he likes Amy and she would break up with him.
I didn't mind the age difference either. I don't think that the age difference is a problem unless the people in the relationship think that it's a problem. I can't date half of the men my age, because they like different things, think different and have different interests. So the most important thing is the two people to have something in common. Madison and Ephram had - music, which was cool. They were also different, but imo Amy and Ephram didn't even have music in common. They were different like the moon and the sun.
Madison did act a bit motherly with Ephram, but that's his problem - he seems like the kind of guy who needs mothering
. At least she wasn't annoyingly pushing like Amy (that's one of the things that I disliked in the Greenies. Ephram had to put up with all the crap that Amy did). Madison and Ephram worked because Ephram was able to stop her and set boundaries - hence the hate at first. Ephram was able to tell Madison to not treat him in certain way. He however never did this with Amy (most probably because she was more stubborn and disrespectful), so in the end he had to do what Amy wants.
Also Madison didn't want to change Ephram - in fact the moment they realized that they have differences she let him go. Unlike Amy who likes to change her boyfriends (especially Colin and Ephram) to be like she expects them to be.
I agree that the story might have been better, but I don't dislike Madison anymore than Amy. There were certain things that I didn't like in Madison, but there were also ones that I didn't like in Amy. In fact since Amy was regular, she annoyed me more
.