You took the words out of my mouth. James seems like your typical meathead when you first meet him but if you talk to him and pursue the conversations he actually becomes an ok companion. I especially like his banter with the shuttle pilot CortezTuesday Night Fever said:Liara.
She was my love interest since ME1, she's an interesting character, and she's incredibly useful in combat. Pairing Liara with Javik gave a lot of interesting squad dialogue, especially on Thessia.
The only squadmate I really felt nothing for was Kaidan. Even James, who I thought for damn sure I was going to despise, ended up somewhat endearing himself to me toward the end of the game. Meanwhile Kaidan was just bland as ever.