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Description

You’ve been watching TV series for quite some time, and this means you know certain romantic-related cliché we’ve all seen countless times.

No? Then let me explain…

The cliché I’m going to discuss is the “Will They/Won’t They” plotline, which is described as a couple (usually male/female) having amounts of sexual tension but not acting on it for various reasons, usually staying like this ‘till the end of the series, when it (usually) ends in “they will”.

And with that in mind, you would think the makers are Ross and Rachel from Friends. And while they definitely popularized it, the plotline is usually attributed to a series called Moonlighting, starring Bruce Willis (yes, that Bruce Willis). The plot was around this romantic cliché between the two leads, and the resolution led to its early cancellation, or so many people believe. In reality, it was because of behind-the-scenes factors that caused it, but unfortunately people believed the resolution of the couple would lead to disaster for the series, and so, a completely predictable romantic cliché was born.

This plotline is particularly divisive, since there are shows that do it well, and shows that… well… don’t. Friends was an example of the former since, while Ross and Rachel’s on-off relationship could get a little irritating, the series was still fun to watch, partly because of them, partly because of the much more stable Monica/Chandler, and overall because of the main characters’ hilarious shenanigans. This makes me forgive they popularized such an overused trope.

But then, we have the ones who do such a terrible job it ruins the entire series. Case in point? Ted and Robin from HIMYM. Even when the show established Robin wasn’t the mother and she moved on to Barney (the best character played by the lengen… waitforit… dary Neil Patrick Harris), they still danced irritatingly with this plotline. And then the incredibly insulting, vomit-inducing, horrifying piece of shit twist the finale gave us happened, ruining everything previously established in the entire series. Now that’s screwing up.

And now the following question: Does resolving the “Will They/Won’t They” plotline ruin a series? Well, not necessarily. In fact, there are series which are much better with this plotline resolved. Examples are The Big Bang Theory and Castle. In the former, Leonard and Penny hook up after a phase of this, and they took things slowly, evolving as people in the process, even getting married! Say what you want about the later seasons of the series, but there’s no denying their character development (as well as the other characters’ like Howard and even Sheldon Freakin’ Cooper) was a good thing for the series, and that (among other things) makes The Big Bang Theory still watchable despite its number of seasons (averting the dreaded “Simpson Syndrome” to a degree). As for the latter, the series became hell of a lot more entertaining once Castle and Beckett hooked up in the fourth-fifth season, and why it was a disappointment they brought back somewhat this plot point again in the final two seasons (not that they break up, but the delaying of their marriage was annoying).

My final thoughts about this? I think the “Will They/Won’t They” plot is engaging and entertaining… to a point. It works incredibly well at the beginning of the series when we know and warm up to the characters, but it has to be resolved after that (and if it’s a long period, give them plausible reasons why they can’t hook up). If they do, show them actually dealing with the relationship or shift focus on other characters if you’re out of ideas (married couples can be fun, as Modern Family brilliantly shows). What we shouldn’t do with this trope is dragging them in an irritatingly on-off relationship, putting romantic false leads out of fucking nowhere, and expect us to wait ‘till the end of the series to see them finally hook up, because at that point people would have gotten sick of the entire relationship and even the entire series, rendering the point of this trope moot. This, unfortunately, is what many series end up doing, thinking this is what makes a series popular when it actually does the opposite. This trope and subsequent advice is not exclusive to TV series, so if you’re making a film/fanfic/comic/videogame/whatever, just read this and follow my final advice. Many of your fans will thank you for it.

Description

You’ve been watching TV series for quite some time, and this means you know certain romantic-related cliché we’ve all seen countless times.

No? Then let me explain…

The cliché I’m going to discuss is the “Will They/Won’t They” plotline, which is described as a couple (usually male/female) having amounts of sexual tension but not acting on it for various reasons, usually staying like this ‘till the end of the series, when it (usually) ends in “they will”.

And with that in mind, you would think the makers are Ross and Rachel from Friends. And while they definitely popularized it, the plotline is usually attributed to a series called Moonlighting, starring Bruce Willis (yes, that Bruce Willis). The plot was around this romantic cliché between the two leads, and the resolution led to its early cancellation, or so many people believe. In reality, it was because of behind-the-scenes factors that caused it, but unfortunately people believed the resolution of the couple would lead to disaster for the series, and so, a completely predictable romantic cliché was born.

This plotline is particularly divisive, since there are shows that do it well, and shows that… well… don’t. Friends was an example of the former since, while Ross and Rachel’s on-off relationship could get a little irritating, the series was still fun to watch, partly because of them, partly because of the much more stable Monica/Chandler, and overall because of the main characters’ hilarious shenanigans. This makes me forgive they popularized such an overused trope.

But then, we have the ones who do such a terrible job it ruins the entire series. Case in point? Ted and Robin from HIMYM. Even when the show established Robin wasn’t the mother and she moved on to Barney (the best character played by the lengen… waitforit… dary Neil Patrick Harris), they still danced irritatingly with this plotline. And then the incredibly insulting, vomit-inducing, horrifying piece of shit twist the finale gave us happened, ruining everything previously established in the entire series. Now that’s screwing up.

And now the following question: Does resolving the “Will They/Won’t They” plotline ruin a series? Well, not necessarily. In fact, there are series which are much better with this plotline resolved. Examples are The Big Bang Theory and Castle. In the former, Leonard and Penny hook up after a phase of this, and they took things slowly, evolving as people in the process, even getting married! Say what you want about the later seasons of the series, but there’s no denying their character development (as well as the other characters’ like Howard and even Sheldon Freakin’ Cooper) was a good thing for the series, and that (among other things) makes The Big Bang Theory still watchable despite its number of seasons (averting the dreaded “Simpson Syndrome” to a degree). As for the latter, the series became hell of a lot more entertaining once Castle and Beckett hooked up in the fourth-fifth season, and why it was a disappointment they brought back somewhat this plot point again in the final two seasons (not that they break up, but the delaying of their marriage was annoying).

My final thoughts about this? I think the “Will They/Won’t They” plot is engaging and entertaining… to a point. It works incredibly well at the beginning of the series when we know and warm up to the characters, but it has to be resolved after that (and if it’s a long period, give them plausible reasons why they can’t hook up). If they do, show them actually dealing with the relationship or shift focus on other characters if you’re out of ideas (married couples can be fun, as Modern Family brilliantly shows). What we shouldn’t do with this trope is dragging them in an irritatingly on-off relationship, putting romantic false leads out of fucking nowhere, and expect us to wait ‘till the end of the series to see them finally hook up, because at that point people would have gotten sick of the entire relationship and even the entire series, rendering the point of this trope moot. This, unfortunately, is what many series end up doing, thinking this is what makes a series popular when it actually does the opposite. This trope and subsequent advice is not exclusive to TV series, so if you’re making a film/fanfic/comic/videogame/whatever, just read this and follow my final advice. Many of your fans will thank you for it.