NOTE: THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Will they finally get together, or won’t they? This plot ploy is often used in television series, but is it good for the show?
One of the best sitcoms currently on television is New Girl, especially after it’s stellar second season. The crackling chemistry between two of the roommates, Nick and Jess, and the tension caused by the possibility of a hook up made the show exciting. It also elevated the rest of the writing and the comedy. The show is so crisp and so funny. After circling each other for half the season, the end finally answered the will they or won’t they question, and the two of them did.
The third season began and the two are now together as a couple and the show has hit a bit of a slump. Their relationship, and the rest of the show, has lost that spark that it has last season. Even the dialogue is not as funny this season. The hilarious, often ridiculous, yet always smart banter is what makes the show as great as it is. It is still better than most of the other sitcoms out there, even though it’s in a bit of a rut, but when comparing it to its first two seasons, it is not standing up. Is it the writing’s fault for not being as good, or is this just what happens when a ‘will they or won’t they’ couple gets together?
Will they or won’t they pairings can be tricky. If they drag on too long they can become frustration and tiresome. When the couples do get together they can become boring and the show can lose its creative spark. How have other shows handle these relationships in the past?
One of the most famous ‘will they or won’t they’ couples from the past 20 years was Ross and Rachel from Friends. For a season and a half the show went back and forth, having one pine after the other. Finally, halfway through the shows second season, the two almost get together, but then don’t. Before the season was over the two were together and the show got boring. Years later the show tried the ‘will they won’t they’ again with Joey and Rachel to disastrous results.
The show did know how to write a couple together. That was clear with Monica and Chandler’s relationship. When the two of them became an item, it gave the show a new energy. Their relationship remained interesting for the remainder of the series. The difference with that couple was that they never had that ‘will they or won’t they’ tension. There was no hint that the two of them would get together until it was happening.
The most heartbreaking pre-relationship ‘will they or won’t they’ storyline was Jim and Pam’s from The Office. He had a secret crush on her for years, but she was engaged to a jerk. She eventually broke off her engagement, but by then Jim had moved on. Suddenly she was the one pining after him.
The U.S. version of The Office did not have the luxury of being only two seasons and twelve episodes long (not including the Christmas special) like the original British version. In fact the second season of the U.S. version alone is longer than the entire British version. The original one could hold off on getting Tim and Dawn (their Jim and Pam) until the very end. The U.S. one could not hold off on putting them together because it would have become to frustrating. They had to risk making the relationship storyline.
For the most part they were successful. The first few season they were together and the show did not lose its mojo, possibly because it was a workplace comedy and did not deal with the characters’ domestic life as much. There was also such a big cast that if they became boring there was something else to focus on. Eventually Jim and Pam’s relationship did suffer, but the last season in a tedious storyline in which the couples relationship experienced trouble. Somehow the show made Jim come off as a jerk and Pam seem unreasonable at the same time. The drop in quality of their storyline, however could be contributed to the drop in quality of the show all together in the later seasons, instead of vice versa.
The most successful ‘will they or won’t they’ was on How I Met Your Mother. For the first season the show teased whether or not Ted and Robin would get together. At the end of the first season they did. What kept them interesting as a couple was right from the get go the audience knew that the two of them would not end up together forever. There was going to be a finite point in their relationship and that kept things interesting.
After Robin and Ted broke up, the show did it again with Robin and Barney. When these two got together, they quickly broke up in an undramatic and amicable way so as not to ruin the chemistry of the show. In the show the couple became boring shells of their former selves, almost a self-aware statement of the show’s behalf of how TV relationships can become boring. The two did reunite, but not until near what was originally suppose to be the end (the network asked for one more season).
There are many more ‘will they or won’t they’ relationships that have come into existence. As long as there are sitcoms, or television shows in general, they will continue to be around and will achieve varying degrees of success.
PHOTO SOURCE:
http://www.policymic.com/articles/38969/nick-and-jess-new-girl-should-they-or-shouldn-t-they