I'm sick of Will They or Won't They "plots". Aren't you? Say no to Will They or Won't They!

[gategrrl]

Who else has started hating "will they or won't they" situations on television shows? The Watcher (Mo) who writes for the Chicago Tribune has stated she's dropping Bones from her list of shows to watch and review. The comments to the article are interesting, too.

Comments

[nialla]

It seems in the Great Will They Or Won't They Debate, the majority of writers tend to camp on the "Won't" side, as they have no idea how to write an ongoing couple in a realistic way. If they're not already in the "OMG we'll die like Moonlighting!" camp.

Writers think there must be a conflict. So they rely on the soap opera standard of if a couple does get together after a long dance of UST, it should immediately be followed by one or both cheating, a love triangle, fake or real death, etc., so they can "shake things up" and create conflict again. Character conflict =/= plot.

Whenever the question comes up amongst general viewers, it's often assumed someone has got to have sex, if not a happily ever after, and if the writers are going to tease about a couple, then they'd damn well better payoff. With interest.

Which I'd be fine with in shows in which such relationships work within the overall show. In other shows, I'd much rather the writers pretend the female character is male and just get on with the show. Because no one would think of WTOWT with two men. No, never ever! *g*

I've gotten to the point now where I watch pilots with the WTOWT factor in mind. The higher the probably the show will waste a lot of time on that instead of, you know, a plot, the less likely I'll be to tune in again.

Two het couples I fondly ship are John/Aeryn in Farscape, which was WTOWT with payoff, and Zoe/Wash in Firefly, who started off the series as a married couple (and ended with a side of "Damn you, Joss Whedon!").

Those relationships made sense within their shows. John and Aeryn did have a buildup, but it was a component obviously built in to the storyline, not added as a tease.

Then with Zoe and Wash, I always wondered how two such different people got together, but it was completely obvious they were deeply in love. And how much fun was it to have the wife be the military one and her husband be a little insecure about the close bond she had with her commanding officer. And there was nothing going on! \o/

One irony I've found in following one of the gay storylines in a soap opera is the writers are obviously trying to avoid potential landmines of showing love scenes like het couples would have, so the actors are really working their acting chops to convey their characters are in love. With most of the contents of the writer's bag of tricks hidden away, we got more old-fashioned romance. Imagine that.

I guess the short version is I'm a romantic, but give me romance. A real one. Not UST, WTOWT crap. Ship or get off the pot. *g*