And Another Thing: The Slow Burn & When Do You Give Up?
The long-standing trope and my growing frustration with aspects of it
Was February simultaneously too short, too long, and too rough for everyone or was it just me?
Anyway, on with the post…
The Slow Burn. The “Will They/Won’t They.”
It’s a trope that has gone through bouts of popularity over time, driving fans to impatience on a weekly basis, hanging on every single UST-filled moment between a pair of protagonists on any show.
Growing up a TV fan, I had plenty of ships that were firmly living in this category. From Whitley and Dwayne on A Different World to Fran and Maxwell on The Nanny, these couples deal with the back and forth and even in syndication they had me in a chokehold. It wasn’t just the live action shows, either. Sailor Moon and As Told by Ginger also played into this a bit, with the latter providing some of the best angst animated Nickelodeon provided me.
As I got older and began watching a lot more procedurals, from Castle and Bones, I began to understand the trend and how it best serve the story by highlighting aspects of the core character’s inner lives.
The episodic structure helped with the case of the week and the overarching season long mystery or season long investigation; the slow burn was what covered the personal aspects of many of the protagonists on these shows.
Though I have noticed that it has gotten out of favor with a few productions, there are still a few TV shows that still maintain that level of attention and want to keep it going as long as possible on the unresolved side of things.
After almost two decades and many, many, many close calls with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson, you would think that the writers have the decency to finally follow through on what they have been teasing fans with for a while.
I mean, there was a bunch of publicity pushed leading up to the episode. From TV spots aired to appearances on the network’s talk shows, they kept the buzz up on what can be expected for the upcoming episode.
But that was not the case with Law & Order: SVU Season 24 Episode 12, an episode that had the pair the closest they have ever been, leaving fans disappointed but sadly not surprised when the much hyped—and heavily marketed episode—put a stop to having both cross the line between friends and partners to romantic partners.
I’m not gonna sit here and say that I am still watching SVU as it first airs. I’m more of a casual, syndicated viewer that happened to have seen the blatant chemistry there and have been on the sidelines rooting for them.
But, considering all the hype that the network surrounded the episode with, it certainly felt like something big was going to happen. My colleague, Lara makes mention of that in her review of the episode over at Tell-Tale TV and how despite the lack of a kiss, there was still some forward movement made. Just not the kind that many fans wanted to see. [Tell-Tale TV]
However, it also feels slightly manipulative considering how they marketed it. [Not so] coincidentally, “Blood Out” gave the series its second-best audience since 2018 and returned steady in the demos. [TVLine]
This brings up a question I have about when the writers and the fans alike should just give up on a slow burn romance and just settle for the “won’t they” option.
When should we just give up the ghost on these ships ever sailing and just enjoy it for what it is?
[editor’s note: February was not a productive reading or writing month, so these will now feel like posts, rambles, and thoughts no one really asked to read. So, if you are, I appreciate you.]