![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The rise of the mixed-gender buddy show
Nov. 25th, 2014 07:34 pmThis is a thesis that needs a lot more fleshing out than the couple of sentences I'm going to spare it tonight, but it struck me tonight that in a world of TV storytelling where it is still assumed that the two leads are going to end up together (regardless of their gender), there are two shows running right now where the main male/female couple is never going to be a couple.
That, in fact, adding romance or UST to their relationship would make said relationship not romantic, but instead creepy and awkward.
I'm speaking of Elementary and Sleepy Hollow. Elementary eventually addressed all of the things that bothered me intensely in the first season, and to my surprise, gave that insight to Joan. She was the one who said that they were getting too wrapped up in each other; she was the one to announce that she was flat-out going to seek outside relationships. (In 99.99999999% of shows, it would have been the guy ordering the woman to shake up her life; in Elementary the woman calmly told the man that this was how things were going to be.)
When Sherlock buggered off, the woman also calmly got on with her life. Joan is no apprentice anymore; when Sherlock returned it was made abundantly clear that they were going to work as equals or no dice.
The other one is Sleepy Hollow. That delicious cheese tray has started to bog down in its own mythology and strange -- I agree with the people who are saying that the showrunners didn't expect it to actually be picked up and had planned only a single season -- but one thing holds solid. Ichabod and Abbie are very expressly NEVER going to be a couple. But the chemistry between them fizzes and sparks with humor and trust and competence - and not one smidgeon of sex. Ichabod's only a step behind 'Three Continents Watson' in the number of relationships he's being suggested as having, but his one true love is Katrina, not Abbie. (Very refreshingly, when Abbie and Katrina meet, they focus entirely on the job at hand, without a trace on either side of jealousy or possessiveness.)
I hadn't realized until tonight how unusual that is. I do know how refreshing it is.
That, in fact, adding romance or UST to their relationship would make said relationship not romantic, but instead creepy and awkward.
I'm speaking of Elementary and Sleepy Hollow. Elementary eventually addressed all of the things that bothered me intensely in the first season, and to my surprise, gave that insight to Joan. She was the one who said that they were getting too wrapped up in each other; she was the one to announce that she was flat-out going to seek outside relationships. (In 99.99999999% of shows, it would have been the guy ordering the woman to shake up her life; in Elementary the woman calmly told the man that this was how things were going to be.)
When Sherlock buggered off, the woman also calmly got on with her life. Joan is no apprentice anymore; when Sherlock returned it was made abundantly clear that they were going to work as equals or no dice.
The other one is Sleepy Hollow. That delicious cheese tray has started to bog down in its own mythology and strange -- I agree with the people who are saying that the showrunners didn't expect it to actually be picked up and had planned only a single season -- but one thing holds solid. Ichabod and Abbie are very expressly NEVER going to be a couple. But the chemistry between them fizzes and sparks with humor and trust and competence - and not one smidgeon of sex. Ichabod's only a step behind 'Three Continents Watson' in the number of relationships he's being suggested as having, but his one true love is Katrina, not Abbie. (Very refreshingly, when Abbie and Katrina meet, they focus entirely on the job at hand, without a trace on either side of jealousy or possessiveness.)
I hadn't realized until tonight how unusual that is. I do know how refreshing it is.
