Re: Grissom&Sara #10-Meet Me in the Gutter & bring the Tape
So we want to see the ups and downs in the characters lives, the things that put them under pressure and challenge them and make them struggle. Cuz that makes for damn good tv.
I agree with everything you said in this post, but maybe some people are just looking for something to help balance the portrayal of the relationship on the show, or even something more to contrast with the angst. The audience needs to know what they and the characters are missing out on, in order to fulfill the potential of the drama. There certainly have been moments where this was done on the show, but has there been enough?
That's not an easy question to answer, because generally speaking, the more you can leave to the imaginations of the audience, the better. Thus far, the audience has been tortured effectively, so the writers must be doing something right.
However, in my opinion, there is the potential here to inflict even more delectable torment if they choose to do that.
The same principle holds true with GSR. People complain that its been drawn out for too long, that it should be over and done with already, that if something was going to happen it would have by now...
The writers may lack confidence that they can escalate the relationship to any significant degree without turning the show into a soap opera, and some of them might have no interest at all, so I guess we'll just have to take what we can get. At least they don't seem to be headed toward the common pattern of putting couples together and breaking them apart repeatedly, although that whole Warrick/Catherine affair of late makes me wonder if the writers really can avoid soap opera conventions (no offense intended to Yobling).
First off, how long did it take Niles and Daphney to get together? Mulder and Scully? Ross and Rachel? Secondly, would it have been interesting anymore if they'd gotten together in say the 1st or 2nd season?
Mulder & Scully are an interesting case for comparison because their relationship and the way it was handled is so opposite to the GSR in most respects. Professional disagreements aside, they were actually very sweet and affectionate almost from the beginning, and also quite comfortable around one another (including the physical aspects). Fans of
The X-Files often speak of UST, but there was never really much
tension, per se. The writers tortured the MSR shippers by never directly addressing the relationship, at least until the Season 8 finale (if you can call that direct). In a nutshell, the characters portrayed an extraordinarily intense friendship and romance essentially without talking about it, denying virtually all direct acknowledgement to the shippers for nearly eight years. I must say that's rather fiendish. :devil: Personally, I love it, but a lot of people are still quite bitter about it.
The GSR, in contrast, is very subtle, but also more directly acknowledged at times. We know that the potential for a romance is an actual entity on the show, and that there must be something so deep and compelling about it that it scares the characters (particularly Grissom, of course). Because of their professional relationship--supervisor and subordinate--it's also a forbidden love, which obviously makes it more interesting for the audience. But as much as I've enjoyed watching the GSR play out the way it has, in drama any relationship has to continually develop and grow. If there is to be an open, resolved romance between Grissom & Sara someday, then time is running out on the possibility of a gradual build-up.
At least for me, there is also a need to show more of why these characters are good for each other. It doesn't need to be a "healthy" relationship--it would just be nice if there were more positive feelings and warmth between them. It's all a matter of contrast and balance, as I mentioned earlier. At the very least, the actors could let the GSR "inform" their performances a bit more than they have lately (while keeping it subtle and nonintrusive, of course).
And thirdly, would it be remotely compelling if it was all plain sailing and everyone was in happy fluffy bunny land?
That's a valid point, and in addition to creating barriers, writers of these shows always have to withhold something the audience wants at all costs. People naturally want what they can't have, but you know what? At this point, I want to be tantalized, and the writers aren't doing enough of that. It's like the old joke about the sadist torturing the masochist by NOT torturing him.
In that vein, I bet that GSR fans and MSR fans would like to have duplicated a few scenes between their respective shows. Imagine if Scully had asked Mulder out to dinner to "<font color="cyan">see what happens</font>" and he replied "<font color="cyan">I don't know what to do about this</font>." Jaws would have dropped. The same would go for the "<font color="cyan">interested in beauty</font>" scene. I wonder how GSR fans would react if Sara had written a letter that said "<font color="cyan">I feel these words as if their meaning were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will read them and share my burden, as I have come to trust no other. That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a comfort to me now</font>," or if Grissom had ever said "<font color="cyan">Even when the world was falling apart, you were my constant...my touchstone</font>" and Sara replied "<font color="cyan">And you are mine</font>" and kissed his forehead for like 10 seconds.
