The Slow Burn

The one thing that I've always loved about romance when it comes to television is what I like to call the slow burn. The slow burn is when you know that there's a fire but it takes a long time for you to actually see the flames. You see the smoke, and you can smell the burning, but you can't see the flames. And when you apply this to television, you get a winning formula.

I personally love stories where I know that two people are going to end up together but the story focuses on how they get to the point where they finally are together. Those shows that have all the big moments and the little ones as well. The first meeting, the first kiss, the first argument and a whole bunch more firsts. And each one got it's own episode.The Nanny, Boy Meets World, ER, The Office. All shows that utilized the slow burn to their advantage.

The slow burn on television is hard to come by these days. Today, the first kiss is more than often handled in the first couple episodes and then from then on things get pretty stale. At least that's the way I see it. Because who wants to see that? What happened to the Nanny Fine and Maxwell Sheffeilds or the Cory and Topangas? The stories where the two romantic interests didn't fall for each other at first glance. Where they had a good couple seasons of development before they actually went there.

These days, we're bombarded with shows like Gossip Girl, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Pretty Little Liars. They're all very popular shows and good ones if fast paced is what you're looking for, but I personally can't watch them. A slow burning romance or just a well paced story line is what keeps me coming back for more on a television show. With shows like Gossip Girl (where couples are likely to break up as quickly as they got together), Secret Life (where love at first sight is an incessant plot pusher), and Pretty Little Liars (where good story lines are wasted by being squeezed into one episode), I can't get invested. When everything happens quickly, there's nothing to keep me coming back to see where the characters are going because they're already there by the time an episode ends. That's no fun.

But I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open for the slow burning stories. There is still slow burning television out there, regardless of my rant. There's Bones, The Mentalist, Parks and Recreation, Community, and the likes.

So, what do you think? Do you think that stories are moving too fast these days? Or do you think that's what we need? Let me know in the comments!