Today, I explain why you never have “Will They or Won’t They?” characters codify their status AS a “Will They or Won’t They?” couple.
This is the Cronin Theory of Pop Culture, a collection of positions I’ve collected over the years that I think hold pretty true.
As soon as Abbot Elementary began, it was clear that Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) were EVENTUALLY going to get together.
But we all get it, it’s TV, and TV showrunners foolishly believe that getting a “Will They or Won’t They?” couple together ruins the tension on the show. As I hinted with the use of the word “foolishly,” I disagree, but I get it. It’s a pretty universally agreed position.
But here’s the thing, if you’re going to drag out the “Will They or Won’t They?” situation, THEY CAN’T acknowledge it themselves. That’s not how people interact with each other. There are all sorts of reasons why two people who like each other don’t actually get together. But what they DON’T do is to acknowledge that they are both single, they both like each other and….don’t get together. That’s just basically putting it down in code that “That’s us, we’re a ‘Will they or won’t they?’ couple,” and people don’t DO that.
After Gregory and Janine kiss in the Season 2 finale, they have the following discussion:
Janine: I like you, too… like, a lot.
Gregory: I kind of knew that.
Janine: Whatever. So for how long did you like me? Like, how long?
Gregory: Pretty much since the first day I got to Abbott.
Janine: Really?
Gregory: Mm-hmm.
Janine: Me too.
(Both scoff)
But I couldn’t really admit it, because…
Gregory: Tariq. Yeah.
Janine: Right. So, if you liked me for that long, then what was the whole Taylor thing?
Gregory: You were in a multi-presidential-term relationship when…
Janine: Okay. But then I wasn’t.
Gregory: Are we really about to do this?
Janine: And then Amber.
Gregory: Hey, she asked me out. And you was giving me nothing.
Janine: Kissing you was giving you nothing?
Gregory: You called it a whoops.
Janine: You could have said it wasn’t a whoops.
Gregory: Look, I didn’t think it was an accident or a mistake. Besides, you started dating Maurice. We were both all over the place. But we’ re here… Now.
Janine: (Sighs) Look, talking to Mo, it did change things. But it didn’t change how I feel about you. It changed how I feel about me.
Gregory: What are you saying?
Janine: Gregory, I come to school every day happy because I get to see you and have a friend like you, and I cannot lose that friend. But maybe I am selfish. And if I need to be right now, then I don’t want to wind up hurting you. It’s you. And if we did this, then it would be…
Gregory: Something real.
Janine: Yeah.
Gregory: I understand. We should get back.
Janine: Yeah.
That’s not how this works, that’s not how this works at all.
They absolutely did NOT have to get Janine and Gregory together at that point, but you have to come up with an actual excuse and not, “I want to be with you, but I can’t right now because….uhmmm….reasons.”
Abbott Elementary is far from the only show to do this, but Abbott Elementary is one of the BEST shows to still fall into this trap. Quinta Brunson is amazing, but I think she flopped this one. She said, at the time, “I like to take into account that we’ve seen versions of this trope before. I really like to look at TV as constantly reinventing the wheel. So, I thought we had the opportunity to reinvent by just moving that kiss up. People knew that something was going to happen. I think the fun of young 20-somethings is really that stuff like that happens all the time. People kiss each other, they have sex with each other. And then all of a sudden they’re cool again, or not cool again, or friends again and they have to be in the same social circle. Their life doesn’t just magically turn into something where they never see each other anymore.”
Yes, that’s obviously true in GENERAL, but not for two people like Gregory and Janine who are obviously perfect for each other, and WANT TO BE WITH EACH OTHER.
Again, you can come up with a number of reasons why they won’t be together (the easiest is to just have them date other people), but once you have acknowledged that they are both single and both into each other, you can’t just not have them date. It doesn’t make any sense. You can’t codify that “We’re in a ‘will they or won’t they’ situation,” as that’s not how people interact with each other.
And they ended up getting together 14 episodes later anyways.
