TV Breakups

"You're never going to satisfy everybody all the time. The best chance you have to satisfy most of the people most of the time is to be true to the characters, make them consistent and then try to show people who were invested with something that you're messing with that you understand that they are invested in it, and you are too, and you have a plan, and if someday they stick with the show, they'll be happy. That's the idea." - Mike Schur, co-creator of Parks and Recreation

Since May, the TV Powers That Be (PTB) have broken up three of my favorite couples on television.  On Desperate Housewives, it was Tom and Lynette.  On Pretty Little Liars, it was Spencer and Toby.  And just last week, Parks and Recreation broke up Ben and Leslie.  As you can imagine, this has left me slightly downtrodden, devoid of any couple to really root for and love.  However, I've also become slightly numb to the situation.  Perhaps for the first time since Tom and Lynette separated, I am actually able to look at these breakups objectively and analyze them like a rational human being.  So that's exactly what I plan to do.

The Circumstances
 
Desperate Housewives
 
Tom and Lynette's breakup was the messiest of the bunch.  After pushing Tom into a new job, Lynette seemingly couldn't stand his sudden burst of self-confidence, his bragging, and his newfound control issues.  On the other side, Tom found himself fed up with Lynette's inability to compromise or relinquish power.  This led to many screaming matches that were never resolved.  Eventually the two went away on a trip to try to work out their problems, but spent the entire weekend sniping at each other and, for Tom's part, being moody and sulky.  When they got home, they decided the best thing would be to separate to work on their problems.
 
Pretty Little Liars
 
After seemingly abducting the girls' therapist, "A" threatened to kill the doctor unless the girls did exactly as she said.  For Spencer, this was a demand to keep Toby safe.  Given that Toby's breaks were mysteriously tampered with earlier in the episode, Spencer immediately assumed that "A" was behind this, and that the only way she could keep him safe was to break up with him.  This led to a heartbreaking scene where Spencer dumped Toby with little to no explanation, leaving him confused and upset and her an inconsolable mess.
 
Parks and Recreation
 
Leslie was approached about running for city council, her dream for years, and knew immediately that this meant breaking up with Ben, who she'd been secretly dating for weeks.  The scandal of dating her boss would have ended her campaign before it started, so Leslie felt she had no choice.  After several failed attempts to dump Ben, he ended up doing the deed: he had figured out that Leslie planned to run for office and, knowing what it meant to her, let her go so she could fulfill her dream.


My Interpretation


As Mike Schur said about Ben and Leslie's breakup: "...our approach to Leslie and Ben was that we were going to try as much as we could to let the characters dictate their actions. We didn't want them to do anything that seemed too forced, or we were doing it because it was convenient to us...when it's just two people, and they're about to make out with each other, and then the doorbell rings and there's a telegram and one of them just inherited 50 million from a rich uncle and they have to go collect the will and that keeps them apart for 2 years... it has nothing to do with who the characters are. It's less effective to me than when things are emerging out of deeper circumstances or out of the characters themselves."

For me, this quotation sums up the most honest television breakups. For a breakup to be believable, for the audience to be on board with that breakup and support it (or at the very least, understand it), the character motivation has to be clear. Ultimately, the root of the breakup has to come from some place that the audience clearly understands.


Ultimately, this is what made Leslie and Ben the most believable breakup.  It was clear from the first episode that holding a political office had always been Leslie's dream.  For her to give that up for anyone would be unthinkable for her character.  The fact that Ben knew this as well only added to the poignancy of the moment: he cared about her enough to let her go.  Even as I was watching this unfold, I found myself at peace with the decision.  There was no turmoil, just an appreciation of how intelligently this was written.


To the other extreme, Toby and Spencer's breakup was rooted entirely in circumstances beyond their control.  In a classic soap move, a combination of blackmail and martyr complex led to their breakup and left one character completely in the dark about what was really happening.  Even though it was believable that Spencer would do this, the breakup still seemed a bit out of left field.  After all, it only took one accident to convince Spencer that Toby's life was in danger; I think that if the writers had taken the time to build up the apparent danger over several episodes, Spencer's fears would have been more meaningful and understandable.  As it was, there wasn't even a clear indication that "A" messed with Toby's breaks.

To some extent, I feel that this was an example of the writers deciding that Spencer and Toby should break up and then working backward.  However, since the heart of this show is a murder mystery, blackmail comes with the territory.  It was only a matter of time before "A" somehow messed with Toby and Spencer.  That is the crux of Pretty Little Liars; no one is happy for long.  For that reason, this couple's breakup was understandable, even if I didn't entirely agree with it.

For me, the most unbelievable breakup was Tom and Lynette.  There is no doubt in my mind that this breakup did not grow organically; the writers decided to break up this couple and then contrived circumstances to rip them apart.  As a result, the reasons for the breakup were not only inconsistent, but also sloppily explained.  Not once did the show give a reason for Lynette's immediate 180 about Tom's new job.  Most of the things Tom accused Lynette of had little basis in what we knew of the character and her relationship with her husband.  And there was no indication of why this was the straw that broke the camel's back.  I have heard people say that this "just happens"; that one day couples can just tire of one another and their issues.  However true that may be in reality, I find that it makes for poor television.  Character motivation is too important to leave up to the viewers' vague interpretations.  If nothing else, that at least should be clear.  In this case, it never was explicit.

When I first watched the Tom and Lynette breakup back in May, I contributed most of my anger and frustration to the fact that I truly love this couple.  Despite what I may have thought of how the writers handled the situation, I still thought that it was mostly my bias: I could not look at this couple in a calm, rational way.

Ben and Leslie really became my replacement couple for Tom and Lynette toward the end of the season.  The more Tom and Lynette fought, the more I needed an outlet in a new couple; as a result, I became almost as obsessed with Ben and Leslie.  I spent the summer fearing that they would break up as well, leaving me with nothing to look forward to in the new television season (a fact only compounded when Toby and Spencer broke up, something I did not see coming from a mile away).  I approached last Thursday night with a reluctance and a twinge of dread.

You can imagine how surprised I was to find that despite my tears, I almost celebrated the Leslie/Ben breakup for how beautiful and poignant it was.  There was no confusion; I wasn't left questioning why this happened or overanalyzing the decision.  And it was in that moment that I realized the true heart of the problem on Desperate Housewives was not my bias.  In fact, had Tom and Lynette's breakup been written with anywhere near the grace and intelligence of Ben and Leslie's, I might have actually be rooting it on. 

Ultimately, the writing sells the breakup.

In closing, I'd like to end with one last quote from Mike Schur.  One that I think accentuates the difference between great television writing and sloppy television writing.

Question: So you were never just trying to break them [Ben and Leslie] up.  

Answer: "No. Greg's [Daniels, creator of The Office] thing on The Office, which I give him total credit for, was once Jim and Pam got together, he was like, "Why would they ever break up? It doesn't make sense. They're soulmates." What are you gonna do, have another woman come in? You've just watched Jim pine for Pam for years, and Pam's had this sudden realization that she's loved Jim forever, and it would be crazy to have Jim's ex from high school turn up, and suddenly Pam's jealous. It happened on our show, too. We married off Andy and April, which was our will-they-or-won't-they couple for a while, and the only reason I felt comfortable with that because we were replacing them with Leslie and Ben. You need those kinds of long-term relationships to give people something to root for, as they say. And in no way, shape or form was I thinking, "Oh, now we have to break up Leslie and Ben," because I've seen happy relationships work very well on lots of other shows. But in this case, a logical place for them to run into a bit of trouble was this storyline we wanted to do, so we took advantage of it."


And there you have it.  Happy relationships can work.  And ultimately, that is my hope for all three of these couples some day.