I can recall certain TV kisses the way sports fans remember iconic plays.
asserted
fans → recall → plays
I know where I was and how it felt, holding my breath in the building anticipation.
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it → know → anticipation
I can still hear the squeal that involuntarily left my body as the moment finally arrived.
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moment → hear → body
The best ones are those that really make you wait.
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you → make → ?
It took Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess (Zooey Deschanel) 39 episodes of New Girl to passionately kiss – drunk but more clear-headed than ever – in the hallway of their shared loft, her then-boyfriend waiting on the other side of the bedroom door.
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boyfriend → take → door
We waited 28 episodes for Jim (John Krasinski) to work up the courage to confess his love to Pam (Jenna Fisher) at Dunder Mifflin’s casino night in The Office.
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Jim → wait → Office
The show may be the world’s favourite comfort watch but that stolen glimpse of their first kiss, through the blinds of an empty office before the season-two finale cut to black, was TV at its most electric.
uncertain
finale → steal → electric
Netflix romcom Nobody Wants This
asserted
Nobody → want → This
It was in the show’s second episode that hot rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and sex podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) locked lips on the street after rationalising they were “just friends”, her face cupped in his hand as bubblegum electro-pop swelled in the background.
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pop → lock → background
But 25 episodes later, it’s a different couple that has my attention.
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that → ’ → attention
In its just-released third season, this fun and fizzy series has landed something you don’t see so much any more: a proper slow burn.
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you → release → something
Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons, Veep) and Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe, Succession) have had a strange intimacy since the start.
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brother → have → start
Sure, Morgan was literally repulsed by him (“The brother is brutal.
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brother → repulse → him
Vomit emoji” she immediately texted Joanne in season one).
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she → texte → season
But her barbs were always taken with jest and understanding.
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barbs → take → jest
The next time they met they bonded over being the “loser siblings”, and by the finale of season one they were hiding their blossoming but awkward friendship from Sasha’s wife, Esther.
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they → meet → wife
I love that it took us more than another full season, and the respectful dissolution of Sasha and Esther’s marriage, to find out the answer.
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it → love → answer
And the resulting episode, well-earned after years of tension, stands alone as one of the best romcoms of the year.
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episode → result → year
Directed by Richard Shepard and written by Jenni Konner and Megan Mazer, the episode, titled Watch What Happens, ends with Sasha and Morgan’s Nick-and-Jess/Jim-and-Pam moment – an almost missed kiss at a bedroom door, landed on the crescendo of LCD Soundsystem’s iconically melancholic power ballad New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down.
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You → direct → Me
By picking up these characters from the most definitively LA show on television and dropping them in a New York hotel (visiting the city for Morgan’s appearance on Watch What Happens Live), it allows for a more surreal and intimate dynamic to flourish.
Noah and Joanne’s phones are turned off back home – perfect sitcom high jinks in itself – and these supporting characters are free to be the leads, playing out whatever fantasy they have of themselves separately and as a potential couple (Pretty Woman-style dress montage included).
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montage → pick → couple
In the episode’s 25-minute run time they have reckoned with their feelings for each other, flirted with taking it further, decided against it and turned back with ease.
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they → reckon → ease
And if that sounds like too much to handle in a 25-minute run time, you’re probably not familiar with the director’s previous work.
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you → sound → work
Shepard is the same man who helmed Lena Dunham’s iconic and impressively load-bearing standalone episodes on Girls including One Man’s Trash, American Bitch and The Panic in Central Park – that last one another romantic, surreal adventure through New York, featuring a would-be couple weighed down by the heaviness of their real lives.
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one → helm → lives
writer of this episode, and Nobody Wants This co-showrunner since season two
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Nobody → want → season
Watch What Happens may not go down in TV history as a “perfect episode” in the same way as The Panic in Central Park (though it might for romcom diehards who delight in seeing new spins on old tropes) but it is testament to how powerful it is when a series can cash in on long-term character growth and well-nourished relationship dynamics.
uncertain
series → watch → growth
And that’s something increasingly rare in a TV landscape where so many of our favourite shows drop only a handful of episodes every couple of years and sometimes disappear without a trace.
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many → ’ → trace
Almost every great TV romance was built in the pre-streaming era, when network and cable shows were given more than 20 episodes to play with each season – enough room to craft a full story arc without fear of cancellation – and audiences would spend almost half a year with these characters as new instalments rolled out each week.
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instalments → build → characters
Cheers fans tuned in to watch Sam and Diane flirt for six months before they kissed in the season-one finale.
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they → tune → finale
Ross and Rachel took 31 episodes to kiss in Friends, and audiences were still hanging off the drama of whether they would or wouldn’t end up together in the series finale nine years later.
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they → take → finale
These are impossible standards to live up to in an environment where the longest season-run you can hope for is generally 10 episodes – all of which will probably drop on the same day and be largely forgotten the next.
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all → live → day
But that makes it all the more impressive when something special and truly squeal-worthy slips through the cracks.
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something → make → cracks
Nobody Wants This is now streaming on Netflix.
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This → want → Netflix
We’ve got you.
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We → get → you
Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
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Watchlist → get → ?
- Sam Pang returns: What did the most popular man on TV do after winning the Gold Logie?
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man → return → Logie
- A field guide to Nathan Fielder: What to watch while you wait for You Can See Everything, “the movie of the year”.
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You → watch → year
- Watch (below): Deputy TV editor Meg Watson recommends Dustfall, the incredible new ABC drama you should be watching.
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you → watch → Dustfall
The Aporia
