No, I sit down to a horror movie expecting blood and terror. But then movies are a different animal from television shows. In a movie, you only have an hour or two with the characters, so you get one or possibly two aspects from a slice of their lives. With a television show, at least with a good television show, you get to know the characters on multiple levels for an extended period of time.
I expect my 'ships to end happily if my 'ship has a canon basis -- deliberate UST on the part of the writers. Tease me, and do it well enough that I care, and I expect payoff.
However, I'd be completely pissed off if I sat down to watch Stargate SG-1 and instead of fighting the goa'uld, the team all retired to raise psychic beagles or whatever the hell it was that got mentioned the other day, and the show suddenly revolved around frolicking and snogging and raising lots of babies.
As a rule, I avoid chick flicks as dull, and prefer plotty sci-fi. In a forty-two minute show, three minutes of time dedicated to 'ship is plenty, maybe a few more minutes on a very special and rare occasion, with the 'ship limited to subtext and flirting that fits smoothly within the plot more often than not.
No, I don't think a romantic relationship is the end goal, but resolving an onscreen and deliberate situation of UST would take up three minutes or less of a series finale, and belongs there in some way. Sam and Jack fishing in Threads following the defeat of both Anubis and the replicators -- a fine ending.
Alternately, Buffy the Vampire Slayer did not have a romantic ending, at least for most of our characters, and it did not need one. Romantic ups and downs were woven into the show as a whole, and no relationship was in the process of building towards something that had to wait for the finale.
Roswell oozed shippy angst for three seasons, to the point where it frequently overshadowed other plot aspects, so whether or not the kids ended up together mattered. Other shows, not so much.
I expected a J/C and EMH/7 ending to Star Trek Voyager because the show seemed to promise it, but as pissy as I was when they ended that badly, it was only one of the reasons the finale sucked (what the frak happened to morals of any kind, future Janeway?), and I would have been even pissier if they'd just said 'screw the regs' and jumped into bed earlier in the series.
I'm also one who will write shippy fanfic, but secretly hate overly shippy episodes. Star Trek Voyager's shippiest episode was Resolutions and let's face it, it was a terrible episode. Multiple giant plot holes, and long flowery speeches. Gag me. On the other hand, SG-1's Divide and Conquer was beautiful.
It has to be done right, and for sci-fi, right means in moderation. Although I could probably watch the Daniel/Vala show all day, because they can spark and bicker and save the galaxy all at the same time, without missing a beat, and it's awesome, but they're the exception rather than the rule.
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I expect my 'ships to end happily if my 'ship has a canon basis -- deliberate UST on the part of the writers. Tease me, and do it well enough that I care, and I expect payoff.
However, I'd be completely pissed off if I sat down to watch Stargate SG-1 and instead of fighting the goa'uld, the team all retired to raise psychic beagles or whatever the hell it was that got mentioned the other day, and the show suddenly revolved around frolicking and snogging and raising lots of babies.
As a rule, I avoid chick flicks as dull, and prefer plotty sci-fi. In a forty-two minute show, three minutes of time dedicated to 'ship is plenty, maybe a few more minutes on a very special and rare occasion, with the 'ship limited to subtext and flirting that fits smoothly within the plot more often than not.
No, I don't think a romantic relationship is the end goal, but resolving an onscreen and deliberate situation of UST would take up three minutes or less of a series finale, and belongs there in some way. Sam and Jack fishing in Threads following the defeat of both Anubis and the replicators -- a fine ending.
Alternately, Buffy the Vampire Slayer did not have a romantic ending, at least for most of our characters, and it did not need one. Romantic ups and downs were woven into the show as a whole, and no relationship was in the process of building towards something that had to wait for the finale.
Roswell oozed shippy angst for three seasons, to the point where it frequently overshadowed other plot aspects, so whether or not the kids ended up together mattered. Other shows, not so much.
I expected a J/C and EMH/7 ending to Star Trek Voyager because the show seemed to promise it, but as pissy as I was when they ended that badly, it was only one of the reasons the finale sucked (what the frak happened to morals of any kind, future Janeway?), and I would have been even pissier if they'd just said 'screw the regs' and jumped into bed earlier in the series.
I'm also one who will write shippy fanfic, but secretly hate overly shippy episodes. Star Trek Voyager's shippiest episode was Resolutions and let's face it, it was a terrible episode. Multiple giant plot holes, and long flowery speeches. Gag me. On the other hand, SG-1's Divide and Conquer was beautiful.
It has to be done right, and for sci-fi, right means in moderation. Although I could probably watch the Daniel/Vala show all day, because they can spark and bicker and save the galaxy all at the same time, without missing a beat, and it's awesome, but they're the exception rather than the rule.