Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, television and the aborted wedding trope.
Just the other day I was watching an episode of "One Tree Hill." It was the one where Lucas Scott, the blonde and broody of the Scott brothers, attempts to marry his girlfriend Lindsay, who, from the moment she enters the scene in season five, was nothing more than a placeholder and plot device for the will-they/won't-they relationship between Lucas and his soulmate, Peyton Sawyer.
Listen, I adore TV weddings. Seeing my favorite fictional friends fake marry each other is like Christmas in TV land for me. It's happy, it's fun, it's everything I've been waiting for since I started rooting for this couple so many seasons ago.
Seeing their love become the real deal is so rewarding as a TV watcher. However, I've noticed this trope that television creators just can't seem to give up. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: the aborted wedding.
What is an aborted TV wedding? Well, my friend, that is one in which our beloved characters don't follow through. A canceled wedding. A whole episode or season long arc dedicated to this wedding only to be completely demolished in 40 (or sometimes 20) minutes time.
Lucas and Lindsay's wedding is the perfect example. "One Tree Hill" has never shied away from the dramatic side of television, but this episode (Season Five Episode 12, "Hundredth") has more drama than even most Tree Hill residents can take.
Lucas proposed to Lindsay after them arguing about him still being in love with Peyton (which he totally is, but that's beside the point, or maybe it's the whole point?) An anger ridden proposal, we know that one all too well (I'm looking at you, Max Medina of "Gilmore Girls", before the thousand yellow daisies, of course). Lucas and Lindsey get engaged in episode eight of the season. Episode eight! And they're due to wed in episode 12! Doomed!
Ted and Stella of "How I Met Your Mother" also falls victim to the aborted wedding trope. Getting engaged in the season three finale, the couple calls it quits by the fifth episode of season four when Stella leaves Ted at the altar so she can be with her ex, with whom she shares a child with.
I feel like sometimes we forget that this plot is used all the time. Uncle Jesse and Aunt Becky didn't initially tie the knot after the first proposal. They rushed down the aisle in Las Vegas and planned to say "I do" on the same day they first exchanged "I love you's". Luckily, they were able to reconcile, but not before panicking their family and friends and spending God knows how much on a quick and speedy Vegas style wedding.
There's also the ex-factor. You know, when there's a guest at the wedding that one of the betrothed can't seem to quit.
Ross hastily decided to marry his British babe Emily, but invited his ex Rachel to the wedding, even going as far as to say her name at the wedding. By far the most creative of the disastrous wedding plot, but still it gets under my skin that these fictional lovers spend what must be a fortune on these weddings only to see their demise a few episodes later.
The aborted wedding trope has got to go. The perfect dress, venue, attendees and the audience of the show itself deserve so much better. Lorelai Gilmore took off three days before her wedding on a road trip that must've cost quite a bit of money itself.
These canceled weddings are only entertaining for so long before we, the viewer, gets frustrated with the plot device and placeholder of another man/woman. Let's get more creative, guys! Let's do something more than leaving one of these lovers at the altar or using a proposal to end an angry spat.
Television throws wedding episodes around like the money that pays for them grows on trees, when in reality, it doesn't. I don't look for a lot of reality when I watch my favorite TV shows because it's call drama for a reason. However, I would like to see less expensive failed nuptials in a small town where nobody works and more unique plots.
Let's save the wedding episodes for happily ever afters, not abandonment at the altar.
