TV and plots

Recent TV watching has gotten me thinking about 'popular plots' and how they work in romances. Right now, I'm counting down the hours till The Office 'supersized' episode tonight (that would be in 9 hours--I'm DYING here! I've been obsessively watching this video over and over again all day!). Pam told Roy she kissed Jim before she broke off their wedding, and he freaked, and the the last episode ended with, "I'm going to KILL Jim Halpert," and.....oh, sorry. I got carried away. But The Office reminds me of the "Two friends but one is involved with someone else and one is secretly pining after the other, and then the other starts to have feelings, too..." plot. I personally LOVE this plot. I'm trying to think of a romance novel that utilizes it, but am drawing a blank. I know they must be out there, except it would mean a bit of a love-triangle and that usually doesn't fly in romance--unless the 'third wheel' is an obvious bad guy-girl so that there's no chance of readers rooting for the 'wrong' person. I'm actually using this plot in the first book of my newest trilogy, one I just started working on. But I've thrown in one more favorite element--older woman, younger man. You know, where they knew each other as children/teens, and the guy secretly worshipped the older girl, but the girl just thought of him like a sometimes-annoying little brother?! I guess that's yet another 'popular plot.'

And then there's LOST and Sawyer. Sigh...... I LOVE Sawyer--the tortured bad-boy. The rogue. The inveterate rake. We've seen, through flashbacks, how Sawyer (aka James) came to be the man he is today--a bad guy--and we *understand*, don't we?! Our poor hearts twist over what he went through as a boy. We've seen the bad things he's done, and yet we love him anyway, because we want to REFORM that bad boy. We want him to find love and happiness, don't we?! Of course, it doesn't hurt that the producers seem to find a way to have him shirtless and sweaty in just about every episode, or, even better, wearing those adorable reading glasses. He's the bad boy with secret pain, with depth. Definintely a popular romance plot: reforming the rake. My upcoming novel, TO LOVE A SCOUNDREL, uses it. I only wish I had the help of whichever writer comes up with the "Sawyer-isms," because, without a doubt, he always gets the BEST lines in the show!

Those are my favorite two, both used in recent television shows. What about you? Any favorite 'popular plots'?




P.S. Check out that last picture--am I the only one that was totally disturbed and freaking out when that Other's dude had the gun to Sawyer's head, about to kill him, and Kate told him she loved him 'cause she thought he was about to die--and so did I! I swear, I had my hands over my eyes, I couldn't even watch!