According to a former editor of Marvel Comics, one reason why the graphic novel has nearly universally eschewed marriage is that it \u201ckills a good story.\u201d\u009d Whatever could be exciting about Clark Kent if he were to remain married to Lois Lane? Not much, apparently, because DC Comics erased the 1996 marriage from history, returning Superman to bachelorhood, the preferred state of our superheroes.<\/p>\n
Exceptions exist, of course. Amour, The Incredibles, and In America, along with many Tyler Perry films, focus on and celebrate marriage. Recent movies, such as Drinking Buddies, also trace the relation between friendship and romance, and even between friendship and marriage, explored, for example, throughout the Harry Potter franchise.<\/p>\n
One marvelous exception is the critically acclaimed television series Friday Night Lights (FNL), which aired from 2006 to 2011. It tells the story of ordinary people in a small Texas town and their impassioned love of football. But, as Basinger notes, FNL is not so much a show about football as it is \u201ca show about how marriage works when it actually does work.\u201d\u009d For critics and fans alike, there has arguably never been a more honest marriage portrayed on the screen than that of coach Eric and Tami Taylor.<\/p>\n
Theirs, unfortunately, remains the exception. More common on the small and large screen is the sense that marriage, particularly traditional marriage, is dull and irrelevant as storytelling material. More usual is the view that, \u201cas in the days of the judges,\u201d\u009d each one does with marriage what seems right in his or her eyes, whether in \u201copen,\u201d\u009d \u201cfree,\u201d\u009d or \u201ctransgressive\u201d\u009d style.<\/p>\n