Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Episode 1 of The Company You Keep.ABC has found its next big hit on the Sunday slate withThe Company You Keep. StarringMilo VentimigliaandCatherine Haena Kim, this drama explores a unique dynamic between Charlie’s con-man lifestyle and Emma’s career as an undercover CIA officer. By taking these two opposites and bringing them together as the catalysts for the narrative, the show is able to really stand among its peers and bring something to the screen that is unique enough to garner interest from the jump. Add ina charming con man portrayed by Ventimigliaand a relatable and equally lovely woman with power in Kim andThe Company You Keephas what should be a strong foundation to work with.
Where the show goes from there falls on the creative team led by the show’s creator,Julia Cohen, but after the premiere, it’s evident Cohen was confident enough to bypass the will-they-won’t-they trope andwaste no time getting the two leads together. Within 10 minutes of the first episode, Charlie and Emma meet and fall into a passionate evening that begins at the bar and ends between the sheets, setting these two on an intriguing trajectory that is bound to be littered with complications but one that is better off because it’s a relationship that is established by episode’s end and not one that will be dangled.
Related:Why Milo Ventimiglia Is the Perfect Con Man in ‘The Company You Keep’
How the Will-They-Won’t-They Trope Has Been Used Before
There are far too many TV shows that have utilized this trope. It’s an easy plot mechanism that naturally creates interest and one that can carry a throughline that’s good enough to last an entire series. One of the examples of this was the back-and-forth between Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel(Jennifer Aniston) inFriends. This was used throughout the series’ 10 seasons and all the way into the finale. Other popular examples include Luke (Scott Patterson) and Lorelei (Lauren Graham) fromGilmore Girls, which was a show that launched the career of Ventimiglia, and Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) fromThe Office.
While all of these shows are uber successful, there are others that have taken this route and found afterward that it just didn’t work, one example being Ted (Josh Radnor) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) onHow I Met Your Mother. It’s not that this was one that was a detriment to the show, but it’s one that, by the show’s end, just didn’t make sense and ultimately served as nothing more than a tool to create drama — which ultimately is what this trope is all about,whether it ends up working at the end of not. No one would have faultedThe Company You Keepfor taking the formulaic route; after all, it is a show centered on a love story so facilitating tension in the early going isn’t the worst idea. The path the creators decided to take was the right one for this premise, though, as the high-stakes storyline would have felt cheapened if it was being redirected with a will-they-won’t-they subplot. Now, these two characters are in the proper positions and the story can carry on without that dangling over the main plot.
Charlie and Emma Can Now Avoid all the Wasted Drama
WithThe Company You Keepwasting no time in getting the stars together with no teases or fake-outs along the way,the show can move along in a streamlined manner. There won’t be any questions of whether these characters will be together or not because that’s already established and because of it, there don’t have to be any B-plotlines that take away from the main thread. With a premise that is centered on these two contraries building something together, it only makes sense that they get together early on. Still, it wouldn’t have been shocking to see the writers opt to add a little intrigue by inserting this trope, even if for a few episodes, just to build up the tension for what they would have hoped was a major payoff.
With the two major players together as evidenced in Charlie rolling up to Emma’s home in the final moments and expressing his love for her (“Truth is, I’ve never stopped thinking about you”), the first episode was able to accomplish an impressive build-up to this moment. It’s better for it, as everything from this point forward will be with these two as a couple in mind as their stories merge into one. Seeing Charlie’s family being threatened by Daphne (Felisha Terrell) and having to now find a way to recoup $10 million at the end of the episode hits even harder for the audience because it’s now a major speed bump in the Charlie-Emma relationship. How does Charlie manage this and his newfound love? Will he ever confide in Emma about his situation? It’s these angles that will likely fuel the series moving forward. Its promising start can be credited to the strong performances of Ventimiglia and Kim, who quickly display their on-screen chemistry and approach every line in their interactions with a certain finesse that plays off the other’s response in a tantalizing fashion.
Ultimately, the entire concept of this show only works ifthe two leads are convincing as a couplethat is withholding information from one another. So far, the maneuvering these two did in their bar conversation, even going as far as openly admitting that “I’m a criminal” and “I’m CIA” and laughing each other’s proposition off shows just how confident these two characters are in not only the secret they keep but how unsuspecting they are of the other. That entire scene encapsulates the show’s ethos, so if that’s the type of chemistry and dialogue we’ll be getting from these two throughout,The Company You Keepwill have no trouble in getting its twist-and-turn narrative across. This, of course, is now possible because the show established this connection rather instantly and can now focus on constructing its story through the couple’s lens, rather than tackling two different paths that eventually will cross.
The Company You Keepairs on Sunday nights on ABC and is available to stream on Hulu.
