Relationship Spotlight: Janine Teagues & Gregory Eddie (Abbott Elementary)

*Janine/Gregory-related spoilers.*

I wouldn’t call myself a huge shipper overall. I can be picky in my ships, and many a good show, in my estimation, falters with lackluster pairings. And sometimes I find myself in a situation where I like a pairing, but it’s less about the actual relationship dynamic and more that I just really like both of the characters. When a ship really works for me, though, I can fall head over heels for it!

When I started watching Abbott Elementary, it didn’t take long for me to get on the Gregory/Janine love train. Their early interactions are super sweet, and I love that, although they have wildly different temperaments, each understands the other very well. Gregory’s steadiness can have a calming impact on Janine’s high intensity, and optimistic Janine can balance out the sometimes-curmudgeonly Gregory. Even with traits that they share, like struggling with unexpected change, it looks very different on Gregory than it does on Janine, and yet each is able to help the other in the way that they need.

When you have a pairing whose personalities are very different like that, one popular romance approach is a love/hate dynamic, where their opposing temperaments drive each other up the wall—right until the point where they start making out. With Janine and Gregory, though, both are quickly in each other’s corners. They’re good colleagues who soon become genuine friends, and each is starting to harbor a secret crush on the other (oh my god, Mr. Johnson noticing how Gregory looks at Janine when they’re on their “desking” stakeout, so cute!)

Just so many great moments between them. Janine helping Gregory interpret all the drawings his students make for him. Gregory helping Janine come to terms with failure when her class isn’t able to do the egg drop. The two of them going down the big wooden slide together on the park field trip. Every instance of them knocking on their classroom wall to signal the other.

In every episode, I see how and why they like each other, which is a favorite of mine. That shouldn’t be notable when you’re talking about TV romances, but unfortunately, it is. What’s more, while it takes them a long time to admit their romantic feelings to themselves, let alone to each other, neither is shy about letting the other know how highly they’re regarded. Yeah, they spend quite a while dancing around the feelings conversation, but that doesn’t stop Gregory from openly admiring Janine’s tenacity or Janine congratulating Gregory on the progress he’s making as a teacher. They appreciate one another and cheer for each other’s accomplishments, even things that others might think are silly.

So far, the main thing that keeps these two from hitting the absolute peak of my favorite ships—like Leslie and Ben, Stede and Ed, or Roy and Keeley—is that the stopgaps to prolong the will-they-won’t-they throughout the first three seasons of the show get pretty labored. Social skills are neither one’s forte, so in a way, it makes sense that they keep sort of stumbling into relationships that they’re not excited about, so they’re rarely single at the same time. But the merry-go-round gets old. By the time season 3 hit, I was beyond ready for them to stop dancing and just get together.

The moment, though? The actual moment when they get together, coming on the heels of endless detours, obstacles, and stumbling blocks? Looooove! And now in season 4, I’ve been liking them a lot as a couple. They continue to be really funny together, and I appreciate that, while both have issues and hangups that can get in the way of their relationship, they ultimately talk things through and work it out. And cuteness? My goodness! Most recently, I love Janine giving the camera an adorably smitten smile while she proudly murmurs, “He knows so many different smoothie shops.” Stop, they’re too cute!

Of course, I’ve already done Neurodivergent Alley posts on both Gregory and Janine, so I definitely view their relationship as Autistic4AuDHD. On that level, their pairing works so well for me. I love that, in the early seasons, they appreciate things in each other that their respective partners find weird or annoying—Janine absolutely melts when she finds out that Gregory got his girlfriend a Lego set of a flower arrangement for Valentine’s Day, since she’s allergic to the real thing. I enjoy watching them bond over their shared niche interests, like both of them getting psyched (in their own way!) for a board game night. And I adore it when they make space for each other’s needs—Gregory almost exclusively eats safe foods, so Janine assuring him, “I’d never take you [to a restaurant] without buttered noodles,” is just a top-tier romantic line!

Relationship Spotlight: Peter B. Parker & Miles Morales (Spider-Man)

*Miles-Peter-related spoilers.*

I definitely remember liking Miles and Peter’s relationship when I saw Into the Spider-Verse in theaters, but it took rewatching it ahead of Across the Spider-Verse to make me go, “Oh wait, I love these two!” Nothing like a reluctant/depressed mentor paired with an eager/anxious would-be mentee.

By the time Peter gets pulled through a portal into Miles’ universe, he’s been Spider-Man for a long time. He knows how hard it can be, both physically and emotionally. He has back problems, he’s sick of the grind, and he’s been using food to self-soothe ever since he and Mary Jane split up. He’s burnt out but dragging himself through the day with a lot of apathy. The last thing he needs is to get sucked into another universe that just lost its Peter Parker.

Actually, scratch that. The last thing he needs is a jittery, impulsive teenager who got his spider-powers literal days ago. Miles is at first relieved by his appearance. He feels like he let his universe’s Spider-Man down, and he wasn’t sure how to make it right. Furthermore, his universe’s Peter promising to help teach him was the one thing that calmed his new-power panic. That Peter only knew him for a few minutes, and it was when he was in the middle of a serious fight, but he still took time to reassure Miles that it was going to be okay. But then he died. For Miles, meeting another Peter Parker feels like a second chance.

But then, it quickly becomes clear that this Peter is a very different Peter. He isn’t, not really—although he’s been doing this a lot longer and has been seriously banged around by life, he’s still the same fundamental guy. He doesn’t look or act like it, though. He does everything he can to push Miles away, vowing to destroy the collider but not wanting any sort of mini-me tagging along. And once Miles’ stubbornness and persistence secures him a spot at Peter’s side, Peter vacillates between not wanting to teach him anything and expecting way too much from him at a moment’s notice.

It's a wonky experience for both of them. Miles’ enthusiasm and endless questions irritate the jaded Peter, while this sad, out-of-shape Peter definitely feels like a step down compared to the first one Miles met. But by fits and starts, they begin to help each other. When Miles disobeys Peter’s orders not to follow him into Alchemax, his unexpected power of invisibility comes in handy. Meanwhile, Peter basically drops Miles into the deep end when it comes to swinging lessons, but once they get started, Peter actually does a good job of coaching him through the basics in the middle of a high-stakes situation.

I like this relationship because it’s very one-step-forward two-steps-back. I like that they annoy each other and disappoint each other, that Peter is the one who stands up for Miles with the other Spiders but still acknowledges that he isn’t ready for the collider mission, that Miles has to prove his capabilities to himself before he can prove them to Peter.

In the end, it’s not an overstatement to say that Miles changes Peter’s life. Meeting him is what makes Peter realize that he does want to be a dad, even if it’s scary, and that leads to him reconciling with Mary Jane and having Mayday. For my money, Across the Spider-Verse squanders this relationship a little, along with kind of squandering Peter as a whole. While Miles and Gwen’s relationship experiences some major friction in a complex way, Miles and Peter’s relationship is dealt with almost more as an afterthought. Peter is more in comic-relief mode in this film, and when their own friction arises, they’re not really given anything substantial enough to address it.

Which of course means that I hope we get a lot more of Peter and Miles in Beyond the Spider-Verse. Both Gwen and Peter have definitely realized how badly they let Miles down and are anxious to make it right. I have no doubt that Gwen will have plenty of space to do that, but in what’s sure to be a jampacked movie, I hope Peter gets the chance to do the same.

Relationship Spotlight: Barbie & Gloria (Barbie)

*Spoilers.*

I watched Barbie again recently and was reminded how much I enjoy these two. Whether you ship it or not, their relationship is something special.

Barbie has been acting strangely. She can’t stop thinking about death, her heels are touching the ground, and imperfections have been intruding on her perfect world. She’s sent to the Real World to find the girl who’s playing with her, the only way to fix things—only it all goes wrong. Sasha wants nothing to do with her and reads her the riot act.

Then Sasha’s mom picks her up from school and hears her talking about the “reality-challenged” woman who thinks she’s Barbie. And Gloria isn’t thrown by that for longer than a second. As she looks out and sees Barbie getting into one of the black Mattel trucks, she doesn’t question it. That’s Barbie. Of course it’s Barbie.

What Gloria doesn’t know yet, though, is that it’s her Barbie. Sasha’s Barbie that she’s been nostalgically, sadly playing with on her own, using as inspiration for her drawings. Feeling the distance that’s grown between her and Sasha, Gloria has been trying to recapture the magic of that easier time, when Sasha was little and they had fun together. She doesn’t know how her own sadness has been affecting Barbie.

She just knows she has to go after her. Even though I twigged it before the reveal, I love the simultaneous realization between Barbie and Gloria, that, “I came here for you.” I love that Barbie’s troubles are tied to the sad, weird mom that she’s become entangled with, and I love that Gloria believes and understands all of this. Granted, Mattel is fully aware of Barbie Land and knows that dolls have crossed into the Real World before, but Gloria doesn’t seem to have known that. While the discovery of this magic hits her like a brick wall, she believes in it, because she needs magic.

I really like that both Barbie and Gloria have such a delightful time on their trip back to Barbie Land, complete with singing along to the Indigo Girls. As Gloria says, she never gets to do anything for herself, and she relishes her long-overdue chance to have silly fun while wearing fabulous outfits. And when they arrive at Barbie Land and discover the Ken takeover, when Barbie freaks out and gives up, Gloria doesn’t turn her back on her. Sasha may think that Barbie has just validated all her judgments about the doll, but Gloria doesn’t write her off. Despite how wildly different their life experiences have been, Gloria recognizes that Barbie is going through something that’s completely beyond her conception, but she also believes that Barbie has it in her to step up and face it.

Barbie goes on her wild journey to the Real World because she wants to put everything back the way it’s “supposed” to be. She’s always just wanted things to stay the same, and the thought of change and unpredictability terrifies her. But over the course of her adventure—and most crucially, through getting to know Gloria—she learns how to embrace just that. By the end of the film, she’s decided that being human is what she really wants, and that wouldn’t have happened if her journey had been a matter of finding the sad little girl playing with her and figuring out how to make her happy again. The story is so much better for Gloria’s place in it, and both characters become better through knowing one another.