Will they get together? Or won’t they? Those are the simple questions surrounding the classic TV trope of will-they-or-won’t-they couples.

It’s all about the anticipation, the sexual tension, the flirting and even the fighting. But viewers hold out until that one moment where the stars align and realization finally hits.

I’m a sucker for these couples. I watch their every move shamelessly, and I over-analyze every single longing gaze and side remark. It’s not like I watch television shows for this main purpose; I just can’t avoid them. These couple are, in the words of “Parks and Recreation”’s Chris Traeger, _literally_ everywhere.

Will-they-or-won’t-they pairings work for both comedy and drama, making them a universal outline for TV romance. But the dynamics are more complicated than one might believe.

Sometimes, the dangerous dance ends too quickly and the audience is left to wonder “now what?” It’s like the idea of always wanting something you can’t have: when you finally get it, you’re sometimes just like, “meh.”

That’s the case for me with Fox’s hit comedy, “New Girl.” Last year’s season finale found the adorkable protagonist Jess (Zooey Deschanel) and her scruffy, slacker roommate Nick (Jake Johnson) finally sharing a kiss under the moonlight and whatnot. Obviously I was ecstatic when the moment came… until the season premiere last week.

In the third season’s first episode, we pick up right where we left off, with the new couple spewing out their mutual affections while riding off into the sunset. Suddenly I was nervous and couldn’t stop asking myself, “Wait, this is what I wanted, right?”

Sometimes, TV shows don’t drag out the anticipation long enough. The writers hastily cease the exciting component of things that keep the couple apart, like relationships with other people, distance, careers, etc. This most likely means that the fuel in the fire will burn out quickly, and suddenly it’ll be years before we see them together again.

The same predicament fell over “Friends.” Ross and Rachel got together in the second season but quickly fell apart (“We were on a break!”). It wasn’t until eight seasons later that the show had to forcibly readjust its storyline to bring them back together in the very end. I’ll admit, there were a few seasons where I forgot about Ross and Rachel altogether.

Also wading in the dangerous waters of will-they-or-won’t-they couples is making viewers wait for frustrating lengths of time until they see the couples together. The platonic friendship between Donna and Josh on “The West Wing” didn’t hit the mark until the final seventh season. That’s just frustrating.

But then there are shows that somehow pull off the cursed TV motif. “The Office” wouldn’t have been the same without close friends Jim and Pam secretly pining for each other for three seasons before they entered into a relationship. What was great about their romance was the unbelievably bad timing. Jim kissed Pam a few weeks before her wedding — yikes. But that impulsive decision turned the episode into one of the series’ best.

Then Pam broke off her wedding for Jim, but it was too late as he had already accepted an offer for a job somewhere else, where he met his new girlfriend, Karen.

Ah, I just love when couples are with other people they aren’t meant for. Sure, sometimes you feel bad for characters like Karen (that awkward moment when she caught Jim spying on her post-breakup), but it makes the anticipation that much more exciting.

The hot-and-cold friendship of Luke and Lorelai from “Gilmore Girls” almost perfectly portrayed the ups and downs of these couples (minus his illegitimate lovechild). Their flirty bickering was one of the best parts about the show, and the writers kept the excitement up long after they got together.

So hopefully “New Girl” can pick up a few tips from these pairs and survive the curse of the will-they-or-won’t-they couple. Or, plot twist, they break up and one of them moves out, and they never speak to each other again.

Heh, just kidding.