In real life human beings strive to attain warm, comforting relationships with spouses, children and friends. We work hard to find ways to support each other emotionally.
However, I learned early on in my career that having your characters respond to each other this way on film is at best boring and at worst injurious to your script (and the ratings of your show).
Beginning writers, accustomed to thinking of all stories in terms of the three act structure of beginning, middle, and end, often make the mistake of believing that the scenes within their teleplays and screenplays must also have beginnings, middles, and ends.
While it’s certainly true that scenes need to build to a specific point or effect, don’t forget to make use of another old homily: Less is more!
One of the most difficult tasks for any writer, new or old, is editing.
In TV and films, the ability to edit your teleplay or screenplay is crucial. There are many good reasons for writing tersely and tightly, but one of the least understood is the fact that part of the magic of film and tape is that they expand time.