Howdy all! As I'm sure you've seen if you've read my previous three posts, you know that my soap viewing has become extremely limited in recent months. It may pick up again in time and it may not. Time will tell. So I'd like to discuss some changes that will be taking place on the site. In the new year, this will change to a site that will include other shows that I watch, not just soap operas, just to fill up some space since I for the moment am only watching one soap opera. I'm trying to get back into doing my daily or at least weekly updates for GH, but that turns this into a strictly General Hospital site unless I fill it with something else. I do watch a couple of primetime dramas which I don't mind updating on, but in general my television viewing has decreased significantly so I don't have much to blog about. But in the new year, the blog will be getting a new name and some things added on to it, just to keep the blog active, my mouth running, and this page full. I hope you'll stick around. Happy Holidays to all of you!
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Sunday, December 19, 2010
Young & the Restless, this goodbye was long overdue.
This goodbye was years in the making. How many years, you ask? Almost 3, if I remember correctly. It has been that long since YR interested me enough to keep me around as a regular Soapnet viewer. I never caught it in the morning since it came on at the same time as AMC, so when I was a viewer of both shows I always watched AMC instead and caught YR during the evening before my ABC reruns started. And for awhile, I loved where the show was going. I grew up on Young and the Restless. Victor and Jack became a normal part of my day and until I ran across AMC, was my lifetime favorite soap. I thought the show was hot and sexy, but had enough drama and cliffhangers to keep me interested, and enough characters to give me balance. But when Y&R started reminding me of B&B with their back and forth Sharon and Nick drama, I couldn't hang anymore because it started hogging up screen time as well. Over the past two years though, I slowly became more and more angry with the show and eventually tuned out entirely. From time to time I read the spoilers or the Two Scoops on Soapcentral so I can see what's going on, but all that those do for me now is reinforce why I no longer watch the show. I'm sure its still interesting and has its intriguing points, in no way am I saying the show is horrible because its still #1 for a reason. I'm just saying its no longer for me.
Now the Nick and Sharon thing goes back at least 5 years, but I was interested for a little while. At first, Nick and Phyllis was ok in theory to me, it gave me a bit of a Mrs.Robinson vibe and I thought it was a change from what I was familiar with. In no way was I expecting or even wanting that to be long-term. I've had a love-hate relationship with Phyllis from the first time I saw her over 10 years ago and when it comes to messing up the cosmic bond that is Nick and Sharon, I'd lean towards hate. lol Despite my previous hatred however, I came to like Nick and Phyllis together. Never loved the two together because it just didn't seem right, but I did like watching some of their chemistry together. But I always secretly wished Nick and Sharon would come to their senses and find a way back to each other. Underneath all my criticism, cynicism and general dislike for most things, I am quite the romantic. Go figure huh. I am a sucker for soap romance and I'll gladly watch a couple reunite, a pillow in my lap and my hands clasped together, all kinds of tears in the eyes. lol When Nick and Sharon finally looked at each other with all that lost love and longing in their eyes up in that cabin a couple of years ago, I breathed a sigh of relief. But when the roads cleared up and they returned to Phyllis and Jack respectively, I was disappointed. Their love isn't something I think is justified correctly with hidden trysts in snowed-in cabins and hotels. Then Sharon had that whole hoe train running for a little while and that entire relationship with Adam pissed me off. I'd rather have seen her with Victor than Adam. Point blank, either put Nick and Sharon back together and stop with the bs, or let them move on.
Speaking of Adam, I couldn't stand him when I first saw him and when he was recast he lost all of his crackers and didn't leave much, if any, room for redemption. The trauma that he put Ashley and Sharon through was disgusting for me to watch and as stupid as they made Ashley through her pregnancy was stupefying. Do you really expect me to believe a woman as strong and capable as Ashley deluded herself into thinking she was pregnant for months, into thinking she could trust Adam of all people above her own brother? Come on now! Sharon has always been a bit of a damsel in distress, another of my sore points with the show, but the way they dumbed Ashley down in order to carry that storyline through was insane. I'm not one for baby switches anyway; I wasn't a viewer when AMC's Bianca and Babe did it but I hated reading about it, I couldn't stand it when OLTL switched Jessica and Starr's daughters, and this storyline repulsed me as well. I couldn't wait for Adam to get his. He's not at a Sheila level, where he's just the crazy character with no redemption and no conscience that coincidentally is always a treat to see. He was irritating, insane, and I wasn't interested in watching him redeem himself. I didn't care. At least with Sheila, I don't want her to redeem herself because then she wouldn't be the deliciously evil bitch that she is. I don't ever want to see Sheila normal. Ever. lol I don't ever want to see Adam....again. lmao
I hated that the Carlton family is pretty much gone, felled by the same lake coincidentally. It was sad when I watched Colleen's death and part of me was hoping she'd come back, even though I'd already read casting spoilers and Tammin Sursok was definitely not returning to the show. I still tried to hold a little hope that maybe this was a last-minute change and she'd wake up from a coma or something or at least that there'd be hope she could return, but when Victor got her heart I knew it was a done deal. It was very sad for me, but I did like the dramatic feel of everything. Speaking of Colleen, that whole mess with Patty and/or Dr. Emily was nuts to me. Patty was unhinged on....at least 5 different levels and I wanted to see her gone more than I wanted the show to redeem her or have her get hers for what she had done to other people. I knew the Dr.Emily bit was partly to keep Stacy Haiduk around because she is a good actress; I was familiar with her work on AMC, where she coincidentally played yet another nutball; but double roles like that usually don't go over very well for me. And this one was no different. She isn't with the show now and wasn't much of an interest to me when she was, but it did spice things up slightly, even if it was only for a little while.
I have to admit I did enjoy the recent popping up of stars of YR's yesteryear, like Traci and occasionally Danny or even Snapper this past August. It helped take me back to a time when soaps reigned supreme during the day, a time when love in the afternoon wasn't all that hard to find. Unfortunately, those visits never lasted long and before I knew it, they'd quickly gone back to wherever they were before, leaving me with shells of what my favorite soap had become. I know that the soap isn't going to and I guess shouldn't be expected to maintain the same flow as it did nearly 20 years ago (man were the 90s really 20 years ago??) but As I mentioned in the OLTL blog, I am not a huge fan of recasts, especially if the role is synonymous with one name. I think you already know who I'm referring to here. Shemar Moore is Malcolm Winters to me, all day long. With him on Criminal Minds now I know there's no chance he'd be reprising the role and the character does have history in Genoa City, so I figured that at some point there would be a recast. However, I did think the writers would pay a little more attention to continuity and at least a similar look to the character, hell the same skintone would have been okay with me. However, instead of the milky chocolate, smooth voiced character I was used to I got a dark chocolate, Eddie Winslow-sounding character masquerading as Malcolm. I just couldn't get used to it and I'll admit I wrote him off pretty soon. Nothing against Darius McCrary, I just associate Shemar Moore with Malcolm Winters and don't really think the role can handle a recast after so long. Also, I just don't think he embodies the sexiness that was part of Malcolm's general allure. Not that McCrary is unattractive, but he doesn't ooze sex in the way that has become synonymous with Malcolm. Call me closed-minded, I couldn't accept a recast, even if I do like the actor.
I don't know many soap fans these days who don't know about the trouble behind the scenes with Victoria Rowell and....well, depends on who you're asking. Some say the trouble is with Michelle Stafford, some say its with Stafford and Peter Bergman, yet others still say its with her own soap daughter, Christel Khalil. And even more say its simply staffers that have the issues with Rowell and she is exaggerating them to portray herself as the victim in the story. At the end of the day Rowell claims that she had interest in portraying Drucilla again and I do miss my Dru. But I think things have become too sticky for her to ever have a clean return to the show. Which is unfortunate because Rowell really is a good actress and her last storyline with the Carmen Mesta mess was, I felt, undeserving for someone with so much longevity and history with the show. Neil really hasn't seemed to find his way since Dru's exit and I think Lily could have really benefited from having her mother there with her through her fight with cancer. I haven't seen anything from Nate Jr. in years, Devon hasn't had a stable female in his life since she's been gone, and Olivia really doesn't have much purpose now that her sister is gone, she already had her little thing with Neil and her friendship with Ashley is over, not to mention Brad is gone now as well. That family is hurting without Dru there and as the only family of color on the show, it's sad for me to see that through the years the Winters family has slowly fallen.
Its a defeating thing for me over the years to watch the soap that I grew up on slowly change and evolve. I guess it would be okay for me if the changes didn't seem so....drastic I suppose. No more Gina's, no more scenes (in recent memory anyway) at Nick and Sharon's old house, no more love in the afternoon. I have been trying to like the show because its the one I grew up on, but over the years I've fallen out of love with it. The teen scene from my years has been long grown and excluding one whose face is no longer even the same, is gone. Brittany's been gone for years, JT is now gone and so is Mackenzie, yet again. The characters I grew up watching, Gina, Danny, even the Newmans' old butler, are gone. In place are new faces, new locations, alot of older characters but the majority are not together. In short, the show is still amazing and the cast is great, a set of wonderful actors and actresses. But just like with OLTL, its no longer for me.
So on that note, I bid Genoa City a fond farewell as well. From time to time I suppose I could catch an epi on Soapnet, but unless the show pulls it out of the fire for me and brings me something to escape to, something not so full of pain and hurt like it has been in recent years, I won't be back. I love soaps because they're a happy place for me, somewhere that happiness at some level still exists. But yet on every show, someone's dying or in jail, or beating a charge, or something. I want my drama and cliffhangers, but to tell the truth, I still kind of miss the campiness of old. I miss the telltale happiness and love that definitely isn't present in large forms in our day anymore, the kind that instills just a little hope and belief in your own situations. I miss characters we can root for, characters who encounter obstacles just like us and don't undergo four personality shifts in as many years. I miss typical whodunnits and the occasional murder. I also miss the days where spoilers and more about the actors weren't bigger news than the characters they played and the shows they were on, the days where you only heard those things if it was huge news, and not a daily occurrence. I understand wanting to bring us closer to some of our favorite actors and actresses, but especially in the case of casting news, makes us miss out on a welcome thrill. I miss true suspense but unfortunately with the age of the Internet, those days are long gone as long as someone on a set is willing to spill. The Internet's not all bad and in fact is my favorite thing, it gives people and blabbers like me a voice, but I miss genuinely being surprised by a change or a twist. I miss not being able to guess who did it, not being able to tell what was going to be on my screen in a month, I miss waiting on the edge of my seat waiting with held breath for the next show. And for even a little while after I became an avid spoiler and scoops reader, I was still in some suspense with Young and the Restless. Maybe its so much time on the air, maybe its that old plot twists still work, I'm not sure..but nothing feels new, young or particularly restless to me. I feel restless watching the show because I miss the YR of old. Hell, maybe the issue is me not liking change. lol Let's go with that one. lol In any case, I think excluding a few episodes from time to time, my regular viewing of this show is done as well. And so that closes this here rant. Mandy out.
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Now the Nick and Sharon thing goes back at least 5 years, but I was interested for a little while. At first, Nick and Phyllis was ok in theory to me, it gave me a bit of a Mrs.Robinson vibe and I thought it was a change from what I was familiar with. In no way was I expecting or even wanting that to be long-term. I've had a love-hate relationship with Phyllis from the first time I saw her over 10 years ago and when it comes to messing up the cosmic bond that is Nick and Sharon, I'd lean towards hate. lol Despite my previous hatred however, I came to like Nick and Phyllis together. Never loved the two together because it just didn't seem right, but I did like watching some of their chemistry together. But I always secretly wished Nick and Sharon would come to their senses and find a way back to each other. Underneath all my criticism, cynicism and general dislike for most things, I am quite the romantic. Go figure huh. I am a sucker for soap romance and I'll gladly watch a couple reunite, a pillow in my lap and my hands clasped together, all kinds of tears in the eyes. lol When Nick and Sharon finally looked at each other with all that lost love and longing in their eyes up in that cabin a couple of years ago, I breathed a sigh of relief. But when the roads cleared up and they returned to Phyllis and Jack respectively, I was disappointed. Their love isn't something I think is justified correctly with hidden trysts in snowed-in cabins and hotels. Then Sharon had that whole hoe train running for a little while and that entire relationship with Adam pissed me off. I'd rather have seen her with Victor than Adam. Point blank, either put Nick and Sharon back together and stop with the bs, or let them move on.
Speaking of Adam, I couldn't stand him when I first saw him and when he was recast he lost all of his crackers and didn't leave much, if any, room for redemption. The trauma that he put Ashley and Sharon through was disgusting for me to watch and as stupid as they made Ashley through her pregnancy was stupefying. Do you really expect me to believe a woman as strong and capable as Ashley deluded herself into thinking she was pregnant for months, into thinking she could trust Adam of all people above her own brother? Come on now! Sharon has always been a bit of a damsel in distress, another of my sore points with the show, but the way they dumbed Ashley down in order to carry that storyline through was insane. I'm not one for baby switches anyway; I wasn't a viewer when AMC's Bianca and Babe did it but I hated reading about it, I couldn't stand it when OLTL switched Jessica and Starr's daughters, and this storyline repulsed me as well. I couldn't wait for Adam to get his. He's not at a Sheila level, where he's just the crazy character with no redemption and no conscience that coincidentally is always a treat to see. He was irritating, insane, and I wasn't interested in watching him redeem himself. I didn't care. At least with Sheila, I don't want her to redeem herself because then she wouldn't be the deliciously evil bitch that she is. I don't ever want to see Sheila normal. Ever. lol I don't ever want to see Adam....again. lmao
I hated that the Carlton family is pretty much gone, felled by the same lake coincidentally. It was sad when I watched Colleen's death and part of me was hoping she'd come back, even though I'd already read casting spoilers and Tammin Sursok was definitely not returning to the show. I still tried to hold a little hope that maybe this was a last-minute change and she'd wake up from a coma or something or at least that there'd be hope she could return, but when Victor got her heart I knew it was a done deal. It was very sad for me, but I did like the dramatic feel of everything. Speaking of Colleen, that whole mess with Patty and/or Dr. Emily was nuts to me. Patty was unhinged on....at least 5 different levels and I wanted to see her gone more than I wanted the show to redeem her or have her get hers for what she had done to other people. I knew the Dr.Emily bit was partly to keep Stacy Haiduk around because she is a good actress; I was familiar with her work on AMC, where she coincidentally played yet another nutball; but double roles like that usually don't go over very well for me. And this one was no different. She isn't with the show now and wasn't much of an interest to me when she was, but it did spice things up slightly, even if it was only for a little while.
I have to admit I did enjoy the recent popping up of stars of YR's yesteryear, like Traci and occasionally Danny or even Snapper this past August. It helped take me back to a time when soaps reigned supreme during the day, a time when love in the afternoon wasn't all that hard to find. Unfortunately, those visits never lasted long and before I knew it, they'd quickly gone back to wherever they were before, leaving me with shells of what my favorite soap had become. I know that the soap isn't going to and I guess shouldn't be expected to maintain the same flow as it did nearly 20 years ago (man were the 90s really 20 years ago??) but As I mentioned in the OLTL blog, I am not a huge fan of recasts, especially if the role is synonymous with one name. I think you already know who I'm referring to here. Shemar Moore is Malcolm Winters to me, all day long. With him on Criminal Minds now I know there's no chance he'd be reprising the role and the character does have history in Genoa City, so I figured that at some point there would be a recast. However, I did think the writers would pay a little more attention to continuity and at least a similar look to the character, hell the same skintone would have been okay with me. However, instead of the milky chocolate, smooth voiced character I was used to I got a dark chocolate, Eddie Winslow-sounding character masquerading as Malcolm. I just couldn't get used to it and I'll admit I wrote him off pretty soon. Nothing against Darius McCrary, I just associate Shemar Moore with Malcolm Winters and don't really think the role can handle a recast after so long. Also, I just don't think he embodies the sexiness that was part of Malcolm's general allure. Not that McCrary is unattractive, but he doesn't ooze sex in the way that has become synonymous with Malcolm. Call me closed-minded, I couldn't accept a recast, even if I do like the actor.
I don't know many soap fans these days who don't know about the trouble behind the scenes with Victoria Rowell and....well, depends on who you're asking. Some say the trouble is with Michelle Stafford, some say its with Stafford and Peter Bergman, yet others still say its with her own soap daughter, Christel Khalil. And even more say its simply staffers that have the issues with Rowell and she is exaggerating them to portray herself as the victim in the story. At the end of the day Rowell claims that she had interest in portraying Drucilla again and I do miss my Dru. But I think things have become too sticky for her to ever have a clean return to the show. Which is unfortunate because Rowell really is a good actress and her last storyline with the Carmen Mesta mess was, I felt, undeserving for someone with so much longevity and history with the show. Neil really hasn't seemed to find his way since Dru's exit and I think Lily could have really benefited from having her mother there with her through her fight with cancer. I haven't seen anything from Nate Jr. in years, Devon hasn't had a stable female in his life since she's been gone, and Olivia really doesn't have much purpose now that her sister is gone, she already had her little thing with Neil and her friendship with Ashley is over, not to mention Brad is gone now as well. That family is hurting without Dru there and as the only family of color on the show, it's sad for me to see that through the years the Winters family has slowly fallen.
Its a defeating thing for me over the years to watch the soap that I grew up on slowly change and evolve. I guess it would be okay for me if the changes didn't seem so....drastic I suppose. No more Gina's, no more scenes (in recent memory anyway) at Nick and Sharon's old house, no more love in the afternoon. I have been trying to like the show because its the one I grew up on, but over the years I've fallen out of love with it. The teen scene from my years has been long grown and excluding one whose face is no longer even the same, is gone. Brittany's been gone for years, JT is now gone and so is Mackenzie, yet again. The characters I grew up watching, Gina, Danny, even the Newmans' old butler, are gone. In place are new faces, new locations, alot of older characters but the majority are not together. In short, the show is still amazing and the cast is great, a set of wonderful actors and actresses. But just like with OLTL, its no longer for me.
So on that note, I bid Genoa City a fond farewell as well. From time to time I suppose I could catch an epi on Soapnet, but unless the show pulls it out of the fire for me and brings me something to escape to, something not so full of pain and hurt like it has been in recent years, I won't be back. I love soaps because they're a happy place for me, somewhere that happiness at some level still exists. But yet on every show, someone's dying or in jail, or beating a charge, or something. I want my drama and cliffhangers, but to tell the truth, I still kind of miss the campiness of old. I miss the telltale happiness and love that definitely isn't present in large forms in our day anymore, the kind that instills just a little hope and belief in your own situations. I miss characters we can root for, characters who encounter obstacles just like us and don't undergo four personality shifts in as many years. I miss typical whodunnits and the occasional murder. I also miss the days where spoilers and more about the actors weren't bigger news than the characters they played and the shows they were on, the days where you only heard those things if it was huge news, and not a daily occurrence. I understand wanting to bring us closer to some of our favorite actors and actresses, but especially in the case of casting news, makes us miss out on a welcome thrill. I miss true suspense but unfortunately with the age of the Internet, those days are long gone as long as someone on a set is willing to spill. The Internet's not all bad and in fact is my favorite thing, it gives people and blabbers like me a voice, but I miss genuinely being surprised by a change or a twist. I miss not being able to guess who did it, not being able to tell what was going to be on my screen in a month, I miss waiting on the edge of my seat waiting with held breath for the next show. And for even a little while after I became an avid spoiler and scoops reader, I was still in some suspense with Young and the Restless. Maybe its so much time on the air, maybe its that old plot twists still work, I'm not sure..but nothing feels new, young or particularly restless to me. I feel restless watching the show because I miss the YR of old. Hell, maybe the issue is me not liking change. lol Let's go with that one. lol In any case, I think excluding a few episodes from time to time, my regular viewing of this show is done as well. And so that closes this here rant. Mandy out.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Taking A Greyhound Out Of Llanview
Nope, I didn't wanna take a flight, and I took a train in from Pine Valley so I could gather my things. I want to take a Greyhound out. I wanna remember all the things I liked about Llanview, I want a time to reminisce a little bit. I am also giving the town one last chance on that slow bus ride out of the city to pull me back in, I want them to run after the bus and give me a reason to stay. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as though I'll be getting my wish so much like my goodbye blog to Pine Valley, this is my goodbye to Llanview as well. It's gonna be lengthy because I'm feeling a little long-winded tonight, so bear with me.
Much like All My Children, I found One Life on Soapnet, partly because I think I forgot to change the channel after an epi of AMC and ended up liking it. Coincidentally, some time later that is the exact same way I fell in love with GH. lol What can I say, I'm consistent. Watching those three soaps got me through alot of sleepless nights, which come my way on the daily. One Life was at first exciting, full of a cast of characters that I either loved or came to love over time, plots that kept me interested, and more love in the afternoon at first than either AMC or GH. I loved it and thought AMC was the perfect lead-in. Over time, my viewing tapered off as storylines started to bore me and when I came back it was like watching an entirely new show.
Its no secret that in the soap world, you could miss a couple weeks, come back and its still two days later, or you could miss two weeks and miss almost an entire storyline, and in the case of Llanview I missed entire storylines. I thought the casting directors made a few mistakes this year, some with letting talented actors like BethAnn Bonner go via that serial killer bit at the beginning of the year, and adding certain people to the fold on a constant basis like the entire Ford family, all of whom I feel are irrelevant and take the focus away from other stories with better material. I'm sure these guys are good actors, but I'm just not invested in any of them as individuals or as a family. A year and a half ago none of them were around and now they are here, hogging up time on my screen that I would much rather see devoted to the underutilized characters in the cast, like Marty or even Roxy, who I find to be a hoot and a half.
Speaking of Marty, that was one of the big reasons why I ultimately decided to leave Llanview alone. I love Susan Haskell's work as Marty even though when she began her tenure I wasn't a viewer. The Marty I was familiar with before Haskell's return was Christina Chambers, and I purposely didn't pull up any of the originator's work because I wanted to just enjoy the plot and not compare. When Chambers was let go, I was sad but I was excited when I heard the originator of the role was returning to the show. I dunno, maybe its me being a cheesy soap fan and a huge fan of consistency (just look at how I found all 3 ABC soaps, that should be a hint lol), I am always excited when an originator returns to their place on a soap, whether or not I was a viewer when they were around the first time. I'm not a huge fan of recasts because so many of them fail horribly, but sometimes they hit it out of the park and I don't mind. However, if the originator decides to return, I usually don't complain. In any case, I was thrilled when Susan Haskell returned to the show, as I was interested to see what Marty's backstory was. However, that thrill was dimmed and then put out when they allowed her to shack up with the person who was the catalyst for her angst, then promptly used her less and less. Susan Haskell is an excellent actress and I love the dramatic scenes that the show had her in. It really allowed her to shine, so I was extremely disappointed when she was handed less material. It's like unless the story is concerning Todd, John or her rape, the writers aren't sure what to do with Marty. And that's a shame to watch.
It baffled me that characters with backstory and history like Marty were underutilized, yet everytime I tuned in, one of those damn Ford boys was on my screen. I enjoyed Rob--is that his name? when he was the hot producer of David's "show" and provided temporary distractions for Langston, but I definitely did not like when the show broke up Lang and Markko in favor of turning Lang into a familiar soap mold, the cheatin' mold. Really really hated that angle. Lang has always been the sense of reason, the logic that a sometimes ignorant Starr needed. All of a sudden she's cheating on her long term bf with some hot idiot that doesn't really pay her any mind except for between the sheets and she's reasoning and making excuses for him? Nah...really doesn't fly with me. That whole bit with Jessica really pissed me off and ever since then he and his brothers haven't done anything for me but irritate the weeds out of me. With them bringing the parental units in the picture and having them participate with major characters on show, I am seeing now that the Fords may be around awhile longer. Which, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, is a shame to watch.
After all the hulabaloo surrounding Starr's teen pregnancy, I expected her and Cole to have more issues as they adjusted, which I think is vital for any couple who decides to move in together. Having a child come out of said relationship should have made the storyline more complex. How would they deal with being in the same house? How would they deal together with the issue of sex since one go around the park resulted in Hope? The writers had a real opportunity to show us some reality, to let us see a mature teen couple accept their responsibility to each other as well as their daughter and let us watch them grow together. Personally though, I think the writers dropped the ball there in a big way. Instead, the writers let them get boring. I know alot of people weren't too fond of Brandon Buddy's Cole, especially since he was the typical jock when he first hit the screen, but in the years he was part of the cast I gotta say, for starting out as a dickhead he did make some significant changes. Most jocks I knew in school were and still are insufferable jerks who think the world revolves around them and their daily dose of "Look what I did today, look at what I have, I'm better than you" all over their FB walls. I hardly think Cole is still an insufferable pain to watch. Granted, I did not like when OLTL became a segue for the Starr and Cole Show, but as long as there was some balance and enough plot to keep me interested, I was fine. But they got boring, grew apart, and then.....a Ford boy became involved, opening the door for Brandon Buddy to take his leave from the show. Le sigh. They're becoming a recurring theme in this blog, aren't they now?
Again, I could keep going, but I think I've said enough. In short, the show began to irritate me with the things it put in the storylines and the ways that they altered current and some past storylines. That entire storyline about Rex's parents annoyed the hell out of me and by the time I found out a returning Echo DiSavoy was his mother, I couldn't have cared less. I was really excited hearing that the show picked up Kim Zimmer after GL ended; she was one of my all-time favorite actresses. However, by the time that her scenes finally began to air, I couldn't even enjoy them because I was so done with the show. Underused characters should be having more air time and new faces with no history or connection with Llanview shouldn't be taking that time away from them. One Life became a sea of new faces to me, with old and familiar ones either doing things too stupid for me to believe, being too boring for me to care what they were doing, or not being around at all.
With that said, I'm going to continue my bus ride out of Llanview. I may come back to visit, may even stay a couple of days, but I no longer have residency there. lol I would love to tune in and see more of the soap that I came to love over the past four years, but until that happens, I have to say so long, Llanview.
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Much like All My Children, I found One Life on Soapnet, partly because I think I forgot to change the channel after an epi of AMC and ended up liking it. Coincidentally, some time later that is the exact same way I fell in love with GH. lol What can I say, I'm consistent. Watching those three soaps got me through alot of sleepless nights, which come my way on the daily. One Life was at first exciting, full of a cast of characters that I either loved or came to love over time, plots that kept me interested, and more love in the afternoon at first than either AMC or GH. I loved it and thought AMC was the perfect lead-in. Over time, my viewing tapered off as storylines started to bore me and when I came back it was like watching an entirely new show.
Its no secret that in the soap world, you could miss a couple weeks, come back and its still two days later, or you could miss two weeks and miss almost an entire storyline, and in the case of Llanview I missed entire storylines. I thought the casting directors made a few mistakes this year, some with letting talented actors like BethAnn Bonner go via that serial killer bit at the beginning of the year, and adding certain people to the fold on a constant basis like the entire Ford family, all of whom I feel are irrelevant and take the focus away from other stories with better material. I'm sure these guys are good actors, but I'm just not invested in any of them as individuals or as a family. A year and a half ago none of them were around and now they are here, hogging up time on my screen that I would much rather see devoted to the underutilized characters in the cast, like Marty or even Roxy, who I find to be a hoot and a half.
Speaking of Marty, that was one of the big reasons why I ultimately decided to leave Llanview alone. I love Susan Haskell's work as Marty even though when she began her tenure I wasn't a viewer. The Marty I was familiar with before Haskell's return was Christina Chambers, and I purposely didn't pull up any of the originator's work because I wanted to just enjoy the plot and not compare. When Chambers was let go, I was sad but I was excited when I heard the originator of the role was returning to the show. I dunno, maybe its me being a cheesy soap fan and a huge fan of consistency (just look at how I found all 3 ABC soaps, that should be a hint lol), I am always excited when an originator returns to their place on a soap, whether or not I was a viewer when they were around the first time. I'm not a huge fan of recasts because so many of them fail horribly, but sometimes they hit it out of the park and I don't mind. However, if the originator decides to return, I usually don't complain. In any case, I was thrilled when Susan Haskell returned to the show, as I was interested to see what Marty's backstory was. However, that thrill was dimmed and then put out when they allowed her to shack up with the person who was the catalyst for her angst, then promptly used her less and less. Susan Haskell is an excellent actress and I love the dramatic scenes that the show had her in. It really allowed her to shine, so I was extremely disappointed when she was handed less material. It's like unless the story is concerning Todd, John or her rape, the writers aren't sure what to do with Marty. And that's a shame to watch.
It baffled me that characters with backstory and history like Marty were underutilized, yet everytime I tuned in, one of those damn Ford boys was on my screen. I enjoyed Rob--is that his name? when he was the hot producer of David's "show" and provided temporary distractions for Langston, but I definitely did not like when the show broke up Lang and Markko in favor of turning Lang into a familiar soap mold, the cheatin' mold. Really really hated that angle. Lang has always been the sense of reason, the logic that a sometimes ignorant Starr needed. All of a sudden she's cheating on her long term bf with some hot idiot that doesn't really pay her any mind except for between the sheets and she's reasoning and making excuses for him? Nah...really doesn't fly with me. That whole bit with Jessica really pissed me off and ever since then he and his brothers haven't done anything for me but irritate the weeds out of me. With them bringing the parental units in the picture and having them participate with major characters on show, I am seeing now that the Fords may be around awhile longer. Which, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, is a shame to watch.
After all the hulabaloo surrounding Starr's teen pregnancy, I expected her and Cole to have more issues as they adjusted, which I think is vital for any couple who decides to move in together. Having a child come out of said relationship should have made the storyline more complex. How would they deal with being in the same house? How would they deal together with the issue of sex since one go around the park resulted in Hope? The writers had a real opportunity to show us some reality, to let us see a mature teen couple accept their responsibility to each other as well as their daughter and let us watch them grow together. Personally though, I think the writers dropped the ball there in a big way. Instead, the writers let them get boring. I know alot of people weren't too fond of Brandon Buddy's Cole, especially since he was the typical jock when he first hit the screen, but in the years he was part of the cast I gotta say, for starting out as a dickhead he did make some significant changes. Most jocks I knew in school were and still are insufferable jerks who think the world revolves around them and their daily dose of "Look what I did today, look at what I have, I'm better than you" all over their FB walls. I hardly think Cole is still an insufferable pain to watch. Granted, I did not like when OLTL became a segue for the Starr and Cole Show, but as long as there was some balance and enough plot to keep me interested, I was fine. But they got boring, grew apart, and then.....a Ford boy became involved, opening the door for Brandon Buddy to take his leave from the show. Le sigh. They're becoming a recurring theme in this blog, aren't they now?
Again, I could keep going, but I think I've said enough. In short, the show began to irritate me with the things it put in the storylines and the ways that they altered current and some past storylines. That entire storyline about Rex's parents annoyed the hell out of me and by the time I found out a returning Echo DiSavoy was his mother, I couldn't have cared less. I was really excited hearing that the show picked up Kim Zimmer after GL ended; she was one of my all-time favorite actresses. However, by the time that her scenes finally began to air, I couldn't even enjoy them because I was so done with the show. Underused characters should be having more air time and new faces with no history or connection with Llanview shouldn't be taking that time away from them. One Life became a sea of new faces to me, with old and familiar ones either doing things too stupid for me to believe, being too boring for me to care what they were doing, or not being around at all.
With that said, I'm going to continue my bus ride out of Llanview. I may come back to visit, may even stay a couple of days, but I no longer have residency there. lol I would love to tune in and see more of the soap that I came to love over the past four years, but until that happens, I have to say so long, Llanview.
Friday, December 3, 2010
All My Children, I bid you adieu.
All My Children has now become another soap on my ever-growing list of soaps I no longer like. That leaves me with one remaining soap, General Hospital. It's a bittersweet goodbye for All My Children. I liked the show when I first found it on Soapnet, and I've mentioned a few times in the past that Alexa Havins (ex-Babe) and Jacob Young (JR) are the ones who got me started on the show because they were sharing a scene when I stumbled across it one night. Fast forward four and a half years, and Babe is dead after in my opinion a not-so-great recast (no offense to Amanda Baker, she did an awesome job; I just didn't think the character was Babe), Adam is gone, Stuart is dead, Josh is dead, Jesse and Angie are back but you wouldn't know it, Greenlee is back yet again, Annie appears to have regained her sanity, I can't keep up with or care enough about what Ryan's up to anymore, Erica and Jack are back to doing the back and forth junk, David is presumably dead and too many characters are gone........its too much. And with the recent announcement that Thorsten Kaye is leaving the show for good (not surprisingly but still) and instead of having Zendall divorce, they instead choose to kill Zach off entirely, I bid the show good riddance.
A big part of the reason why I continued to watch All My Children after it started to piss me off was the chemistry between Zendall's portrayers. In the soap world we already know very few couples stay together throughout the course of a year, much less several. But Zendall did it. And now they decide to kill his character off for Sweeps week?! 6 years of work went into that character and he becomes folly for ratings? It's irritating! You expect me to believe that he survived the whole Satin Slayer debacle, Kendall's stint in prison, HIS stint in prison, being in that well for I forget how long without food or drink, and goodness knows what else Zendall was put through in the 4 years that I was a viewer, but that something stupid concocted during Sweeps is gonna take him out? Its unbelievably annoying and that was just the final straw for my dwindling threads of interest in this show.
I make it known that I was a huge fan of Annie McDermott Lavery Chandler. lol Notice for the first time I said 'was.' I am an Ann fan no longer. I first started to fall off the train after she killed Richie and turned into a madwoman. First she was this wonderful Earth Mother, a damaged victim from her abusive marriage to Terry McDermott and just trying to get her and Emma to a better life. Then she evolved into someone stronger because of her relationship with Ryan, and she was secure in herself and their relationship. I still maintain that Ryan's brain injury was the death knell for their marriage. It opened the door to Greenlee's re-entry into the equation and closed the door on any hope for Ryannie's survival. Then she turned into a survivor again after all of Richie's machinations and that's when the carefully built pyramid started to topple. The death of their relative came out, then she killed Richie and that was all she wrote. She went completely bat-shit nutball crazy for a few months, which was not only disappointing but insulting to me as someone who has had their own struggle with mental issues, anxiety and the like. Then she was pretending to be sane, when she really wasn't. Then all of a sudden Adam of all people takes her in and all of a sudden she IS sane? Then she gets a little fire under her ass and is still teeter tottering on the brink of sanity, meh....she's had too many changes to her character and even now, I wonder if she really is in control of her mental faculties. That's too much for me to handle for a character we were just introduced to 4 years ago. And now she's wormed her way into the Chandler fold and as much as I'd like to believe it'll get better, the long of the short of it is, I'm just not interested in her as a character anymore.
The demise of the Chandler family was sad to watch, even though I haven't been a long-term viewer of decades or anything like alot of other viewers. I was saddened like everyone else when the show decided to kill off Stuart last year. He was bright and always had a good word or a positive outlook, wasn't judgmental or manipulative and just wanted everyone happy. He was a welcomed breath of fresh air to an otherwise pretty dismal cast of characters, who were usually in the midst of some ordeal and had nothing positive to say. So even though the whodunnit was exciting at first the way the show laid it out and replayed the night of the murder (I never could turn down a good murder mystery and I absolutely loved how the show took us back through the night in question thru the viewpoint of each person that was there), I was sad that good ol' Stuart was at the heart of the matter. I haven't followed the list of Colby recasts, but Ambyr Childers' Colby was my personal favorite. Brianne Moncrief grew on me eventually, but Childers' was still my fav. I don't think the actress playing her now really is Colby, and the character has become forgettable. No offense to the actress, of course. JR has been through alot in the short 4 years I have watched this show, and as much as I love Jacob Young's work, I don't know if I can watch the show just for his character. It's a constant reminder that the person I really feel he should have been with is no longer on the show, and that was Babe. I have never been a fan of Marissa's and kind of feel that she's an unnecessary character, recasted or not. I can't say I'm sad to see her go. More on her later. And then of course there's the patriarch of the whole operation. Adam Chandler is one of a kind and so is David Canary. The show lost out BIG TIME by losing him in either role and Pine Valley is very noticeably empty without him. Palmer and Adam's rivalry was one of a kind, better than even Y&R's Victor and Jack's, and now one is gone and the other has left the show, seemingly for good. Its a huge sign that the times are changing and as one generation of soap icons is being ushered out, this is the new canvas for future icons to be cemented, if the soap opera industry in general has another generation of longevity left in them. Unfortunately, it came partially at the cost of the Chandler family on AMC.
The show didn't do a good job of weaving Marissa into the Carey's lives or cementing her with Krystal's or Babe's characters, even though Babe and Marissa were not around at the same time. All Marissa had to say in reference to her sister was 'I'm not Babe,' in that snarky tone of hers laced with resentment at the dead sister she never knew, like she'd been compared to Babe her entire life instead of just a few months. We realize that, Marissa. And we still don't care. It's pretty stupid to compare yourself to someone who's dead and you never knew in the first place. What she failed to realize is that she was on Babe's turf, with Babe's family and friends, and most importantly, with Babe's man. What else were they supposed to do? One year Babe is there and the next Marissa's just stepping effortlessly into her spot, with all her faux thoughts on positivity and being this goody goody two shoes ne'er do badder? Making the comparison was expected. Not to say that Babe was a horrible person, but the two are polar opposites in every way that mattered. The soap world ignores alot of things, but the situation of twins is never ignored. However, I would have loved to ignore Marissa. She just irritated me. Maybe that's because I'm a Babe stan, I dunno. In any case, I'm not sad she's gone.
I wasn't around when the Martins were a prominent part of the show, but Tad was always my favorite. I wasn't pleased when it came out that he was the one behind the Evil Doc's death even though I was a new viewer at the time, but meh...every character has a few missteps and that was one of his. I always found Tad to be a breath of fresh air as well and it saddened me that the writers found less and less to do with him over the years. I didn't mind too much when they paired him with Krystal although truth be told, I loved her with Adam. Krystal and Tad seemed to have a solid friendship so I didn't mind that they eventually got together. Heads up, whenever you suddenly see two characters becoming best friends and leaning on each other constantly, the writers are about to toss them into a romance. I learned that one quickly. lol I don't really like whatever they have him doing with Liza because I don't care for her as a character anyhow lol, but I mainly hate that the family has become background filler for other characters.
Another indication to me that a show is slipping or is nearing the end of its run is when they start introducing alot of unnecessary characters to the fold, some with ties to Pine Valley and some without. It happened to Guiding Light, then it happened to As The World Turns, and now it seems to have hit Pine Valley and Llanview as well. I'll have another post on my goodbye to Llanview soon. Hopefully within time the ones who really aren't needed will be weeded out, and the show can get back to what it was with its core characters and some balance, but for now I suppose introducing new people to the cast is how they can feel things will get shaken up. In some ways I understand, the population has dropped quite a bit in the last couple of years and its time for some new faces, but in that right introducing some new plots or ideas to keep us interested in them would be good too.
After awhile though, my favorite couple emerged and I tuned in to watch them on the daily. Zendall was sexy, had a unique love story, and was rooted in a love like not many other characters I've seen. They had longevity. True to the soap couple mold, they weren't safe from manipulation or infidelity that threatened to tear them apart, but somehow they always found their way back to each other. I'm a sucker for passion, and Zendall brought it everytime. After awhile though, watching them go through the same trials and tribulations and seemingly learning nothing from it each time got tiring, as did Zach's incessant and constant need to play God or save someone, or Kendall's nagging and seemingly constant turn to sex (sometimes with others lol) when she was in despair of some kind. Having sex in the sacred Slater marriage bed with one of Zach's biggest enemies was rotten for me as a Zendall stan, with her selfishly telling Ryan "It's all about us." Really?
I could keep going about all the things I was dissatisfied with which was a direct contrast to my opinion about the show four years ago, when I became a very enthusiastic SoapNet viewer but I have said too much already. I realize that times have to change, old stars must be ushered out so new ones have a time to shine, dramatic things have to happen in order to continue the foundation that soap operas are built on, but as a viewer, I guess I have to draw my own personal line and it seems that this is it. Just way too much in a long line and a long time of being dissatisfied with a soap I used to love.
In any case Pine Valley, its been fun but now its time to say adieu. You have changed too much from the show I initially fell in love with and I'm ready to get off the train.
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A big part of the reason why I continued to watch All My Children after it started to piss me off was the chemistry between Zendall's portrayers. In the soap world we already know very few couples stay together throughout the course of a year, much less several. But Zendall did it. And now they decide to kill his character off for Sweeps week?! 6 years of work went into that character and he becomes folly for ratings? It's irritating! You expect me to believe that he survived the whole Satin Slayer debacle, Kendall's stint in prison, HIS stint in prison, being in that well for I forget how long without food or drink, and goodness knows what else Zendall was put through in the 4 years that I was a viewer, but that something stupid concocted during Sweeps is gonna take him out? Its unbelievably annoying and that was just the final straw for my dwindling threads of interest in this show.
I make it known that I was a huge fan of Annie McDermott Lavery Chandler. lol Notice for the first time I said 'was.' I am an Ann fan no longer. I first started to fall off the train after she killed Richie and turned into a madwoman. First she was this wonderful Earth Mother, a damaged victim from her abusive marriage to Terry McDermott and just trying to get her and Emma to a better life. Then she evolved into someone stronger because of her relationship with Ryan, and she was secure in herself and their relationship. I still maintain that Ryan's brain injury was the death knell for their marriage. It opened the door to Greenlee's re-entry into the equation and closed the door on any hope for Ryannie's survival. Then she turned into a survivor again after all of Richie's machinations and that's when the carefully built pyramid started to topple. The death of their relative came out, then she killed Richie and that was all she wrote. She went completely bat-shit nutball crazy for a few months, which was not only disappointing but insulting to me as someone who has had their own struggle with mental issues, anxiety and the like. Then she was pretending to be sane, when she really wasn't. Then all of a sudden Adam of all people takes her in and all of a sudden she IS sane? Then she gets a little fire under her ass and is still teeter tottering on the brink of sanity, meh....she's had too many changes to her character and even now, I wonder if she really is in control of her mental faculties. That's too much for me to handle for a character we were just introduced to 4 years ago. And now she's wormed her way into the Chandler fold and as much as I'd like to believe it'll get better, the long of the short of it is, I'm just not interested in her as a character anymore.
The demise of the Chandler family was sad to watch, even though I haven't been a long-term viewer of decades or anything like alot of other viewers. I was saddened like everyone else when the show decided to kill off Stuart last year. He was bright and always had a good word or a positive outlook, wasn't judgmental or manipulative and just wanted everyone happy. He was a welcomed breath of fresh air to an otherwise pretty dismal cast of characters, who were usually in the midst of some ordeal and had nothing positive to say. So even though the whodunnit was exciting at first the way the show laid it out and replayed the night of the murder (I never could turn down a good murder mystery and I absolutely loved how the show took us back through the night in question thru the viewpoint of each person that was there), I was sad that good ol' Stuart was at the heart of the matter. I haven't followed the list of Colby recasts, but Ambyr Childers' Colby was my personal favorite. Brianne Moncrief grew on me eventually, but Childers' was still my fav. I don't think the actress playing her now really is Colby, and the character has become forgettable. No offense to the actress, of course. JR has been through alot in the short 4 years I have watched this show, and as much as I love Jacob Young's work, I don't know if I can watch the show just for his character. It's a constant reminder that the person I really feel he should have been with is no longer on the show, and that was Babe. I have never been a fan of Marissa's and kind of feel that she's an unnecessary character, recasted or not. I can't say I'm sad to see her go. More on her later. And then of course there's the patriarch of the whole operation. Adam Chandler is one of a kind and so is David Canary. The show lost out BIG TIME by losing him in either role and Pine Valley is very noticeably empty without him. Palmer and Adam's rivalry was one of a kind, better than even Y&R's Victor and Jack's, and now one is gone and the other has left the show, seemingly for good. Its a huge sign that the times are changing and as one generation of soap icons is being ushered out, this is the new canvas for future icons to be cemented, if the soap opera industry in general has another generation of longevity left in them. Unfortunately, it came partially at the cost of the Chandler family on AMC.
The show didn't do a good job of weaving Marissa into the Carey's lives or cementing her with Krystal's or Babe's characters, even though Babe and Marissa were not around at the same time. All Marissa had to say in reference to her sister was 'I'm not Babe,' in that snarky tone of hers laced with resentment at the dead sister she never knew, like she'd been compared to Babe her entire life instead of just a few months. We realize that, Marissa. And we still don't care. It's pretty stupid to compare yourself to someone who's dead and you never knew in the first place. What she failed to realize is that she was on Babe's turf, with Babe's family and friends, and most importantly, with Babe's man. What else were they supposed to do? One year Babe is there and the next Marissa's just stepping effortlessly into her spot, with all her faux thoughts on positivity and being this goody goody two shoes ne'er do badder? Making the comparison was expected. Not to say that Babe was a horrible person, but the two are polar opposites in every way that mattered. The soap world ignores alot of things, but the situation of twins is never ignored. However, I would have loved to ignore Marissa. She just irritated me. Maybe that's because I'm a Babe stan, I dunno. In any case, I'm not sad she's gone.
I wasn't around when the Martins were a prominent part of the show, but Tad was always my favorite. I wasn't pleased when it came out that he was the one behind the Evil Doc's death even though I was a new viewer at the time, but meh...every character has a few missteps and that was one of his. I always found Tad to be a breath of fresh air as well and it saddened me that the writers found less and less to do with him over the years. I didn't mind too much when they paired him with Krystal although truth be told, I loved her with Adam. Krystal and Tad seemed to have a solid friendship so I didn't mind that they eventually got together. Heads up, whenever you suddenly see two characters becoming best friends and leaning on each other constantly, the writers are about to toss them into a romance. I learned that one quickly. lol I don't really like whatever they have him doing with Liza because I don't care for her as a character anyhow lol, but I mainly hate that the family has become background filler for other characters.
Another indication to me that a show is slipping or is nearing the end of its run is when they start introducing alot of unnecessary characters to the fold, some with ties to Pine Valley and some without. It happened to Guiding Light, then it happened to As The World Turns, and now it seems to have hit Pine Valley and Llanview as well. I'll have another post on my goodbye to Llanview soon. Hopefully within time the ones who really aren't needed will be weeded out, and the show can get back to what it was with its core characters and some balance, but for now I suppose introducing new people to the cast is how they can feel things will get shaken up. In some ways I understand, the population has dropped quite a bit in the last couple of years and its time for some new faces, but in that right introducing some new plots or ideas to keep us interested in them would be good too.
After awhile though, my favorite couple emerged and I tuned in to watch them on the daily. Zendall was sexy, had a unique love story, and was rooted in a love like not many other characters I've seen. They had longevity. True to the soap couple mold, they weren't safe from manipulation or infidelity that threatened to tear them apart, but somehow they always found their way back to each other. I'm a sucker for passion, and Zendall brought it everytime. After awhile though, watching them go through the same trials and tribulations and seemingly learning nothing from it each time got tiring, as did Zach's incessant and constant need to play God or save someone, or Kendall's nagging and seemingly constant turn to sex (sometimes with others lol) when she was in despair of some kind. Having sex in the sacred Slater marriage bed with one of Zach's biggest enemies was rotten for me as a Zendall stan, with her selfishly telling Ryan "It's all about us." Really?
I could keep going about all the things I was dissatisfied with which was a direct contrast to my opinion about the show four years ago, when I became a very enthusiastic SoapNet viewer but I have said too much already. I realize that times have to change, old stars must be ushered out so new ones have a time to shine, dramatic things have to happen in order to continue the foundation that soap operas are built on, but as a viewer, I guess I have to draw my own personal line and it seems that this is it. Just way too much in a long line and a long time of being dissatisfied with a soap I used to love.
In any case Pine Valley, its been fun but now its time to say adieu. You have changed too much from the show I initially fell in love with and I'm ready to get off the train.
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