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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