That is what I felt when I read the recap for the January 12th recap for Guiding Light (GL).
I think Lizzie's expression here says it all: http://www.cbs.com/daytime/guiding_light/recaps/2009/20090112/recaps.php?day=0
Oh where to begin...
Rick tells Olivia her health has improved and she can move out sooner than
she thinks. Olivia tells Rick how much Emma loves living there.
Memo to Rick Bauer: You don't need to rescue everyone, especially a she-wolf like Olivia. Although I expect you like that since you rejected the 'boring' normalcy of married life with Mel Boudreaux and Abigail, "the girl from Goshen."
Memo to Olivia: The fact that your daughter enjoys living in a quiet and stable environment should tell you something about your decision making skills.
Buzz asks Frank about his date with Natalia and takes Frank to drop in on
Natalia.
You know your love life must be flatlining if your dad is the one working yenta-style to get you sorted. Admittedly, Buzz has seen more action than Frank ever has. Actually Buzz isn't doing bad for a burned out at times Vietnam Vet who runs a neighborhood restaurant in the romance department. He has opted for the quasi-normal, but collaterally crisis-involved Lilian Raines, whose daughter and granddaughter will insure that she will have more peace in the ER than she ever will at home. Heaven help her when James and Peyton get old enough to have storylines.
The Frank-Natalia pairing is definitely one of those, "well, why didn't they think of this before?" Unfortunately, I have not seen much chemistry between them. I've seen more between Olivia and Natalia. I actually think they should try Mel and Frank. Besides the storylines that could come from their respective lines of work, they would be a good fit for each other-islands of normalcy in the maelstrom of Springfield society.
She [Olivia] suggests a game of poker where the losers have to admit an
embarrassing secret about themselves. Olivia wins and the guys all have to share
embarrassing secrets. Olivia pretends to agree with Rick that she hates living
there, but really she enjoys it.
Are you kidding me? Do they guys never learn? Idiot, Idiot, Idiot. I am sure this was a cute interlude-a placeholder because the writers' brain energy was redirected into salvaging interest in the kidnap storyline.
Remy hesitates when Christina asks for the financial papers she left at his
place. Remy covers his tracks and tells Christina he threw out the papers and is
sending off the divorce papers. They’re both a little wistful of their good
times together. Meanwhile, Shayne takes out a worn datebook with the word
“remember” and a drawing of a birthday candle on January 12th. Josh outlines the
medical research he’s done. He pulls out Shayne’s discarded medal and tells him
he’s giving up on life. Shayne tries to keep Josh off his case. Remy and
Christina burst in and Christina offers to be Shayne’s physical therapist.
Shayne agrees. Josh is happy Shayne didn’t suspect that he planned the whole
thing. Remy doesn’t like lying to Shayne but Josh says it’s justified because
they’re helping him. Remy admits he lied to Christina and didn’t push the
divorce through so she could get a loan for married people. Josh advises Remy to
think hard before he signs the divorce papers. Remy decides to mail the
financial aid application and stay married to Christina. Shayne has his first
session with Christina, but reveals he knows Josh was behind the whole thing.
Shayne rips out the birthday page from the datebook and starts to crumple it but
then puts it back inside.
To quote Ricky Ricardo: Ay-Yi-Yi-Yi-Yi!
The Remy-Christina storyline is really just dragging and not exactly endearing either to anyone. Remy was his coolest when he was a cop and even when he was spiraling out of control after Tammy's death. I didn't mind the Ava pairing, but it seemed that Remy was doing the 'dark knight in shining armor' bit again.
Memo to writers: Please give Remy a meaning storyline or a meaningful role in the general storyline. And if his love interest happens to not be Black, that's okay. The world will not end. Christina, though a sweet girl, is so unnecessary. Her only function is to provide Remy with what looks like a Black love interest (the actress is one in a long line of actresses that look ethnic enough without being definitively one race or another) and to provide some 'diversity' soap style. That is, she is the poor hardworking Negro from the other side of the tracks and through her relationship with Remy, she becomes more 'civilized' and he learns how overprivileged he is.
Because we haven't seen that before.
Clearly the GI Shayne storyline was created to give Josh something to do now that Reva's kicked him to the curb as he once kicked her to the curb (well it seems that they do that a lot to each other).
I always kinda liked Shayne. It seemed like the writers took the best of Reva and Josh's characters and created this cool son who gets along great with his sister, is generally a good guy and is passionate about everything. I did hope that a Shayne return would also mean a Marah return. Though this storyline line seems a bit trite, it would be interesting to see how Shayne and his parents get on since the HUGE changes that they have through.
Lizzie and Bill are hopeful that the hypnosis will bring back Bill’s memory.
Meanwhile, Alan is trying to convince the doctor to make sure Bill’s
memories stay buried. Alan offers to fund his whole operation, but Dr.
Wenkel refuses.
Dr. Wenkel finally arrives and Bill tells him that his
memory is shot and there’s a chance he was involved with the crime. Wenkel
shares that Alan talked to him. Alan listens in on Bill and Lizzie’s meeting
with the doctor. Lizzie tells Wenkel to ignore her grandfather. Wenkel
directs Lizzie closer to Bill and begins. Lizzie is frustrated that Bill
can’t remember anything about the kidnapping. Bill, in trance, calls out for
Lizzie. Wenkel slips Lizzie a note not to lead Bill on but she ignores it.
Wenkel brings Bill around after he gets agitated that he can’t remember.
Bill stares at Lizzie, devastated. Wenkel tells Bill that his memories are
buried too deep. Lizzie tells Bill she needs time to think about what’s next.
Bill starts to sign the buyout papers but can’t do it.
Alan is relieved. He
tells Jeremy to bring something down from the attic. Lizzie arrives and Alan
pulls off a sheet covering an object. He reveals Phillip’s model of Springfield.
He tells Lizzie to take her pain and use it to become the most powerful person
in the town. Bill arrives to see Alan pulling Lizzie into his orbit again.
And now we know why Lizzie looked the way she did.
Genug already!
I don't understand why this storyline is taking the turns that it is. It started when the writers had the deep thought that they wanted to revisit the Alan/Alexandra dynamic and so cast Bill as Alan and Dinah as Alexandra, complete with Dinah mimicking Alexandra's act of kidnapping the younger rival (in this case, Lizzie, her own cousine and one time saviour).
It's no secret that I thought this was a stupid development, especially given the trajectory that Dinah was travelling. I did like the Chamberlain siblings against the world thing they had going. I loved Dinah and her sister Maureen dancing it out as she schooled her on how to get what she wanted. I also liked the way that in the early days and even in some of the later days, that they included Lizzie. The troika of Bill-Lizzie-Dinah was an attractive one and I felt it could have generated lots of interesting plots. My dream would have been that Ava would have come back from the Dark Side and the troika would be a powerful quad to rival the older generation. I also liked the dance that Bill and Lizzie did with each other. More importantly, I liked self assured and high functioning Lizzie vs. the tragic, Beth-the-sequel Lizzie that the show keeps throwing at us. This reversal of character does a disservice not just to the viewers, but to poor Marcy Ryland, who portrays Lizzie.
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