Soap Fan Sound-Off

Wow...It's been a LONG TIME.

2011-10-23T18:54:00.000-04:00

Since my last post:

Guiding Light, As The World Turns and All My Children have gone off the air. Low ratings, alleged low interest and escalating production costs are the reasons given. Fans disagree regarding low interest, but the reality is that at least in the case of Guiding Light and As The World Turns, the demographic that used to purchase the products that the show sponsors are selling has changed and their numbers are fewer. Procter and Gamble is one of the companies that put the soap in soap opera. Their target market has changed. All My Children has been picked by a production company, Prospect Park, and will hopefully be resurrected online, a reflection of the fact that many soap fans watch episodes online at any their convenience.
Jake, the "love child" of General Hospital's Jason Morgan and Elizabeth Webber, died in a car accident, which the mileage varies on how well it was written. I felt like it was contrived. Others did as well especially since it was a bad retread of a prior storyline concerning BJ Jones and her cousin Maxie.

Despite my ferverent prayers, Robin Scorpio remains married to Patrick Drake. To make matters more revolting, now the writiers look like they are making the psycho character Lisa pretty much the Sheila Carter on General Hospital. Meanwhile Sam is being terroried by Jason's favorite stalker, Franco. At this point, I think that Robin and Sam ought to divorce their husbands, get married, take Robin's daughter Emma and RUN.

Speaking of General Hospital, Guza is out as head writer and Wolf is in. People have been happy for the most part with his changes-even me though there are some things as the above statement indicates, I want them to change.

Young and the Restless, possibly listening to the gazillion tweets remembered that they had some characters of color, decided somewhat clumsily to connect them to the larger canvas again, especially through the longtime character Devon, who is now known to be the son of Tucker, who is the son of tent pole longtime character Kay Chancellor. One Life to Live, while not perfect, seemed to do better with using characters of color on their show. That is, integrating them into the main storyline versus their stories being segregated as they can be on Young and the Restless. So much so that in the Twitterverse the rare days in which the Black and other minority characters show up on Young and the Restless are known as CFD or Contract Fulfillment Days.

Telenovelas. If you aren't watching La Casa al Lado, then you need to get with the program.

Okay, so I watched it - February

2009-02-15T12:59:00.003-05:00

I did watch one episode with Philip Spaulding on 'Guiding Light.'

I did not mean to. I was going into work very late and had the tv on for background noise as usual. It was only until I got out of the shower and started to pay attention to the tv, that I discovered that Mr. Philip was in this episode. I could have changed the channel, but figured I'd watch so I would have fodder for a post.

I knew from reading a recap that Coop went after Beth to stop her wedding to Alan Spaudling in that tired old chestnut of a storyline where the damsel in distress marries the evil villain to save her true love. (Gee, I saw that somewhere recently, oh yeah in the movies 'Dr. Zhivago' and 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which were set in periods where this idea was quaint even then). Also knew that he got into a car accident and it was Philip who saved him. The man in the red sweatershirt.

So Philip breaks up the wedding of his ex-wife and soulmate and his dad (I always found this pairing disturbing. Not so much for the fact that a man was marrying his former daughter in law, but for the fact that he had to have, especially after years of trying to shoehorn her out of the family in a manner that recalls the phrase 'thee doth protests too much'. I mean, was he lusting after her while she dating Philip in high school?) News of Coop's accident comes to all. Beth is covered in Coop's blood and goes the changes that Beth does. Buzz tries to take out Alan, who doesn't get that once you pay somebody to run over the father of your great grandchild and it results in the death of his girlfriend, people might suspect you when a similar instance takes place. Super Philip is on hand to keep Buzz from going to jail. Even after he receives the news that Harley has left with Zach and that no one really knows where she is, he flies off and goes to Beth's side.

Beth, who can never decide whether she is an independent woman, a bitch or beyond needy, is sitting in her blood drenched clothes feeling guilt and other things. Philip arrives and he gets another happy update on more of his various children. Seldom seen James is in boarding school-a decision Beth and Alan (because his parenting skills are best) made. Lizzie, Lizzie...had a baby, was married, lost the baby because of her grandfather's meddling ('meddling is too nice a word'), hooked up with Billy Lewis as an all purpose assistant, hooked up with Bill Lewis (who is fighting his own demons) and fell in love and got kidnapped and still believes Bill did it.

Super Philip hasn't even gotten to poor little Emma yet, but that's another episode.

Super Philip comforts Beth about her more often then not rotten parenting choices in his absence and helps her change out of the clothes stained with Coop's blood. He then flies off to find the daughter that in his Mr. Hyde days left behind and that has for all intents and purposes still considers dead.

Well, Quasi-repentant Super Philip was not exactly what I expected. The promos for his return would have led you to believe that he was riding in like a Horseman of the Apocalypse and all ye in Springfield better tremble. Then again it is early days. Like Ed Bauer once said, Philip is his own worse enemy. (And if anyone is an authority on that, it's Ed Bauer.)

I mentioned in an earlier post that I did not mind the return of a kinder, gentler Philip, but it should make sense. I get that Bill Lewis got him to return for Lizzie. It seems to me that he should be doing something constructive and away from the nuts that put him on the path to destruction. I joked yesterday that he should take up with Ashley Wolf, who should have him focusing on more worthwhile things. I now don't think that's a bad idea. It would be a more interesting story than the Beth/Alan/Rick retread. I also mentioned that a Leah and James storyline would be interesting.

I don't know in which direction Philip go. I thought that Grant Aleksander was always interesting when he was on-screen no matter what role he did-even that weird turn on All My Children as an almost love-interest of Haley Vaughn and biological father of a Black boy named Jamal in a custody battle that I think wanted to be more relevant than it ending up being because All My Children did not want to go there.

Well Philip is back and all I can do is wish him well.

An Interesting Two Days.

2009-02-08T20:09:00.003-05:00

I watched the February 5th and 6th airings of The Young and the Restless with some interest and very little surprise. What surprise I experienced was big.

Nick and Sharon hooking up in the snowy retreat a la Clark Gable and Loretta Young was no real surprise there. I don't even think Phyllis was surprised. I liked that she just asked Nick straight up about it. No use beating around the bush. That Brad Carlton when running after Sharon was no surprise either. Brad Carlton saving Noah's hash when he fell into the water, oddly enough, no surprise.

Brad dying, BIG surprise.

Did the actor want out? Did the powers that be want him out? Or, did the writers concede that they had nothing better for him to do than to mess with Phyllis, Jack and Victor and pine after Sharon and engage in 'do as I say, not as I do' with Colleen-all of which gets old.

In fact, the most interesting storyline that he had in a long time was that he was really Jewish
(I still laugh over the fact that they see this as a big revelation) and that his mother survived the Holocaust by being forced by her Nazi captors into cataloguing their ill gotten art and that they were gunning for her because she knew too much, which then led to the murder of her daughter and her husband.

I can't say that I ever liked the character. I always thought it was funny that he was the Abbot's gardner. I suppose that I didn't think that a character like Brad would get bumped off.

In the midst of mourning and shiva and such, I learned that Abby's been SORASed again so that she is a tween/teen. Victor is clearly looking to her to save his dynasty after the spectacular failure of Adam.

Phyllis did suspect that Nick and Sharon found a way to stay warm and he confirmed it. I shook my head when Phyllis came downstairs before they left to pay their respects concerning Brad. She was badass and awesome when she confronted Nick and told him that they were going to pay call at the shiva. She then begged him to stay even after he gave her that crap about how he loved both of them.

I think this should play two ways-open marriage or terse but amicable divorce. Phyllis should wake up and get crucial. Nick can be cool, but at the end of the day as he keeps showing, he's a spoiled brat. Adam's kinda lookin' good right now.

I am hoping that there won't be a Jack-Phyllis reunion. Jack blew that out the water so long ago. I honestly wish that much like what happened with Tracy, someone would come along that Phyllis could have a relationship with and Nick would just let her be.

Gloria in jail-long time coming.

Olivia and Natalia or 'My Two Mommies'

2009-01-18T19:53:00.004-05:00

'Guiding Light' decided to have what are now 'frenemies' Olivia and Natalia live together and jointly raise Olivia's daughter Emma. They also work together (with Natalia being Olivia's personal assistant-a job she's been doing for a while anyway without pay or recognition). What first turned out to be a sick and weird connection between these two (Olivia tried to take Natalia's late husband away from her and ended up with his donated heart, which she did not want. Natalia thwarted Olivia's attempts at suicide and self neglect)., has somehow blossomed into a real friendship.

I watched an episode of the "all-new Olivia and Natalia roadshow" and I wondered why no one thought of romanticallt pairing these two before. To be sure, women can be friends without being lovers, just like men and women, but maybe it's me-I saw some romantic chemistry there and the potential for some interesting explorations of character. Neither have to be latent lesbians (both can be bisexual-meaning that writers would not have to fret about how Olivia and Natalia, whose sexual history speaks of heterosexual choices would all of a sudden 'turn' gay because they could be latent bisexuals who didn't find the right gal yet.)

Emma's presentation on the episode that aired January 16th, seems to open the door to yet another storyline where the town 'misunderstands' their relationship and the morals of both women, particularly Olivia's are called into question. After all, Natalia's son is in the joint and Olivia...well the townfolk could roast her for many sins as it is. What's more rather than take a real and honest look at how a relationship between two same-sex people happens and evolves, they'll bung it up and what would have been cool will be reviled in soap mags across the country.

I mean, I get it. Soaps are basically heterosexual women's fantasies. I would even, given the dearth of main characters of color, even say they are white heterosexual women's fanstasies. White heterosexual women are not fantasizing (or at least admitted they are if they do) about two women falling in love and having a loving and sexual relationship. The writers just are acknowledging that healthy same-sex anything exists. I voted for creating a drinking game that had everyone doing a shot everytime the camera cutaway when ATWT's Luke and Noah were just about to kiss (had we done the game, would have been very drunk indeed).

I want Guiding Light to be that-a 'guiding light' in terms of introducing new stories and new ways of looking at life. I love the fact that they changed the way that the stories were shot and certain outcomes of storylines. Unfortunately, I think they still cling onto plots and devices that are woefully dated and that don't serve the show at all (this can be said of many soaps). True, certain stories are soap staples and you need to have them. I only ask for a diversity of viewpoint a rescue from plotlines that use the same characters in plotlines that they did 20 years ago and that apparently they never learned lessons from.

And to respond to those who feel that Emma does not need to 'see two women being loving towards each other in that way'...well, consider that Emma has been exposed to insane kidnapping father, formerly insane older sister (who tried to kill her in utero), scheming mother who used sex to manipulate along with money, more infidelity than normal, crazy other older sister who faked pregnancy to keep a man while tormenting another women to keep her and another man apart and crazy selfish grandfather who has blackmailed her mother, I think she'd survive seeing her mother in a loving relationship with another woman.

I also would remind the naysayers about how soap characters who have various children manage to have lots of sex, sexcapades and shenanigans and no one seems bothered this.

So...here's to the hope that Olivia and Natalia hook up and have a loving and romantic and adult relationship, which oddly enough I think Gus would have been okay with.

Oh Phyllis

2009-01-17T17:15:00.000-05:00

Well it looks like Phyllis' insecutiy rears its ugly head. Granted she has a right to it. Nick and Sharon, who are exes kiss each other in Paris and he decides not to tell her. Phyllis finds out because she sees them. She then hatches a plan to have mortal enemy Brad Carlton woo a now separated Sharon so that the kiss does not blossom into something more. Unfortunately (and we all saw this coming) Brad fesses up and Sharon tells Nick. Nick confronts Phyllis who points out that this was the second time this kiss happened between Nick and his ex wife and he does have a habit of this 'grass looks like it's greener in the other yard' type behaviour-after all that was how they got together. Nick voices concern and frustration at Phyllis' scheming. When Nick and Sharon meet up later, Sharon defends Phyllis (as if she needed it).

My advice to Phyllis-cut your losses. Any guy that has you plotting and scheming to keep him is not worth the time and effort. I admit that this divorce will not be easy. There is a child and a business involved. However you can work out an amicable arrangement regarding visitation and you can do so for your business dealings. Nick does not get it. He does not get that while yes, he and Sharon are forever tied by history and by their children, that he is married to Phyllis and he needs to be mindful her feelings and accept that gee, she may not be cool with him jetting off to places with her that may stir up old feelings. By the way, if the old feelings are stronger than the current feelings, it is definitely time to call it a day.

My annoyance with the road that Phyllis is traveling down is that apparently the writers seem to think that she is more interesting a character when she doing pathetic and crazy things like this. This speaks of lazy writing to me. I also have a problem with 'Sharon the Good.' Sharon is more of a disaster of a character than Phyllis who was and is pretty straightforward and not as hypocritical.

I wonder if the next step for Phyllis is to revive the attraction that existed between she and Adam, Nick's half brother. An attraction that Phyllis deflected and quashed because gee, she loved and respected her husband.

At the other end of the spectrum, Phyllis was engaged in Stephanie Forrester-like machinations, when she found a way to drive a truck through the small hole in the relationship of her son Daniel and that other disaster area known as Amber Moore. Like Phyllis, I was (and still am not a fan of ) the Daniel-Amber pairing. While I now agree that the Daniel-Heather pairing was not as good as the eventual Heather-Adam pairing, I think that he could do better. Really, the reason why I think he could do better because just like Phyllis, apparently Amber is only interesting plotwise if she is hatching pathetic and crazy schemes that ruin...things. I would like to see the writers not do that to them both (Phyllis and Amber) and honestly have them become friends and do cool and positive things. Daniel wasn't crazy about Phyllis' role in his problems with Amber and fortunately, unlike Ridge and his mother, she and Daniel have something of an understanding and thankfully will not pursue this path for now.

Advice to Phyllis regarding Daniel-keep on keeping out of his relationship with Amber-he is grown. Keep on trying to meet him halfway regarding it and try to be a little more open-minded about Amber. Boys usually love women who are like their mums and Amber is more like you than you probably care to admit, especially when she uses her powers for good. Keep nurturing his career and nurturing his relationship with his father. Also try to help maintain his relationships with his stepbrother (Noah) and half sister (Summer) by being a positive force in dealing with their respective 'other' parents.

I sadly know that the gains that Phyllis' character made will be lost as the writers run her into a ditch in order to serve the plot, which will likely result in a Sharon-Nick reunion.

Oh Phyllis...

Huh.

2009-01-12T21:33:00.006-05:00

Huh.

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...

Monday, January 12, 2009

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.

The Return of the Jennifers (kinda)

2009-01-10T22:46:00.004-05:00

Recently I have been made aware that some Jennifers have returned.

Jennifers? Which Jennifer? There are many Jennifers out there especially in soapland-'Jennifer' was insanely popular in the 70s and 80s for both characters and actresses alike. You can figure out about how old (rather, how young) an actress is if you know her name is 'Jennifer.'

Well, the first Jennifer sighting I was made aware of was on 'As The World Turns.' For some months a Jennifer Munson look a like has been bopping around. Her name is actually Rose and she just happens to look like the last incarnation of Jennifer Munson as portrayed by Jennifer Ferrin, who I last remembered as being a part of a little theater production in Boston called "The 39 Steps" in 2007. Jennifer Ferrin was also the Jennifer Munson I liked the most on ATWT.
I hated that they killed her character off, even though her death gave not only Jennifer Ferrin great scenes to go out on, but also allowed her co-star, the late Benjamin Hendrickson, to go out on a 'win.'

I think the intial elements of the storyline (the suggestion that Jennifer Munson was alive) was a testing of the waters by the writers. They got away with bringing Dusty back from the dead, why not Jennifer too? I suppose feedback was not positive, since it then was revealed that her name was Rose and not Jennifer. I sit on the fence about it. Initially I was like, "what the?" However if they could have enticed Jennifer Ferrin back and made it plausible, I might have bought her return.

The second Jennifer sighting was in promos for the Lifetime Movies of the Week "Custody." Jennifer Finnigan, who will always be the only Bridget Forrester for me, stars in it. Usually I would gouge my own eyes out than watch anything on Lifetime, but I miss Jennifer Finnigan.
I hated that her shows 'Committed' and 'Close To Home' were cancelled. She was good, her castmates on those shows were good and I also hated that they killed off her character on 'Crossing Jordan' (and then dumped the series not too much later-I love my use of the mysterious 'they.') I wish they would bring her back to 'The Bold and the Beautiful,' so they will start writing good storylines for Bridget again.

Anyway in 'Custody,' Jennifer plays the one night stand of a NBA player, who fights her for custody of their son who is physically more Black looking on the weak premise that a Black child can only be raised by a Black mother and father (apparently he locates a Black mother so that his case is stronger). I know the story will likely be lame, but Jennifer is good at making the obnoxious bearable because you want to watch her.

I am looking forward to seeing Jennifer Finnigan, even for just a bit. As for Jennifer Ferrin, I hope we will see her in something soon.

Genug Already--the January edition

2009-01-06T22:26:00.002-05:00

Is it me or is everyone about through with the "Did Bill Lewis kidnap Lizzie" storyline? I hated this on so many levels, not the least of which because it was a huge leap backwards for Dinah, who had become my girl again (the 'Dance with me' scene between her and Bill and Maureen and the other one with her and Remy as she hammered more nails in the Spaulding coffin were my favorites). Setting aside the whole 'Dinah' angle-this has just gone on TOO long. Wrap it and move on. Clearly the writers wrote themselves into a corner and thought that this was the way to handle it. And if this is a way to turn BLizzie into a supercouple, wrong path indeed. I don't mind stories where couples survive every obstacle, but this is just stupid. BLizzie as the cool and strong power-business couple was interesting. Crazy plot to incriminated Bill as kidnapper and Lizzie questioning if people love her, less so.

I could spend space bemoaning the Robin Scorpio-Patrick Drake wedding, but I've made my position very clear. I am sadly hoping for the eventual messy breakup. I am also hoping that girls the world over will not internalize that it is better to be in a relationship with someone who treated you like crap than it is to have your self respect and be alone.

The writers of 'The Bold and the Beautiful' should all be taken out, lined up against a wall and shot. OMG. Granted, they get points for taking part in the latest trend in television, which is that no character is safe or sacred. Joss Whedon evolved this concept, which was before usually used by shows to deal with an actor who left, an actor who was fired or to drive rating up (and usually the character would be brought back through the magic of plot). He killed characters in his shows (Buffy, Angel, and Firefly) not just because a plot demanded it, but because death can be just that random. 'The Bold and the Beautiful lost points by tying Phoebe's death to Rick, the village idiot and continuing to escalate the pointless Logan-Forrester war.

Paul Ryan!!!!!!!! Please put him out of his misery. What I hate about what is going on with Paul Ryan is that he has a lot of cool qualities, including the ESP, but they insist on having him just be his own worst enemy in a way that's just not entertaining anymore. I liked him and Meg, but I also though he and Sophie were fine and would have been a good break from the Meg-Rosanna-Craig quagmire. Somehow Paul managed to get one killed (Sophie by her ex) and drive the other away again (Meg). I also thought that the writers of 'As the World Turns' screwed up the Chris Hughes-Alison Stewart pairing. They could have made that less messed up and more positive. The way that Chris in particular acted (before the wacky plot by John James' character-oh Jeff, how far thee have fallen) just made me wonder what pockets of evil and delusion live in the Hughes-Sullivan genes. Perhaps I should say 'Sullivan' since Chris Hughes and Paul Ryan are related through their mothers (Barbara Ryan is Kim Hughes' niece through her sister the late Jennifer Sullivan Ryan). And geez, genug already with Carly-Jack-Janet triangle and the 'Oh my god, Parker and Liberty (who are not related by blood at all) are dating-we must stop this!' Parker and Liberty probably have more sense then all of their various parents combined. On the scale of responsibility, they have shown the most. I also somehow think that if Parker's biological father Hal Munson were still around that he would probably have taken a more logical approach.

No more DID storylines! These are very 80s. While I am sure that someone thought it would be cool if Jessica, daughter of soapdom's favorite DID (Disassociative Identity Disorder-that' Multiple Personality Disorder to you old schoolers) sufferer Viki Lord, suffered from it too (and oh the storylines it would create), it must be acknowledged that many of the storylines that grew out of this condition back the day existed because mental illness was not a common topic and we were not as informed about conditions as we are now. The Jess/Tess thing with tormenting her sister because her husband died and they inadvertantly had a hand in it thing just was stupid.

The Return of Philip Spaulding

2009-01-06T21:46:00.003-05:00

Lock your doors and shoot the neighbors-Philip Spaulding, son of Alan (well adopted son), ex-husband to Blake Marler, Beth Raines, Harley Cooper, Olivia Spencer, Mindy Lewis and India, and father to Lizzie, James, Jude and Emma will return in person to torment everyone in Springfield.

I have one question: why?

Guiding Light seems likes they are grasping at anything that will drive up viewership. I went along with the change in production and format-unlike most fans, I embraced it since I've been introduced to this style of camera work through the telenovelas that populate the tv landscape.

I even accepted that this time, Josh and Reva were not going to get back together. Reva grew up and chose the person with whom she could build a relationship with in the here and now.

I don't understand what bringing Philip back could bring to the overall story. At least, not Philip the Insane and Evil. I wish they would intend to bring back a more penitent Philip who would have crafted a different life in the interim. Maybe he joins Ed Bauer in Africa or unlike a lot of the Spauldings, he comes to terms with the person he was and is becoming better. Maybe he and Harley find a way to reconnect and they do good. (Personally I am rooting for a 'reformed' Philip and Mel pairing).

Evil Philip just means more of the same. More Spaulding walking over people and more complicated plots that serve no purpose. More demonstrations of irredemption-boring, at least to me.

I won't be waiting in anticipation for 2/9/09, which is the date of Philip. If I see that Philip gets a more interesting path to walk, then I'll tune in.

Well, it happened...

2009-01-03T17:39:00.000-05:00

That's a phrase I could use to describe a lot of what happened across the various shows that I watched this year.

General Hospital:
The good news of last year was that Robin had her baby and named her 'Emma.' The bad news is that she married Patrick, a move this character will regret. While it was nice to see the Scorpio-Devane clan again, I really wished that someone would have talked her out of the marriage.

On a related note, they managed to find a way to integrate old Carly (Sarah Brown) and new Carly (Laura Wright) in the same show. While I wish that each could have swapped roles, I like that GH saw the wisdom of bringing back a talent like Sarah Brown. I was more sympathetic to her Carly than to any of her other portrayers since.

I won't even comment on the mess that is the Lulu-Spinelli-Lucky-Elizabeth-Jason-Sam-Maxie show. I gave up wrapping my head around that one.

Guiding Light:
Lizzie Spaulding carved out a quasi-normal existence with Bill Lewis, except that the writers seems to think that it makes sense to keep coming up with ridiculously implausible obstacles for them to overcome to prove they are 'supercouple' material. More silly is the Alan-Alexandra parallels that they [writers] seem to want to draw between Bill and his sister Dinah. I liked the Dinah, Bill and Maureen uniting against the world thing.

As The World Turns:
You knew it was a matter of time before one of Carly's children would be put into the position of having to kill some crazy she picked up. Sadly you also knew it was a matter of time before Paul screwed it up with Meg Snyder.

The problem with Holden's relationships with women is Holden. He chooses women who need rescuing and then expects them to not be needy and then is miffed when they are not... How ridiculous.

The Young and the Restless:
Well, Gloria got arrested as we knew she eventually would by betting on the wrong horse. The Katherine Chancellor doppleganger story is pointless and I still don't understand how in this day and age, Anna's blood aunt who raised her can't get legal custody of her from her addict mother, but stranger Neil and the women he's dated for about a year can because they seem to be a two parent unit? I also wish they would give Anna more screen time. I could do with less Amber and less Sharon.

Victor and Ashley together again...

The Bold and the Beautiful:
Will someone please line up and summarily shoot the writers? The only good (and I say that loosely) developments were the reintroduction of Steffy Forrester and the introduction of Marcus, who is Donna's child.

All My Children:
What is the matter with Bianca? Actually this should be 'what is the matter with some soap writers in general?' I say that because both Robin and Bianca became parents (well, Bianca had more of a choice about it this time), but it seems that there is this aversion to anonymous artificial insemination, which happens all the time. It's more sporting for one character to get pregnant from a one night 'pity-lay' with someone who is so wrong for her (Robin) and for the other to ask her brother in law to be the donor and not tell her sister (Bianca).

Through the magic known to soaps and Marvel Comics, Jesse Hubbard is back for real. Watching him and Angie has been a pleasure.

One Life to Live:
Truthfully I stopped caring after they killed off Asa's character, though Starr Manning is still my girl. The one bright spot has been the father-son relationship that developed between Rex Balsam and Bo Buchannan. Bo seems to be the collector and redeemer of the wayward it seems. I was actually pulling for him and Gabrielle Medina and hated that they killed her off.
Poor Starr...Oy Vey! Starr is one of the saving graces of this show and what they did to her...

The Double Standard of Ridge Forrester

2008-08-16T11:50:00.000-04:00

Admittedly, I haven't been the most faithful 'The Bold and The Beautiful' (B&B) fan. There are times when they refer to a past event where I need to hit Wikipedia or soapnet or something like that to be brought up to speed about something. A case in point was the situation with Rick's son who was in fact Deacon Sharpe's son and not by Amber Moore. I did not see all of the episodes of that period. I just really remembered that CJ was more husky than fat and that he loved Becky and that Bridget ran away from home and that at some point she became the actress Jennifer Finnigan (the only Bridget as far as I'm concerned) and she takes up with Deacon.

However, I tend to watch the episodes where Ridge seems to think that he can control all of the elements of the lives of his family-especially the women in his life- and yet don't abide by the strictures that he sets up. Heaven forbid when someone either does the same thing or calls him on it, he wants to cry foul. Now a psychologist would look at his parents' behaviour as the likely reason for it, what with their anointing him the "chosen one" in the family and the tendency of both to engage in what I call "conditional love" with their children.

The most recent example of Ridge's obnoxious controlling tendencies has to do with his daughter Steffy, usually characterized as being the sober and smart one, and her decision to have a relationship with Marcus, the son of Donna Logan, his current enemy who happens to be the sister of his love interest/soulmate Brooke Logan.

Ridge heavy hands and engages in the "conditional love" practice that his parents established by stating that while he found Marcus to be all right, he loathes Marcus' mother and does not want Steffy to have anything to do with him because of that (meanwhile ignoring the fact that he can't seem to live without Donna's older sister Brooke, who cause a lot more turmoil and pain in the lives of the Forresters than Donna and Marcus could have ever done on a good day and who still at times causes trouble from time to time). Instead of trusting Steffy's common sense and maturity, he talks down to her and makes this about family loyalty. Now sure, Marcus will not put up with Ridge and his siblings malignment of Donna, no matter how well deserved at times, though not as much lately as Donna has cobbled together some maturity on her part. Nor will Marcus sit idly by and let them scheme and strong arm her out of the company when their father set her up fair and square. Marcus has a unique perspective in that unlike most of the players of this little drama, he is new to the family, having been given up by a teenage Donna for adoption. They recently reunited and he sees the Forresters not as the gods that others do. A good guy, he gives people a chance and accepts that his mother and her siblings save Katie have had pitchforks in their rears at times.

Now another thing that occurred to me about why Ridge may find the Marcus-Steffy pairing so distateful is the fact that Marcus is Black and "ain't no doubt about it" Black. There were times during some of the kissing scenes between them that I thought the Klan was going to ride in and take care of business. Of course, this is LA-more to the point, Beverly Hills. They won't say it, but I know that the Black viewers and others are thinking it, especially given B&B's mostly "lily-white" history. There were very few main cast characters of color period. One wasn't really a main cast member as we have hardly seen him-he is the adopted son of the now seldom seen except for funerals (though she has not shown up for the current medical crisis of Eric) Kristen, who was an African boy with AIDS. The other was a character played by Lark Voohries of "Saved By the Bell" fame and once her crazy boyfriend was gone, so was she. Any other people of color were "drive-bys" with the most recent being the father and son team of detectives who worked on the Stephanie Forrester shooting. Now, I would have loved to see more of them and stories about them, but B&B are good for dangling storylines and characters. Oh and did I mention the storyline with the supposed Latina daughter of Stephanie's maid who was an illegal and that the actress who played her was in "brown face?"

I suppose it could be argued that the racial thing is a subconscious thing and that honestly the more plausible reason for Ridge's hatred of Marcus is that he is Donna's son. That's the theory I am working with.

Whatever the reason of his disapproval, I hate that this man treats his daughter so. He does not respect her at all. He very easily will go after his mother for the same behaviour, but does not see it in himself.

I often wonder what women could possibly see in him and more importantly, why they put up with it.

First entry

2008-08-15T09:23:00.000-04:00

I decided to create a separate blog for my thoughts about soap operas-storylines, characters, the gone but not forgottens. I will repost past soap entries from my other blogs here as well to get it started.

In the interest of full disclosure, I mainly watch the soaps on CBS, though in the past this was not always the case. When I was I small child, it was definitely ABC and NBC, with NBC being the dominant one. Middle school years saw and increased interest in CBS, but only with The Young and the Restless (YR) and sometimes the Bold and the Beautiful (BB). ABC dominated in the high school and early college years. For me, many of the shows that were on at that time-All My Children (AMC) and General Hospital (GH) - had some of the best storylines of their tenure on.
There was a brief interest in NBC with Passions and Days of Our Lives (DOOL). Of late the drift has been to the CBS block, with brief forays into ABC.

Soap Opera Musings

2007-12-15T10:17:00.000-05:00

I suppose I could take time to talk about what I have listened to of late-waking up with the Everett fire and going to bed to the Omaha massacre, listening to ON POINT archives and noting that Tom Ashbrook foreshadowed his current health situation. Immediate on my mind though are soaps.

Anyone who really knows me is familar with the fact that for all that I am quite the intellect and at home at dry knowledge and that I cut my teeth on soaps. My mother watched them when I was young and well, I watched them on and off during school and then never looked back once I hit college.

The first soaps I cut my teeth on were All My Children and Another World (I thought my mother had something of a love for the "A's" until I saw that we also watched Days of Ours Lives, The Edge of Night, Ryan's Hope and Love of Life.)

My "first run memories" (meaning that I watched it when it was on and not as a rerun or as a part of the increasingly lame retrospective/compilation shows that networks have resorted to since 2000 to fill programming needs) are definitely of All My Children. Erica Kane and I go back. I remember when she was married to Tom Cudahy and I did at the age of 2.75 see the infamous episode when he finds out that Erica was taking birth control pills and that's why they weren't having babies and he kicked her out of the house. I remember most from that two things:

A) The dialogue:

(with admitted paraphrasing-c'mon I was almost 3)

Erica: where do I go?

Tom: I don't give damn where you go!

When I first saw "Gone With the Wind" on tv, I couldn't remember why the ending dialogue of Scarlett and Rhett seemed so familiar. When I was a teen, I put it all together.

B) Up to that moment, I had never seen a person be that furious on tv or real life. I think I may have asked if he was going to hit her.

Yeah, back in the days when it was okay to play with wooden toys that had wire parts and to eat peanut butter in everything.

I was with Erica for the most part through marriages 3-present (although she and Jack are divorced for now), through the drug addiction, the loss of mother Mona (not too long before the loss of my own), the jail term, Bianca's coming out, the roller coaster marriages to Adam and Dmitri, the arrival of Kendall (the Sarah Michelle Gellar version), the bear incident, Charlie 1.0 where Ruth Martin in Stephanie Forrester style asks Erica how many generations of the men in her family was she going to go through and her last wedding (so far) with Jack where all of her children were present.

Now I have a hard time watching the show simply because everyone looks a like on the show. I can make out Erica's daughters, Kendall and Bianca and sometimes I pick up Josh Madden (Erica's son by her first ever husband Jeff Martin who was conceived apparently in a manner that led me to call such things the soapdish rewrite.

Info dump: "Soapdish" was a movie in the 90s that starred Sally Field, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Kline, Elisabeth Shue and Robert Downey, Jr. that spoofed the soaps. The scene that was played forever in the movie trailer was of Whoopi as Rose the head writer and Robert as the producer having a difference of opinion about how to reintroduce Kevin Kline's character, since he was killed off in an accident that decapitated him. Robert apparently felt that saying that a groundbreaking surgery where they reattached the head would take care of it while Whoopi, speaking for all of those who have common sense kept saying, "but he doesn't have a head" in frustration to get him to see that this doesn't make sense. She did the rewrite per Robert's suggestion because he was the producer but I imagine that there are discussions that take place like that in the real world considering some of the ways retcons and aging and exits and returns are explained.)

I can't say that I can tell any of the blondes a part. This was once true for me of As The World Turns but I can tell Katie from Carly and now that they killed of Rose (though personally I felt they killed the wrong sister and yes, I know I incurred the wrath of all the 'Lilden' fans out there) and some recasts have alleviated the problem with the men although Carly and Jack's sons Parker and AJ (?) are still a problem with me.

Guiding Light is proof of what happens when you runs a show into a ditch. I don't listen to it so much anymore. I thought that it did a great thing by writing the storyline with Daisy choosing abortion and exploring the aftermath although that started getting a bit heavy handed. I got sick of the Marina-Cyrus-etc. storylines. The Marina/Cyrus relationship is the type that I wish soaps would stop doing. I never think that it's romantic to be kidnapped, shot and to place your family in danger-even if the perpetrator is handsome, has a "heart of gold" and "mends his ways" because of the love of a good woman. This is a fantasy and a stupid one.

More egregious is the "if I wait long enough, he'll mature and we'll be together..." General Hospital did this with the one character I thought was above that-Robin Scorpio. Robin and I go back to the 80s. She has the dubious distinction of being one of the few characters who has not been aged as well as being played by the same actress that originated the role-Kimberley McCullough. I rather liked Robin and her precociousness and her fearlessness and I was all for her and mobster Jason. Their breakup I thought was one of thse stupid soapdish moves and I am continually irritated that they will not put them back together. Robin came back to Port Charles in '05 to work in GH and then the writers decided that it would be fun to pair her with Patrick Drake, Noah Drake's arrogant son. He treated her like crap for months and then they became close-one of the main drivers of this was Patrick's exposure to HIV and the uncertainty. Then of course he would display behaviour that would remind you why this strategy never works-the "love of a good mature woman to make a man be better". They finally broke up over the fact that Robin wanted a baby and could with the means today have one as an HIV positive person. He did not want a child.

Then they have Robin go off the deep end in trying to find a donor for her father in a way that really make her character look pitiful. (Again running characters and stories into a ditch.).

The Young and The Restless is my "drug of choice" these days. I have always says that it is the best plotted-best written of the soaps with some of the best written characters.

Notice I said "some of" for characters because there are some good ones that are languishing on poorly written shows. Robin for the most part, Jason, Sonny and Spinelli on General Hospital for one.

Well, I think I will muse more about soaps later-it's time for The Young and The Restless.

Streaming

2007-11-21T11:48:00.000-05:00

The Bold and The Beautiful: Of all of the soaps on daytime tv now, this one with the exception of Passions and NightShift is the youngster. Unfortunately, it is the youngster that doesn't understand why it's bad to go 100 miles an hour in a residential area and runs itself off into a ditch and continues to do things that shock, thinking they are being clever and cool but they aren't. I intermittedly listen to the show. They only time I paid exclusive attention was when they had storylines concerning Bridget Forrester, when she was portrayed by Jennifer Finnigan (now Mrs. Jonathan Silverman). Once she left to do Crossing Jordan, I lost interest and I completely hate what they did with her character after she left. Today's story featured the quagmire that is Eric and Stephanie's marriage or rather impending divorce. Mixed in this is the "reprucussions" of a stupid storyline where Stephanie, in order to discredit her longtime nemesis Brooke, hired a creep that ended up raping Brooke and now Brooke's family in their ways want to get her and Stephanie's children somehow found a way to excuse her. This irritated me because it seems that this show plays fast and loose with the issues of rape and abuse-one could argue in a very Beverly Hillsian-Paris Hilton way.

As The World Turns: An excellent example of what happens when you run a car into the ditch and you keep the engine running. The Paul/Meg/Craig/Rosanna storyline is truly irritating. Then I always get irritated when smart people (Meg) do really dumb things for no real reason other than it serves the demeted plot the writers wrote after their bender. This goes for the Carly/Jack/Katie/Brad/Holden/Lily/Dusty quagmire. I have to ask-what toxic chemical are these people being exposed to at the Snyder farm? None of the Snyders can make a smart move to save their lives except the kids and they are falling prey to their parents' bad programming.

The Young and the Restless: Still the best written soap by far-on CBS at least. Poor Victoria will either lose her life or her long hoped for baby and her parents are the one that have to make the decision and they are divided-Victor wants to save Victoria, Nikki wants to save the baby. Brad, the alleged baby daddy, has no say and for someone like him, that's not acceptable. It will force the issue of paternity.

Genug Already--A Plea to Soap Writers

2006-09-27T01:20:00.000-04:00

I've been watching ATWT for maybe 2 years now and every time I decide to stop watching something interesting happens. I was on the edge of my seat with the slasher storyline. My main reason for writing is the constant pregnancy drama with one particular family. Let me explain: Jen had a one-night stand with Craig and got pregnant. Paul was getting ready to divorce Emily and she turned up pregnant. Now poor DUMB Will is trying to save his marriage and that home wrecker is pregnant (although I don't believe her). Give me a break that issue has been played out.... Enough already.... This is the new millennium: MEN DO NOT MARRY THEIR KNOCKED UP FLING ANYMORE... Give Jade a life and cut Gwen and Will some slack so they can attempt to have a normal life. Please don't let that pathetic girl be pregnant, especially since Gwen cannot get pregnant herself.

More on Robin

2006-08-24T14:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I visited Robin's Blog today to see what she has been up to. If I had not been enjoying the trend of the previous entries, I definitely did not enjoy the most recent entry where Dr. Patrick said that he "might be able to love" Robin.Now, I do realize that these are fictional characters living in a fictional world that I don't think I ever would want to live in. Nevertheless, I hate the fact that she is happy that someone "might be able to love her." (My quotation marks by the way).I have seen in real life where girls and fully grown women put up with a lot of kibbutzing around just to be worthy of "might be loved." The usual suspects contribute to it-low self esteem, fear that you won't have anyone.My favorite is the "if I wait long enough for him to:- grow up or-become more mature or-realize that he really does love me or-see me for who I am and love the person inside or-get over his own fears-understand that we are soulmates,then he will tell me that he loves me in a fantastically romantic setting and then we will get married in a big, fantastically romantic way and be happy forever and ever.It doesn't even happen that way all the time in the movies. Soaps however are famous for perpetuating the "suffering good girl" who puts up with a bad boy that just doesn't realize how great she is and how living a good life is a good thing and she endures months and years of broken promises, childish games, and abuse (not always physical) because in the end she will be rewarded for her efforts because eventually he will be there for her.What movie, book, or tv show evers has this storyline outside of soaps? What's more, when have any of those ever reversed gender on it where the male character doing the waiting and 'fixing' ever puts up with this for as long as the female character does? Even Dr. George O'Malley from Grey's Anatomy walked away from two untenable situations with Meredith Grey and the nurse who gave him syphllis a heck of a lot sooner than Meredith Grey did from her Dr. McDreamy.I was even more disappointed by the comments section of this particular post on Robin's Blog. Most were supporting her waiting until Dr. Patrick was "ready" for adult relationship they should have and they counseled patience and helping him to get there. They were essentially saying that it was all okay.I did find some rays of hope in the comments section though. This one essentially summed up my feelings about the Robin-Dr. Patrick "romance" and her behaviour in it:

Wow Robin, you sound pathetic. He never said he loved you, so don't get your
hopes up for the future. I worry about your self-esteem lately. It took 8 months
for Patrick to get to know you and spend time with you. In those 8 months, he
has belittled you, called you names, etc. And the best he can do now is that he
could love you? I think you deserve a whole lot better. A woman like you
deserves respect. Waiting for Patrick to realize what an amazing woman you are
will practically take forever, so why not play the field and find someone that
will actually love you?
Posted by: Eliza August 16, 2006 at 10:11 PM

Robin was a character with self esteem and demanding of respect for herself. If this how Robin's life is going to go, I think if I were actress Kimberley McCullough, I would ask for my character to be killed off.I do also realize that the purpose of the charater's blog is likely for the marketers or the writers of GH. They read responses and bend the story to appeal to the "consumers" rather than be true to anything like character and plot integrity. Master manipulation at its best.By the way...Jason may have made some stupid and in some ways understandable choices in his relationship with Robin but he never berated her or played games with her. She always knew where she stood with him and "Stone Face" found it quite easy to tell her that he loved her. I'm just saying, "Memo to the writing staff..."

I want...

2006-08-11T03:01:00.000-04:00

I want many things.I want world peace. I want a public transit system that works.Sadly I want Robin Scorpio and Jason Morgan to get back together again.The more I read Robin's blog, the more I want to swoop in an rewrite the storyline.I know that in this time of crisis, the love life of two fictional characters don't amount to a hill of beans but we all have our wishes and this is one of mine.

Ah, Robin

2006-08-08T03:08:00.000-04:00

I make no real secret that I like to watch the soaps.

One that I kinda grew up with is General Hospital, which has swung back to being a bit more about a hospital than it has in years past. There was actually a time that I said that ER was more like what General Hospital was supposed to be with its 'mountain of misfortune' to be suffered be the Corday-Greens and the endless rounds of the triangles of Carter-Abby-Luka. I actually referred to General Hospital as 'the Sopranos present: General Hospital' because of their unrelenting focus on the mob storylines.

One character that I grew up with a bit on GH was Robin Scorpio. Her essential biography is that she is the daughter of two secret agents-the British Anna Devane and the Aussie Robert Scorpio. She is currently one of the doctors at General Hospital and she had HIV. Robin is a sweet kid whose weathered her parents' James Bondesque lifestyle and their deaths (though now both are back alive). She tries to help her friends and has been known to show kindness to her enemies, which of course are very few.She contracted HIV through her first real boyfriend Stone. The storyline gave actress Kimberley McCullough another Daytime Emmy win.

After Stone's death and through some interesting plotting, Robin becomes involved with Jason Morgan, who used to be "the good son" Jason Quartermaine but for a severe head injury caused by his disaster of an older half brother AJ. Robin and Jason resurrect each other in the relationship and some of the best moments of that subpar period of GH come from their storyline (the others come from Robin's future nemesis, Carly Roberts). Robin loses Jason first to the gangster life he leads with Sonny and then next to the morass of a situation surrounding baby Michael where only in the soap world can a person become a villain because they did the right thing and told the baby daddy that he is the baby daddy instead of lying about it and covering it up. Robin went to Paris after being rejected by Jason.

We heard of her in passing over the years on GH, usually around World AIDS Day. Tons of fan fiction apparently sprung up as well. The actress who portrayed her appeared in some good roles on some good tv shows. I thought she was the best thing about one of the few later "Party of Five" episodes I watched, where she interviewed Julia for the school newspaper. Her character was a bit off but wiser than the angst-filled Julia ever could be.She did show up on GH briefly from time to time, most notably when venerable old Lila Quartermaine died. She and Jason seemed okay with each other. This particular appearance foreshadowed Robin's return to GH, which pleased me of course but which meant that some loose ends would need to be resolved for a Jason-Robin reunion.

Since Robin's departure, Jason:

-had been almost completely involved with Carly, who ended up marrying Sonny Corinthos
-his saviour, boss and best friend-had been involved with Elizabeth Webber, who was available at the time
-had been married to Courtney, Sonny's half-sister by their dad Mike and the catalyst of one of the worst conflicts Sonny and Jason would have up to that time-had been married to Brenda, Robin's best friend (for appearance's sake)-had been involved with and engaged to Sam

Now I accepted the fact that Robin's return meant that Sam would still be in the picture-for the moment. I operated under the delusion that Sam would meet some unfortunate accident being that she is dangerprone and after a suitable morning period, Jason would resume life with Robin. When the GH storyline about the massive trainwreck emerged, and the hype mentioned some fatalities, I prepared to mourn Sam. I did not hate her as a character. She has some really stupid moments but she grew on you and for actress Kelly Monaco, it was definitely a better character than that Livia-whatever character she played on the now defunct "Port Charles." Unfortunately, Sam didn't bite the big one and the storyline progressed towards a marriage between Jason and Sam, with Robin cheerfully playing the best friend and trying to get Jason the medical attenion he needed at the time. I lost all hope until an fatal virus storyline hit and again fatalities were promised and again I thought, "Well, it was nice knowing you, Sam. Of course suitable mourning period-reunion of Robin and Jason."Again, I was wrong. Sam's brother died, setting off a quest for her and Jason to find Sam's birth family. Robin was being pushed towards the Drake family-especially Dr. Patrick Drake the son. And to make everything entirely silly Robin's father comes back from the dead.

Well since then Robin has been engaging in typical soap opera relationship dynamics with one Dr. Patrick Drake, who I honestly can't stand. I totally hate it when soaps create handsome characters like this, throw a perfectly normal character at it and while the normal character tries to 'redeem' the other character, both engage in some pretty childish behaviour. Since her return, Robin has engaged in some really dumb behaviour. She essentially has stooped to Carly's behaviour on some occasions. At times reading the character's blog has been depressing-not just because the more I read, the more I realize that GH will do everything they can not to put Jason and Robin back together. It has been depressing because I read about a character that at times has put up with bad behaviour, ambiguity and tit for tatting.

So now as of this writing:

-Sam and Jason have split (for now with the option of reunion)-good.
-Jason has slept with Elizabeth Webber Spencer-less good.
-Patrick might have contracted HIV. This is the clever tactic that GH has used to put he and Robin together. (Yeah, a pos couple-how cool is that...yeah I'm being sarcastic-but you know that a writer had that deep thought.)

All in all though, I still am fond of Robin. I hope that her lot improves. I hope that her character's life will involve more than HIV storylines and stupid high school love triangles. I also hope that it will involve Jason again.