The Return of the Jennifers (kinda)

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

• 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.
And what is up with Todd Manning? OMG. Kinda thought he loved and respected Starr. One of the things I loved about Todd and Starr was their father-daughter relationship, which has so eroded that again...not funny anymore. The Marty thing might have been noble when it was on paper, but again a dated storyline back when people thought that being held captive was romantic.

Well, it happened...

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

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.