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...