A Cynic Soaps Up, By Kate Brown - A Shrewd and Insightful Look into AMC, OLTL and Noteworthy Others

While I was working on My Time in Llanview, it dawned on me why I keep watching OLTL. Because something is always happening in Llanview. Something moving. Something funny. Something outlandish. Something romantic. I confess the past few years have been incredibly difficult to watch. I hung in there because things were bound to get better and they have. Are they perfect? No. But they certainly are an improvement over the moribund, often painful to watch scenes we were subjected to during JFP’s and GT’s reign.

And what is working?

Nora has her brain back. Maybe not all the way back, but it is a start. HBS looks more comfortable in Nora’s skin than she has since before that Sex-with-Sam-in-the-Cabana scene. Her character had become isolated in the Troy/Lindsey/Joanna mess. Breaking her out of that and having her interact with other characters makes her much more interesting. From doing the “Bump” with Matthew to comforting RJ to being back in court, Nora is becoming more and more, well, Nora-like.

RJ. RJ as a father. RJ caught between the desire to be a good father and the drive for self-preservation. RJ as a man in love. RJ with a broken heart. RJ as a grieving father. RJ as the sexiest grandfather in the history of mankind. In the past Timothy D. Stickney has done good things with the dross he was handed. Now that he has real substance to work with, he is wonderful to watch. Even if he did have me in tears.

Roxy is working. True, the character does her best to avoid actual work, but hiring Ilene Kirsten was the best thing GT did. She makes it completely believable that a crass low-rent drunk could have two desirable men falling for her. I never understood why men fell for Roseanne or why they fall for Jen, but when Roxy turns on that hopeful, almost innocent expression, how could any man resist?

Rex. He’s a con artist. He’s a little sex machine. He’s a thief. He’s a drug dealer. He is one apple that did not fall far from the tree. Especially if it turns out that Max was the tree trunk that spawned him. Jean Paul Lavosier is doing a good job, especially for an actor who was given a poorly defined part to play. Despite protests to the contrary, he was originally written as being gay (remember those longing looks at Seth?). Then he was a cipher and now he is doing Jen. Yet, somehow, he has always been Rex. No small feat for an actor with little experience.

Lindsey’s descent into madness. Lindsey has always been the biggest neurotic in town. Which was interesting at first. Then we discovered that a one-note neurotic is as boring as Jen was before Cris dumped her. Things began to change for Lindsey when Troy seduced her in order to get her confession. The cracks in Lindsey’s façade widened. The breaking point came when she realized all her efforts to break up Troy and Nora gained her nothing. Troy never wanted her and never would. She went mad with grief over her lost “love.” While it was a little too easy for Mitch to set her up, it is understandable that it did not take much to push her over the edge.

Todd is working again. Finally. Todd’s alter, Clown-in-Training Todd has gone into remission. Todd remembered he had sister. Viki and Todd scenes are always good. His scenes with both Jessicas have been touching. I hope this is the Todd that returns to us.

Sam is dead. That works for me. Lawrence Lau as Sam started not working for me about the second week he had the part. That was when I realized he had no chemistry with any of the significant people in Sam’s life: Nora, Lindsey, Will, Jen, and Todd. Not the actor’s fault. Truly awful recast. Lindsey “Deadeye” Rappaport has taken care of that problem, though. Who knew she was such a good shot?

Marcie, Marcie, Marcie. While I remain disappointed that she has yet to kill Jen, I am enjoying her immensely. She actually works for a living. She is loyal. She is funny. And she is a true romantic. Those are in such short supply in Llanview these days. And Jen was very wrong when she slapped Marcie with these words, “What do you know? You’ve never had a man and you never will.” Marcie is the kind of girl who gets the real men, the best men. And I cannot wait for Jen to see that happen.

Asa. I have shocked myself by putting him in this category since he has never been a favorite. His taking charge of the family during the Mitch Lawrence crisis is a thing to behold. I can almost hear his spurs clinking when he walks. It is a most welcomed sound.

Nigel. Nigel always works because he’s Nigel. Wouldn’t it be fun if it turned out Flash was his daughter? From a long ago night of drunken sex with, ummmm, Alex Olanov ? All before they both came to Llanview of course. Yes, it’s preposterous, but it would be fun.

Jessica. See, I didn’t even call her nuJess. While this Jessica is much more grownup, the character still feels like Jessica. Some viewers have written me complaining she doesn’t sound like Jessica. I can overlook the Canadian accent the same way I overlook Kassie DePaiva’s occasional slip into a Southern drawl. Bree Williamson gets the essence of Jessica and isn’t that the most important thing?

What might work, but doesn’t quite yet:

NuJoey. Not that I don’t like the actor, I do. He just does not feel like Joey. Yet. I had a hard time adjusting to Nathan Fillion, too. To me Chris McKenna was Joey. Then as time went on, I saw that Nathan had caught, here’s that word again, the essence of Joey. That charm he had inherited from his father Joe. From that moment on, he was Joey to me. I haven’t had that moment with this Joey. This Joey remains a new character to me, not a familiar one. I think part of the problem has been that most of scenes have been with the new character Flash. Paring a new/recast character with a new character seldom works. Let’s have some more scenes with Joey interacting with characters we already know. And I don’t mean scenes talking about Flash.
Flash. They have paired her with a new/recast character, nuJoey. They have her obsessed with a character, CJ, that has not been on in over 6 years. They have her dressing better than Natalie does, even though Flash is a street kid. And she has impeccably groomed eyebrows, even though she lives in an abandoned building with bad lighting. Have you ever tried to tweeze in the dark? There is one promising thing about Flash and it isn’t her singing. It’s her cough. I am thinking TB, which is a health crisis among the homeless. A health crisis would mean calling in MyDrLarry. Who is Joey’s and CJ’s uncle and could give this story the depth it is lacking..

Rae. I was going to put her in the “not working” category but I like her jewelry. Maybe this revamping of Rae will work. Although how the world’s most incompetent therapist will be able to help those kids is beyond me. Still she gets props for giving Jen a hard time.

What’s not working:

Liz is dead. When I look at all the characters that have been redeemed, from a rapist to a fraudulent therapist, certainly Liz was not beyond redemption. And if they were determined to kill her, couldn’t we at least have had a few more hot sex with RJ scenes before she left?

RJ, Keri and the baby. The only good thing about this is Toronto. At least Keri ran to a great city. RJ is too smart to think this ruse will last forever. I am choosing to blame all this on Keri (hey it’s my column). She is incredibly self-indulgent. With a short term memory. Has she forgotten the pain she endured from being separated from her father? I guess so. I’d like the chance to forget her, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

Troy. What is his purpose? Besides baring his chest, I mean? And since he is now in every hospital scene, he is taking air time away from MrDrLarry. Which is truly an unforgivable offense.

Gabrielle. What is not working about Gabrielle is that we never see her! Except to nag Al about his homework or to bring Bo food. She was not even in the fan fantasy episode. What a waste.

Carlotta. It pains me to write that but, until they deal with her recent personality change, I don’t care if I see her or not. Wait a minute. A sudden personality change. Could Carlotta also have DID?

Al. Such promise a few weeks ago when we all figured out he was the “Voice of the Night.” Fellow OLTL viewer Chuck suggested that Al could be running an underground radio station à la Christian Slater in Pump Up the Volume. Unfortunately for us, Chuck is not writing the show. Al as speed freak by day, mellow philosopher DJ by night is just not computing in my brain. Of course maybe I need a little from AL’s stash to have it make sense.

And finally, Victor’s return did not work for me. Maybe because I remember the autopsy. Maybe because it was just a plot device after all. It could have been more, but it wasn’t.

And now the “what is working, could work but isn’t and is not working” category. A category created just for

Mitch. What is working is Roscoe Born’s performance. He plays the devil so well I can almost believe that under his shoes, Mitch has cloven hooves. What still is missing from Mitch is his motivation. Maybe that will all become clear once his mystery partner is revealed. And Mitch needs to lose once in awhile. When all of evil’s plans work out, a certain element of suspense is lost. What does not work for me is Mitch’s need to humiliate women. From Natalie to Blair to Jen, his behavior is repulsive. I never thought there would be a male character who would make my skin crawl more than Ivan “Music Man” Kipling did, but Mitch does. And I don’t mean skin crawl in a good way. I am not usually rabid about such things, but this side of Mitch is beyond distasteful.

Although it does seem to be in line with the way women are being objectified on ABC soaps these days. But that will remain another topic for another day.

Please let me know what is working, kind of working and not working for you in Llanview and its sister city to the north, Toronto, these days

Stay safe.