|
Sept 13, 2005 Man, I really hope that Diego does not turn out to be the roofie stalker. Not necessarily because I really like the character of Diego (I don’t), but because Jesse is already in enough hot water with Mac just trying to date Maxie. If you’re an undercover cop rooming with a guy that turns out to be stalking your girlfriend and you missed that little bit of info - well hell, you might as well get friendly with your right hand. Then again, you can probably look forward to a long and notable career with the PCPD. This storyline makes me so damn uncomfortable. I guess it would be unthinkable to send someone off to school and write stories that reflect the less MTV Spring Break-esque aspect of dorm life. I know that date rape and girls being slipped date rape drugs is a hot button issue now and I hope this does in some way act as a warning to all women that they aren’t as safe as they assume. The last time I was out dancing with girlfriends, I noticed that the ladies’ room walls and even the inside doors of the stalls were papered with warnings about leaving your drink unattended or allowing someone you didn’t know to buy you a drink. Welcome to real life I suppose, but at this point I’d pay to see a good old fashioned bonfire and the drama that usually accompanies things like that.
“Hey, are you guys going down to the maltshop after the big game?” I can’t stand waiting for things to happen on GH. Scratch that. I want something to happen on GH that I didn’t already know was going to happen. We’re a herd of spoiler whores these days. Everything is written about, leaked, stolen or downright EXPLAINED by the head writers before we get a chance to see it unfold on our screens. Every time someone holds eye contact for more than 2.4 seconds it starts. “WTF? Wait Skylo,Soily,Nico,Jaz - JaSon???” Speculation about couples, about storylines, comings, goings - it’s out of control. I want to turn on the television and settle in to let the story wash over me. I want to immerse myself in the lives and turmoil surrounding these people that I feel I know so well. I want Robin to walk in and shock the hell outta me. I want every Friday to end with a cliffhanger that I don’t already know the outcome to. And yes, I did just end a sentence with a preposition. I can’t place all the blame on the internet, it’s just a convenient whipping post. With all the buzz about a Carly recast, ABC Soaps in Depth rushed through its September 27th issue with the headline, “New Carly Canned!”. As if we didn’t know. Strangely enough, there’s also a great three-way (smirk) interview with Rick Hearst, Steve Burton and Maurice Benard, all singing the praises of Jennifer Brandsford and her rendition of Carly. Ah, irony.
News you can use? Additionally in the interview, Maurice Benard gets asked the $64,000 question, namely how does he feel about Jennifer Brandsford getting the breakdown story instead of him. “It’s almost like it’s really happening. The depth of what [Jennifer Brandsford] is going through is amazing because I see myself in her. That’s never happened. I’m usually the one having the breakdown. I’m talking about in life and as Sonny. So I’m usually the one that people take care of.” ABC Soaps in Depth, Sept. 27, 2005 He has come so close to living his very personal struggles on screen over the years, that maybe this is how he wanted to portray that facet of his life. When he spoke to Carly and told her that he understood what she was feeling, the emptiness, the darkness - he wasn’t just saying words that another person wrote for him. He was conveying exactly what he felt at times in his life, using words that only another person dealing with depression could truly relate to. We can all only guess at what playing this story means to him. I can’t imagine asking a rape survivor to play a rape victim, nor a cancer survivor to share the emotional toll they’ve gone through for the sake of a storyline. But Maurice Benard, by participating in this story, in his way - and don’t think he couldn’t have chosen to be the person who had the break - is giving us a very personal gift in sharing a piece of himself with us. All we have to do is listen.
Kudos to all the GH gals this week for their killer performances, especially Kelly Monaco’s Sam. Since GH doesn’t let us have women who bond over anything other than the fact that they’d slept with the same man, I want to say just how much I appreciate seeing at least one woman spread her wings. Sam came on board as a means to inducing more Brenda-type conflict between Jax and Sonny. It worked too. She got pregnant and was crucified over the question of whether she took a shower in between hitting the 600 thread count sheets in the respective penthouses. She fought for the right to hang onto her child, without either of the possible fathers taking it away from her. Jason fell in love with her and I did too. She made him smile, she was giving him a family of his own, even if Sonny was the biological dad. She even had the most fabulous maternity clothes, which should’ve been the tip off. I knew that the baby wouldn’t live, I thought the story of the stem cells was relevant and even necessary. Many people were outraged that another GH pregnancy wasn’t going to make it to full term, but this is soap opera and you need tragedy and angst and horrible real life choices to make it work. Now we see Sam taking on everyone, Alan, Sonny, Durant - hell, she even kinda married that Andrew dude to free Jason. By the way, since they were married (or at least I think they were officially married) she’s technically a widow now... what happens to all that moolah? Is Sam really loaded now? Wait, don’t tell me if it involves a return engagement by Allegra and her goons. Jason’s got money enough, and I’ll take his 3 for $9.99 Wal-mart t-shirts (Really! That’s what SB said at his event!) over Andrew’s powder blue leisure suit any day of the week. But Sam has a softer side too. It’s in the way she has been there for Michael, how she handles Jason’s sudden memory loss. And it’s in the way she has been able to put aside all personal feelings of animosity towards Carly and be a protective and understanding care giver. Wasn’t it only a month or so ago that Carly wrapped a pool cue around this poor girls’ back? Yes, her timing’s off. She asked Carly for her help when it was painfully obvious that Carly was in worse shape than Jase. At least Sam saw that and backed off. Kelly and Jennifer’s scenes together on Friday and Monday were sweet and poignant and I wish to God they hadn’t had to dub over with JB’s temp-psycho ramblings, but they were spot on nonetheless. It’s not that much of a stretch to realize that Sam and Kelly Monaco have grown into this role, because you don’t do that without being that kind of a person to begin with.
Remember to kiss your kids and tell that someone special you love them. ‘Til next time, KellyB Screen caps are from: Kathy “Wonder Woman” Hardeman & |
