|
What a Feeling . . . I have always been a soap watcher. I think since perhaps when I was 8 years old and here I am 20 years later and there are things I recall that amaze me. I remember watching AMC with Angie and Jessie and Jessie was hit by a car (vague but the memory is there). I recall anxiously awaiting 1 PM so that I could see what would happen next in the Nico, Cecily and Julie triangle. On OLTL I remember just wanting Tina and Cord and Gabrielle and Max to just get together already. I can recall the days when Blair Daimler was not only a brunette but an Asian actress. On GH I can vividly see Tiffany crying for Sean and Duke and Anna finally finding their short lived happiness. I can close my eyes and feel immersed once again in the lives of others who were so very real. I can’t recall the last two years of GH. It went bad when The Brenda left and the Lucky changed (completely, Helena not only took his memory but gave him a full fledged makeover) and Laura went nuts. It went worse when Jason actually married Courtney, Alexis slept with Sonny and the key players hit back burner. There have been a few sparkles to recall but there hasn’t been a “story”. We already know all the answers and we know what happens next. There has been nothing to make you care, to make you say OMG I cannot possibly wait another 24 hours to see what happens next. How can one destroy such a strong foundation? I know how, by denying what is right in front of your very faces. Chemistry is ignored; talent is an option, but not a requirement. How else can you justify Sage getting the same amount of screen time as Jane Elliot? There is so much there, on the GH canvas to take it and run with it, yet it stands still. It makes me scared, because as we all know, everything, even soap, is replaceable. Where do they go when they have run everyone into the ground, threw on the dirt, stomped on them a bit, and not only does no one care, no one even remembers. Never in my life have a seen a soap try so hard to replace one character. GH can’t function right without a Brenda. Take a look
But they couldn’t do it. No one can ever be Brenda anymore than I thing someone else could be Lois. Generally, characters are not meant to be recast. But you see, the point here is, I remember Brenda’s shower being shot up, I remember the pantsuit Brenda was wearing when she begged Sonny for forgiveness for wearing a wire. I remember the passion as they kissed again the wall of Luke’s club, hungry and desperate. I can see Brenda crying in the rain and Sonny breaking inside every time he looked at her because he knew he could never really have her. I saw her fall when she was left at the alter and I saw her shatter when he left her. This is what makes a soap opera what it is. It makes you feel something. What do you remember about Hannah, or Lily, or even about Sam from 3 weeks ago? Want to know when I felt something last? Monday night when I watched Everwood and a 16 year old had his heart broken by his first love, an older woman, and they sat next to one another and showed more class, style, grace and feeling than any one character on GH has had the opportunity to exhibit in forever.
This is not a GH bash, but a cry for help. GH could do so much more with an Emily, Lucky, Nik triangle than by adding Mary. Carly and Jason finally getting together would cause a natural disaster. Dillon and an older woman could be phenomenal. The stage is set, now let Skye, Luke, Faith and Tracy just go. Felicia’s back and Sonny is par for the course. Throw them together and see what sticks. Skye still has no family and couldn’t it just be possible that she is the long lost daughter of Sean Donnely and only Bobbie knows the truth. Why not use the past and stop trying to erase it. I’m reaching, but at least I am trying which is more than I can say for Guza and Pratt. Give me something I can feel. Give me love and romance and espionage, but if I wanted the mafia, I would watch The Sopranos.
|
