Katrina's Soap Journal

Dishin the soaps with the Eye on Soaps Co-webmaster, Katrina Rasbold

January 13, 2003
1:30pm

Now that you’ve all had some time to process my feelings on the GH co-Head Writer, Bob Guza (see Dec 31, 2002 column in the archives below) and his treatment both of our show and of women characters, now comes the real soap column. Suffice it to say that what I thought of him then is what I think of him now, only solidified. Basically, I see him as a misogynistic, self-serving ego-maniac who writes his mansoap (I really think Sage nailed that one) the way that serves his own warped view of relationships and open disdain for the fans, particularly the historical, veteran fans. But before we get to GH, we’ll go through the other two.

AMC

Despite my concerns for what the comedy team of Guza and Pratt are doing to GH, overall, I’m very happy with the soaps right now for a number of reasons. The only real thorn in the side for me is, ironically, AMC, which usually pleases me quite a bit. For me, the most interesting thing of late was when Marian had the balls to bitch out Jake for daring to criticize Poor Liza for shoving her sister out a window. How dare anyone furrow a brow over Liza doing whatever she did to make Mia catapult out of that window! Sadly, Marian came off as little more than an idiot.

I don’t know if it’s the “on hold” process that a show tends to go into when a new power comes into play or if it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder or what, but AMC is just leaving me blah lately. NO ONE seems to have any spunk or pep and the actors and characters look to be as bored as I am. There just isn’t one thing on the canvas that interests me in the least. As an example, when Anna was being held at knifepoint (or was it gunpoint… wait, it was scissorpoint!!), the impression I had was, “insert drama here.”

I had really high hopes for the special on “What Women Want,” but after a spectacular opening, the rest left me fairly lukewarm to the point that the most interesting part of the show was noting that little Petey really can dance, that Liza should ALWAYS wear designer white clothes and that *I* wanted some pizza as well. I felt that the theme of “what women want” was way off base and should have instead been called, “What THESE women want.” Its pertinence to women in general, which was what they seemed to be seeking out in terms of coming up with the company gimmick, got lost almost immediately. I don’t think they ever really addressed anything that an average woman wants in the full course of the episode. It was sweet the way Liza tied up all of their fantasies with the concept of Fushion, but I found myself terrified as she walked to the chalkboard that she was going to run her fingernails down it ala Quaid on “Jaws.” When I can get so distracted from the theme of a special show that I’m thinking about pizza, the bratty kid and old movies, then they have failed.

Since I only started watching AMC last year, I missed the glory years where Erica won anyone’s affection and I have to tell you, without that kind of historical loyalty, she just leaves me cold. I know others may find the shallow, self-absorbed Queen Bee routine endearing and darling, but to me, it’s every snotty cheerleader from High School made more dangerous with money. Her condescending swipes at “Oh, I’m just a regular person and, shucks, we have so much in common” (such as the way she pretended she could even start to understand the turkey nabbing lady in the jail on Thanksgiving) are insulting to normal people in my opinion. I realize it is probably supposed to show us that Erica has texture and layers. As soon as she puts those self-absorbed fingertips to her chest and gets that puppy dog look, I flinch.

The scenes I have enjoyed are the ones between Adam, Liza, JR, Lori and her father. Liza was a decent arbitrator and I’m curious about where this will all lead.

You can probably imagine that my favorite character right now is Lysistrata. I love her style, I love her flair and I particularly love her style of dress. That’s it. I want to be Lysistrata when I grow up. NICE stuff with her counseling of Greenlee today.

Am I mistaken or are Liza, Adam and Co. watching the world’s longest movie? His behavior in the movie is pretty much in tune with Adam’s whole philosophy of "others bedamned, what I need and want is what matters." All in all, I found the whole interchange to be cumbersome and boring. What a crappy date, Liza! And who appointed Joni as the moral consciousness for Teens of All Bad Will? Where are the writers in all of this?

OLTL

OLTL is also undergoing subtle changes as the new regime shapes and shifts it to accommodate their vision. New Head Writer, Josh Griffith, has promised that he’ll be bringing the color back to Llanview and balance out the show a bit. There has been good tension around the paternity of Liz’s baby and the acting turned in has been exemplary.

My greatest joy, of course, is watching Mitch onscreen at any time, followed closely by my joy at seeing so much of Roxy as of late. It’s going to be great fun as the inevitable happens and Asa and Max both have to death with their growing feelings for this unlikely gal. Throwing in the threat of Mitch as well should up the ante quite a bit. To tie these two stories together is heaven.

I am very happy to see Max flesh out from the cardboard cutout he became since the nun left…what was her name? Oh, I can see her face in my head…Maggie! Maggie the nun who left Llanview to go to clown school or something like that. Seeing him beginning to interact with others in a positive way has been a joy.

I sense that the Sam and Blair union is coming to a close. I enjoyed them together when Sam first came to town in the guise of Kale Brown, but this revisit of their romance has left me cold even without Sam’s briefcase full of snow.

As a direct opposite of AMC now, there really isn’t anything on OLTL (other than the Sam-Blair thing that I think is ending) that doesn’t fascinate me. Even the most mind-numbingly boring we have, Jennifer, is now getting SCREAMED at by Mitch and who can’t love that? Seeing Jenn and Lindsay compare notes on their manipulations of the hellish heart has been great to watch!

Speaking of, I may have to take up smoking again if Lindsay and Troy carry on for much longer. I’m betting battery sales have more than tripled since the first day he put her up against the wall in her studio. Hot hot hot!

So all in all, I love what they are doing with the show and if what I’m hearing is true, the good stuff just keeps on coming!

GH continues its trend to turn out tepid crap that is barely worth watching with the occasional super great moment to keep us going. Such is so with the special New Year’s Eve GH episode! It certainly did not disappoint and I really have to applaud Tamara Braun’s outstanding performance both as Catherine and as Carly. She was just fabulous. Overall, I felt that everyone involved did a fine job of playing a character that was similar to their regular character (with the wonderful exception of John Ingle – smile). Although I am not a Journey fan, I did “feel” Joe and Violet and thought that Steve and Alicia worked well in those roles. I was easily able to separate out the characters of Joe and Violet from Jason and Courtney.

It is obvious that Wally Kurth deeply appreciates and in fact, revels in the opportunity of late for Ned to break out of his position as Alexis’ whipping boy and have a little fun, both in and out of the special episode. NLG must have pissed off someone because both her in and out of special episode characters have really been getting the rough end of the stick. The Chastity character in the 1920’s GH was fairly extraneous and I’m not even sure why it was there.

It’s also quite good for them that in all of the maladies Baby Kristina has suffered in her short life that the question of her blood type has never arisen.

I was very pleased o see that the New Year’s Eve episode is not being treated as a total stand alone piece and that Faith has been brought into the story. It’s sad, however, that evidently the legacy continued and Catherine’s selfless sacrifice of giving up her son did not keep him free of mob influence, at least by his daughter’s marriage. It was a haunting tale, told and shown well and it is definitely deserving of being incorporated into the story rather than told and left. (Fortunately, that did not happen with Courtney’s abysmal Groundhog Day experience…peeeyew! If the Q’s ever do want a turkey, they can eat that show.)

GH has definitely managed a few casting coups as of late. I don’t really have comment on the ever-changing face of Lucas, except to be pleased that he finally graduated out of age 8. Cynthia Preston, who plays Faith, seems to be a fair enough actress, but I can tell that she is uneasy with the powers that be not having a clue what they are going to do with her character. At least they toned down those eyebrows a bit.

Ric is a total hottie and we are in dire need of getting him out of that shirt.

Cameron is also very visually pleasant, but his voice makes me think of Harry Shearer, a cross between Simpson’s Reverend Lovejoy and newscaster, Kent Brockman. Hear for yourself.

http://www.the-ocean.com/simpsons/others.html

I pray this Journey is coming to an end.

You know, we ladies have really got to stop slapping each other. You know how when we just get the least little bit upset and some bitch looks at us wrong and ker-WHAP, we just slap the eyes off of ‘em. Yeah. That’s how we are. If you don’t believe it, just ask the dumbass writers of GH.