This week's Muse Column is provided by:
 Sherry Mercurio

Welcome to "Love in the Afternoon", Your host and hostess, facilitators and narrators today and everyday will be.....the one and only, Roy and Melissa!  Hold your applause please.  C'mon, you know you have been hearing that very phrase in your head everyday.  They catch us up to date on the latest shenanigans and look cute while they do it - who could ask for more?
 
I actually like Bobbie and Scott!  When I heard the rumblings floating around the net about a possible pairing, I thought....ZZZzzzzz.  But upon watching a little of them I changed my tune pretty fast.  I think they are natural around each other and I haven't seen Bobbie be natural (HEY - I'm not talking about that!) in a long time.  She was okay with Roy, but it was always about a little tight skirt and a sexy dance or something instead of just being who they were.  She and Scott were refreshing while at the jail and painting her walls, and I say green light on them for now.  Subject to change of course since one never knows what kind of drivel will be coming out of their mouths tomorrow or what stupid outfit Bobbie will throw on next week.
 
I like seeing the residents of PC earning their keep again too.  Laura's back to work, Carly's trying to do something, Zander's doing Sonny's busywork, Ned has been at L&B like twice in a week, Kristina and Roy are job hunting - so to speak, Luke's fixing cars and cleaning his office, and so on.  Things just seem a little more realistic to me when there is some bread-winning going on.  I think though, that instead of a new club, we needed something a little more original.  Let's establish a business that is different than the businesses that half of the town already own or have a stake in.  I know, I know - it's a "different kind of club" blah, blah, blah..........they have enough places to go out to.  I guess they figure that since the love is back we need a new date destination.  Whatever.  I wish we could have seen something more interesting but no one asked me so.......
 
Speaking of something more interesting ( I can think of a few things, unfortunately) I think that the uninspired decision to have Sonny and Alexis have a "let your hair down" kind of night in a casino was, well, so very uninspired.  Let me start by saying that I was quite excited about the idea of seeing more S&A.  Love them.  I am well aware that some viewers aren't at all interested in exploring this pairing - romantic or platonic - any further.  While I completely respect that opinion, I am one of those that is enjoying this little interlude.  I doubt it will go very far, and I don't really care if it does or not, I am just enjoying having these two on screen together.  They can both act their you know what's off, and they are fun to watch.  I also am aware that some of you are getting a little miffed about the way Alexis is acting (googly-eyed, giggly, etc.) but I contend that if you truly, honestly think about it, there aren't many people who could resist getting a little goofy in the presence of Sonny's charm and money.  If he smiled at me like that just once......well, I consider myself to be pretty together, but I think I'd probably melt too.  So I have no real problem with how she's acting or with them going off somewhere together.  But I didn't get much from the casino trip.  I think Alexis has seen a few casinos before, and I wasn't buying her being that bowled over by the evening of gambling and dancing.  I liked the scenes leading up to the casino - the heart to heart outside the room was great.  Give me more of that please.  And might I suggest, while I'm at it, that they should have done something very un-Alexis (I didn't even think the dress was that big of a stretch - nice dress, didn't make me think "wow, she's gone nuts" or anything).  They should have gone to an amusement park and ridden some roller coasters, cotton candy and stuffed animals - something like that.  Wasn't there something about a carnival ride in a talk between Mike and Sonny?  Or maybe I'm losing my mind, anyway, if there was such a conversation and it was a bad memory then Sonny could have made new good ones, if it was a good memory then he could have given Alexis a good memory too.  I think these two need to relive their respective childhood's together.  They need to act like kiddies, not like sophisticated gamblers.  Just my opinion. 
 
The engagement party.  Yes Gia, you were being a complete and total snob telling Kristina she wasn't dressed appropriately.  If I were Kristina I'd have went upstairs and changed into a bedsheet after that comment.  Is it just me or is Ned looking more fine than usual lately?  Seriously, he looked quite handsome at the party.  Stupid of Kristina to go announce herself to Helena, can't see any real point to that.  Jax and Ned thanking Stefan for all he did for Alexis and Kristina???  Hello?  They are his sisters, his family, which by the way isn't all that large to begin with so I would expect he would look out for them! 
 
I think Lucky is on drugs.  Seriously, what the heck is going on with his dialogue??  One minute he's got puppy dog eyes over Liz and misses her so.  And the next he's hitting on half the guests at the party and making eyes at anything else that moves in the room.  Someone needs to check his drawers and then look through the one's in his dresser too because I'm pretty sure something is going on in there. 
 
So Luke goes to see Laura at her house to talk about why she turned Scott down and she has straight, silky looking hair.  Then he leaves to go work on his car.  She gets ready and goes to the engagement party, arriving with the kinky look - not so silky looking.  Then Luke has a daydream in which Laura has..........kinky-looking hair.........hmmm......Maybe she read his mind.  But that aside, no one glows like Genie Francis.  I wasn't very impressed with her hair or her outfit but once Luke showed up, Laura suddenly looked downright radiant.  The "loveboat" should be fun!
 
All in all, things could be worse as we could all testify to in a court of law.  But I'm also quite bored right now, there just isn't much going on that keeps my attention.  I'm hoping that is because we are in the ramp up period of this lovefest and that pretty soon there will be some mystery, intrigue, good dialogue........that "something more to the story" should really be kicking in any minute.  All the niceness and harmony is great and everything but please tell me there is something underneath it all because lately I might as well be watching  "Touched by an Angel" (make it a double helping when I catch Port Charles, I think they may actually be deeding that title over to them) - good show, I'm sure, but not mid-afternoon while the kids are napping! 
 
And lastly, a side note to TPTB:  I spoke to Santa at the mall the other day while I was forcefully holding my three year old by his knee for a beautiful holiday picture, and he said that you will definitely be receiving the dreaded lump of coal in your stockings because you just plain blew it!  Santa already plans to make sure you never get another show to ruin for as long as you have a career - you don't want to know what he has planned if you don't fix this mess you've made.  Get Stephen Nichols back, pronto!

 

We've all seen how mean Santa was to Rudolph before the poor dear (deer) came through and saved the day, don't put yourself through it!  Run, fast and far.

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