What is in a name? In this
case, quite a bit. Mercury is not only a fast moving planet whose zodiacal
influence is that of communication and lightening quick changes, but also a
chemical element that is reflective, consolidated, reactive to external stimulus
and absolutely poison if you mess with it. Our newest GH columnist, Sherry
Mercurio, embodies all of those wonderful attributes and more. If you
haven't been following her columns in our Muse
Writer section over the past year, then you have definitely been missing out
on a good read. Sherry now will have her own column On the Soap Box and I
very much look forward to her submissions. I know you will as well.
Welcome, Sherry!!
Katrina Rasbold
Eye on Soaps Web Woman
Hi everyone! I'm so excited and honored to
have my very own column here on Eye On Soaps. I've been a fan of this
site and it's varied columnists since it's infancy, and am so pleased to be a
small part of it. I'll be attempting to give you a regular commentary on
the current happenings around Port Charles and whether you agree with my
opinions or not, I hope that you will get some enjoyment from reading them.
I would ask that all my readers please know that the opinions I give on any
given day are truly the way I feel that day, but aren't set in stone.
With soaps you can't always wait to see how things end up because they don't
ever end. And what looked really bad yesterday often looks better when
you see what tomorrow brings or vice versa. I've also gotten very good
at seeing most characters in more than one light, so just because I enjoy a
character doesn't mean I can't see why others find them completely appalling.
And it doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good humorous barb about them now and
again. I really try not to take my own, or anyone else's opinions too
seriously.
Most importantly, I want everyone to know that I
really love and enjoy these shows or I wouldn't be spending valuable time
watching and then writing about them. Any criticism's I give are meant
to be (okay, mostly) constructive criticisms with a twist of humor, of course!
So the goal here is to enjoy the great shows together and to use a little
humor and sarcasm to get through the not so great ones.
Please feel free to let me know how I'm doing :)
Sherry
March 6, 2002
AJ has been the most interesting character for me these
days. I've never been a huge AJ fan, though since he has had very little
storyline that didn't involve him being the patsy, who can blame me? I
have, on the other hand, always liked Billy Warlock just fine and knew he was
capable of playing more of a part on GH than he has been allowed to. I
haven't been disappointed. Being that his character has basically been a
side note for some time now, the writers had what amounts to a clean slate
when it came to developing his current motivations and personality traits.
And so the difficulty they have (or some of them have, at least) with actually
taking a characters history into account while they write hasn't been a
problem this time. The history basically is two events: Jason's
"head to tree" thing and Michael's birth and the subsequent hostile
takeover of said son. It's pretty hard to screw up a characters history
when they don't actually have one that was all that interesting to begin with.
So when I heard AJ would be getting a front-burner storyline, way back when, I
wondered where they would go with AJ. A total turn-around brought on by
the love of a good...sister and the yearning for a lost son, or was AJ going
to do something really stupid and continue to be the target of the whole town
but on an even grander scale?
What we have now is an interesting mix of the two.
In the beginning you could just feel AJ's little ego soaking up having a
sister around that was backing him up on anything and everything he said and
did (why she has done that is still beyond me, but that's not AJ's fault!)
and also giving him something of a friend which he hasn't really had since
beyond forever. Then he started to get way more confident in his ideas
and schemes. He used to come up with a plan and just go off trying
whatever he thought up without actually having the cajones to carry it off.
He would either run scared at the first dark look from Sonny or he would
proceed to make things much worse for himself by sticking around. But
lately he is different. Not in the way everyone keeps saying "mean,
angry, desperate, cold, out for blood" etc, he's different because he
feels like he can actually win this one. Really believes it this time.
And we have to believe he might too. After all, whether you like his
plan or find it morally reprehensible, you have to admit - it's a good plan
for AJ's purposes. And he's thinking smart and executing his moves with
confidence and just the right amount of glee to make him seem like he is
finally at the top of his game. And it's glee over his own
accomplishment - not over Courtney's plight. He is just really focusing
on his plan and hasn't stopped to look at what might happen to Courtney in the
long run. Maybe he won't care or maybe he will care very much when he
really faces that. Who knows? But in the mean time I like seeing
Billy play AJ this way. It's a good story idea that undoubtedly could be
done better but hey, can't have everything! And it's the only storyline
that I can watch with at least a little uncertainty as to how it will all turn
out. Of course, AJ will very likely find himself in love with her on the
very day she finds out what he has done to her, but there are other options
and regardless of the outcome, the ride is going to be fun and that's pretty
important to me these days as I try to sift through and find something good to
say!
Now, you know there are some problems with this story
and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a few, at least. And, well, I
can't really pull off the "eternal optimist" thing very well anyway
so why try? So here are a few of my current issues with the AJ/Courtney
story:
1) Courtney can either be a really sweet, naive,
20 year old or she can be a 20 year old (because the one thing we are sure of
is that she is 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 already!!) that has had lots of "older,
rich guys" hit on her but she "knew what they were after".
And where does a pre-20 year old hang out that all these rich, old men were
hounding her?? Whether it was the casino or somewhere else I doubt
either place fostered her innocence any. If she has had any life
experience that would enable her to have been able to weed out those other
men, I'm thinking she would have had enough life experience to make her more
suspicious of AJ and just a little curious about why Sonny is so worried.
BUT, I am willing to let most of this go because any young girl in her
position would have to have serious father figure issues - any man she is
attracted to until she works that out can conceivably be both older and rich.
But AJ better look out because she also must have serious abandonment issues
and that can make a woman a big handful!
2) Janine is another issue for me. My initial
reaction to her part in all this was just plain disgust. But I have
tried, for the sake of not letting it ruin the only story I'm half-way
enjoying, to look at this from her perspective. Let's say that she has
one big goal in life - not to let her daughter marry trash like Mike (in her
mind, not mine - I like Mike!) and to make sure that her daughter doesn't have
to struggle with money as Janine herself has. With that in mind I can
see why she might be overlooking some obvious warning signs and making what
appear to me to be poor decisions. I'm working overtime to convince
myself that she isn't pimping her daughter away, but rather that she thinks
that if she can make Courtney love this man then she will have accomplished
her goals in life. Because, and this is a hard one for me too because I
think she is supposed to be smarter and more street savvy than this,
apparently she really thinks AJ loves Courtney. So if I believe that she
really thinks that, then I can see my way to not hating her for the way she's
shoving Court at AJ. Of course the issue of her not wanting to check
further into why Sonny hates AJ so much nags at my mind...she would have to be
suspicious if she knew that what AJ wanted in life more than anything (before
he wanted Courtney, that is) was to get back at Sonny... See, it's work
keeping this positive train of thought on the track!
Here are a few "Why?"
thoughts on this subject:
Why does AJ have to walk Courtney to the hallway where
she goes to get out of sight every time the doorbell rings - can she
not find her own way there yet?
Why didn't they just go ahead and show AJ give her all
the new makeup and hair products she obviously got her hot little hands on to
go with her new outfits? She went from a carefree style to full-fledged
glam in a matter of minutes.
Why hasn't Courtney figured out a way to meet Michael so
she could see for herself what all this fuss is about?
Why do I suddenly fear that AJ may just be a silent
partner owner of my house?
--------------------------------
On to the next item of interest. Maxie's SORAS and
subsequent recast. I'll just be up front about this and say that I hate
the idea with a passion. I think it sucks, big time. Let's, just
for fun, imagine what the introduction of the newly aged Maxie will be like,
shall we? Three to Five days pre-screen debut: Felicia and at
least three others mention how time has flown and Maxie is getting so much
older, will be signing up for college, is on birth-control, etc and whatever.
Maybe we will even get some fond memories from them about her first date,
drivers training, prom, graduation and so on. Then the big day comes and
Maxie shows up (you'll know who she is because everyone will have to call her
by her name at least twice that day) with some sort of a AH-HA! moment that
will drive home the fact that she is now 20ish. For example, maybe
she'll show up in a jail cell after getting caught at a Rave (haven't used
that set in awhile) or maybe she'll show up in her own living room (haven't
seen that in awhile either) on the couch making out with a boy when Mac shows
up unexpectedly to check on her. This would be easier to forecast if I
knew where she's supposed to be now but, whether I should or not, I don't.
So let's do one that has her coming back into town because that seems vaguely
familiar...She gets off the plane, which Flea happens to be able to meet
because her new romance storyline hasn't heated up yet, and she (Maxie, not
Flea, though you never know!) has a nose ring, navel ring and a blue-haired
little punk of a boyfriend in tow. Whatever will Felicia do with all
that on her hands?? Should make for riveting drama.
Maxie "Why?" thoughts:
Just....Why, Why, Why, Why are they doing this?????
Are we supposed to not wonder Why Georgie is now waaay
younger than her sister?
Why are we being cheated out of seeing what could have
been good soap stories, like Maxie going through the formative years with a
police commish as a step-dad, and Maxie dealing with Felicia heading into yet
another romance?? This child could have provided some reality-inspired
drama and it could have been fun to have a more innocent teen storyline going.
It's either you're 8 and window dressing or you're 20, look like a model, have
committed or helped to commit at least one felon, and have a self-proclaimed
occupation that you rarely do anything with but no matter, because you have
places to live and transportation - no real income needed ( I better stop now
or I might go on for days...). There's no in between with this show!
Again, Why??
--------------------------
That about covers anything and everything of substance
that I have seen or heard about lately. I'll wrap up with a few other
thoughts that have popped into my busy little brain lately:
The Scoobies at Windermere, plus a few aunts??
They've got the haunted mansion looking set, all they need to do is add the
van out front. If only they were talking about ants instead of aunts -
please don't subject Alexis to this, please - I will beg if need be.
All I have to say about the Carly/Sonny/Alexis/Zander
debate is... Carly and Jax, Carly and Jax, Carly and Jax. And I will
repeat myself and say that Sonny and Alexis should do it and get it done with
already! Carly and Jax actually have a little chemistry and I'd be
interested in seeing that followed up. Let me add though that Sonny and
Alexis are the only ones that have permission from me to do the nasty, at
least right now. Any other pairing on the show of anyone under 35 is
just way too messed up... they all need to see a shrink before they do
anything else. Yes, I know Sonny and Alexis aren't much better, but I
want to see them mixing it up so I'm giving them a free pass! Sue me!
Nobody is doing anything just because they actually love someone - which
brings me to:
Where is the romance? I thought a few months ago
all they could talk about was getting the romance back in the show -
apparently me it all blew right by me. Everybody is just either icky
(Ned and Kristina) or messed up in the head (pretty much every other couple) -
what's the deal?
Luke and Laura have been a little romantic, though.
I thought the whole kidnapping and wedding thing was pretty silly and I think
it could have been written just a little better and then would have been good,
old soap "camp" but it was all just a bit off for me. In fact
the only reason I didn't fast-forward all of it was Sally Struthers - she was
the only part of the whole thing that was right on target, in my opinion.
She was a hoot - and she saved that whole story! Luke's
"death" was also a bit off, but once Laura starts boo-hooing, I
admit it, I'm suckered right in.
How quick are Carly and Zander to keep up so well with
Skye?? My gosh, they were literally right on her heels - how she didn't
feel their breath on her back I'll never understand.
Speaking of Skye, she looks so great some days and then
other days she looks like she has way too much makeup on. She is
definitely a less-is-more type I think. The days when they cake it on
she just looks hard. Maybe that's the point and I'm just too dumb to
appreciate the symbolism, who knows? I just know that on the days when
she has a more natural look I am always noticing how gorgeous she really is.
Sarah: who needed her? But on the positive side,
she is better than the first Sarah - never did like that other actress very
much, can't remember her name...
Besides the romance, the other thing that is MIA is
family. The Q's are nowhere to be found for the most part, Audrey isn't
around to help Sarah and Liz, Luke and Laura haven't seen their children in
awhile again, that goes for Flea too, Michael is missing, Florence, Tony,
Bobby and Lucas, no one who is actually related really spends any time
together anymore...
That also leads to something else we need more
of...kitchens. When is the last time you saw a kitchen on GH?
Everyone goes into the kitchen and comes back from the kitchen but no one is
actually seen in one. People hang out in the kitchen in real
life, at least in a home where there is a family - which we don't really have
so maybe we don't need a kitchen. I don't need anyone to actually cook,
I'd just like to see someone have their morning coffee and some conversation
at the kitchen table or counter ( no - not the Q's, don't worry!) instead of
in the formal dining room, maybe when Luke and Laura come home... or maybe
kitchen appliances aren't in the budget at GH. With my luck my wish will
come true and Windermere will suddenly have a kitchen, complete with food
fights, so.....I'm sorry I mentioned it.
Well, that about wraps it up for me. Take heart,
there's always next sweeps!
Sherry
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