October 2001 Archives

October 21, 2001
8:45pm 

It’s been a long time with the real world and computer troubles always seeming to get in the way.  Overall, I’ve had kudos for all three shows and I’m pleased with the progress they have shown over the past few months.  It is now what I would call a worthy way to invest three hours of my day.  Damn, I do wish I could get Port Charles, though. 

There is one theme that is pervasive in soaps, more so, I hope, than in real life.  On all three shows we have a NobleMan who is shielding the woman He Loves More Than Life Itself from important information she should have in order to protect her from an evil dragon that is out to slay her.  This attitude proves to me that chivalry is not dead, it’s just stupid.  In all three cases, the woman is thought to be not smart enough, not trustworthy enough and not savvy enough to take care of herself and is bound to muck things up if she knows what’s going on OR that she’s in extreme danger.  On AMC, Mateo is hiding things from Hayley, big mistake.  If my husband were to NOT tell me that he and his family were under threat from drug lords with Greek mythological names, not only would I be highly pissed, but I would also refuse to accept any BS explanation he tried to give for his stupid duplicity.  

Next hour, on OLTL, Cris brutally ripped open Jen’s heart and served it up as the main course at the diner, humiliating her in front of his mother and brother and making her feel used and, I’d guess, fairly dirty.  The whole “If I love her, I have to break up with her” business is as dumb as a bag of drowned mice.  All he has to do is pull her aside, tell her that a crazy, inept, but determined hit man hired by RJ is out to kill him and is trying to use her to get to him.  She stages a big fight with him and he blows out to New York with Jen’s dignity (and love) intact.  I don’t know that there would ever be any way back from where he has put them now because even Jen, bless her little heart, is sharp enough to figure out that he could have just told her what was going on.  She seems fairly forgiving, but we’re talking about a lot of chocolate, flowers and things that sparkle in the night.  Cris…you’re an idiot.  I have the picture to prove it. 

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I know that I am talking retroactively on GH, but they are only a skip ahead of the others.  Ditto to Prince Nik for not filling in Gia on the goings on.  I sometimes wonder if these guys, Nikolas and Cris, are just looking for reasons to punish the women they love.  How many times did we watch Nikolas tear Gia apart and let Sanctimonious Liz break her heart as well?  Of COURSE Gia is livid now and I was furious with Elizabeth for her condescending “Well, maybe your wittle feelings are hurt, GEEEE-AHHH, but my BOYFRIEND’S LIFE was at stake!!”  You know Liz loved every moment of torturing Gia the way she did.  It’s too back Liz’s death scene was fake.  I could have really enjoyed Helena getting the upper hand without Nik knowing it and switching the vials, only to have Elizabeth never awaken from that cold, dark night of the soul.  So now, Elizabeth is escorted out of the country and Rebecca Herbst is escorted into a blissful maternity leave, leaving behind the giant purses and mammoth envelopes.  Will Nik and Gia reunite?  You know they will.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Gia spilling to Lucien that Nikolas really put one over on his family, not knowing that Daddy has a temper problem.  Why will she take him back?  Because they always do. 

AMC 

Cuckoo is right, man.  Like we were too stupid to see the symbolism, they had to beat us over the head with that clock.  I would wonder where they could take Laura from here, but of course, insanity often runs unchecked on soaps.  Jessica Buchanan (or is she?) terrorized Dorian for months and never had to spend a minute with a psychiatrist afterwards.  No one just thought it was necessary.  Leo definitely picked this one before she was ripe and poor Greenlee is the one to have to pay.  It’s good, at least, that she has Jake on her side.  Otherwise, it’d be Gaslight.  Personally, my vote is to relocate Laura back out to the slummy street so that she can push a baby carriage full of aluminum cans and talk to herself about Greenlee all day and night.  It must have felt pretty good to Leo to get a kitchen pass long enough to *think* he left her and breathe a few breaths of air that he didn’t have to share with her.  Of course, he has Brooke the Pitbull standing guard to make sure he never, ever thinks about smelling freedom again.  I guess you help a friend, you pay with the rest of your life. 

I loved the scenes between Jesse and Tad and I’m pleased that ABC is not totally averse to injecting a bit of humor here and there.  Given the recent bend toward people tearing each other apart in heinous acts of emotional brutality, I was starting to wonder.  (Tell Dixie, Tad, before she has you committed, and I don’t mean with a wedding ring) 

If I die and my husband gives my heart away to some crazy person who doesn’t deserve to live and just a few short months later is romping with not one, but TWO randy females, knocking one up and squaring off with the teeth of the other, I won’t just return and haunt him.  I will terrorize him.  I won’t be beautiful and dressed in diaphanous white; I’ll look like Medusa and be wearing battle gear, with big swords, pitch forks, machetes and little stiletto knives that pierce the skin easily.  Me thinks Ryan needed a little more grieving time before playing the sister game. 

Love that Chris.  “Erica.”  Mmmmmm 

Doesn’t Frankie look remarkably like Mary Stuart Masterson? 

 

OLTL 

The Undoing of Lanie wasn’t nearly as undone as I’d hoped.  I didn’t want manipulation and lying.  I wanted crazy, around the bed, toys in the attic.  This whole, “When I was wif Colin, I had no self esteem” crap bored me until my eyes bled.  Praise Troy for saying, “Yes, Lindsay, we have an understanding,” then doing, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doop on his cell phone, “Yello, Bo?  That blood’s from the healthiest person on Earth.”  Way to go, Katrina’s New Hero of Llanview.  Lowest line of the week was Lindsay, “Um, you don’t have to tell Bo that this was my idea, do you?”  Pffffft. 

I’ve already been on a rave about the Natalie-Jessica baby switch in the spoiler commentary, but allow me to go mad about it here too. WHAT a coup!  How often can we all know what’s coming, like the broad side of a barn, and still be blown away by it? The actors carried this story 100%.  From the moment Natalie said, “I’m not going ANYwhere” to Viki, you knew it was on.  This has been the best representation of “Everyone’s a Victim” that I’ve seen on a soap in a good long time.  It was extremely creative of the writers to use an old story to tell a new tale with a twist and not insult the viewers who were there to see it happen.  Sure, switching babies is standard soap fare, but it was played off with panache and moved along at a stunning pace that didn’t leave us flopping around on the shore, gasping for air for very long.  Allison loved seeing the whole drama unfold and watched it with hungry little rat eyes, waiting for Viki to fall apart and savoring every delicious revelation she served up.  Natalie was poised and ready to take her place as the much maligned, much deserving, much loved (?) Lord heiress, only to have Viki snarl over bared teeth and turn her back to leave with her “real” daughter.  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” spoken in a small voice, probably doesn’t even start to cover it.  Ben watched helplessly as his wife’s world was broken apart and defended her like a Doberman.  Seth struggled with his feelings for Jessica and his place with Natalie.  Viki seethed, barked and went into full diva mode when her family came under attack.  Each one left me with a feeling of knowing exactly where they are now.  Ben wants to make it right (he’s a man, what can you say?).  Allison feels in control and heady with power.  Natalie feels scared and alone, looking for anger and power in her newfound position.  Seth doesn’t know which way to do but wants to make it all right (see Ben).  Viki wants to ignore what she’s heard but has a sniggle in her head about the baby she carried for all those months.  Jessica doesn’t know who she really is or where she came from now.  The real villain in all of this is stupid Rae who treated Allison for ten minutes and then got her released from St Anne’s over Ben’s loud and adamant protests.  Jerk that woman’s license!  Great acting.  Great story.   Great bowing to historical accuracy.  I’m eager to see what’s next.  The only real bummer to this is that I do not see how it can play out without Clint coming back to Llanview, at least for a while, and Clint Ritchie has said no way to Gary Tomlin’s offer.  CR said he’s not willing to play Clint as a bit character who comes on for a few shows and leaves; Tomlin doesn’t want to write him in as a full time character.  With it at deadlock, the only way it can be believable is with a recast or if Clint dies of a heart attack when he hears what happens.  “Clint is in Cabul on assignment” is not going to wash with this family tragedy. 

Oh Kristine, what am I supposed to do with this?  (Kristine is my good friend and the president of Roger Howarth’s Fan Club)  She crawled my butt good for shaking my finger at Todd when he was mean to Addie the other day and now he’s stolen Blair’s baby?  How can this character hope to redeem himself?  Talk about déjà vu, I typed that line after he clocked Tea’ in the cabana and I guess he came back to good fan standing after that, so anything’s possible.  I have a weak spot for baby stories and taking a woman’s baby and telling her that he’s dead, especially a woman who has already lost a child, is too far beyond cruel to come back as far as I’m concerned.  Love Roger Howarth, but Todd is officially off my list.  The writers will have to do some fancy footwork to get me any where near to caring what happens to the character after this.  I am eager to see him with the slimy David Vickers, but beyond that, I’ve lost all interest.  It’s a shame, too, because he has always been a favorite character of mine.  Blair ripped my heart out this week, grieving for her son, and the only thing that kept me out of the Kleenex was laughing at Max’s dopey new look.  El Diablo…Todd. 

El Stupido…Gabrielle, Max and Asa.  Spare me. 

Isn’t Matthew possibly extremely ill?  Why are we only hearing about this once a week between the lines?

 

GH 

I loved the melodrama and gothic mystery atmosphere of bringing all of the suspects to the mansion for a good old Ellery Queen run down.  The only thing that threw off the mood was seeing the bright-eyed blonde terrier that Mac had yipping at his heels.  When is he going to ever be good on his own without need her to make him look good? 

LOVED the Alexis and Sonny kiss.  Consider this:  Sonny and Alexis have a one night stand and she becomes pregnant.  She doesn’t want Sonny to know because he has just gotten back together with Carly and she knows Sonny will insist on being in the baby’s life and Carly will make her miserable.   She hooks up with either Jax or Ned to say that they are the baby’s father and does the single mom thing.  Sonny, of course, would find out.  No doubt, Bobbie would tell him.  Lots of story room here, I think AND the Sonny-Carly people get what they want as well. 

To me, Sonny and Carly are done.  Brenda betrayed him by wearing a wire and it took him forever to take her back.  He did and that ended in tragedy.  Hannah betrayed him and he turned his back and never looked at her straight again.  He said she was dead to him and she was.  I thought he had learned his lesson.  I don’t care HOW much she loves him or what her reason was, any woman who turned her husband over to the FBI would not be breathing right now in the mob world, much less be ordering him around and (if the fans have their way), taking her place as Mrs. Corinthos again.  Can he really stand that chance?  Benny will never hear of it.  He needs to take the lesson and keep on walking.  What is the alternative?  Sure, they love each other.  Lots of people love each other.  Sure, they have passion.  Lots of people have passion.  So lets take these two hot tempered people and put them into a sick relationship where he will NEVER be able to trust her again and she will CONSTANTLY have this thrown in her face.  Not only that, but we all know how Carly behaves under pressure.  She spent months trying to be perfect wife for Tony and could never measure up.  Under the best of circumstances, Carly screws up.  Put her in an unworkable situation where she knows she’s shooting uphill and she’s going to be in a constant state of suspicion and panic.  I can’t see a reunion as good for anyone except the fans who want it to go back to the way it was…and it can’t.  The betrayal happened.  It won’t and can’t be ignored and whether they get back together or not, the writing is on the wall.  I think it’s better to let the characters go their separate ways and start clean with someone else.  Personally, I think Carly should get good and pissed off at Sonny and get in league with AJ to get him back.  When they were good, they were very, very good and I think that they understood each other on many levels.  No more Jason to be in the way and Michael could be with both of his parents.  I always wanted to see Carly give Monica the dressing down she deserves and this could provide that opportunity.  Monica forgets that when she came onto the show, she was a money chaser that would make Carly blush.  Monica and Bobbie, two of the most sanctimonious beeznatches in Port Charles, have been much sluttier than Carly has ever been and definitely pulled stunts of higher octane than she ever dreamed of doing. 

It has been painful see Luke struggling with the effects of the biotoxin and wander aimlessly through time, never knowing where he’s going to land. I noticed that both Bobbie and Laura now have their hair more like they did in the 80’s and I think it’s interesting that the powers that be are taking them in that direction.  I’m hopeful for a Luke and Laura reunion, but now that Tony Geary’s story is no longer being used, it’s anyone’s guess where this will land.  It is known that with the ousting of his story, coupled with Finola Hughes’ refusal to return to GH, any hope of a Robert Scorpio return has been dashed, much to my dismay.  More’s the pity because a Scorpio return would have breathed incredible life into a show that is feast or famine any more.  

Loved seeing the Cassadines at work this week, with Stavros and Stefan at last squaring off.  What an eeeviiil little bugger Stavros is, setting up Nikolas that way!  Smart cookie!  This story has me on edge, because I know the end result could be the loss of any of the two or both of my favorite characters on the show, Helena and Stefan.  I’m at peace with Stavros leaving because he’s getting on my nerves with that odd, stilted, stage production speech and he’s pretty much outlived his usefulness as a villain as soon as all of the key players see him, gasp and get over it.  

Skye eased back into the show with grace and I’ve enjoyed seeing her at work.  Hated her on OLTL, but she fits in here nicely.  I can’t stand to see people condescend to Lila, speaking to her as if she is four, so she loses points for that.  I’d like to see her pair up with Jax and take over the world.  The meeting I’d most like is between Skye and Tracy, but I don’t see that coming for a while. 

Hey, you know?  What can I say.  I’m still watching.

 

 

October 2, 2001
3:00pm

Mood:  Dreading cleaning my house
Music:  Up on Cripple Creek by The Band

Damn.  I can’t stand Esta and she’s making me boo hoo all over the place today.  Whatever happened to that deal she was going to strike to get back to Ryan? The Task?  Is it too late?  Can we please get her back?  Can Ryan wake up and hear the shower in the next room find Gillian alive and well and Laura dead of heart failure?  Pleeeeeease!  I take back all the things I’ve said about her!  Just one good old Dallas erasure of the past few months.  *sob* 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA  I’m cracking up over Jessie beating the crap out of Tad with that hammer and then scaring the crap out of him with that goofy little smile and “boo!”  What a priceless soap moment!  God, I love this show! 

Marzi Pan inspired me and I was thinking of how we could have standard spoilers that always appear each week.  Things like: 

Tad’s temper gets out of hand and lands him in hot water! 

David makes things difficult for folks at the hospital. 

Laura suspects that Leo really wants to be with Greenlee. 

Erica is both infuriated and enchanted by Chris’ arrogance. 

Mateo is confused. 

Brooke worries that Leo will end up hurting Laura and goes to him for reassurance. 

Bianca fears her mother will never accept her gayness. 

Jake loves Greenlee’s worries away. 

****sniff*  Bye Bye, Princess***

 

OLTL 

Awwww.  Can Jen just BE any cuter at all?  OK, so Al isn’t going to ask his parents for anything any more, huh?  I’m curious about how or where he’s going to live.  Will he still drive that cool car?  Or is it that he’s just going to take advantage of his now legal Daddy Warbucks, Asa?  Looks like it’s the latter. 

It’s good to see Max and RJ together again after so long.  I really enjoyed when they were partners in the Indigo Lounge.  Of course, the only time I really enjoyed Max was when he was with Luna.  Oh for the days of Jacara Principal! 

Man, it just goes to show that when your calling party doesn’t pick up and you leave a message, all kinds of hell could be breaking loose while you’re prattling on at the machine after the beep. 

I still love Todd and Addie together today.  “You are SO in the right place.”  ;)  Wait.  Dammit.  Todd is being mean to my Addie.  Oh, he is so on the list!  

I am SO surprised that OLTL had the bad taste to go with the impression of ANYthing scary happening on an airplane.  The whole business of a creepy guy, looking side to side, deboarding with a briefcase is giving me the heebie-jeebies, so I can’t imagine how it would feel for those more intimately involved in the current national crisis to see that. 

 

GH 

What???  Jacob Young almost *gasp*  ACTED today when he found Luke in the crypt.  At last!  We’re getting the story that Anthony Geary wrote for the Luke and Laura reunion!  Judging from the previews, it should be a winner!  I just feel for my Scotty.  

I’ve heard that a new fab four is in the works between Jax, Ned, Kristina and Alexis.  I’m not sure how I feel about that since I loved the first mixed marrieds brigade.  Kristina seems able to hold her own with the heavy hitters, which is really something to say given the abysmal failures the casting couch has brought forth this year.  I love how Jax is looking like a whipped pup while Alexis is dressing him down.  Ned is doing a marvelous job of describing Alexis as well.  I wish they’d hurry and get these two back together and put us all out of our misery, as well as them.  It is apparent that Sonny and Alexis are not going to be a couple, although I’d love it if they had a one night stand and Alexis became pregnant and realized she could NEVER have a family with Sonny and decided to raise the baby on her own.  NLG said at her fan event in July that she could see Alexis as a kind of Diane Keaton figure from Baby Boom.  I think a baby would do wonders for Alexis and I’d love it if Ned was involved as well.  The dimples are all in the right place.  Maybe they could pass the baby off as Ned’s.  For Godsake, Alexis, just tell Ned and be done with it!  

Oh man, first Esta rakes me out and now Nikolas and Gia are breaking my heart.  Why won’t he just tell her what’s going on and take the flack of whatever she does with that?  I know he’s playing that Valiant Prince role and wants to keep all this from her, but I think he’s hurting her more than Helena ever could. 

My, that’s sure is a huge purse Elizabeth is carrying.  Like maybe an eight month purse.  I love what they have done with Laura’s hair.  It’s much more flattering than her usual work up.  The beauty of it too, literally, is that they are working to make her look more like she did when she and Luke first got together.  Part of the magic of the reunion.  I don’t think they’ll make it in time for November sweeps for a re-wedding, but I’m sure the actually reunion will happen by then. 

It’s funny, but I don’t think Roy is going to figure out that it’s not a coffin, but a hyperbolic chamber.  Somehow, that’s not something that flies into the mind as a rule.  Geary is doing such a great job of acting this script.  I’m impressed by him all over again and can’t wait to see how all of this unfolds! 

Thanks for watching the soaps with me today.

 

 

 

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