AMC: Monday May 27, 2013 Episode Discussion

[LindaTNo1]

So are we heading for a long drawn out Finding Cassandra storyline arc? Are we going into the Summer Slump? I hope by the beginning of July, things will wrap up and we can see a great Teen/20 Somethings summer storyline since PP is looking for better balance between the vets and younger actors.

Episode was Ok and seemed like a "filler/set-up" type episode.

Glad to see Dr. Joe back.

Wednesday should have some great scenes.

[BrookenAdamAMCSupercouple]

Not understanding. How is even MORE teens creating the better balance. There should be LESS teens after this and more vets and last I looked none of the vets are 20 something. I think once they wrap up the Cass thing they should give frontburner to the Chandler (ie Adam, Brooke not just AJ and his endless whining) doings. I'd like to see Adam and Brooke deal with the CE problems, AJ's OTT whining, Jr's shenanigans together. Like Jessie/Angie are dealing with Cass being gone. And plan and go through with their wedding.

Jr and Cara scenes are good. Those kind of scenes in content and length can be given to other members of that family. Not everything revolves around AJ's latest hysteria.

Brooke hosting Tempo talk is would be like a throw back to when Adam bought WRCW for her so she could bring Tempo to tv. Hope she doesn't turn him down this time.

I'd like to see Opal have scenes that are nothing about her son's love life. I'd like more of what we had today with David/Joe at the hospital. I like seeing Bianca. Dixie's a therapist? Let's involve her in the hospital goings on. There's a whole lot of time that could be spent on others and having the characters connect if each episode didn't have 1/2 of it designated to the teens various whining/insta romances.

Balance and rotation are key. From day one with the teen 4 it's felt like a neverending 'it's summer let's break out the teens' story although it was Spring. Dear God I hope there's less - not more.

And I think this episode was written as mid week for the 4 day setup so until the new writing kicks in it's all going to feel disjointed. Guess if/when they increase to 4 or 5 those eps will seem like 'Friday' episodes everyday.

Loved seeing Joe back. Really enjoyed the scenes at the hospital.

[BrookenAdamAMCSupercouple]

[Cheap21]

[jfung79]

Ah, thanks. So when Angie has found Cassandra, maybe David can try his pitch again with Angie, who would be much more receptive.

As for whether David was talking about Project Orpheus in terms of his research, I thought he distinctly said "while I was in prison," so it was new stuff in the last 5 years.

Something I forgot to mention before from last week is I'm glad they had Miranda go back to school and see it wasn't as bad as she thought, that projecting confidence and finding friends who back you up can work, that "whatever it takes," you and your friends can help you "make it through" (as in the Degrassi song) -- that she doesn't necessarily have to transfer. Not every child has the luxury of transferring and I think it would have been a pretty downbeat message for that to be the only way for her to deal with her bullying.

[Cheap21]

just rewatched and you are right. He definitely said "those 5 years I spent in prison, I developed a method to use the body's own stem cells to bind to a nano-device...." Really makes no sense. Did they give him his own lab space? Unless they are saying people worked for him and did occasional consulting from the prison to monitor their progress (which also doesn't seem likely)

[Khan]

Once again, AMC's writers ignore logic for the sake of pushing story along. SMH.

[MontyB]

Opph! Cass was really about to go "there"?

Loved the whole show today.

[cassadine1991]

yeah it looked like Cass was going to give Uri a blowjob

[cassadine1991]

is it just me or does Cady look like she's dressed like Rosanna Cabot, sorry I've been seeing some old ATWT clips yesterday

[DeliaIrisFan]

Well, it's interesting that the first episode I've watched since the writer turnover makes me ready for a change. Although, I don't know if promoting existing script writers to be the head writers will do the trick for me, because I actually think AMC might have some good long-range story building momentum. It's the day-to-day execution that is getting clumsier by the week. (Whereas oddly enough, I find OLTL more polished/engaging on a daily basis but it doesn't necessarily seem to be going anywhere.) I can almost deal with the cringe-inducing but innocuous teen dialogue (and, in some cases, acting), but what really bothers me is that this show is exhibiting some of the worst misogyny of network soaps.

There was a moment a couple of weeks ago when I thought maybe this trafficking story would be handled with the sensitivity it deserves and actually focus on what it should focus on: e.g., how this type of experience affects women. (Around the time Angie found out and met that trafficking survivor at the hospital, and there was that disturbing but oddly powerful montage of Angie praying while Cassandra was stripping.) Any last hope I had of that went out the window with today's scenes with Zach and this FBI agent. I don't know which was worse: him telling her that she is a hard bitch because deep down she doubts her competence in a male-dominated profession, or whatever nonsense he was spewing, or completing the orgasm puzzle in front of her.

Frankly, I'm confused by Zach's role in this story, even plotwise. I originally thought Cassandra's kidnapping was ultimately going to be about a vendetta against him and/or Jesse, and the trafficking aspect was just skeevy window dressing to prove this isn't your mother's All My Children anymore. Didn't Vlad try to frame Zach by using one of his casino's cars or something? Fortunately, that aspect has been dropped, but I don't understand why he is still involved, let alone why his reaction to what is happening is so central. What was his relationship with the Hubbards previously?

Even if they were very close, though, I don't care how Zach - or any man - feels about what is being done to Cassandra. I'm not even particularly glued to my screen to see close-ups of Jesse, her own father, watching Cassandra's porno in horror on Wednesday. Men pounding their chests wanting to avenge the rape of women with whom they feel territorial is not groundbreaking...in fact, it comes from the same emotional place that has historically led to some things that are pretty terrible in their own right, like lynching (which was often justified by false allegations that the men had raped white women) and honor killings against rape survivors. Cassandra is the victim in this story, period, and making it a plot device for Zach's vendetta and/or this weird rom-com objectifies women in and of itself.

And just to drive the point home that this show is still being put out by people with very antiquated views about women's agency over their own bodies, we had the ridiculous spectacle of David screaming in the waiting area of a hospital - one in which he wishes to work - that women who have abortions are murderers. Even the doctor in charge, who had already threatened to call security on him, did nothing to intervene except offer pity to the apparently fallen woman after David finished his tantrum and left of his own accord. Good lord, abortion is a legal procedure; potentially disrupting medical care by disturbing the peace in the middle of a hospital is not. That's why in real life people who share David's views are at least confined to vocalizing them outside of medical facilities...

[jfung79]

Very good points, DeliaIrisFan.

[Khan]

IMO, Zach's connection to the sex-trafficking story was tenuous from the start, and merely an excuse to bring back Thorsten Kaye, an actor who, IMO, this re-boot could have done without.

[EricMontreal22]

It does seem like they quickly at least modified the connection to Zach (the implication originally was, it seemed, that Cass was targetred due to fairly tenuous links to Zach which would make no sense if now they didn't even know her step-father was the chief of police.) I preferr that it was dropped because making it entirely a a targeted issue seemed less realistic and the reasoning never really made sense to me.

As for view of misogyny, I think it is a valid thing to discuss. I feel like for the most part they've managed to successfully walk a fine line--and some justification of rZack and David's actions could just be explained as that being very true tro character (certainly David's rant was not shown as being a good thing.)

[Khan]

IMO, it might have made more sense to have Cassandra kidnapped and forced into human-trafficking by the same individuals who once forced Jesse to fake his death. (Didn't he take a bullet meant for John Remington?)