OLTL: Week Of July 8, 2013 Discussion

[Winchester91]

Way too much dropped storylines from that era that never came to fruition. Remember Kelly's "bf" during mid-2010 that was supposedly the psycho before Eli? Remember every romantic entanglement Kelly got into before Joey came back to the scene?...or the dropped Kish v. Kim/Clint v. FiFi storyline with the custody battle over Sierra Rose?

[AllMyDaysatGH]

I haven't seen yet but @ these posts. Seriously. Just

[AlexElizabeth]

I'm still waiting to find out why Irene had Patrick Thornhart.

[Vee]

So, Episode 36 (I still don't know what's up with the numbering):

I love the new La Boulaie. I've said that before but I feel the need to reiterate it. It's colorful and kooky and crazy and I love it.

HBS's hair changed dramatically between scenes. At the office with Bo she looked like she was wearing a Bozo wig, then by the time she got to La Boulaie she looked a lot better. Also, I just realized Erika Slezak hasn't looked this good in years. Just luminous today.

I LOLed when Viki took Clint's "you are in the clear" as a confirmation that he wasn't hiding anything from her. Not the same thing.

I don't know why Bo didn't go after Bandini for soliciting, same as Murray. I guess he's focused on Murray because he was the last man with Briana. I liked the tattoo link.

The stuff with Bandini and Dani was really, really compelling. I've been vocal about finding Paolo Seganti gross and creepy in the last several years of ATWT, but here the slightly reptilian quality works for him - the character is alternately sinister and then almost sympathetic. I don't believe Bandini can be trusted, and I believe he's dangerous - I suspect both Bandini and Murray work for the tattoo crew, but if nothing else Bandini was almost certainly Briana's key john - but Seganti and KM have real chemistry and the scenes are really, really solid. This stuff works, and it's exciting to see a new element click into place on the show and really begin to cook right away. With other parts of the show that has taken more time to settle, or you have stories still simmering, whereas AMC has taken on an array of new elements swiftly and easily. The whole idea of Dani, the young woman who is the sort of forgotten sibling, a little out of control and out of her depth falling into a strange relationship with an older, somewhat predatory man is very OLTL, and reminds me so much of not only Karen Wolek but any number of other complicated, seamy storylines and relationships in the show's past. And of course it will eventually tie back to her building relationship with Matthew.

Michelle - I don't know. I like the actress, and I feel like there is more to be made of this strange character than the psycho stalker track I assume she is headed down. I hope there's more to her than just being the flaky, maybe crazy obstacle to Dani and Matthew. I hope they surprise me. I don't mind her in the obstacle role, but every time she has a scene I think there's more to do there.

Glad they referenced Peterson. I am ready for that. Once again the show has started spinning all its plates a little faster and things seem ready to kick off again. I just hope they don't slow down too much. I have enjoyed OLTL's character focus, but it needs to start hitting a little harder, and it was on track for that with this one.

[cher1989]

Episode 36

Dorian: Rama Rama Ding Dong! LOL

Can't wait for Blair to find out about Jack. Kate is definitely suspect.
Surprised about Michelle being a maid but also wonder if it's another lie. Also wonder if she saw something the night Brianna OD'd.

I really like Kelley Missal. The writing for the online show has really benefitted her. I'm finding myself interested in whatever is happening with Arturo and it's mostly because of her.

Jason with a tattoo? Helps the tattoo story, which has been dragging for me. Now it's more of a puzzle with more people involved. But, it's still not really working for me in general.

I love seeing HBS and RS in scenes together. Watched scenes of Victor Lord's murder trial recently so the dynamic made me smile.

Episode 37

Damn Jack is desperate "Can I come over tomorrow!?" This will not end well.

Clint just keeps lying. I knew it was going to backfire. Still I hope that Viki reconsiders. I think they will work it out but I'm not sure. I wonder if there is more to Jeffrey than meets the eye.

Jeffrey: I did a couple of musicals in high school. Heh

Todd and Blair have so much chemistry.

I'm not interested in the reality show . Rather have David with Rama than Dorian. That's because I want something new for Dorian, who's been in a rut story-wise for a very long time. Breaking them up might refresh David, too.

I loved watching Dorian dance down the stairs, so pleased with herself. I re-watched it. "Back off, Bitch!" That's my girl! Still I don't want my favorite humiliated and her to be stuck with David. Something new writers, please.

Matthew is an idiot. Love Kelley Missal's facial expressions when Matt praised Michelle for being honest. Michelle is so obviously off to everyone but Matthew.

Kind of interested in Cutter and Natalie.

[greens_dupres]

Slezak looks younger than she did a decade ago on ABC- maybe its something slightly different, softer they're doing with her hair? I don't know- she never looked bad on ABC but like you said luminous.

I agree with everything you said on Arturo Bandini and Dani- the chemistry is there and for me, this has just worked right out of the gate and its moved steadily since he arrived. I love that I don't know exactly where they're going but at the same time, I'm confident that its going somewhere good. I haven't seen much Karen Wolek beyond the famous courtroom scene but I do think Kelley Missal is beautifully carrying on the tradition OLTL's long tradition of compelling, complex younger female leads. (unlike a certain onscreen sister of hers who another regime thought was the heiress apparent)

I find myself way more intrigued by Michelle than I expected to be- I was so ready to just accept her as a necessary psycho obstacle plot point to Dani/Matthew/Destiny/Jeffrey. I saw some shade on twitter about her big secret being that she works as a maid but I loved that twist didn't expect it at all (and how often does that happen anymore) and I don't even think that's her biggest secret at all. The actress is good at playing up the fragile flower so you can sort of see why Matthew is buying it but doing enough to let us (and Dani, Jeffrey who act as the voice of audience etc.) know that there's more to the story.

I'm ready for Carl Peterson & think that his arrival will be really good for fleshing out Jeffrey/

36 was a really good one- one of my favorites yet because they didn't throw in every character/story but used the time they had effectively to not only build character as they've done so well but meaningfully move or set up the stories they did feature.

[DramatistDreamer]

Speaking of Peterson, pure speculation on my part but--

[greens_dupres]

I think your speculation is quite on-point. Not sure about a triangle but I expect he'll share scenes with both of them.

[Vee]

Sooo, finally, Episode 38 (seriously, what is with the numbering discrepancy):

Not as tight as 37. Decent enough, I suppose. Really enjoy the Destiny/Natalie/Jeffrey/Cutter foursome stuff, but I need more and more of both couples. I also need more of Cutter. The new Destiny, Matthew, Dani, Jeffrey, etc. - these characters are all fleshed out. Cutter, or the revised Cutter of the new OLTL, is a fairly basic archetype of sexy con man trying to make good, not unlike Jared, which I'm sure is part of why I enjoy Natalie with him - the clean slate after John, and the chemistry between Archer and Josh Kelly. But a new viewer isn't really going to know much about Cutter here beyond 'he wants Natalie' and 'he used to be a player and wants to keep this club going.' Okay, but can we dig into him a little more, the way we have most other characters? The same goes for Rama. We know she's infatuated with David and exploring an open marriage, and that's all well and good for story, but there's precious little of her at the moment. These two are both too talented to just be kind of at the whim of the club's comings and goings, as they often are right now.

David and Rama's little thing was cute enough, but the D&D conflict is also fairly slim because they've only addressed it a handful of times - it's true Dorian has no time for David's life outside her private obsessions, and that's a natural and interesting conflict between them, but it's barely been given much attention up to now beyond some inference here and there and a couple brief scenes. I'm not sure what stakes this is ultimately supposed to have. I suppose we'll see in this coming duo of episodes.

Todd and Blair were nice enough beyond the baffling issue of what time with baby Starr Blair was referring to.

The real meat of the episode was the Viki and Clint stuff - it has less to do with the fund per se and more to do with Clint's need to control, as she said to him. Control of his family has been Clint's pattern for a number of years now, and I'm not surprised it hasn't gone away just because RC handwaved it at the end of the network show. (Much like AMC did Angie and Jesse's underlying marital issues, which are coming to the fore again in Pine Valley.) I think it's right to explore this. I just wish more time was equally given to David and Dorian's underlying issues which led to their incident, or to whatever Cutter's inner life is. So I hope the writing change will help that.

It was a perfectly reasonable episode, but 37 was vastly superior.

[DRW50]

I'm up to episode 38. I watched (or half-watched, as I had other things going on too) 37 yesterday. It's kind of strange getting back into this. You can blame Vee for my watching these again (thanks Vee), and thanks to Marceline for reminding me of the comment threads.

I get the sense that someone realized how silly and pointless Dorian's vendetta against Viki was, and how cartoonish she came across. These last few episodes felt more like Dorian (complete with borderline racism) than I've seen on this OLTL, or on ABC's OLTL, in some time. And Robin gave some lovely, heart-on-her-sleeve performances. I wish SFK would comment on this episode, as I think this is the Dorian he and I probably both like. Who knew all it took was her dressing like the host of the Gong Show? Of course the conflict is rushed, the dialogue in the scene where Dorian caught David kissing Rama was very cliched, and I'm annoyed that Vimal is nowhere to be found, but it's still better than most of Dorian's material in recent years. On a side note - Tuc does have chemistry with the woman who plays Rama. Under all the schtick I wasn't sure if he still did have chemistry with people.

Erika Slezak gave such a wonderful performance when Viki confronted Clint. in ABC's last years I felt like her acting sometimes delved into a self-parody, probably because she didn't have the time to do more. She really seemed alive here. I'm sorry that we likely won't get to see more of her in the role.

Kelly Missal's facial expressions made the whole Michelle/Matthew conversation. It's tough to be invested in this or in Jack/teacher. I hope someone snaps Missal up. She really should be on a primetime show, probably ABC Family or CW.

I still don't quite buy Natalie and Destiny as friends.

Natalie/Cutter are OK but the whole footsie thing annoyed me.