DRW50

Kimmy looks like a B-52 there.

Yesterday again underscored the difference between telling a story for "issues" or to get praise from the media, and telling it because you believe in it. The writing for Aaron's abuse story has been consistently clumsy and poor, as has all the writing for Aaron and Chas since his affair with Robert began. Characters react in brain-dead ways to amp up the melodrama, without any seeming awareness that this type of writing severely undercuts any dramatic power. Robert believes, after one conversation with Gordon, that Aaron is making up being raped throughout his childhood, but hey, who cares, because they got a "hook" out of it (Is Aaron making up his abuse? Tune in tomorrow...) and Robert said sorry. Why should I believe that Robert cares so much when it took about 2 minutes for him to assume Aaron has completely deluded himself about years of rape? Chas, who has always loved her son even when she hurt him and behaved selfishly, repeatedly takes cheap digs at him and freezes him out when he's clearly, clearly suffering...all because her dream prince (a man she left and a man who recently confessed to her that he brutally beat Aaron) left her? Who cares, because this just means it will be more powerful when she learns the truth. Well, not really - it just makes me not feel anything other than anger at the hack writing, because if she is so petty now, when any idiot could see that he needs a lot of help (only last week he was about to keel over while talking to her, flinching in pain when she got near, and he then vanishes for days - and her only reaction is to think he's having some type of ribald sexathon with Robert?), am I supposed to feel for her when it takes learning that her son was raped by her latest love of her life for her to give a damn? Chas would never treat her son like this. She would never be such a petty, passive-aggressive child. I've heard people say that Danny Miller isn't talented enough to carry the story, or that Aaron has had too many tragedies for viewers to care, and I can understand why people feel this way, but he is actually the ONLY part of this story so far that has helped make it less ridiculous and offensive for me. On the other hand, while I do not like the idea of Laurel being pregnant on top of Ashley's dementia, and while some of the writing has felt rushed, the show has still taken pains to show a variety of utterly believable reactions, has taken pains to ground the melodrama, and most of all, to try to write those involved in character. The contrast between these stories as they air in the same episodes this week has been somewhat striking. That one scene of Nicola and Laurel talking about abortion, or Doug making Ashley see his selfishness, had more impact than anything with Aaron's abuse story so far. Why is Kate Oates so oddly cavalier and sensationalistic about sexual abuse? Why does she consistently do such a poor job with sexual abuse stories? If she treats them so cavalierly, why does ITV keep letting her do them? Given that Corrie had a terribly done, offensive rape story only a few years ago with Carla, I shudder to think of what is on the way with Oates at the helm. And I know they don't have the budget to have a ton of people around outside but did no one in the village even notice or care that pigs were roaming the streets, tearing up lawns and destroying property?

It's good for some laughs, at least. I do wish he'd ripped some of Gary's clothes off in the process.

Here are a few examples of the bizarre campery that made up Phelan's first run. (that second one is rape - just to warn)

Reading a Daytimers when Judith Chapman left ATWT, and they mention that in the past she'd nearly been cast as Leslie Brooks on Y&R.

Thanks. Glad he's so positive about the show.

I think viewers knew, but the characters didn't at this point. The whole thing with Irna is that she returned horrified at the amorality of Liz/Dan/Paul/Susan, but her own writing was very amoral, as she wanted to have Kim keep her baby with her sister's husband, rather than be "punished." You can see that split here, as the arrangement that Dan is talking about is startling for a soap of this period, or any period. I assume the idea is to show that he and Susan were in a loveless marriage, one that had to end, but I was still flabbergasted. I love your idea of a podcast video with Marie. I just want someone to have interviews with some of the old guard while they're still with us. I'd love to see Marie's reaction to that material. Or Pat Bruder's for that matter.

That picture is deplorable. It's a shame because BH managed to have a potent combination of campy trash and high drama and real glamour early on, but since then they always seem to go the most toxic route - with Brandi, Kim, now Yolanda. I think it's one of the reasons why a show that should have been a jewel in the crown mostly just managed to get some mileage for LVP, and she did a lot of that on her own. The rest has stalled itself out - every season they seem to waste the chance to have a fresh start.

More of the bizarre "Marco is doing well because he's going to lose various states and yet is hanging on anyway...look at that enthusiasm!" media spin. I guess they will never let him go, especially given the alternatives. I think my favorite part is their claiming this is what he wanted all along. Yes, of course he wanted to be losing in every state. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/marco-rubio-survival-strategy-218268

I think that was what finally got her fired from ATWT....Didn't she blame that, but later she came out that there was drugs going on with the porn husband (I know..shocking!) It was weird she was even there, she had nothing to do and was boring...I think it was Bunim who kept her there and would comment that she loved her because of "All that hair," which is typical Bunim...(to think they kept her on contract and put poor Don McClaughlin on recurring...) Also, the clip was during Fulton's hospital stay and she said she was laying there, and watching it and saw BVF and said..."She is wearing MY dress!" which made her get better quicker...(typical Fulton) so it must have been the scenes of the gala. Too bad Lisa was such a mess when BVF took over the second time as she had nothing to play. Luckily when Fulton came back the writers fixed things. and Fulton quit acting like an airhead all the time. The situation with Doug Stevenson (who seemed like a decent guy) and the porn guy (Jerry something - who was a trainwreck and wrote a nasty nasty tell-all about the porn industry...amazingly enough I think he still managed to go back for a while after) was a mess, and then her marriage to that porn guy was a disaster. Robyn Griggs got fired from AW 10 years later for even hanging around with John Wayne Bobbitt, so I can imagine how they would have reacted if Loring had done it while at ATWT. I guess she was pregnant with Stevenson's baby when she was written out of ATWT. The last I've seen of her is the 1983 Christmas episode I reuploaded a few days ago - she's heavily pregnant in it, with that awkward Ernie. I do wonder if Marland ever wanted to bring Cricket back. I swear I never heard her or Maggie mentioned in any episodes I've seen of his era. In late 1993 she's mentioned, as Craig or Lyla say she's pregnant again or something like that. I love that story about Eileen. That's so her. She's lucky that BvF never really found a foothold as Lisa in her more permanent stint. How long exactly was Bunim with ATWT? It's funny that she all but invented the term "hair model" in your description...

I wonder if they'll just bring her back to kill her off.

This made me laugh. (NSFW) http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/6887148/Emmerdale-set-besieged-with-sex-mad-doggers-desperate-for-filthy-fun.html

I feel like they tried to address this by acting like the hotel was a hip place and an example of a hipper Oakdale (wasn't someone marveling over the upstairs rooms or resting couches or something)? I wish Kim and Bob had taken them to that "swinging" disco we saw in the 1978 episode. You can imagine the muted horror and snickering.

I hope you get to see the 1972 sometime. Yeah I find Dee more interesting here than I did in the 1979 material...she and Larry B work well together (on and offscreen...). I guess the idea was that Brad didn't love Annie. Unless he fell for her after this. Poor Annie is just so...well, she's there. I still don't know why Melinda had to be killed off for that triangle. I wonder if they had more plans for Lisa and Brad but got a bad viewer reaction or something. A Lisa/John/Brad/Dee quad would have been interesting. At least Lisa's hatred of John remained consistent (until the late '90s anyway).

lol His daddy is somewhere weeping into Tinky Winky's shoulder right now. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/26/evangelical-leader-jerry-falwell-jr-endorses-trump/

I'm so sorry to hear that but I'm glad to hear she got to see this thread. I hope she got to see some of the articles as well. She was a great actress - she truly shone in the old episodes remaining of her Meg. I'm sure she was very proud of you.

To the public, yes. To the media, not so much. Even old media favorite Guiliani didn't get that type of deluded gushiness for a similar failed campaign strategy. He was supposed to be the one - they spent 6 years trying to make him the one - and that he is tanking against the likes of Trump and Rubio just reminds them how powerless they truly have become.

One last wet kiss for media darling Marco in the home stretch...he's storming to third place in Iowa! And then he'll get second or third in New Hampshire. Kick ass! http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/us/politics/a-resurgent-marco-rubio-sprints-to-the-finish-in-iowa.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

Even Lisa Whelchel, who really made herself look bad with some of the stuff she said about parenting, managed to have a respectable run on Survivor, and used it to help her career (motivational speaking). I have no idea what Kim will get out of this. She disappoints me because I grew up watching her and now I see this weak, confused woman on my TV, and it's sad. She may "win" against Kenya, but it's a loss in the long run. But hey, it pays the bills, so good for her. I just can't chalk it off as a moral victory. But that's JMO.