Soaplovers

I recently saw all 13 episodes of Paper Dolls on a website and have mixed reactions to the show. 1: Too many Characters: On a daily soap opera, the amount of characters would have been wonderful and more time would have been alloted to develop all the characters. On a weekly prime-time show, that doesn't work because you don't have time to develop the characters before thrusting them into the main plotlines. No character development=no character investments 2. Two shows in one: What I noticed most was that it seemed like two shows combined into one with minimum character interaction to connect the two shows. On the one hand, you had a dysfunctional family fighting each other for control of a company (ala Dynasty and Dallas)... and the other show was about a modeling agency and the models career and homelife (ala.. an early version of Model's inc.). 3. The best part of the show was Morgan Fairchild. She had the best lines, the best wardrobe, and basically interacted with all the characters. From what I'd read, they had killed off Lloyd Bridges wife and were planning to bring on his sister or sister-in-law to do battle for control of the company. I think the only thing that could have been done was to pick which show to focus on (the family business dramas or the modeling agency angle). Either would have worked on it's own but not together as viewership dwindled over time.

I think the show gradually changing Maggie from her original incarnation to a weepy victim sort of downgraded Victoria's character. However, the thing I noticed about Victoria was that she had the trappings of the typical heroine but with a backbone.

I was watching some of the minisodes of Dark Shadows and I'm up to the part where Victoria has been recast. Based on the episodes I watched, it looked like Victoria was going to continue as a character (based on her presence at the start of the Quentin storyline) but then vanishes into the past. I was wondering if the plan was to continue the character with Betsy Durkin playing her or was Betsy Durkin just bought in to usher out Victoria? Do you think the character would have served more purpose in the Quentin/david/Amy storyline then Maggie did?

So Loving was basically about the going ons at a university when it started, am I right? When did the show first start to veer away from this premise? From what I've read about the show, it seemed to focus on the Aldens and a revolving cast of young people. Perhaps, having a soap set in a college was just asking to fail. Think about it, people go to college, graduate, then move away. It is a constant revolving door.