Thanks!! That all makes a lot of sense, and how much they would have been involved even under Nixon (who more or less had retired after her 1990-92 AMC stint and taking that "exec head writer" credit for much of the rest of the 90s--when she did return to AMC in 1999-2001 there was a reason it was only as a co-HW.)
"A lot of the complexity of their relationship evaporates within weeks of Nixon's arrival. I think the short arc where Leo struggles toaccept Patti is powerful, but should have been part of a much larger story"
Fully agree and there's some great writing there--which seems totally like something Nixon would enjoy doing, so I dunno what happened there. When they are quickly written out during their Rome honeymoon (which I actually just watched) was it due to Susan Keith wanting to leave or just being written out, because I actually liked the Shana/Leo dynamic in their last few weeks better than I had at any other point--I think they got the characterizations just right.
I have to wonder about the whole "Phantom Tricia" storyline in general, and Agnes Nixon's involvement. Elements of it seem like she should have known better (like teasing a character's return when you don't have the actress) though she certainly made mis-steps before. And it seems obvious they used it just so they could stretch out the tease of Tricia being alive (only to have the disappointing way it finally ended in the final months of the Murders.) There's even something kinda smart (while being deeply stupid...) about Curtis gaslighting Trucker into thinking she's still alive to keep him from Dinah Lee when in fact she IS still alive. What I do think remains strong in Agnes Nixon's year or so, that Loving had often been missing, is again how she (or someone on her team) do a lot of small things to keep the stories interconnected. Characters in one storyline will still make appearances in other storylines (including the whole Ava coma story and the warnings she gets from Ghost Harry.) For a lot of the 90s, Loving is really not great at that. Also, while I know some people are not at all fond of it, re-watching the whole Steffi/Cooper/Clay/Deborah stuff it all just plays really well and I think they finally know how to make the actors' chemistry work (and yes, in comparison then it makes Ally and Casey just seem like dry paint.)
(Side note, I love how much they make use of the two story Alden mansion set for things like people snooping on others on the upstairs level, watching the others below, or even the outdoor two level set (both of which have been in use of course going back to day one.)
"I'm not the biggest fan of the Curtis in the cage stuff. It's very campy and homoerotic (Thom Christopher would later embed some of the same subtext to the Carlo/Cristian brainwashing sequences on One Life to Live. The show got skewered in the press for having the sole Middle Eastern character on daytime being a villain. In Nixon's defense, Dante needed to appear to resolve the Curtis / Tess/ Buck backstory, but it just doesn't work for me. I do appreciate Tess sacrificing herself at the tail end of the initial arc in a rare moment of selfishness. I suspect Nixon wanted to bring back Dante later so that's why there was the vague resolution."
It's a mess. And I love it and will continue to love it everytime I watch it. Maybe because I do just like when Nixon does this kind of stuff (like the similarly camp of the Jonathan/Devil story.) But I do think, objectively, it is used to make Tess a much much better character than she had been under T/G, as well as some others (it's even used to introduce Deborah in a clever way.)
I have it on very good authority that the Jeremy/Gilbert stuff was started by Nixon (and yes, it literally starts as her credit ends, but I think she had mapped out the story beats.) Some of this is in one of her Loving breakdowns I have a paper copy of (which is much more brief than her older ones but still plays out at least the first month or two of Gilbert,) and LeClerc also says that it was a gift from Nixon who had told him back on AMC he would get the chance to play a villain (of course actors often say stuff like this and it's not quite right--as I've said on the OLTL thread witness how much of Vicki, Erika Slezak seems to think was directly written by Nixon and I think almost likely was not...) but...
Ah I see you address some of what I talk about above (sorry, I replied to your great post while reading it.) I basically agree with you (and yes, I like the Egypt/Ava story, and actually again liked how it tied into Dante.) I also like the Angie stuff here--though what a waste with Janie (and I think that was still something we can blame on Nixon.)
Interesting about chem testing--one of the most interesting, and there's a video on YT of Oct/Nov episodes relating to this, is Trucker and Angie. He even asks her out and she gives a talk about how she wants a black father figure for Frankie (it's a bit better written than it sounds...) Yet, I think there seems to surprisingly be chemistry there, so it's all for naught.
(Nixon also seems to VERY quickly have Frankie move from the Jesse Hubbard black teen thinking everything is about race and running with a bad crew, to a much more happy go lightly figure obsessed with movies and making his own. It's too bad he doesn't have more to do, as I like the actor a lot.)
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