I agree with others, its a combination of everything. AMC really didn't start to go down the tubes literally until midway through last year and this summer it has just snowballed. I am still a fan of the show and will probably watch it until the day it goes off but it is becoming less and less recognizable every second. New writing will most certainly not make things worse but the root to all problems ACROSS ABC daytime is Brian Frons. Until he is taken out of the equation I don't ever expect to see the AMC, GH or OLTL we all want. But if the writing can at least make sense and not be all about plot plot plot every second than maybe the shows will become more watchable. ABC collectively is unrecognizable.

The show really flew out of control the past year. Like her or hate her, Megan McTavish wrote two really wonderful stories for AMC when she returned - Bianca's rape, followed by the baby switch. The show went downhill after that. Attempts to start new storylines - Julia's hugely botched return, the Di/Dixie saga, The Lavery family, the Maddens - all failed miserably and has spiraled into something so far gone it's ridiculous. The decision to bring back Erica's aborted baby as a hunky 20-something is downright trash, as is the exploitation of Lily: marrying a convicted killer pretending to be more damaged than he is, having a screename like Autismgirl2. The show needs take some forceps and remove most of the newbies from the show, shock the characters into being themselves again and really take a long, hard look at the show's potential.

IMO you cannot seperate bad writing and new (younger cast members). It was bad writing that caused those younger, bland cast members to be written into the show in the first place.

Really have to go with all those new characters. Look a Friday's episode. All about Colby and Sydney. Sure, Colby is Adam and Liza's daughter, but she sucks. We don't care about her, or her maid friend.

Sean? OK? Who cares about him? Sure he's Jack's nephew, but who cares? Reggie should be here instead.

Terry? Annie? A whole storyline devoted to them? WHY?

For me it is combination of 4 things:

-Too many new characters and untrained actors

-Lazy, shoddy and disrespecting writing (r we sure Jim Reilly is not writing?)

-Lack of Veterans

-Ridiculously bad filming style. I will NEVER be able to get used it, not matter how little the shaking gets, its STILL shakey and should ONLY be used when the situation in the story calls for it, NOT for every scenes. Who ever made this decision DEFINETLY made a bad one. The show looks cheaper now aswell with the new filming, it no longer has that "soap look" which I believe soap fans like.

The show (along with B& is in the toilet, BIG TIME, and has been for a while now...I just hope that with Bianca returning, that HOPEFULLY she brings with her some of the greatness that AMC had while she was on the show.

AMC needs help now before it is too late!

AMC still has all the needed ingredients to be world class soap opera, its all about execution and of course decent intelligent relevant writing. It pains me as a long time AMC fan to see the potential being wasted!

Letting Terri Ivens, Tanisha Lynn, Michael B. Jordan, Tonya Pinkins, Jill Larson, Julia Barr all go to waste is definitely a moment of shame on TIIC's part.

But yeah, the writing is just plain insulting and atrocious. I hated the day I heard McTavish was re-hired to a show from which she was twice fired. And then, having her first order of business be brutally raping Bianca two seconds after Rayfield and Cascio gave her an adult relationship which culminated in the groundbreaking kiss? I knew that her stint this go around was going to be nothing but downhill.

And she's, unfortunately, prove me right. From her creation of Babe to her horrid execution of the GBS, to the Di/Dixie story to the Lackluster Return of Julia and the Dragon story to the Dixie Resurrection to the Walking Fetus to the Madden in a Box leading up to this mess of a show we have today... It's just been one bad story after another after another.

I can't look back on this stint and say, "Hmmm... you know what? I at least liked THIS storyline during the past three years."

And that's not me being harsh on McTavish just because I hate her. Because I hated her 1997-1999 stint with a horrid passion, too. But the storyline I liked was Opal finding out Adrian Sword was her son and the whole backstory behind that. I also liked how McTavish gave Opal and Palmer a moment to shine during the Secret Room of World War II Paintings. Jill Larson gave an incredible performance when Erica found Opal locked in Palmer's secret room!

2003 to Present McTavish? Nothing. She started with raping Bianca, and then metaphorically raped the entire show. Her sick and twisted stories revolving around victimizing and terrorizing women are just redundant. There's no true, organic drama. Nothing relatable. Everything is heightened to unbelievable levels, that it all becomes surreal and cartoonish.

Whenever McTavish takes over, AMC becomes a campy melodrama -- not a relatable adult drama -- which would be good if the show and its character actually lent itself to the camp, or the show is supposed to be camp... But it's not.

I just can't stomach AMC right now. I haven't watched in days.

Lets see what has been annoying me...

The Colby and Sydney drama. In the name of propping up the girls from the wrong side of the tracks, Ala Babe and Krystal and Sydney, this girl is allowed to intrude on her party, Krystal tries her best to squash down any plans of hers and gives Sydney, the servant, all this freedom and goodwill. Sorry but its not realistic. One, anyone as bratty as Colby would have appealed to dear old dad and squashed it. Krystal wouldn't really have power to cancel anything because noone like her or her father really listens to step parents, Adam wants his girl to have all of that. Two, noone would care enough about Sydney to include her and Colby wouldn't even care about her enough to put her down. Sad but true... Its that their whole rivalry is manufactured, because someone who is like Colby wouldn't even acknowledge Sydney once she got her licks in after their inital meeting when Sydney lied about who she was.

Not to mention these folks can't act worth a damn and they have Colby as a Paris Hilton wannabe. But for some reason, the actress plays her soooo vapidly that its amusing somehow.

They have Kendall and her men going around in circles to the point of redundancy. Its so tired.

Annie is boring. Boo.

The interesting characters, like DI, don't get enough airtime.

And worst of all, the pimpage of Babe. Babe, the baby stealing, law breaking liar, who is always willing to do over others for her causes yet !@#$%^&*]es about the fact that other people have a good reason not to stand her continues to run ramshot all over everyone in Pine Valley. Enough.

Southern Honey, I totally Agree with your post. Like I said in another message this show is just PAINFULL to watch.

It's horrible to watch. It was my mom's favorite soap but now she hates it.

Well, I was bored and decided to write fanfic. I more or less started fresh, starting with Monday the 11th and in the span of the last three weeks of September have done the following:

* Moved Brooke front and center in the plot to end the walking fetus

* Used Livia and Tom in supporting scenes with Jack, Erica, etc.

* Ended Jonathan and Lily by having Jonathan be killed after kidnapping her

* Killed off Terry thanks to a knife happy Annie

* Moved Palmer front and center by having him be the one to kill Greg, and having JR and Jamie help him cover it up. Opal overheard him admit to it, they argued and he had a massive stroke. Del overheard Opal with Palmer in the hospital and told Di and Dixie while Jamie confessed to Julia his part in it.

* I've also ended the fetus mess by having Brooke investigate it with David's help and they determine that Greg lied about all of it and Josh is not Erica and Jeff's son. I involved Amanda in it too as she helped Brooke get the sample from Josh.

* Oh, and I've put Simone and Tad back together

I more or less ignored the fetus story and simply ended it, LOL.

And what I realized was this show has WAY TOO MANY characters. Holy crap it was difficult keeping track of them all!

I know it's not that easy to wrap t hings up but it's NOT THAT HARD, either.