I can tell you that right now for Patrick. His script for the rape episode is just... Blah. Horrible. His dialogue has seriously deteriorated in recent times, and I've never actually considered him a maestro.

Although I've not watched every day, I would only pick a couple of episodes I think he's fallen short on, the rape included. Whereas I used to be able to peg a Mulcahey penned episode within the first scene, things like the rape episode were so terribly ordinary and soapy cliche ridden.

Ordinarily he is a maestro for me. I look back on some of the stuff he wrote off the top of my head and it was the real standout stuff of the past two years. The 5000th episode, Stephanie's heart attack reveal, Ann Douglas child abuse and some wonderful stuff when Taylor became a bitter alcoholic -- he finally gave her a personality and individual voice that she didn't have in 15 years previously. I'm pretty sure he wrote the confrontation that ended with Stephanie slapping Taylor and also a very nice Brooke/Taylor episode after the James stuff came out.

He's up there with the dialogue writers that have made me take notice of an improvement in quality. James Houghton and Michele Val Jean are the other two.

Here's the letter Patrick wrote:

Dear Brooke, I am staggered by the news of what happened to you. I cannot tell you how heartsick I am. I know how dreadful it seems now,

my getting involved with this man Andy Johnson.

I had no idea what he was capable of.

I believed he could have been an answer for you, Brooke, for your loneliness. I was wrong.

What I did was unforgivable. But please know that I never intended for things to happen as they did. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.

I went too far. I would ask you to believe that it was only out of my desire to protect your children —

misplaced perhaps, but not ill-intentioned

. And for my part in the tragedy that has happened to you, I am so very sorry.

I know you can never forgive me,

and I will need some time away to try to forgive myself.

Stephanie.

This is the famous letter...  I cannot believe how weak and cliched it is. Such a dramatic moement is what many writers crave for, and to see it reduced to this... Patrick could have done sooo much better.

Legend: red I hated, especially if it's underlined, green is hypocrisy in such a tragic and what should have been a sincere moment, blue is what I liked (structurally, stylistically).

And to conlcude, the most cliched of all lines:

BROOKE: I will be a woman who has survived rape, proud and strong. I promise you that. I will be a survivor.

What on Earth is this?

Edited September 17, 200718 yr by Sylph

LOL I can't disagree and I love that you tore it all apart. It's really not his style. I know it's a cop out but I wonder if any of the rape stuff has been tampered with during script edits or if perhaps he's just not an "issues" person -- that is doubtful because there was a fair amount of that at GH during his time there. I would love some explanation for the drop in quality from IMO the best scriptwriter around to subpar NBC-esque stuff.

The final line btw I could see being okay if Brooke was actually talking to Andy Johnson or Stephanie. Lacks a little when shouted into middle distance.

LOL I can't disagree and I love that you tore it all apart. It's really not his style. I know it's a cop out but I wonder if any of the rape stuff has been tampered with during script edits or if perhaps he's just not an "issues" person -- that is doubtful because there was a fair amount of that at GH during his time there. I would love some explanation for the drop in quality from IMO the best scriptwriter around to subpar NBC-esque stuff.

Yeah, I remember reading that Mulcahey was told to dumb down his dialogue and it was one of the reasons why he left GH.

I don't remember exactly, but it was about a month ago. It was about head writers repeating themselves from show to show. It talked about Megan Mctavish always writing rapes, and Michael Logan had a few quotes about stories for shock value vs. tried-and-true stories like Romeo and Juliet. Casiello was quoted as saying it was unfair to compare todd's execution on One Life to Live to Sami's execution on Days - how the only thing they had in common was an execution, but the Days story was about Sami coming to terms with her past sins and whether or not Lucas would come forward and save her, whereas todd's execution was about Spencer manipulating Blair, and the beginning of tangeline, and the David Vickers connection to thomas McBain's murder. As for Days, he said he saw similarities between Craig/Carly/Jack and EJ/Sami/Lucas (the reformed bad girl torn between the rogue with an edge and her loyal, steadfast love), but that the key to telling the stories differently was to study the characters and how they would react differently to similar circumstances. And that Carly tenney would have a very different reaction than Sami Brady.

I'm totally paraphrasing here... it's been awhile since I read it. I'm sure I'm leaving something out.

Interesting. Did any other writers speak in the article? Someone needs to scan this article.

LOL I can't disagree and I love that you tore it all apart. It's really not his style. I know it's a cop out but I wonder if any of the rape stuff has been tampered with during script edits or if perhaps he's just not an "issues" person -- that is doubtful because there was a fair amount of that at GH during his time there. I would love some explanation for the drop in quality from IMO the best scriptwriter around to subpar NBC-esque stuff.

I'm glad you like it! I wouldn't exclude the editing, who knows maybe even B&B has an Elizabeth Korte somewhere. Maybe Janice messed it up. It's quite possible. 

As for the issues person, I would like to agree on that one with you, but I think that if you're a show's flagship SW, you should know better. I'm in disbelief to this very minute that he actually wrote that and that it made it onscreen as a part of a supposed Emmy winning story! 

The final line btw I could see being okay if Brooke was actually talking to Andy Johnson or Stephanie. Lacks a little when shouted into middle distance.

If Lang knew how to deliver such (would-be) powerful lines, I would have given it to her. As far as I'm concerned, she's a mediocre actress and her squeaky-child voice is not helping her cause.

Edited September 17, 200718 yr by Sylph

Christopher is such a bad writer that I will not be watching any eps written by him. Not one. I don't care if the previous ep was really good or something major will happen on that ep, simply won't watch.

As it turns out 9/17/07 is written by Mark Christopher Even the story with Archer & Jared is not enough to get me to watch more. Well, there's always tomorrow (unless Christopher pens back to back scripts) Maybe they threw in the Archer thing to entice more people to get past Christopher more than lackluster writing.

He's up there with the dialogue writers that have made me take notice of an improvement in quality. James Houghton and Michele Val Jean are the other two.

Thank God someone mentioned Jim! I don't know what happened to him after he left B&B! His stint there was very brief!

I would just add to that list the rest of the dialogue writing team on GH, Marie Masters (ATWT, fired from the team ages ago), Judith Donato, AMC's Kate Hall and Joanna Cohen. But have in mind I haven't observed them as closely as I should.

P. S. To what does improvement in quality specifically refer?

Edited September 17, 200718 yr by Sylph

There's nobody but us here know who Mark Christopher is. LOL I highly doubt regular Joe/Jane watching the show even pays attention the writing credits.

I also think it's lame to not watch an episode because just you see a certain script/breakdown writer's name in the credits.

There's nobody but us here know who Mark Christopher is. LOL I highly doubt regular Joe/Jane watching the show even pays attention the writing credits.

Well, I believe we make a 0,01% of the population.

I also think it's lame to not watch an episode because just you see a certain script/breakdown writer's name in the credits.

Of course it is lame. Who knows - maybe you could change your mind.  But more likely you can gloat and say I told you he/she writes cr*p!

"Such a dramatic moment is what many writers crave for, and to see it reduced to this... Patrick could have done sooo much better.

But again here's an example of a mystery. For all we know Brad Bell might have drafted that letter or it might have been in the outline. It didn't necessarily come only from Patrick. Or it could even have been a collaborative effort between several of the writers. No real way to know on our end.

Anybody know who wrote and directed today's B&B? For some reason, CTV didn't air the credits.

But again here's an example of a mystery. For all we know Brad Bell might have drafted that letter or it might have been in the outline. It didn't necessarily come only from Patrick. Or it could even have been a collaborative effort between several of the writers. No real way to know on our end.

Sure. Still, no reason for you not to polish it and be a lazy writer.

Sure. Still, no reason for you not to polish it and be a lazy writer.

Sometimes "polishing" what your boss has already done can get you fired.

I watch all episodes of my show. I am just indifferent to certain writers.

Yeah, I remember reading that Mulcahey was told to dumb down his dialogue and it was one of the reasons why he left GH.

That doesn't surprise me at all. He's a writer that includes "big words" that real adults actually use without being pretentious or flowery.

P. S. To what does improvement in quality specifically refer?

Sorry that was unclear. I meant from one episode to another. It sort of goes against Kay Alden's "single voice" thing but it's what sets those three writers I mentioned apart in my mind. I'll watch a couple of episodes of medicore dialogue and then one episode penned by any of them that shines. So much soap dialogue these days is either stilted or patronisingly inane that when characters begin to talk like the real educated adults they're supposed to be, I lap it up.

On the less sophisticated side I'll forever love Patrick for having Brooke call Taylor a "conceited bitch."