Please name one good story Jean Passanante is writing right now

[Soapsuds]

Seriously we need some good news coming from ATWT. News of Jean Passanante's firing and new HW being named. It is time to make the change.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think ATWT really lost its way after Marland's death in 93, the show was hacked to death by the subsequent head writers. I think by the late 90's, Broderick really helped to stable the show both creatively and ratings-wise. She wrote multi-layered characters, character-driven stories, and gave us storylines like Tom and Emily's affair, the return of David Stenbeck, and the Lily's baby switch storyline. Her writing was set up in a way where tons of future possibilities could be made.

[P.J.]

Is 2.0 NOT an indication of a PROBLEM with the show? In less than one year, we've gone from a high of 2.8, during the slasher crap, to 2.0, a new low for the show! The stories are "excellent"?????

It's not necessarily the plots, but how they're written. NO set up, nothing approaching logic, and very little fallout. Other than Carly's return, and to an extent, the WW takeover, nothing is followed through. Em was a hooker...now she's not. Ali did porn...in three months, I"m sure it'll never be brought up again. Faith's anorexia/buliemia? Dropped. Luke's sexuality? Dropped for most of the last year. Johnny, the wunderkind who's very existance drove story for two years? Yeah...who mentions him now? Other than a cursory mention here and there, Hal and Jen deaths haven't generated story. Gwen gets a new story every three months...I can hardly wait for her next nemisis to appear and torture the girl.

There are very few "rules" on soaps, but as far as I'm concerned, ignoring history is the deadliest. I don't care if KMH and GM could light a fire on command with their chemistry (not that I think they can). DUSTY falling for the woman who nearly killed him is SICK. The examples of other history being ignored are too numerous to mention. But they all signal a lack of imagination of our coughGloriouscough Headwriter. She doesn't follow some logical story flow...she reinvents the characters to fit whatever Idiot plot she comes up with.

Craig/Meg/Paul is a huge yawn. Just one more woman for them to fight over. How many times have we done this story? Unless Paul grows a set of balls and finally gets the better of Craig, what is the point? Will it really be any surprise when Meg consentually has sex with Craig, just hours before (or after, if they're sneaky ) we learn Paul is alive/returned to town? Am I suppose to forget they just did that with Kack?

Carjack/Bratie....there is not enough chemistry between Bratie or Kack to justify this quad. You once said you'd laugh when Carjack made up, only to break up three months later. Well, I'm going to LMAO when Katie ends up on her back, welcoming Brad with every last Rah-Rah in her cheerleader arsenal. I'm not even sure how it can be called a Quad, when Brad is barely on.

Gwen/Will/Cleo...what is fresh about the story? Is there anyone who didn't think Cleo was going to go crazy? Has there been ANY point to the last three months she's been shoved down our throat? Yeah...great...we'll get some huge expositionary scene, where we find out Cleo's been nuts all along, then she'll escape conveinently, and we'll have to fear month after month (whenever JP gets bored, that is) that JP will "treat" us to Cleo's return. Worse than Cleo, her bad lisp and ratty wig, is the way Gwen's been watered down to near idiocy to accomodate Cleo's emergence. Lily still hasn't recovered (IMO, and if her wardrobe is any indication...) from MB's playing Rose for three years. Lily is a shell of the woman she was before Rose came to town.

[winterguy125]

I think you just wrote the best post I have ever seen on SON or anywhere infact Totally agree

[WorldTurner]

I'm not about to defend JP. Far from it! But in Oakdale time it is still the same day. CZP was doing theater in IL when this was taped so she wouldn't have been available. Will can't know if Barbara doesn't. At least this one time they addressed not calling Barbara rather than not mentioning it.

I know JP"s contract is up in July. Is there any official word on the status of that?

Great post PJ! You save me typing a lot of comments!

[JONNYSBRO]

I do not think Luke's love story will get any real airtime at all. Let's remember what JP did on AMC with Bianca, she swept her lesbianism under the rug. Bianca never really had any love interest when JP was writing the show. Bianca came out and that was that. JP does not write that type of storyline at all.

[Nikki22]

PJ that was one AWESOME post! Bravo and I agree with every word you wrote! Send that puppy to Goutman and Bloom!!

[P.J.]

Well, I'm not sure how it ended up posted. I was in full rant, hit the reply button, and got that weird "not connnected to the internet" page of death. Then I checked back here in the thread, and it hadn't shown up. Disgusted by the thought my post got eaten, I tromped off to bed muttering.

But let me add, I'm tired of Paul's annual "left presumed for dead" storyline. This is the third time in four years. JP might not be responsible for the first one (which facilliatated Scott Hoylrod's exit), but it's annoying to sit through the repetition. Worse yet, it seems to be a trend throughout the industry.

[kelly1142]

The problem I see is forcing contrivances at the expense of character's natural connections and character driven writing.

Take Jade. They made Jade Rose's daughter, and yet never explored Jade with her mother's connections on canvas aside from Lily (which, even that was mostly surface). What about having Jade find out about her mother through interactions with not only Lily but Dusty, Paul, Carly and Emily?

The Worldwide story is another contrivance. Started off promising with Craig, Lily, Lucinda...but Meg makes absolutely no sense in this story. I can stretch Paul's involvement b/c of his long history with Craig and his hatred of Craig, I can buy, in the name of cast integration, Paul forming an uneasy alliance with Lucinda to take revenge on Craig. But I can think of at least three characters who would have made sense in this story because of their historical/natural connections to Craig or Lucinda before Meg if the show was going for cast integration (though the main focus should have stayed Craig/Lucinda regardless).

Barbara - Craig's ex wife, grandmother of Craig's son Johnny

Dusty - rival to Craig, stepfather to Johnny, ex lover of Craig's daughter Lucy, close to Lucinda, was actually working at WW at the time of the takeover

Emily - hates Craig, long history with Craig and suspected Craig to be involved with her son's recent kidnapping, worked for Craig for years, and was also at the time working for WW.

Instead of using any one of these or all of these three, we have Meg, who makes NO sense in that story at all. And instead of a business story, we get Paul and Craig fighting over Meg and for the life of me I can't understand why.

And how about the contrivance that is Katie/Jack? It makes NO sense! Carly and Jack have enough character driven drama stemmed from the Simon mess (another plot at the expense of character connections) and their children and their own issues, they don't NEED Katie. Put Katie and Brad together or, what about just leaving Katie alone for a while? Weren't she and Ali friends? How about giving them some scenes? Or Katie and Craig? Katie and Jack makes NO sense.

It's sad that I expect Barbara to be the only one to get an onscreen reaction to Paul's death. Will should, Emily should at the very least, but Bob, Kim, Dusty, Parker and Faith should at least as well. But I'm sure they won't. For crying out loud, Barbara was never told onscreen that her granddaugther died, and Susan got like a split second reaction comforting Emily.

And what about Susan? She just found out that her daughters are hookers and porn stars, she gets to react one day and then....nothing? She's fine? All is well in Stewart land?

[P.J.]

Y'know Kelly, I was thinking the same thing. Paul "dies", and they won't show his buddies Parker and Faith reacting to the news. It would be a SPECTACULAR way to show Parker hasn't coped with Hal's death, and it'll be IGNORED.

[kelly1142]

Exactly! And didn't Parker go to find that painting for Paul last week? So it would make sense. I would love to see Parker talking to Carly about that, and yeah it should lead to a discussion about Hal.

I'll be glad if I'm proven wrong, but I'm not holding my breath lol.

[stenbeck212]

Did Jade ever express resentment toward Will for Killing Rose? I don't remember this happening, but for me that should have been the primary reason she showed up in Oakdale. That's her best reason to torment Will and Gwen.

[P.J.]

Not really. There was this incredible rumor that it was the reason for Jade trying to break up Will's marriage, but it never materialized. She and Lily used it once (when Jade's fake miscarriage was revealed) and that was about it.

[Sweet_VeeVee24]

Sorry but I will never like the quad of Brad/Katie/Jack/Carly... Let's get the show on the road and have Carly slap Katie into the next orbit so we can have CarJack back.

Nothing at all hot or sizzling pops up for me when I see Jack and Katie slobbering all over each other... In fact, it's those scenes that I turn off or walk away from... I personally don't see any chemistry or anything when Michael and Terri are on screen; but see it instantly when Maura walks in on a scene....

Brad bores me even when he's trying to help Carly get her man back...that's not a good thing.

As for the Paul/Meg/Craig stuff...it was alright...but I'm looking for the key ingredient to come back...that's when I will fully have attention to the storyline.

[WorldTurner]

Actually Parker did not go to find that painting for Paul. He ran away to Chicago and went to the museum to see the painting that Paul had talked about. Paul had told Parker it was on display there. And Parker only had $7 so he wasn't buying anything lol! I know Parker had said Paul was too busy lately so they hadn't seen him but there should be some reaction.

I would be happy if this actually lead to more talk from Carly and Parker over Hal's death. I thought we got short changed on that. I am especially interested though in how much we will see of Barbara and Will's reactions. Where JP really misses I think is on the family interactions and reactions. They don't move the story so they get overlooked. However they are really key to what drives the characters and gives foundation to stories. It's so rare that we have people just talking to each other and that's what really gives depth to story versus all the plot devices we see.