GL: Week of Dec 11th

[Juliajms]

OK, it's that time again, so get in here and express yourselves, please.

I wish they would do more with the Olivia story. I'm a couple of days behind, but it seems like they just dropped it for the Josh Cassie stuff.

[Vee]

So going by the rather obvious version of "The Little Prince" that Cassie read to Will, are we to believe Will killed Alonzo in order to leave stifling San Cristobel? I didn't see the Halloween episode so I'm not entirely clear.

I like Jeffrey/Reva but hate Jeffrey in principle. I like RN and NF's chemistry but Josh/Cassie in principle is out of character. BE and the dude playing Cyrus have chemistry but it's a horrible story for Harley to be in given her niece and Gus and Natalia and all the other loose ends. Mallet and Marina have chemistry but Marina was his niece! and what about Dinah? The dialogue is great, the actors are mostly great, the writing has potential but virtually all the stories are a mess.

[P.J.]

I always get this unclean feeling after watching Mallet/Marina scenes. It's not what is done during those scenes, it's that I get this mental picture of them, and in it, Mallet looks like a perv dating a 20-something.

Can't Harley just get some counseling?

And I just realized today Jeff's done Cassie, Reva and Marah. ICK.

DevilChild...just why did he off Alonzo? For not letting him see Cassie? I've sat through Rick shooting Grant on B&B, and Will poisioning Rose on ATWT. This is more twisted then both of those plots put together.

[Vee]

I agree Mandy Bruno looks waaayyy too young. She looks too young for just about everyone she's been paired with, though I think she has chemistry with Bogue and the dude playing Cyrus. I would just write her and Cyrus out. Enough Marina.

I know it's crazy but I honestly think the Will story is the best of the sorry lot on the show. It is playing out exactly like any classic "bad seed" horror movie but is reasonably well-dialogued, and the domestic situation with him, Josh and Cassie and that sorry little pudgy bastard playing R.J. rings true. And I've never really seen this story done on a soap. If he did kill Alonzo I don't know how he can last, but I'd frankly keep him. He'd become evil Edmund's evil ward.

[Juliajms]

Wow. I remember GregGL and I were speculating about weather the show would go "the Good Son" route and it seemed so unlikely at the time, now he we are. I can hardly believe it and I'm not quite sure if I like it or not. At least it isn't formulaic, but seeing a pint sized sociopath on my screen is disturbing.

[JackPeyton]

Ya know what tho, i think its GL that makes MB look THAT young. because on the show she looked, to me anyways, to be about 17. in person she looks like mid 20's.

anyways, whats going on with Bill? im behind on his return.

and i hate that i like reva & jeff, but i do. Have they even discussed how he had a serious relationship with her daughter? and that thing with cassie? i liked jeff/marah a lot... again, i dont know why but i did.

[Greg's GL]

The Will The Devil Child story is really the only one holding my interest these days. And IA Vee and Julia - I don't recall something like this being done in daytime before. It's not your typical story, so I have to give EW/DK props for that one (!!) and I'm hoping they don't rush things with the story. Thus far, I've enjoyed the way they are writing it.

That being said, IA with everyone on Reva/Jeffrey. I really didn't WANT to like them together, but for some reason I do. And I would love to watch Olivia's story more. The pacing on this show still sucks. EW has to get it through her thick skull that everyone doesn't want to see Josh and Cassie every day!

At the time of Alonzo's death, they didn't tell the story as "Will Did It". There was some crazy guy on the loose that took the fall for his death if I recall correctly. Not to say that Will DIDN'T do it. It was dark in the basement, with Alonzo, Cassie, Josh, Edmund and Will all there together. The writers never gave any hints as to wether Will did it or not until his scene before Edmund's "fall".

That's my two cents so far this week. Hopefully things won't be as boring in Springfield this week as they were last week. And I'm loving Daniel Cosgrove's return as Bill!

[JackPeyton]

i dont watch too much but the fact that they gave olivia this heath issue - and they have the amazing emmy winning Crystal Chappell in the role - why in the hell this isnt the front and center storyline is beyond me. this is the only storyline i have heard anyone thatw atchs GL say a positive thing about. and its being backburned? pathtic.

i think i may hate EW more behind the scenes on GL than i did infront of the screen on AW. and thats a lot...

[Vee]

I still think the Olivia/Gus "oh my aching heart" crap is just that. How many romantic spoilers can Gus and Harley have at one time before I stop giving a solitary [!@#$%^&*] about them? And it hurts Olivia's already scattershot character. Olivia has only survived this long on the strength of the great Crystal Chappell but it seems like no writer can tell me who she is. She's hardbitten and streetwise, but she was a member of the royal entourage on San Cristobel for years. She's a businesswoman but she worked for Richard and played nanny. Who, what, how, why? That ITL she did had good dialogue, but the story was lame and the dialogue assumed you knew who Olivia was - and I'm not sure anyone, other than maybe CC, who is trying her best, knows who or what Olivia Spencer is, other than ambitious and promiscuous. At least a character like, say, Diane Ballard's narrative throughline was clear. I would keep her, and I know how I'd want to do it, but it wouldn't have anything to do with this story.

I'm not sure if I said it last week but I also really appreciated the down to Earth, domestic setting of the children's pageant for Edmund's fall, and not some overwrought daytime gala. It makes the show feel like a real everyday community.

[Greg's GL]

Alrighty people. So far this week has not been half bad IMHO. Does anyone else feel that way?

Sure, there were some parts of Monday's show that I FF - particularly Josh & Cassie without Will and some Cyrus/Harley stuff. I don't like where that story is going right now and frankly, I'm not that invested in those two.

But today's show (12.11) was really good for me. For one, The Chosen Couple did not occupy my screen and secondly, this episode highlighted two of the most intriguing family relationships in Springfield right now. I have enjoyed watching Doris and Ashlee's relationship since they were introduced. These two actresses have great chemistry together and the writers have actually taken some time to make them more than cartoon cutout "good guys" or "bad guys" as the case maybe. Their relationship is dynamic and complex and I really feel like I'm watching a real-life mother and daughter. Thankfully, they have created an interesting, multi-layered villianess in Doris and are not afraid to show that she does have some remorse for the things she does.

And then we have Bill and Billy. Daniel Cosgrove and Jordan Clarke are terrific together, and they seem to genuinely LIKE each other as actors. This is another complicated family dynamic that seems based in reality that a lot of people could relate to. The scenes today in the hospital were very good with Billy choosing Lizzie as his "family" over Bill. And the way he called Lizzie "Mindy" when she came into the hosptial room! I loved it. These are two characters that I'm actually invested in and find them completely mezmerizing when they are on-screen together.

Finally, I didn't get the "cheap" feeling with today's show. Does anyone else agree? And whomever the producer is that is creating the video montogues at the end of the show is doing a good job (particularly today) and I liked the song that was playing. Does anyone know the name of that one?

[JackPeyton]

Can someone explaine more of this to me? wahts going on with bill/lizzie/billy?

[Vee]

My problem is, as soon as Ava gets involved as scooped, I am going to fall asleep re: Coop/Ashlee and Doris and Buzz. Ava is my ticket to slumberland every time.

When and how the hell did Lizzie get a job, much less with Lewis?

[MichaelGL]

How ironic of them to make Ava, Jeffrey's daughter. Those have to be two of the worst characters in GL history next to Eden August.

[P.J.]

Okay, I can't explain all of it...but Lizzie working at Lewis had something to do with Alan not hiring her and her knowing Billy was still drinking. There was something about Lizzie owning a bar, and one night Billy stopped her from sleeping with a bad-boy Jonathan look-alike, and they struck up a friendship. Currently, Bill slept with Lizzie to horn in on a project Lewis construction was bidding on (or something) and make her look flighty to their client. Billy found out about it, and is pissed at Bill for using her. Bill somehow outted Billy's drinking and took over the company. Lizzie is still working at Lewis, raising Bill's hackles, and Dinah is sort of his Gal Friday doing various dirty/illegal jobs for him. (The day Lizzie sent Vanessa up to Bill's room while he was "handling" a female client was pretty funny.)

I'm sure someone can explain the details better...I'm not watching that much. But Danny Cosgrove is one fine reason to try and watch. LOL.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

I get pervy feeling watching them too. Marina's way too young for him and it doesn't help that RB has a distinctly Frankenstein's monster/Lurch look to him, but Mallet is also Marina's godfather and even changed her diapers when she was a baby! I'm not kidding, he literally did that when he was married to Harley, Marina's aunt. Marina and Mallet are only slightly less disturbing together than Marina and Alan-Michael were.

Well, if she actually wanted help and cared about being a good, sane mother to her kids, she would swallow her pride and get help but that's not what this is about. She is using this to keep Cyrus close to her because she wants him for herself. When Harley wants a guy, she gets him no matter what, no matter who gets hurt. Harley is throwing herself into Cyrus's orbit at every available opportunity even though she knows how much in love he and Marina were but she is determined to go with this poor wittle freaked-out Harley routine to get close to him. If her post-traumatic stress thing is real and she were truly concerned, she would get help, her macho pride be damned. She has children to take care of, she has no business wallowing in self-pity and throwing herself at her niece's lover instead of seeking competent help that might actually, you know, help her. Instead what she's doing is not only self-destructive, it'll also end up hurting her children, her niece, her brother, and her father. Nice Harley, real nice.

The really ridiculous thing, aside from Kreizman's "keep it in the family" obsession, is that with Cyrus, Marina is finally tolerable, enjoyable even. She has chemistry with him and has grown up quite a bit. And now they're gonna throw it down the drain just because BE has run out of leading men!

I love Cyrus but every scene he's ever shared with Harley has been contrived, overwrought, and almost physically painful to watch. Even stranger IMO is that Bartlett has had chemistry with every single person he's ever shared a scene with, except BE. Cyrus has had great scenes with Dinah, Mallet, Vanessa, Matt, Marina, Buzz, Frank, Beth, Griggs, Alex, and even Alan. But with Harley there is absolutely nothing there. There is zero romantic or sexual chemistry and they don't even come off believably as friends. He has a great rapport with Buzz and they've only been in like three scenes together. But almost three months of this Harley/Cyrus push and there's still nothing going on between. Every scene between them feels a word for word copy and paste from the Insta-Couple-O-Matic Handbook. Everything is so contrived, cliched, and inauthentic. And yesterday, for the first time since he came on the show almost nine months ago, I caught MB acting. He's usually so at ease and believable but when Cyrus said that he had feelings for Harley, it was not only unbelievable, but MB was stilted and wooden as if he knew it was bogus and could barely get it out.

Yeah, how gross is that? Doing the mother and the daughter is just sooooo crossing the line. Tossing the sister in, and the fact that he raped her too, is just beyond the pale.

I got the impression that Will got mad at Edmund when he started threatening Cassie and then telling Will that it was for his own good. I think we're supposed to think that Alonzo threatened Cassie too, probably angry that she was trying to get custody, and told Will it was for his own good and that's why he pushed him. That was just what I got from it.

On an up note, Tuesday was way better although I don't really care for Olivia going after Gus. They're far more tolerable than he and Natalia but he's just not strong enough for Olivia. He's too wishy-washy for her. She could chew him up and spit him out.

I don't love what Ashlee did but I do love the dynamic between she and Doris.

The Bill/Lizzie/Billy situation is developing really nicely. Color me surprised on that one.

Now, if they would just keep Ava out of the fray. These two stories are fine, we don't need her dragging them down.

One little thing about Tuesday's show, was it supposed to be the same day as Monday? Because Monday's show ended at night and Tuesday's started at night but Buzz was watching the election results in Harley's living room, where at the end of Monday's show, Harley was a basketcase. Odd.