Melrose Place

[KMan101]

I agree. The reboot was a waste of potential, IMO. Sigh.

[darraholic]

I didn't mind the reboot. I liked the new set, but the writers totally destroyed the older characters. Jo & Jane were written so out of character. I didn't mind Sydney being alive, but I hated that they killed her within the first 5 minutes. Why bother bringing her back. The murder mystery was stupid.

[Chris B]

Bringing Sydney back just to kill her makes no sense, but yall have to remember---it's AMANDA who was supposed to die, which makes even LESS sense. I highly doubt the idiots running that show ever watched the original. They also didn't know how to write Sydney or Amanda. In general that had a poor handle on the original characters and the show was too dark and just plain boring. They should've just hiring Chuck Pratt and let him write it. Considering he's currently writing a teen show, he's obviously still in the mindset to handle a show geared towards younger viewers. I would rather risk what he would've done to what we got.

Bringing Sydney back just to kill her makes no sense, but yall have to remember---it's AMANDA who was supposed to die, which makes even LESS sense. I highly doubt the idiots running that show ever watched the original. They also didn't know how to write Sydney or Amanda. In general that had a poor handle on the original characters and the show was too dark and just plain boring. They should've just hiring Chuck Pratt and let him write it. Considering he's currently writing a teen show, he's obviously still in the mindset to handle a show geared towards younger viewers. I would rather risk what he would've done to what we got.

[Huntress]

There were also inaccuracies in the Sydney-Jane-Michael history. I watched the 4th episode of the reboot yesterday (the show is currently on repeats in my country) where Jane first appeared.

In that episode, Violet tells Jane that she is Sydney's daughter and that Jane is now the only relative she has left. Obviously the new writers missed the fact that Sydney and Jane were only adoptive sisters. Furthermore, David blackmails Jane and tells her that she should have changed her internet passwords after her divorce from Michael. Hello, Jane and Michael divorced in 1998/1999 (and of course for the first time in 1993). I don't think Jane was ever seen using a computer on the original show. Except Amanda, nobody even had a cell phone back then.

[DRW50]

Janet Carroll has passed away. I don't remember her, but people who watched all of Melrose's run may, as I think she played Kimberly's mother.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/risky-business-mom-dies-at-328741

[soapfave06]

I never understood why they made a reboot and didn't focus on the originals and when they were used, they made it out of place and the show had no direction at all.

I never understood why they made a reboot and didn't focus on the originals and when they were used, they made it out of place and the show had no direction at all. However, with Katie Cassidy/Ella and Amanda on, they had hope, but it went no where. Jane, Michael, Sydney and Jo were sadly completely wasted.

[JellicleCat]

I think she also played Jim's (Charles Kimbrough) wife on "Murphy Brown".

[Gray Bunny]

Aw, I remember her.

I always liked how they were able to bring back the same actors, year after year, to play the Melrose resident's parents consistently. Matt's mom & dad, Billy's mom, Jane & Sydney's mom & dad, Kimberly's mom, etc. Oh, and Amanda's dad before he was killed off.

[DRW50]

Didn't she return to stalk Michael? Or was that dropped?

[Huntress]

Yes, Marion Shaw returned in early season 6 when Coop (Linden Ashby) was introduced. She shot at Michael and attacked Megan in the operating room. I think she ended up in the loony bin or something similar.

[Soaplovers]

So I'm finishing up season 4... and I can totally tell there is a new show-runner in charge. The pacing, stories, and out of chracter behavior is apparent throughout the season. Is season 5 as bad or is it an improvement?

1) Jo- You guys weren't kidding when you talked about Jo changing.. and this is most apparent in season 4. Gone is the independent, no non-sense girl with a biting wit and big heart. What I'm seeing in season 4 is a woman trying to stay with a guy who turned to her when Jane admitted she didnt love him. The Jo of old wouldnt have fallen for his charms and I bet she would have popped him one! P

2) Friendships/character interactions: This season is the start of characters only interacting with characters in their own stories. Sometimes it felt like watching three different shows (i.e. D & D gang, Richard Hart Designs gang, and the Wilshire gang with very rare crossovers). Almost no Jo/Allision interaction... Brooke hardly interacted with anyone outside of Allison/Billy/Amanda (twice with Jane, once with Jo, and twice with Jake)... I would have had Brooke/Sydney interact.. either as partners in crime or trying to one up each other in some respect. Plus, the fact you have Kimberly moving into the very building she blew up would have created a boatload of interesting character interactions (i.e. with Jane, Sydney, Jo, Matt, Amanda, etc).

3) Amanda/Sydney: I totally loved these two interacting... Though in the reboot, they seem more evenly matched in terms of outwitting each other as opposed to this season where Amanda outwits Sydney at every turn.

It seems like there were a lot of good ideas, just very poor execution (i mean amanda/Sydney as room mates should have been featured more.. the comedic potential alone.. oh well.. dare to dream).

How does season 5 fare in comparison to season 4?

[YRBB]

Season 4 was... I don't know what the word is for it. Definitely boring. Frank South does not do the type of soap that Darren Star did so brilliantly in Seasons 2 and 3 and it showed. The show became almost a caricature of itself. He tried but it just didn't work.

He also had no idea how to write for a lot of the vet characters. Jo was his worst. He REALLY did a horrible number on her and her exit was actually very insulting. She deserved better. He just had no idea what to do for her (and I suspect that's why Zuniga left). Plus, the whole Richard thing really dragged the show down. Muldoon was horrible. Amanda was also quite unrecognizable during her ex husband storyline (until she got her balls back) and he did what I thought was impossible: He made Crazy Kimberly boring!

Things get MUCH better in Season 5. I'm 2/3 into it and I am very excited with it--I feel I can care about the characters again, although he still has a bit of a problem with some vet characters. Alison and Jake's airtime diminishes a lot and their story doesn't kick off for a LONG time. But the show also changes. The pace becomes a bit slower and he starts doing way bigger story arcs than usual. He brings in some new characters that work (one of them REALLY works). But, thinking about it, he gives the newer characters MUCH more airtime than some of the vets.

I'm very divided about him; I can't just call him a hack because he's done some great work but he CANNOT do the crazy, fast-paced MELROSE that I would have liked to kept seeing. And it's so weird, since he wrote some of the best episodes of Season 3.

Btw, totally unrelated, but I HATE the music in Season 5. It's this weird rock thingy going on that, again, feels like it's trying to emulate previous seasons' rock cliffhanger music, completely omitting all the often touching bm that they had. I'm rewatching Season 3 and it's shocking how good the music often was, elevating a lot of the scenes. Now, it's the same generic rock music over and over again.

[darraholic]

The writing for Jo started to implode halfway through season 3 when Jessie began using Jo as a punching bag.

[rlj]

Once again I am on the monority because I liked Kyle and Amanda, they started off good and then the story got real shiotty!

[YRBB]

Yes, I do remember thinking she was becoming too much of a victim, but the story was great and she still had her sarcastic edge and good moments.

Once Star left... disasterville.