Melrose Place

[te.]

On the other hand, the bombing was sort of motivated, even if it was a stretch that Kimberly suddenly knew how to make bombs. She basically had beefs with most of the building, bar Jake, Alison and Billy.

In season 4 she suddenly became sane, re-married Michael and then went insane again. In all honesty I probably would've written out Kimberly for season 4 and then had her return sometime in season 5. I honestly think she would've worked better as sort of a recurring villain the way Sheila has been on Bold and the Beautiful for some time now.

With Brooke, besides her being completely co-dependent on Billy, I think it was a mistake making her poor so early. Amanda's a character that had funds, but she never really did anything substansial storylinewise with it bar buying the building. It would've been fascinating to see her as the rich bitch villain with endless funds to screw up the characters lives.

Edited June 14, 2014 by te.

[cuzIsaySo]

For some reason it escaped my mind that Brooke became broke at one point. Was it after Hayley died or did her father cut her trust fund because she was marrying Billy?

I agree that Kimberly should have gotten some sort of break during season 4 instead of justifying her actions via some personality disorder (i was under the impression it was due to a brain tumour though but apparently me memory of the show is hazy)

Brooke could have carried the flame as a bitch causing trouboe for everybody and Amanda's past with Jack Parizi (feel free to correct me) was a total bust. Brooke being second in command at D&D next to Amanda only for her to usurp the power and become the big cheese would have been interesting. She could have gone after Jake or aligned herself with Michael.

Sometime MP made some dumbass move in terms of characters. I mean Megan was a ok character and last til the end and Samantha was a bore that shouldnt have continue pass her initial storyline (wwhich i am thankfully unable to rememebr)

Another problem i felt was that the show didnt prepare for the upcoming mass exodus of season number 5.

The show should have let characters introduced after season 2 to expand organically and add a new one as regular every year so that when the purge began enough "long-term" characters were around to carry on for the original castmembers exiting. And I think Rhonda should have brought back at some point to maintain a bridge between the old and the new. A total revamp of the character might have been needed but she couldnt have been worst than samantha or megan imho.

[Soaplovers]

Brooke and Sydney could have been friends and fellow schemers especially with their mutual dislike of Amanda.

[Vee]

I think Brooke was a great character, but finite. She had a singular, indelible role and purpose, but I think she died at just the right time. What they did with Billy and Alison afterwards was a separate mistake.

Kimberly was totally wasted after Season 4. They'd shot their wad when they could've kept her going as a semi-sane vixen like she was midway through that year - the sex advice radio host, the re-empowered nymphomaniac who was all over every man on the show - for countless more seasons.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Vee

[te.]

Kimberly suffered the same fate like most characters in season 4 - she was zoned into a group of characters (Sydney, Michael, Amanda, Peter). Not even when she moved into the building for two seconds they seemed to try and get her out of said rut.

Edited June 17, 2014 by te.

[KMan101]

I need to start rewatching again. It's been a couple of years now. I agree that everyone was far too islanded in Season 4, but it seemed worse in Season 5. Season 5 was like two different shows. Jake and Alison's horrible relationship was completely separated and then you had Jane go psycho over Jake. While I enjoyed psycho Jane (to a certain degree), it was all so ... pointless to me. I also didn't really enjoy the Richard Hart story (some of it I did, like Jane and Sydney 'killing' him). I didn't really care for Jane and Alison and Jane and Jo hating on each other. Jane always seemed better than that to me. Same for Jo and Alison. I never bought them as catty with each other. I don't think some of those choices should have been made.

I also agree about Kimberly. They were on the right path with her and then all of sudden it all went out the window. Very disappointing. The institution story, IMO, started the downfall of Melrose Place.

I also didn't like Sydney being mowed down on her wedding day. The show was already losing so many faces and they had pretty generic replacements (Jennifer, Kyle, Craig). I feel like they were all clones. Jennifer of Sydney, Kyle of Jake, Craig of Billy (to a certain degree). Samantha of Alison, etc. I didn't hate any of them (well, Sam came close until she had a personality transplant in her affair with Jeff and fought with Jennifer). Jennifer felt wasted to me. I've never been a huge Rob Estes fan like some so I had no use for Kyle. It felt torturous sitting through his drug story and him and Amanda just didn't work, though I did feel he was a bit more on her level and they did, to a degree, match each other well. Always liked Peter and was kind of meh on Peter and Amanda ending up together. Peter's best relationship was with Michael and I thought Taylor brought out some interesting sides to him.

Amanda as a tortured heroine in Season 6 did nothing for me. Terrible choice. Season 6 was so ... I don't even know how to describe it. They clearly struggled between camp and somewhat serious. I think the balance was MUCH better in Season 7, which I mostly enjoyed, even though it was a shell of it's former self. Season 7 was fairly solid, even though I thought it was ridiculous Matt was killed (off-screen) and had some diary and was suddenly BFFs with Amanda (it was likely because she and Michael were the only two really left that ever interacted with him. Would have been better had Michael been the one to initially deal with it, not Amanda).

Biggest problems overall would be the personality transplants and shifts in character to fit the story. I loved the shock value of MP, but it's clear that characterization would often be thrown out the window.

Alison always annoyed me, and at the same time, I couldn't help but like her. She was best as a raging drunk. Billy and Alison were way too focused on at times though. They should have ended up together but sometimes, in life, that just doesn't happen.

Edited June 18, 2014 by KMan101

[te.]

I still say that Doug Savant's idea of Matt being in love with Michael is the greatest storyline that never happened.

If Melrose happened today you just know Michael would've been a sleazy bisexual manwhore.

Edited June 18, 2014 by te.

[cuzIsaySo]

He would have at least tried to play on Matts obvious attraction. I think that could have been an amazing storyline though.

[Gray Bunny]

Thomas Calabro totally could've sold that.

[Melroser]

I enjoyed Brooke's involvement at D&D and would have loved to see her use her daddy's influence to takeover control. It would have been fun to watch her pull the strings for Amanda, Alison, and even Billy. The show lost me when they made Brooke the whiny little spoiled girl trying to fight Alison for attention of her dad.

I never liked Sam. Such a boring character and that affair with Jeff seemed like it lasted forever. I am a fan of Dan Gauthier but that story served no purpose for me. They could have just left it as a triangle of Sam/Billy/Jennifer and let Jennifer kick her ass.

I agree with what was said about the show not preparing for the mass exodus after Season 5. Coop did nothing for me except he was responsible for Lexi coming to town. I could never understand Megan's attraction to him and found the two boring.

A lot of Kyle's stories I found kind of lame: the sudden drunk/drug problem and the backstory of Christine. Yawn. I thought both of them made his character seem like a wimp. Why would someone as strong as Amanda be interested in him???? I thought Kyle served better when he was involved with Taylor....of course Lisa Rinna was just priceless with all of her material no matter how ridiculous!!!

I always wonder what one more season of the show would have been like! I felt like it was just starting to come back around to something good with Amanda/Peter, Kyle/Jane, and the Michael/Lexi pairing....and of course crazy Eve!!! And if the show had truly tried to get Laura Leighton back earlier, they could have tried again. Sydney could have been fun since she hooked up with Kyle once and could have been a rival for Lexi with Michael.

if only....

[cuzIsaySo]

The show could have kept Anne Marie Jonson instead of killing her off and make her a scheaming AA vilainess with some vulnerability that could ensure her longetivity on the show. She was no worse at backstabbing and throwing people under the bus than pretty much the rest of the existing cast at the time so I never felt that she had gone too far to be redeemed.

I never understood the appeal of Peter Burns. Making him the love of Amanda's life all over sudden after he tried to kill her (i think he tried twice) always left me scratching my head. JW had some sort of charisma and i liked the Peter vs Michael frienemy relationship but they should have focus on that instead of making him Amanda's love interest.

Every single character that came pass season 4 was a bust except maybe Lexi and Eve and both were handed horrible material.

Taylor had some potential but tying her with BoringKyle for an entire season was a huge mistake.

[te.]

It always struck me as odd how much the writers struggled to find characters that worked - in theory, Melrose Place should've been the easiest show on television to write in new characters as they could just move into the building - the fact that there even were empty apartments in the building struck me as odd. Not only that, they could've had new characters coming into the show via Whilshire Memorial, D&D or Shooters, much like Kimberly and Amanda were originally introduced. But either they had to have contrived backstories or they just ended up lasting a few episodes for a plot never to be seen again.

[Vee]

I always found Anne-Marie Johnson just plain weird. But her death spiral storyline with Bobby Parezi was great, although it was perhaps a mistake to off Bobby. John Enos was hot. I did feel they wasted Jasmine Guy, to say nothing of poor Vanessa Williams in Season 1.

I understood what they were going for with Sam - introducing a 'normal' person back into Melrose to try and reground the show in Season 5. And I thought some of Season 5 worked well; I thought the McBrides as a married couple was good, I liked the restaurant, Kyle and Sydney, I liked Taylor as the tension in Amanda and Peter's marriage. But Peter and Taylor's actual affair was gross, and Jake and Alison and Billy and Sam were snoozes. I was a huge fan of Amanda and Peter at the time as well.

I thought most of Season 6 was unwatchable, except the back end when Lexi went nuts and they started tearing up the cast. Season 7 was, IMO, a minor rebirth; Lexi was running the show, Jane and Michael were surprisingly great back together with Jane's somewhat tougher character who wasn't quite a pushover, and I liked the Eve mystery. It wasn't all perfect but it was a helluva lot better than it had been, a much tighter show. I didn't feel it deserved to get cancelled that year, whereas 90210 was running on fumes.

[Soaplovers]

I thought the first half of season 5 was pretty good, especially with the back to basic approach the show was doing. However, I think the show was somewhat islanded, though not to the extent that season 4 was.

I think Allison would have fit in well at D & D especially with the going ons with Billy, Amanda, Sam, and Craig. I did detect a bit of chemistry during a brief introduction between Allison and Craig that wasn't followed up on.

I'm not sure what could have been done with Jake especially after Jane left the show, perhaps involve him with Sydney and Kyle?

[Vee]

Jake should've left with Jo. They made a horrible mistake not just reuniting those two, and I was a huge fan of theirs. IIRC, Daphne almost did Season 5 and then something happened at the last moment - I can't recall what.

I think Alison did go back and help out at D&D for a hot minute in Season 5, and it was played as this bit of drama for her and Jake as I recall. Then nothing came of it. Let's just hang out at Shooters or in our apartment forever. Boring. I don't know why they kept that going all year long. They gave Alison a great exit with Billy at the airport, but like Jake and Jo, he should've gone after her and stayed gone.

Then there was the business with Stacy Haiduk and Jake's gay little son. That was the character Shaun Sipos was supposed to be playing on the new MP - they share the same name - but at the last moment, they changed him to Michael's illegitimate kid to give Thomas Calabro more to do.