Melrose Place

[te.]

"The way I see, even if you *did* murder that woman it's not as if though you're  serial killer! Anyway, be seeing you two"

*Amanda leaves, while Jo & Matt looks confused*

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[te.]

OMG, I always forget about Kimberly's "apology" in 4x07 - it's the best!

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[te.]

Guess which couple got the honor of making TVLine's worst couples ever list?

 

https://tvline.com/gallery/worst-tv-couples-photos/worst-tv-couples-the-mindy-project/

 

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[Gray Bunny]

 

Haha! Hilarious.  Sam & Billy are the worst, but their pick makes more sense since they were both long-running popular characters. 

[Khan]

Granted, I watched MP only occasionally, but even I thought that pairing was wrong.

[te.]

 

I think it's also on paper that the pairing should've worked - I mean, they even flirted with it in season one, it's also a classic archetype of the good girl / bad boy pairing. Since Melrose was a soap, there was a lot of things that could be mined from reactions of the other residents, especially with Jake being the neighbourhood male slut.

 

But somehow they managed to completely wreck it and just make it worse as time went on, especially after Jane left. Then again, I think once the writers knew both Grant and Courtney were likely leaving then they just lost interest in trying to make it work.

[Brolden]

Oof, sorry it's been a minute guys, it's been a crazy week.

 

I'm really happy to hear my posts are making you all want to rewatch the show. Hell, your responses are making me want to rewatch the show, and I have only just finished it.

--

8. Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro)

 

Let me start by saying that I have the utmost respect for Thomas Calabro for being the only cast member that stuck with the show from beginning to end, and I appreaciate the character of Michael for the same reason: being the constant on the show. I remember reading that tidbit while I was in the middle of (I think) S3, when everyone was still there (save for Sandy and Rhonda), and just thinking it must have been a mistake. (I also started thinking then that characters like Amanda, Jo, Sydney and Kimberly would be used to fill the void, so when Jo left before anyone else even did, I was quite shocked).

 

I've hinted at it before, and I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I wasn't the biggest fan of Michael. I liked him somewhat better during the earlier seasons, but even then, I wasn't a big fan. I'm always very fascinated by characters that are supposed to be "the villain" or "evil", because there are so many different types. I never thought of Michael as pure evil, perhaps not even a real villain. He was just an unsympathetic, morally bankrupt character. But here's the thing: a few years ago, I started thinking about th concept of "love to hate". There are some characters that within the universe of the story, you absolutely want to strangle. But as a viewer, you are rooting for that character to keep being brought back, you are a fan of the actor. On Melrose Place, I think Kimberly is probably the best example of this kind of characters (I suppose Amanda had her moments as well, although she was perhaps written too sympathetically to really embody this). When she appeared in that courtyard with that remote control, I simultaneously wanted her to press that button and to not press that button. When she appeared on that beach outside Michael's place, I cheered. When Michael appeared on the screen in one of his antics, I usually just rolled my eyes.

 

Even in those earlier seasons, I felt like his storylines often went a bit over the top, although it was a far stretch from the cartoon character he would become later on. One of my biggest issues was that those he had victitmized the most kept letting him back in. Jane returned to him twice. Sydney's life would have been so very different (although perhaps less interesting) if she hadn't been obsessed with Michael so very long. I can't for the life of me figure out why Matt kept being his friend to the end. By season 6/7, he would be invited to bachelor parties, for characters that he had barely interacted with, even though he was not living in the building. Speaking of the later seasons, I was glad they finally introduced his mother in season 6, but I feel like they didn't really squeeze any story out of that potential. Since Michael was such a macho, I would have been interested to see his father as well, and thought it was a missed opportunity he was never seen. I'm not sure, but I would swear that a brother was mentioned at some point in S1/S2, but I guess with the introduction of Jennifer (and the precedent of Jane's brother being turned into a sister), they might have changed that backstory.

One thing I will say: they really did keep me on my toes when it came to Michael's endgame. Since Michael and Jane were the resident couple at the start of the series, I was originally expecting them to go through a lot during the series, but end up together in the end. Even when Michael had his affair, I was expecting them to move past it and stay together. When they did break up and paired Michael with Kimberly, I started thinking that those two would end up together (they certainly seemed made for each other) and that Jane was permanently through with Michael. Unfortunately, I had seen promotional material of Kimberly in later seasons, so I never bought into her death. I never bought Sydney as endgame for Michael, nor did I buy Jane's brief return to Michael post-accident, and that time when Michael and Amanda were together has always felt (both at the time and in retrospect) really strange to me. By the time Michael and Kimberly got back together after the bomb, I was fully expecting them to be endgame. Then Jane and Kimberly both left (well, Jane left and Kimberly died) around the same time in S5, and Kimberly hand-picked Megan to be her successor. Since the only two women I had ever bought as endgame for Michael were now gone, and Michael and Megan seemed quite isolated from the rest there for a while, I started thinking she would be his endgame. When they spent nearly all of S6 apart, I kept expecting them to return to each other in the end. It wasn't until Ryan was introduced that I realized Megan was definitely not ending up with Michael. Although Michael spent most of S7 with Jane, I didn't buy them as endgame (I would have actually been very pissed if they had been). It was around this time, halfway through S7 that I accidentally found out Michael would be with Lexie at some point (in this thread, actually, that's the spoiler I mentioned in my original post months ago). Although I hadn't seen them together yet, I immediately realized that that pairing would work, which was confirmed when I did see them together. I went into the finale fully expecting them to end up together, only to be proven wrong one last time. I'm not mad that they didn't end up together. Neither of them is the type for forever. But Michael's final scene with that slutty nurse, although it made sense for the character, was extremely eyeroll-inducing.    

[te.]

Watching 4.12 and again, the unexplored relationship of Kimberly / Jake presents itself with her visiting Shooters during her sex kitten phase. Again, were they screen testing them? Was it a direction they were thinking about going in?

[Vee]

As I said before, I thought they had real chemistry back then. I thought they'd have a hot fling.

 

Should add: I rewatched it last week and while the later close platonic relationship they had was nice, Peter and Kimberly had smoking sexual chemistry at the end of S3. It was a mistake not to keep that viable.

Edited February 15, 2020 by Vee

[te.]

 

It certainly could've worked after the Shelley mess and Jake getting into trouble with a loan shark. Kimberly was, erm, resourceful enough to deal with such things.

[will81]

Which seemed odd, since both were leaving, why exit the characters the way they did, can't anyone have a happy ending, haha.

[te.]

 

Jake did have a happy ending though - leaving to live with his kid and the mother in the middle of nowhere, supposedly raising a family.

 

I will always advocate that Billy's last scene should've been knocking at a door in Atlanta and a blonde woman opening (unless they could get Courtney to do a cameo).

[will81]

True, though it seemed more like a second choice since Alison pushed him away. There was still a heartbreak that happened in order to get him there.

 

Yeah I agree and I think Courtney would have done a cameo if she could have worked her schedule out. She was going to be in the last episode briefly, but her schedule couldn't be worked out to do it, but at the very least Courtney was apparently willing. 

[te.]

 

Actually, Aaron Spelling nixed her cameo, citing it as "stupid". She didn't want a speaking part and was only going to be seen briefly in the bar scene in the background where Eve tries to run down Amanda and Peter.

[will81]

Oh right, that's unfortunate. I didn't know he thought it was stupid. Oh well. Maybe the fact she didn't want to have any lines influenced his feelings more, haha. I agree though that having her do a where's waldo type cameo would have been silly. If you are willing to come back, at least make it substantial, even without dialogue. As you suggested, simply having Billy turn up at Alison's place in Atlanta would have been cool. Though that would have been better at the end of Season 6 (techinically beginning of Season 7) when Shue left the show.

 

Out of curiosity, and I know it doesn't matter all that much, but how does everyone view the held over episodes from season 6 that were officially made part of season 7. Do you see those now as season 6 episodes or still view them as season 7? Because I have to say when you remove them from season 7 it makes that season so much worse. Again I am going from memory, so maybe those that have seen those episodes recently might have a different view.

 

Though Season 6 wasn't as strong as the earlier seasons, I actually was still able to tune in on occassion and enjoy the show somewhat. I could barely sit through a season 7 episode though and even though I am going back and re-watching the series again, I am not sure I will bother to go past those held over episodes.

Edited February 15, 2020 by will81