B&B: Week of September 8, 2008

[Cat]

Between GH today and GH in 1997, there is a WORLD of difference.

Mulcahey helped shape today's GH dialogue as we know it. He got that from the Dobsons and SB. He was helped by Karen Harris who was mentored by Claire Labine. That mix of Santa Barbara Brain Trust and Labine's huge influence is now part of GH's dialogue DNA (unfortunately, it cannot help save it from the whims of a destructive and burnt-out HW. Which reminds me, I would love to do a retrospective of Guza's writing career! The good and the bad).

[Sylph]

In daytime TV or in Mulcahey's dialogue? I've always heard great things about the guy, that he's great to talk to and ready to help, but I just don't know what happened to him. He just writes awful scripts.

Well, you can do a retrospective now or you can wait for him to get fired. I think my topic about Brown and Esensten went really, really well. You might want to start a similar one. If that's what you intended, that is...

[Cat]

In daytime TV.

Mulcahey laid down the template for dialogue-writing as we know it at GH. And he wrote great scripts for that show. I cannot believe this is the same writer doing B&B now.

Uh, no, that wasn't my intention! I just wanted a discussion on Guza where I could learn more about him. Becuase the man is an enigma to me.

Basically, I just want to reconcile his blue-ribbon soap-writing pedigree (which I witnessed as a viewer once upon a time) with my hatred for him now. At the way he has inflicted terminal damage on GH. I know it will never recover.

[Sylph]

Sort of what I did. I wanted to see the good and the bad sides of the killer duo.

[bandbfan]

I actually thought today was pretty good.

We're getting some old Brooke/Taylor rivalry. Hopefully Taylor will be stronger this time around since there's not the alcohol factor.

Lol at Eric rolling in for the confrontation.

[Toups]

I didn't like how Eric found out. It was too quick and not dramatic enough.

I'll say it. B&B doesn't have the great characters he can write for.

What he's doing now doesn't take away what he wrote in his prime (SB, GL, GH). He was the best of the best and that's why people in the industry respect this guy.

[MarkH]

Yes, that is what I meant . "Coma train".

If you REALLY want to highlight things, transcribe EVERY word that Stephanie, Ridge, Thorne or Felicia said yesterday. That would cement the case :-).

Do not forget to approximate his scene directions (foot washing, shaft of light suddenly explodes through the window onto the floor). These are important...although I acknowledge they may have come from the breakdowns.

Has Patrick found God? Has Brad? Something is really amiss here.

What international audience are they trying to reach with the foot washing?

[MarkH]

For those who missed this, please watch at 1:25 of the video beneath. The second part of the episode follows... The second part shows the "shaft of light" and "foot washing". I did not feel spiritually awakened, I am afraid to say. I felt manipulated.

  

[Sylph]

Yeah, Stephanie's lines were terrible! That was so awful, one wonders how did it pass all those HWs, editors etc. And Mulcahey himself!

Well, I don't have a script with me, so you'll have to wait for the scene directions.

There! You said it! Happy now?

[MarkH]

I posted youtubes of the relevant scenes above. I really hope even non-viewers watch this and weigh in. Because it was... jaw dropping. Seriously, I could see this played EXACTLY the same on Saturday Night Live, and everyone would howl at the over-wrought joke....and then say the joke was going on too long.

I want somebody out there to PLEASE defend these scenes...show me the goodness...tell me my heart is hard and I am missing the quality here. I cannot shake the feeling that this show is irretrievably lost. I feel now like someone on the show is going through a spiritual crisis, and we are being honored to watch it on the screen. Felicia's death. Taylor's meltdown. Storm's suicide. Katie's heart transplant. Katie's near-death from rejection. Eric's coma. Each one increasingly bringing out new levels of prayer and meditation. (I don't mind those AT ALL...but the scripts are making my eyes roll...)

Somebody, please, help me see what is good here.

[Sylph]

Let me remind you of Stephanie's letter to Brooke (also by PM):

Dear Brooke, I am staggered by the news of what happened to you. I cannot tell you how heartsick I am. I know how dreadful it seems now, my getting involved with this man Andy Johnson.

I had no idea what he was capable of. I believed he could have been an answer for you, Brooke, for your loneliness. I was wrong. What I did was unforgivable. But please know that I never intended for things to happen as they did. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.

I went too far. I would ask you to believe that it was only out of my desire to protect your children — misplaced perhaps, but not ill-intentioned. And for my part in the tragedy that has happened to you, I am so very sorry. I know you can never forgive me, and I will need some time away to try to forgive myself. Stephanie.

And to conclude with:

BROOKE:

I will be a woman who has survived rape, proud and strong. I promise you that. I will be a survivor.

[Sylph]

[MarkH]

I forgive PM, at least for the letter.

Those were supposed to be scenes...but SF took suddenly ill, and so they had to do sudden massive rewrites around her absence at the climax of this story.

What we got were the sudden, massive rewrites. I don't expect top quality then.

That said...the letter was as unnaturalistically unreal as anything I have ever heard...so even under a rush job, it is shocking that something SO treacly would emerge.

[Cat]

Well, I'm not a non-viewer. But, I just watched your two clips and... holy cash cow!

First of all, I found SF's acting in the first half pretty good. She really tried to sell all this as hard as she could. I also, forgive me, was fine with Thorne and Felicia's monologue to Eric. I think I've been waiting for Thorne to get another scene where he could talk about his feelings being Second Best. I loved Felicia's feistiness, her telling Eric she would try and forgive him for being "just a guy." It was quite at odds with Stephanie's "I'll just keep forgiving you for diddling anything in a skirt." Felicia sounded like a freakin proto-feminist next to Steffers 1950s attitude.

Of course, Ridge ruined all this by being all pompous, even when he was asking forgiveness of his dad. But I'll forgive Ronn Moss for being Ronn Moss because dude had the LINE of the episode when he saw Stephanie bathing Eric's feet and spoke for many of the viewers. "Uh, no way are we leaving her alone with dad."

So, you see, there is some skill in this scene. On one hand, viewers can take it as this Amazing Holy Miracle. And, believe me, I think B&B is targeting an American audience with all the spiritual allusions. A similar audience who have perhaps embraced Sarah Palin to their hearts? I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But I do think B&B is not the only outfit in the US to view family values and the spiritual as a potential cash cow.

Or, they can see Ridge as their Greek Chorus -- WTF is this? Has Stephanie gone mad? That is what is interesting for me in this scene. Because Stephanie appears to have been wrestling with her mental demons for a long time -- especially recently.

I'm wondering if this isn't going to lead to a highly delusional Stephanie down the road. Somebody who feels she is destined to be with Eric, that he is "heaven-sent" to her. BTW, did anybody notice Eric's look of bewilderment and slight concern when he finally awoke to see Stephanie there? That was a very ambiguous moment. Bell has done this before -- distracted us with the sap before blindsiding us with something unexpectedly sharp or cruel. Perhaps an increasingly deluded Stephanie is the end game here, not Eric's miraculous return from a coma.

B&B has always tended towards the sappy (Brad Bell's unusual touch, given that he also loves the provocative and the ambiguous). And this was no exception at the end with the sobbing siblings.

BTW, I get the feeling that Kay Alden is auditioning for HW of GH with all these medical SLs. Seriously. Given that Guza often mentions B&B in his interviews disparagingly as its ratings competitor, I'm just wondering if KA is trying to get Frons's attention.

[MarkH]

Okay, I may watch again, given this analysis, and see if I can find the good stuff you are mentioning. I may need to clothespin my nose.

Medical stories on GH? Uh uh. You must be confusing that with GH: Night Shift (which is pretty dang good, IMO). GH is about love in wartime. I am seriously waiting for them to rename the show GH (just the initials, kind of like KFC doesn't want you to know it is Kentucky FRIED chicken, or AARP doesn't want you to know RETIRED PEOPLE are part of the organization).

Night Shift, on the other hand...I could seriously watch that every week. I'm genuinely interested on a week by week basis to see how that story continues. The Tuesday-late-night doesn't work for me...but Saturday at 6 am sure does!