Nelson Branco Interviews former HW (OLTL) Michael Malone

[ljacks13]

http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/Shame+and+...e_NB.htm?isfa=1

[Sylph]

OMG! Can't wait to read this!

[Vee]

Michael Malone, for all his flaws, genuinely loves OLTL just as much as Ron Carlivati and is always a great interview. His problem is for all of his brilliant mind and ideas, without a proper story editor or EP he can fail easily. You could see traces, snatches of great ideas or very beautiful, soaring artsy concepts in his second run but they failed to come together, or the characters would mouth slogans about those ideas without having a cohesive whole or substance behind it, or at least not the substance Malone might intend. Also, I'm sure his Santi story for Antonio, discovering he was a kind of "lost prince," sounded great to MM in his head, and probably sounded great on paper. But what he forgot was that the fans hated Antonio at the time, and the way he executed it was totally OTT - you could do it in a book, on TV it came off laughable. Same thing happened with his terrible Mitch Laurence story. What Malone desperately needs is a focus, a channeling force that sends his work in controlled directions and builds it properly. He had that in the '90s, he didn't have it five years ago.

I greatly prefer RC's run to MM's last, but they could do far worse than to let him consult. And I appreciate that Malone did not let Branco use him to damn RC the way Nelson wanted for not inviting him to a party.

[Sylph]

BOOM!

[Vee]

As usual, dear, you have all the attention span of a gnat. Picking and choosing quotes, sifting through Malone's comments negates the point of what he said: Marty will obviously remember, and he thinks RC has a plan. So do I. It would be one thing if Marty never remembers and stays with Todd. That's not going to happen.

Personally, I wish he'd talked a lot more about his second run and all the unrealized stories. But Nelson had an axe to grind.

[marceline]

Interesting on a lot of levels. He was VERY diplomatic. I'd really love to read an interview with him done by somebody...let's just say somebody else.

I don't blame him for giving up on soaps entirely. I still hope that one day he'll try something like a web series.

[Sylph]

Presumably is a very telling word.

Carlivati is a hack. Terrible writer. There you go.

No one is saying she won't remember, we're saying he writes it cr*ppily.

[Vee]

MM actually said the exact opposite of that. Do you need me to quote it?

You are one sad, desperate little man.

[MarkH]

The interviewee had lots of great responses. I like the "team" concept he repeatedly emphasized, including his "soap mentor" (Josh Griffith) and his "blocking guard" (EP Linda Gottlieb). What else could prove so clearly that it is the TEAM, not individuals, that matter.

But, the "erasure" of the trauma of the past is clearly TEMPORARY. That seems obvious. This is clearly just a ploy to build an EXPLOSIVE moment in the future. I like that...for Todd...it shows he always "one step forward, two back" in his evolution.

I also like that this plot is morally ambivalent...because the two characters ARE connecting. It shows "what might have been", which infuses the tale with more poignancy...because of the inevitable end.

At the same time, it builds a new connection between Todd and Marty so that--WHATEVER their future antipathy--they cannot extinguish that they also found some common ground. The resulting relationship will be complex, ugly, amorphous, hard to read...isn't that a good foundation for years of drama?

[Sylph]

No he didn't.

[Vee]

Todd and Marty have had common ground before when she knew who she was and what he was to her. The only reason they have this ground is because she has brain damage and he is using her as a salve for his own trauma. I wouldn't want them to approach each other afterwards like, "well, we did have a nice time..." If anything, what he has done here should eradicate all sympathy or empathy she has previously been able to display for Todd post-rape. That should be gone for a very long time, if not forever.

[Sylph]

It is cheap, predictable, lazy and offensive.

[MarkH]

Well, I'm a Y&R boy, so in the golden years, Jill and Kay loved and hated. The love was very deep...hidden...but it was what clearly drew them back together again and again.

My hope is that, at some level, the result is: She has some good feeling for him IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING. Of course she has to bury this, and be outraged, and erase all sympathy. But deeper, just deeper, I hope she always also remembers that connection.

I KNOW this is "sick"...but a sick relationship is honestly the very best thing when done right. (Think Mason & CC on Santa Barbara).

[Vee]

Well, we can parse this stuff to death to look for phantoms of hidden indictments of RC, Sylph, or we can take the man at his word:

My mistake! He really tore him apart!

MM is uncertain like the rest of us, but he also knows RC better than the rest of us. So he's saying, wait.

[MarkH]

I am breathless. Breathless! Complex relationships, mixtures of love and hate, are "cheap...offensive"??

Oh well, I also like many retcons. So I'm just a loser .