OLTL: Discussion for the week November 10-14, 2008

[Cheap21]

And to think Tess was bad; but this Bess twist is just plain horrible. Bree W isnt selling this new alter for me. She looks bored and her acting is dry. I think she's playing it like that bc Bess is supposed to be emotionless, but Erika Slezak could play Jean emotionless and not come off as stiff. She had fire in her and didnt look like she was literally just reading lines. I hope this Bess stuff doesnt last long bc Id rather see her play Tess. Bree as Bess is cringeworthy

[rangethatrover]

Rhinohide- Let's just agree to disagree. And let me say that I loathe Melissa Archer's acting. Not the human being.

I just didn't particularly like the "It sounds personal" stuff when you have Melissa Archer's picture in your avatar.

That seems more personal to me.

We disagree on Susan Haskell (Acturally I alot of people do not like her ) I always loved her even in 1993. She is not for everyone.

And yeah, I have been vocal about members of OLTL's cast. In my opinion, in good times and in bad, OLTL had a consistently great cast. I think that has changed in the last 10 years.

[rangethatrover]

Ahem. I am getting a reputation as a bastard in these parts.

But its too late to turn back now! Cheap21 I agree with every sentence.

Carlivati wants to repeat every storyline of the shows heyday with those character's

younger modern day counterparts.

Tina over the falls/ Sarah over the falls

Viki/Niki/Jean- Jessica/Tessica/Bessica

Starr's babyswitch/ Gabrielle's babyswitch

What he doesn't get is that the modern day counterparts lack the charisma and the talent of the folks who performed these storylines originally.

These current stories not only feel old- but it kind of taints the memories of the originals- and it also makes it even more apparent how GOOD the show used to be.

+ducks head++

[Cheap21]

dont forget the dreadful 1968 storyline being a ripoff of the 1888 one

[rangethatrover]

DAMN YOU CHEAP!!! A certain performance popped into my head from that storyline that was like watching my high school plays!!

Well hmmmmm... 1968 would have been fine if it lasted for a week.

And once again, if the actors would have been better playing the characters-

Frankly, it would have been more believable having 70 year old Barbara Luna return to play the 18 year old Maria Roberts rather then the gal they stuck a black wig on and said "Do your best Mexican accent!"

It was like watching a trainwreck.

[rhinohide]

No problem. For clarification purposes, that's not MA's pic in my Avatar. It's Natalie Buchanan. LOL. She is my favorite character, but I have never had a problem admitting that MA can be spotty, as can every performer in my opinion.

On to other topics:

I do think SH has been very good these last couple of episodes. MY problem is I lost all sympathy for Marty long ago. To my way of thinking, she wasn't lured into this or held hostage. She was a willing coconspirator. Everytime Todd gently dissuaded her from looking into her past, my interest in this story declined by exponential factors (now I sound like Bess -- the mathmatician). I just thought she was an idiot every step of the way, so I don't care that she was duped. That's what makes it so hard for me to feel any outrage over what Todd has done, and I find any comparison between this story and the original rape to be patently absurd. And SH's portrayal of Marty as Snow White, almost replete with butterflies and bluebirds flying around and resting on her shoulders and in her hair, didn't help matters. Until these last few episodes I found her performances amazingly absent any form of nuance.

I feel sorry for Tina. She's going to have the wrath of everyone heaped upon her head, and she's the ONLY one who tried to do anything to help Natalie and Jared. Viki ignorantly traipsed off to Africa, Clint was notably absent and clueless. Poor Tina, who is ill equipped to deal with this stuff at best, was left handle this family crisis virtually on her own. Granted she could have done more, and her reasons for not coming clean were selfish, but at least she tried to guide Jared in the right direction, and she did drop hints here and there, and several times she fully intended to rescue Natalie but Tess managed to threaten her and convince her otherwise. And she felt bad about it the whole time. LOL. Todd's role in the whole Tess fiasco will be brushed aside because his sins against Marty will overshadow him allowing Tess to almost kill Natalie and Jared, and risk her baby's health and Jessica's mental health. I suspect his role in keeping Tess's secret may not ever even come to light, because it would just muddy the waters in this whole Marty debacle.

[rangethatrover]

I feel sorry for Tina. She's going to have the wrath of everyone heaped upon her head, and she's the ONLY one who tried to do anything to help Natalie and Jared. Viki ignorantly traipsed off to Africa, Clint was notably absent and clueless. Poor Tina, who is ill equipped to deal with this stuff at best, was left handle this family crisis virtually on her own. Granted she could have done more, and her reasons for not coming clean were selfish, but at least she tried to guide Jared in the right direction, and she did drop hints here and there, and several times she fully intended to rescue Natalie but Tess managed to threaten her and convince her otherwise. And she felt bad about it the whole time. LOL. Todd's role in the whole Tess fiasco will be brushed aside because his sins against Marty will overshadow him allowing Tess to almost kill Natalie and Jared, and risk her baby's health and Jessica's mental health. I suspect his role in keeping Tess's secret may not ever even come to light, because it would just muddy the waters in this whole Marty debacle.

That's all I could think today is that TINA IS IN TROUBLE!!! Just like the old days.

And I realized it totally sucks because she is only on another 2-3 weeks...

So I am looking forward to see Tina (and AE) get herself out of this..

I will miss AE alot. (Another actress whom alot of people hate. "She is SO campy, so 80's She's just playing Rebecca!"

To those people I say: Tina was not attempting to be Rebecca- Rebecca was attempting to play Tina!

PUH-LEEZE. Tina was an icon in her day. Rebecca who?

Whatever! I LOVE HER!!!

[rhinohide]

Well disparate acting talent aside, sequels rarely are as popular and well received as the originals no matter what. I am no Bree fan, but I think it is a recipe for failure to set up anyone to virtually recreate a successful story from the past. In the first place, I think we tend to glorify the stories from the golden years. When I go back and look at youtube clips, I am not awestruck by these so-called virtuoso performances. Then there is the whole sequel thing.

[rangethatrover]

Oh my god. lol. What a shocker Rhino- When I watch Youtube I AM awestuck at how good the show was.

WITH THE EXCEPTION of Eterna. Which I loved at the time.

And yes, I agree the whole redux/sequel thing that Ron is so fond of- is very risky and pretty much destined to fail. Unless you are a post 1997 newer viewer..

[Angela]

I watched today.

I enjoyed Marcie/Blair/Starr. KA is impressing the sh*t out of me. The rest of the show feels so uncomfortable to me, but the M/B/S scenes have been just good soap. There were a lot of emotions played between these women today and yesterday.

Bess plays even stupider than it read and that's impressive.

I'm meh on the whole Todd/Marty/John thing, I underestimated how foul the sex would make that story for me.

[Dale]

WOW! I thought today's show (Tues) was awesome. It was very dark (which I love) and I can't fault any in any of the performances. Susan Haskell finally got to act, and I was impressed with Kassie DePaiva's sensitive subtlety. I don't care what all the naysayers comments are on the Todd/Marty sex situation and Bess/Tess/Jess...I am glued to the screen right now!

[evermore]

Great show today! What a relief to finally see Todd on the hotseat... Susan Haskell was fantastic, and so were the actesses playing Dr. Joplin and Janet/Lee Halpern. I'd love to see more of those two.

thank god Bess is gone; Bree Williamson seemed to be having fun in a lot of the Tess scenes these last few months, but she did an awful job as Bess (seeing Erika play Jean Randolph last week only served to show how unconvincing Bree's Bess was).

I agree that the show has got to stop with all the DID... enough is enough.

I was surprised at all the Melissa Archer hate, but when I think about it she really isn't a very good actress. I like the character of Natalie, so I don't notice MA's bad acting as much. but I know how you feel, rangethatrover, because over the years there have been other actors/actresses & characters I've hated every time they've been on screen... Sam Rapaport, Jen Rapaport, Will Rapaport, Ben Davidson, Christian & Antonio Vega... in each of those cases, I didn't really care for the character or the awful actor(s) playing them, which made it doubly difficult to watch them. And I'm sure there are other fans who liked some or all of those actors & characters, and who probably disliked some of my favorites.

[Toups]

I think DID/Baby switches and OLTL go hand-in-hand. Hasn't it been part of the shows history for the past 25 years or so.

[miajere]

I have a hard time feeling sorry for Marty as well.... RC seems to always leave out the female intuition that use to drive most women centered stories of the 90's and 80's. Just by asking more questions, wanting to see old family or friends (don't tell me I don't have any), she could have earned my respect as suspicious. She just seemed so content on sitting in that house with him, like a little ol' housewife...Which would have been fine if they established her with some version of Stockholm syndrome- but without the truth- no abuse is occurring. Displaying the female intuition can go a long way.

[rhinohide]

Thanks! I felt so alone.

Here is a link to a blog that really sums it up for me better than I can myself.

Let's Talk Tarty

The only part I disagreed with was this.

I think SH did a fabulous job of playing the brain damaged village idiot. Christina Chambers' Marty was never this stupid even as she was succumbing to blackmail to save herself from prosecution for a murder (that incidentally she never committed) and then turned on a dime and insisted, in spite of all the reasonable explanations to the contrary and the fact that she couldn't actually remember killing the guy, that she did commit this murder and she must be punished and go to prison for it. I remember at the time thinking there was never a more idiotic human being ever created . . . until this version of Marty.

I have always been slightly indifferent to the character of Marty the Martyr, but between Higley/Chambers Marty and this most recent variation on the character, she's been destroyed. I'm afraid my apathy is carved in stone, and hereafter, Marty is so useless, she has no right to consume oxygen that might sustain higher life forms, like . . . amoeba.