Another Life

[dc11786]

I'm up to 300. About 12 episodes left of the Barnes. 

The development of the Prescott family has been the big event in the last few months of episodes I've watched. Jerry Timms as Gil is a nice addition as the show's new young stud. I like when the villains start out as deeply human and just generally flawed individuals like Gil, and early Nancy. Something the show does well is the sorta low level conflict that can generate with things like Gil's carefree playboy "life of the party" lifestyle interfering in the day to day happenings of him and his family. Gil is a shameless flirt and orders a beer or three when he is on lunch from the construction site. I think the conflict between himself and his father, Jason, is compelling even if I'm not sold on Read Morgan. If Morgan was a local talent, I think I might be more generous, but Morgan had a bit of primetime credits I believe. Jason, like Gil, isn't a one woman man so the internal conflict within the Prescott clan is ripe for drama. Yet, there are definitely flaws. Gil's relationships with Sheila Carter, a recast Vicki Lang, and Deena Greely seem to unattached to the larger story that I am not invested. Donna Denton isn't bad as Deena, but she lacks a bit of presence to carry the story in Mitch Dunbar's absence; she is now Mitch's law partner.

Gil's flirtation with a married Lori was interesting and appeared to be done to build conflict between Gil and Russ, who seems to be heading in Renee Crawford's Marianne Prescott's direction now that Becky is out the door. Crawford slides right into the role of Lori's friend and Russ' love interest well even if Becky was (at least in the pre-Barnes) episodes more compelling as a woman who had deeper flaws than Marianne. Marianne's inner conflict has some legs if it goes anywhere. With her mother Corrine's passing, Marianne has assumed the mantle of the woman in her father's life and defacto mother to her restless, reckless brother Gil. At present, Marianne is putting her graphic design dreams on hold to work at Prescott Development, sacrificing her own desires for the "greater good" fo the Prescott men.

I feel like Marianne is the kind of girl that Carrie Weaver will love and unintentionally terrorize with her overbearing, nearly incestual love for her son, Russ. If Chris Auer hadn't jumped ship to the writing team (his scripts are strong so I'm not mad), I would have liked to seen Francis pining for Marianne to complete the assumption of Becky's role in the lives of the men Becky knew (and who loved her). 

The complete revision of the Vicki character with the recast and pairing her with Gil is odd. It is basically a new character. Laura Leigh Taylor's Vicki was more conservative and business focused while the new Vicki is more outgoing and lively. I don't hate the new actress but it's such a dramatic shift in characterization and I'm not clear why. I know a later character (Stacey Phillips) assumes the characterization of Taylor's Vicki Lang, but I don't think that occurs until a few months into Jason Vining's work. I also just cannot see Taylor's Vicki giving Gil the time of day when she constantly rejected Peter. 

The quad between newly arrived developer Jason Prescott, recently widowed Terry, Terry's old friend Dr. Alex Greely, and Jason's corporate attorney Sharon Landers is equally weak. Alex comes off as desperate. Robert Burchette is more than serviceable in the role of friend and the lovelorn colleague, but Alex's jealousy of Jason doesn't work for me. I don't get the sense the friendship has run that deep, but maybe it does for Alex. The actress playing Sharon lacks the bravado to sell Sharon as this shark who kills it in the boardroom and could tear apart the moral Terry. I like that Jason's relationships with Terry and Sharon echo Gil's own bad boy behavior that Jason constantly chatisizes Gil for, but I do wish there was some angle here to root for other than praying that Terry decides to enter the convent. 

As I was reflecting on the Prescotts, I can see why Vining makes some of the changes he does. Jason isn't a bad character, but Read Morgan doesn't work in the role. Recasting probably would have worked given the show's large canvas involved in the city planning of Kingsley from the political and business angles, but as the show delves deeper into the criminal underworld, I can see why Jason was just dropped. Also, it would have been more interesting if Jason's wife wasn't dead, but had divorced him ages ago and was living in abroad to pop up as a conflict down the line, which is ultimately what happened with Dave and Kate Phillips. On a side note, Dave has been offscreen for most of the tailend of the Barnes run reconciling with his either estranged or ex-wife, I cannot remember which. 

The Prescott Development stories are bizarre. You have the antics of Gil slowly turning Peter to the dark side (a story that would have worked better with Nancy as the devil on Peter's shoulder) which is obviously built to give conflict between Jason and Terry. Simiarly, Gil's romance of Alex's niece Deena seems to set up animosity between Jason and Alex over their child and defacto child. I just cannot invest in Terry and Jason. Not that I want Alex and Terry, but Jason is just not working for me. I get we are going for the gruff widower who works in construction with a strong belief in the Lord, but I just don't think Jason projects the image of romantic lead. It's reminiscent of Bert Kramer as Alex Wheeler for me. 

The story the Cavalares family is insane. Dom Cavalares is the drunk single father of teenage Donna. Donna is friends with Jill and they smoke some weed together before Donna ends up being taken into the Cummings home because when her father gets drunk he gets physically abusive. The scene of a drunk Dom breaking into the Cummings' home and attacking Donna is wild. It is a terrifying sequence where Dom comes in raging to get his daughter back with the Cummings' girls (Liz, Jenny, and Jill) and Donna present before Jeff comes in and gets knocked out by Dom. I think it ends with Donna being dragged away. I cannot imagine any show doing that in the past two decades. 

In some ways, I suspect that the Barnes might have dusted off Roy Winsor's projection for the Jeff Cummings story and used them as the inspiration. When Jason learns Dom is a drunk, Dom ends up going to AA, which was the original story direction before Jeff was saved by the light. The bookstore angle quickly faded before being shifted to Jill to give her something to do. The set up for the Cummings' turning their home into a halfway house was probably the spinoff idea. I don't think its terrible, but it's not working in the larger scale of the show's canvas. I appreicate the attempts to rectify the Jeff story by having Dom turn to AA (offscreen), but I would have liked it more if we actually saw some more regret from Jeff over what he had done.

Beth Slaymaker's role in this story is intriguing. As the judge handling Donna and Dom's situation, it is clear that she has a bit of sympathy for Dom that she might not have had if she hadn't given up Jill when she was younger. 

The Jill-Peter romantic angle never developed the way I expected it to. Jill's "transformation" leading to more interest from both Gary and Peter feels dated by modern standards, but was probably a popular trope for the time. I think Jill has stopped appearing now that Beth has bought her the book store. I cannot say I am sorry to see her go because I don't think they knew what to do with her. Jill was such an abrasive character who I didn't like as a person, but who made sense. She was just exhausting in larger doses. Seidman was much more appealing as Jill's persona softened. 

The Redlons reunion has been odd. I don't remember if it was earlier and included in my last post, but Carla nearly runs off with Jimmy in a sequence that is very well done and tense. I don't think Carla and Gene work completely. Both actors are wonderful, but I don't like how they play the duo. Carla's career should have her being pulled in directions (which it does, at times) but I think its such an odd choice to play this story in isolation of the Russ-Becky marriage. Gene's political career isn't my favorite story, either, but that's more because I don't care for Jason.

I'll do a separate post later about the Carpenters with Nancy and the end of Becky and Russ' marriage. 

[dc11786]

Reviewing the Barnes period, the strongest story was always the Carpenters and Nancy. Nancy dragging Miriam further and further down the path of her drug addiction was compelling and not something I think we would have seen on network at the time. Nowadays, Nancy doing this to Miriam would probably be followed up by Nancy's sins quickly being forgotten. The climax of the story has Miriam at Kingsley General detoxing while Nancy decides to bring Miriam some more barbituates in the hospital while goading Miriam into taking them by revealing that Charles wants nothing to do with her. Nancy is such a vile creature, but Nancy Mulvey keeps her compelling playing moments of pain to remind us that Nancy's upbringing deeply shaped the person she is today. Miriam's resulting overdose leads to some investigation and things seem to be closing in on Nancy as Miriam remembers the truth and Charles decides to dump Nancy having learned that Nancy has been manipulating him in regards to Miriam. Charles ejects Nancy from his home, but during the exit, Nancy takes a nasty fall down the stairs and ends up in the hospital. 

The story has now broken into two pieces: (a) Nancy's paralysis and (b) Miriam's new life as a Christian. Miriam's story is compelling. She has embraced friendship from the Davidsons who have supported her during her addiction crisis even while Nancy was trying to convince Charles to lock her away. There are some very nice scenes with Miriam and Lori Martin, who Miriam previously had accused of sleeping with Miriam's then husband, Paul. The Miriam-Lori friendship reminds me of Lori-Becky after the accident when everything came to light. I find Jeanette Larson very compelling as Lori. Terry's concern for Miriam helps cement her for me as one of the show's leading matriarchs. Though, the show's real matriarch seems to be emerging at this point. 

Through her friendship with the Davidson clan, Miriam has become associated with Ione Redlon, Gene's mother, who has recently purchased a home back in the Chesterfield neighborhood after leaving years ago. Ione's son Gene has reunited with his wife, Carla, so Gene, Carla, and their son Jimmy are moving into Nora Lindsay's house to start another life together. With so many empty rooms, Ione has offered room and board to Miriam. Miriam affectionately refers to Ione as Mama, at Ione's insistence, and Ione cares for Miriam with tough love. For Miriam, who's own mother Helen is still living in parts unknown, this relationship helps to ground her and bring her back down to reality. Miriam is now taken a position in the planning and development office and seems to have her own life starting. 

Nancy's paralysis may be not as serious as Nancy claims because the doctors seem to be unable to detect the major problem. Charles has taken Nancy back to his home and promises to marry her while hiring male nurse, Tab Baron, to help her recuperate. If I was paying attention close enough, Tab is the last new character introduced by the Barnes, but there seems to be some set up in these last weeks that makes me wonder if the origins weren't part of Jason Vining's first set of long story. Tab has a shady past having been accused of blackmailing female patients at one of his previous hospitals, where he worked with Terry. Terry tries to warn Nancy, but she won't listen. 

Terry and Nancy reconcile after the accident and its suggested that Nancy has turned over a new leaf, but it would make sense that this was a scam. In one of the last twists of fate that the Barnes loved, the house that was the centerpiece of the legal battle for several months does in fact belong, in part to Nancy, willed to her by her late father. And another round of fighting is set to begin. 

The end of Becky and Russ wasn't my favorite story mostly because once the story shifted to New York it lost a lot of steam. Carrie Weaver was such a nasty piece of work that I miss her meddling and did appreciate she was the one to deliver a classic Barnes deus ex machina revealing that the justice of the peace who married Becky and Russ wasn't licensed so they weren't legally married. Followed by another low level barely touched on revelation, Becky's New York manager who had been wining and dining her for months acting like a big shot was in fact just fronting and that Becky is his first and only success. 

There was something lost by removing Becky from the canvas even if Marianne fills a good number of the missing pieces well. I think Becky was such a richly complicated young woman in late 1981 that it is a mixed bag having her achieve success in New York by June, 1982. While I am mostly happy for her, I am not sure her sacrifices were worth it. It was really a missed opportunity not to connect any of Becky's story to Carla's. Russ and Sheila never really worked for me, but I was happy they finally revealed that Sheila was well aware that Russ was married, or "married?" I guess. Sheila seems to be a casualty of the transition into Vining's work and I am not upset at all. 

I know Vining commented that the Barnes' had too many minor characters so he cut back on them. I think this is why Beth Slaymaker and Jill Hanson are out with the Cummings having already announced their intended departure with Jeff taking courses to be a counselor. I think the Cavalares father-daughter duo are also out. I wouldn't be surprised if we never see Gary Taylor (Peter's buddy from the construction site) or Sharon Landers (Jason's attorney side chick) ever again.

Another pleasant surprise has been Babs Farley, who was always cited as a bright spot. Others weren't wrong. Julie Jenney is great at cracking jokes as she is at engaging in dramatic moments. Babs' decision to leave behind her past as a prostitute and start over is a nice side story. Babs' recounting to Harold Webster running into an old high school classmate was a heart breaking moment. Babs has landed herself in the hospital after (offscreen) telling her pimp Ronnie she is leaving the life. Babs and Harold are like more well developed Brooke Bellamy and Sgt. Brubaker. Ione  has agreed to takeit Babs which should lead to some good day to day material for Miriam, Babs and Ione. 

One things that bothered me a bit during the Barnes' period was the treatment of Chesterfield, the side of town that is associated with the African American community. All the coding is so negative. Lori was upset that Ben was setting up a clinic there and then Ben was upset that Lori was working there. The references to Miriam livng with Ione in Chesterfield are definitely discriminatory. I do appreciate that Lori's stalker story (which is nicely being shaped) seems to be subverting the tropes by allowing people to think its Lori's students behind it when it will turn out to be someone else. 

 

[dc11786]

Up to episode 340.

Jason Vinley has been at the helm for just under around a month and has quickly whipped the show into shape. He has made many smart cuts to the show's large canvas including writing out Jason Prescott, Deena Greely, the Cummings family, and phasing out Carla Redlon. Carla and Gene's failing marriage is an interesting idea, but I'm not always overjoyed by the execution. Elain Graham comes back later and another actress plays the part for a bit. I'm not really sure the angle they are going here, but it's probably one of the only decisions I am not too thrilled with. 

Vineley has narrowed the canvas into several stories and allowing events to spider out and impact a series of people. The stalking of Lori Martin has climaxed into the revelation that Blue Knowles, the Cinderella Rapist, has been follwoing Lori for weeks on end. The build to this with a group of different men being around Lori at the time of the incidents is very low key and allows the viewer to draw their own conclusion even though we can also see the man in the sun glasses. Lori's attack on her final night at the Monroe School is a compelling action sequence playing out parallel with a much smaller scale heist in the school by two of Lori's pupils. The end where Blue traps her in the classroom and Ben stumbles upon her lifeless body is wildly engaging for a show that has rarely been able to tell a story without having a deus ex machina style ending. 

The fallout is equally compelling. Ben was stabbed in the hand in a fight with Blue which leaves the ability to use his hand in jeopardy. Peter, who was suppose to pick Lori up if Ben couldn't, feels guilty because he was out with older woman Vicki Lang at the Greenbriar and later back at her place where she attempted to coerce him into bed. Placing both Davidson children in sexually suggestive situationsthat the same time was an interesting choice. With the identity of the rapist unknown to the canvas, Gil Prescott suggests to his sister Marianne that her boyfriend Russ Weaver might be the rapist, which seems both logical and calculated on Gil's part. 

Episode 340 is just very intense and high interest viewing from beginning to end as the story spirals in several directions for several characters. There is a really nice moment with Ione and Gene Redlon visiting Terry at the hospital that cements the ties between the two families. Gene later comments to his mother wondering how a man can become a monster. Later, Terry talks to a catatonic Lori that she is both relieved Scott isn't here and deeply missing his presence. Comparing this sequence of Lori in the hospital to the year prior when Lori was also in the hospital is night and day. The show is tight. The balance of religion and drama is perfectly balanced and comes off less as preachy and more as deeper characterization. When Gil attacks Marianne's faith after Lori's attempted rape, Marianne delves further into what trily turned Gil away from God, Corrine Prescott's painful demise at the hand of cigarette induced lung cancer. 

In 341, the show has changed the opening and reflects the show's new era is a nice symbolic move. I appreciate that Vinley also maintains the rich canvas of side characters (offscreen) with references to Jill, Gary, and others who have come and gone while building up what is to come with references to Ronnie Washington and Hugo Lancelot. I am looking forward to the next year or so of episodes.  

[Khan]

Thanks, @dc11786, for that write-up.  From the way you've described everything, it DOES sound as if Jason Vinley was whipping the show into shape, understanding that you might convert more viewers out there with solid storytelling than you would with flat-out preaching.

[SoapDope78]

I wonder why Jerry Timm left AL?  He pretty much spent most of his career doing cigarette ads etc.. I saw he died in a car accident in 2005 and was still living in Virgina Beach where they filmed AL. Peggy Smitheart did a lot of commercials and a few short lived series. She reminded me a bit of Deborah Adair.