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.