The "New" AMC - Part 1 and Part 2

[marlenadlc]

From veteran soap critic Marlena De Lacroix, whose favorite soap was always All Children....until the 'reign' of the awful Megan McTavish:

" A few weeks ago I realized I was receiving one of my best ever Christmas presents. I was watching All My Children and I realized, after twelve long miserable years out in the cold, I finally want to watch my old favorite show regularly again......"

"Slowly — since October, as new headwriter Charles Pratt made his way through the introductory tornado stunt and into everyday scripts — it seems as if the fog of stupidity is finally lifting from Pine Valley"

This is Part 1 of a two part column. Part 2, "Finding the Heart of Pine Valley" goes up on Friday.

http://www.marlenadelacroix.com

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In Part 2 of The New All My Children. veteran soap critic Marlena De Lacroix searches for and finds not one but three hearts of Pine Valley (including Myrtle, whose life was celebrated on today's episode).

And she wonders how long new headwriter Charles Pratt can keep up his good work and credibility being moored to that chauvinistic hellhole, ABC Daytime.

http://www.marlenadelacroix.com

[dragonflies]

One time I actually don't agree with you. The stupidity is there in full force. The spermgate storyline is idiotic.

Where's the so called "ground breaking storyline" for Reese/Bianca that has been talked about? Cause I sure ain't seeing it.

The Jesse/Rebecca stuff is dumb. I mean are we to believe Jesse let the love of his life believe he was dead, then months later was boinking Rebecca and knocked her up?

Rylee, well that speaks for itself

and so on............

[Kubla Khan]

I know that your perfect version of AMC includes Zach and Kendall making blissful love to each other for an entire episode, for all episodes, while they blask in the glory of their drama-free lives, giving the cult of Zendall plenty of new material to use for their YouTube edits.

Sorry to disappoint you and your idealistic take on life, but this is a soap opera. Love is complicated. Jesse couldn't be with Angie, believed he could never be with her again, was lost, and had a nervous breakdown. He met Rebecca who took care of him. They connected and they had sex a - physical act.. That doesn't mean that he doesn't love Angie any less, or didn't yearn to be with her any less.

Of course you're not seeing it, because you've been against Reese since she even walked on the show. You only have eyes for Zendall and their blissful (gag!) life together. An ENGAGED lesbian couple raising two children together -- IN THE COUNTRY'S CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE -- is a groundbreaking story. A harpy, naggy shrew's grand love story with her casino-owning husband desperately in need of anger management courses is not a groundbreaking story. See the difference?

[Adam]

^Wow word. No AMC is not perfect.... but it is once again an entertaining hour in my day.... I mean at least now if not much story movement is going on I can rely on good well written (for the most part) character interactions.

I value Marlena's opinion here because I know how much she loves this show. If its back for her, they are doing something right.

Great article Marlena!

[marceline]

I don't think it's dumb but it was badly written where the timeline is concerned. I doesn't make any sense that Jesse is Natalia's father. I'm assuming Pratt didn't go with a more reasonable timeline because that would've made Natalia the same age as Cassandra. But I think this would've gone down a lot easier if Natalia were Rebecca's child by another man and Jesse fell into this ready made family a few YEARS after leaving PV and he became a father figure to Natalia giving her all the love he couldn't give Frankie.

But to the larger subject, I've said this before I generally like what I think Pratt wants to do but I find his execution flawed. I'm not sure however if those flaws are the fault of Pratt or Frons. IMO, the show is lacking a depth. I consider that Pratt's weakness. But he's brought back a modern sensibility that I enjoy. There's nods to history such as Bianca's convo about Sarah today but the show isn't stuck in the past. That means a lot to me.

Unfortunately the things like the continued presence of Ryan, Zach acting like a caveman, and David acting like Amanda's pimp and Krystal's roofie rapist, I consider that Frons. ABCD hates women.

Bottom line, I'm liking AMC but I'll walk away in a second if they give me a reason.

[leevo64]

The only story I have been enjoying as of late is the Hubbards. I love that Jesse and Angie are going through this stuff and that Jesse really is to blame for much of the turmoil. I also really like the addition of Natalia to the crew. She's a very good actress and works well with her co-stars.

Pratt's AMC is getting a C+ from me right now. He gets points for the Hubbards, a few for the Bianca/Reese story and one point for working wonders with Annie. He loses points, though, making Krystal into a weepy victim, forcing JR into a new romance with Amanda before Babe is even underground, dropping Carmen as Erica's good friend and taking on Randi as her new protege, backburnering Tad, and ruining Aidan. He needs to fix these things. The show lacks a heart right now; everything is plot.

[PAsoapfan]

OMG I so want to marry this post.

Thanks so much KK for telling ZF like it is.

[Faulkner]

ICAM. And David is treading too close to that dangerous "supervillain" terrain (i.e. Spencer on OLTL) for me. Talk about overexposed and overextended. And Zach and Ryan are just infuriating. I'd like to see both of them killed.

I am happy to watch AMC these days, I must say. Probably for the first time since Broderick's last headwriting stint. It's certainly not as cutesy and glib as it was during the past decade. People seem to actually talk to each other instead of spouting hip, market-tested cultural references and lame attempts to be like every hot show on TV (like Sex and the City and Gilmore Girls). The show is much more grounded in a recognizable reality these days.

And I'm delighted with Bianca/Reese. I am starting to have a big lesbian crush on Tamara Braun (even though I'm a gay man).

[SteveFrame]

I don't understand some of the complaints about AMC right now. I try too, but they are hard for me to rationalize in my mind.

I know so many hate Ryan, but Ryan has been a big part of AMC for several years now. Despite the hate for some, he has his fans out there. For Pratt to come on and suddenly get rid of Ryan would be a big jolt. At least I see Pratt trying to fix a lot of the stuff that has been wrong with Ryan. I give him big points for that. Ryan has been taking credit for things he did wrong. And he is trying to evolve.

So many of us have hated the who sextette for so long now - I being chief in them. But even I realize that the sextette has been AMC for several years. They need to be integrated and they can work. That is what Pratt is doing and as much as I hate them I can appreciate what Pratt is doing. He is trying to change AMC slowly and not jolting fans too much and change the whole structure of the show as McTavish and B&E did.

B&E hadn't even been there long and AMC turned into a big gloomy sad hour of television that you needed a healthy dose of Prozac before you could watch. And then it turned into the sextette show.

McTavish came on with a mission to make right the wrongs against her. She brought back many of the characters she created and tried to fix what Broderick and others had done - in particular killing off Trevor because she was always against Janet and Trevor. She changed history and filled the show with baby stories.

I agree with everything that Marlena says here. AMC is not perfect but it is a well rounded show and as Adam said it is an hour of my day that I thoroughly enjoy again. There are wonderful character interactions. Some characters that have dominated the story for so long are now integrated and the show feels like an ensemble again. Many characters that were isolated are integrated into story.

And as to the Carmen thing. I never cared one iota for that character and there is no way I could ever be upset about her being gone. I never bought the sudden BFF story that was created for them. It sucked a big one. And the character sucked an even bigger one.

AMC right now represents life again with all of it's struggles, hardships, fun and it is a reminder everyday of what life can be. I love Krystal more than I have ever loved her before. Babe was her whole life for so long - to think that a loss like that would not affect her and change her would be wrong. I am glad to see that Pratt is not letting it be washed away. he is dealing with it. And hopefully in the end Krystal will come out a better person.

Thanks Marlena for a wonderful column and for summing up so wonderfully many of my thoughts too.

[Vee]

Despite Tarty, OLTL is still better.

[xtr]

I am a Ryan fan. In spite of his faults and the stuff that he's done, I love his character. There aren't a lot of us on the various online soap communities, but you're right he does have fans out there. I would miss him if Pratt got rid of him, and he has been a big part of AMC for some time now. He's been on the show for ten years, and he has a good amount of history. I also think that Pratt is trying to fix some of the problems Ryan has. He does have him taking more credit for stuff that he does wrong, and I also feel like he is trying to evolve.

I think that if Pratt keeps letting his character evolve, by having him continue to do some of the stuff that he is doing now, and have him stop falling in love every five minutes, and maybe have him single for a while, or at least let his next romance go slow and build up in a believable way,the character will be a lot better off. I unlike a lot people don't feel like Ryan has been destroyed, I feel like his character can be quite fine, if he was written better. IMO, he's not the worst character on the show or even one of the worst.

I don't like the sextet either but I am glad that Pratt has broken them up some and is letting them interact with other characters. I am glad that he pulled Zendall out of the sextet, and I think that the way he has Annie/Aidan/Greenlee and Ryan interacting with each other is better than when B&E had all of the sextet attached to each other.

Overall, I really like what Pratt has done with the show. I don't like the Zach/Bianca/baby storyline, and a few things and characters here and there, but I do like most of the storylines on the show. I love the Hubbards and overall I am enjoying their storyline. There are a few thing that I don't care for in the storyline, but overall I think that it is a good storyline. I don't care for Rebecca a whole lot but I really like Natalia.

And while I don't like Annie and really want to see her start to get better, I do think that her storyline is pretty interesting.

I am enjoying David's return and I love his interactions with Angie and I enjoy his interactions with Jake, Erica, and some of the other characters.

I also like the Jake/Taylor/Brot storyline.

Overall I like most of the storylines on the show and think that Pratt has been doing a pretty good job so far. I really like how balanced the show has become and think that it is way more interesting than it was under B&E who were very boring and more interesting than it was during the end of McTavish's last stint. JMO.

[Soapsuds]

The show is still a mess. I dont see it as good or better. It's about the same. I tune in and dont enjoy watching AMC. The same drivel is still on. Yes, some of the stories are different but not well written/told. I could care less for Gush redux on AMC. I didnt like them on GL and I dont like them here. Whether they are paired or not.

Reese and Bianca are a bore. Reese showed up out of left field. It makes the Nuke pairing/setup an A+.

[All My Shadows]

*hugs*

[All My Shadows]

Oh noes! Nothing makes Nuke look better lol Nothing could possibly make Nuke look good. With Binks and Reese, they're attraction and romance was off screen, and so when Binks came back to PV, it was easier to accept that while she was in Paris, she'd met this woman that she fell in love with. The whole marriage/let's have kids thing....that's a little too much for me considering it wasn't an extremely long time ago that Binks was running around with She/He of a Thousand Names. But comparing B/R to Nuke? Naaaaah, I don't think it's even close lol. We saw from day one that Nuke was built extremely on style and lacked an ounce of substance. [!@#$%^&*], I sorta wish Luke had gone away for a while and then came back with Noah on his arm. That would have made more sense than...well..."Oh my god, you [!@#$%^&*] n00b, you're ruining WOAK! Oh god, you're screwing Maddie! Jade, I want him! Let me fix your tie, *KISS*. You love me! Yes, you dooo! We is in love, y'all! Hit the bricks, Maddie!"

Though I did resent the premature Bianca/Reese fangirlism that existed before Reese even aired. That was Nukey.

[NYC123]

I love this column!!!

Most of the post about AMC have been so much better. Many people enjoy AMC then dislike it.