OLTL: Discussion for the week January 5th

[rangethatrover]

And Jay- I could find no politics thread at SOW..

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

OT Range, off topic...thats here

[SFK]

OMG, "Dorian's beaver"... I assume he was referring to a coat in her at one time extensive fur collection.

[chrishntr]

Pretty good show today.

Loved the scenes with Viki and Tea.

[rangethatrover]

The Viki and Tea scenes were very effective- also loved Blair and Todd's scenes..

I was really surprised by the Marty and -blank- scenes (Just in case someone has not watched today yet) I like being surprised and this surprised me. Nice little twist. Effective scenes.

And that line about Todd loving Tea

"And don' t tell me SHE didn't make you WORK FOR IT!" made me giggle.

[Cheap21]

WTF are Vanessa and Lola doing in the opening

Wow, Blair actually admitted that Todd loved Tea. She never could accept that before

[Scotty]

Umm...sadly they're on contract.

[detroitpiston]

RC, don't suck Blair back into to Todd's life, please. KDP was lookin fine BTW

Those Tea and Viki scenes were great, loved seeing Flo and Erika in scenes together again. I felt bad for Tea when she was looking at a pic from her wedding of Todd. I can't believe they actually showed Roger Howarth.

I'm liking Marty and Brody's friend(sorry, I can't remember his name), John looked pathetic in the previews for tomorrow.

I second the WTF.

[Toups]

I was surprised it was Wes who picked up Marty. I liked their scenes too because we learning a bit about him and I'm glad Wes didn't take advantage of Marty. Does this mean the actor playing Wes is on recurring cause he's branching out into another storyline and interacting with more characters.

TSJ and KDP are always awesome in scenes together.

I know eh.

They did this a few months ago too.

[DavidEvanSmith]

Aw... Lindsay is bumped from the opening credits! Oh well, now Catherine Hickland is REALLY free to star on my soap, Beyond the Horizon. LOL. And OLTL sure didn't waste time taking Sarah out of the opening! OLTL hasn't been that fast with an opening update in I don't remember how long!

I figured Vanessa and Lola would make the opening, but I HATE Vanessa's shot. She's supposed to be some vixenous spider woman, yet she's totally giving "wholesome soccer mom" in the opening with her stupid grin and shoulder shrug. I like Lola's shot, but what are the lights floating all around her?!

This is what I don't get about soaps, and they go wrong with this VERY often... If Vanessa is supposed to be this black widow, seducing and destroying men, LET the audience SEE it. I feel like they're trying to be ambiguous with her, so that we won't know whether she or Ray is guilty of his wife's murder, but it just comes across as waffling with the character and we can't like her if the show hasn't even made a decision about who the hell she is supposed to be. It's frustrating watching Jacqueline Hendy trying to walk a tight rope between good and evil because she's not allowed to make any real acting choices, throw an eyebrow raise, or a devilish smirk, or fully commit to anything genuinely "sweet" if the subtext is that she's deceptive and hasn't been sweet for a minute of her life. Hendy is a sexy, dangerous-looking woman, but she's forbidden from playing her strengths in order to leave the character in a redeemable gray area, and so she is going against the grain of what the audience would expect to see from her and would be most likely to ACCEPT from her.

So she's pretty much doomed because she's been on the show for months and the audience has NO idea who she is and therefore can't invest. And that doesn't even take into account the audience's general resistance to new characters and the fact that Vanessa is an extension of Ray, who is an extension of Langston, who is an extension of Starr/Dorian. So Vanessa is about three times removed from anything that could be remotely considered the core of the show. Don't soaps understand after ALL these years what works and what doesn't????

As for the episode, I liked the Marty/Wes scenes, but I want the actor playing Wes (another "I Wanna Be a Soap Star" flunkie) to make stronger acting choices as well. His dialogue comes across as chauvanistic with Brody at St. Ann's, and then he started being gentlemanly and sweet with Marty, but the actor wasn't playing the contrast of that. Is it just that when he's with his navy seal buddies, he's all "I got this chick that's hot for me waiting back at my hotel room... Heh, heh, heh", and then in reality he's just a big talker and actually values women a lot? Or is he a natural womanizer who Marty will make change his ways and respect women more? As soon as they started expanding his role like this, the actor needs to start getting REALLY strong with his choices and keep showing the audience why we should want to see more of him (aside from the tattoos and abs, which I wouldn't complain about seeing on my screen of course)... Because just like Vanessa is three times removed from the core, Wes is an extension of Brody, who's an extension of Gigi, who's an extension of Rex, who is JUST recently becoming part of the "core" group that the audience is invested in. But while I blame the show for Vanessa failing, I think if Wes fails it will be because the actor didn't fight hard enough. He's being given every opportunity right now to succeed because for a newbie to be thrown into the ring with Susan Haskell, he's lucky.

I loved the Viki/Tea scenes. The way they were constructed, the dialogue, the acting... Probably my favorite part of the episode. The weakest were Starr/Cole/Langston. I really couldn't follow all the transitions in the dialogue for Starr/Langston because they were hopping subjects from classes to teachers to classmates who got an STD (and even for the audience that's too much information!) to Blair making waffles, to Starr's dead baby... the conversation was all over the place and the kids didn't jump from topic to topic very smoothly. I feel like it was just written poorly.

But overall, good episode!

[dm.]

Roxy (to Charlie): You know, I've gotta tell you---I'm sorry I put you in a compro-missionary position.

This lady is hilarious!

[leevo64]

I liked the Wes/Marty twist. I like the actor, didn't know he was on Soap Star, but I agree he's a little green. It's okay, though - he can skirt by on good looks for now. And it's not like he's not making ANY choices as an actor - in his scenes with Brody I definitely got an "I'm your buddy and I'm here for you" tone from him.

[rhinohide]

Sigh! I really miss Lindsay. She had been recurring for a long time and it was unusual to see a recurring character in the opening, so maybe we will see her again soon. As far as the turning on a dime to remove JB from the opening? Weren't Christina Chambers and Renee Goldsberry removed almost as quickly? Paul Satterfield just lingered on and on.

I thought that was real. I have two high schoolers about that age, and that's how they talk. A conversation closely resembles flying on the trapeze, traversing from one subject to the next and back again with little fluidity and almost no warning.

[Cat]

DES, I have to agree with you about Starr/Cole/Langston. Ever since High School Musical: The Rip-Off, the teens have been depressing, morose and whiney. In a way it is very realistic (and I get that Starr & Cole "lost" a baby). On the other hand, Starr's Dead Eyes of Gloom and Cole's Jutting Jaw of Anger are getting old. I understand that Langston and Markko are popular in their own right? I think I must be FF the teens too much because for the life of me, I cannot figure out why.

The Vikki & Tea scenes were good but wholely overshadowed by Kassie de Paiva in her scenes with Trevor St John. Everything Blair said was about character evolution -- her's and Todd's. Great monologue for KDP where she essentially offered Todd the keys to some kind of redemption! TSJ did great with a lot less dialogue, too. I am not a Todd-BlairFanForever by any means, but the whole scene felt like core OLTL to me and one reason why I applaud Ron Carlivati. Whether the Todd-Marty story was RC's idea or a Frons mandate, RC has made the fall-out the most important part of it, something which so many other soaps forget to do. It has subtly, imperceptibly changed the show and the direction in which some characters were going. I could have done without the Bedroom Candles of Love and Todd's humping back or Tarty's Sunny Rides in Car of Romance. But this stuff that we are seeing -- this feels like the important bit. The whole point of this SL all along.

Susan Haskill is a capable and accomplished actress and hasn't changed a day since 1993. But Marty's mannerisms, her aw-shucks delivery of some lines, her Drunk to Forget the Pain shtick... eh. I'm not a fan.

DES, the actor who plays Wes looks a little like you in some of your avatars.

[DavidEvanSmith]

I'm not 100% on Markko, because I like the actor but they've really not made an effort to develop the character. We still know virtually nothing about him outside of loyalty to Cole and devotion to Langston. And he's been on since... 2006?

I am a HUGE fan of Brittany Underwood and Langston because she really seems wise beyond her years and understands the concept of a "supporting" character. Underwood always hits the right notes for me when it comes to being there for Starr, and Underwood never fell into the trap of "hey look at me!" acting where she's going overboard to try to prove she's just as great as Alderson or Strasser, or whoever else. A lesser actor might try to steal the show, but Underwood always knew her character and never overdid it. I actually think she's the most capable of the whole teen set, and knows how to transition her emotions pretty seemlessly, where Brandon Buddy is still very posey, Alderson still gets shrieky and whiny, and Tam is just aloof.

I did like the Blair/Todd scenes. But I really am so over their relationship that I guess I detached myself because I don't want the show to throw them back together. But they were well-written and it was good to see them have real and major obstacles to argue about in a scene, rather than the forced, contrived bickering they've been doing for years which was supposed to illustrate the nature of their relationship. At least this is the "ultimate" twisted material and easily the most screwed up Todd has ever been, IMO. Good stuff for DePaiva and St. John to sink their teeth into.

Oh I'm die-hard. She can do "aw-shucks", but she can do everything. I love when an actor can make a choice to "throw away" a line. So many actors, and GOOD ones, still put equal effort into every line, but I love the times when Haskell's Marty is so bewildered by her circumstances that she will trail off... she really FEELS her lines, doesn't just say them. I just love to listen to her. You can tell how she feels about every line she says. I don't know how else to describe it. And all the non-dialogue stuff where she lets out gutteral moans... she's a natural for me. I didn't remember enjoying her this much when she was a regular last time, but I was much younger then, and hadn't done any acting myself at that point, but her few staggered appearances and this return have been a treat for me to watch all her choices.

And will the drinking affect the lupus she was dealing with years ago? What's the status with her lupus?

Flattery will get you EVERYWHERE! I can't really see the likeness, but I will definitely take that compliment! If only I had those arms and that chest! But I'm working on it for the summer! Thanks, my dear!