ATWT: Week of January 5, 2009

[DeeeDee]

Yep.

[P.J.]

Janet is such a bitch. I hate her more by the day.

That is all.....

Well, except....I already hate this book tie-in. But I guess Henry will finally get a lot of airtime, telling everyone about the darned thing.

[Soapsuds]

Janet is a bitch!! Jack is a [!@#$%^&*] idiot!! Gawd I hate Jack and Janet.

[Quent]

Soapsuds, they've always spoken highly of you.

[Soapsuds]

Who really are you Quent? Are you Michael Park?

[All My Shadows]

I haven't watched in a couple of days...but am I to understand that both Maddie and Lucy are now gone...already? Damn, that was a fast move!

[P.J.]

Yep...it seems Maddie was only a "catalyst" to angst-ify Nuke and Casey/Ali. That's why they couldn't bother but give her like two scenes with Henry HER BROTHER, I guess. No idea why they couldn't get Alex Chando back for such a short return.

I've heard Lucy may be back though. And with months of "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny" angst on the horizon *rolleyes*, it seems a given.

LINDSTROM SUCKS.....FREE CARLY!!!

[P.J.]

At least it was nice to see Barbara back on today. Even if the Paul story makes absolutely ZERO sense. I wish she would have cuffed Dusty for not telling her Johnny was back. Practically everyone in town knew before she did.

As for the rest of As Craig's World Turns.... It's precisely what I hate about Goutman's obsession with Craig---he's suddenly front and center in EVERYONE's story. Good grief, now he's even helping ParLib get away with getting to second base.

[jfung79]

This week has been good in concept but not in execution. The main problem is that almost everything (aside from the well-handled Casey/Allison story) was too rushed.

There should have been at least a day -- or even a scene (!) -- of Jade and Luke talking about what she saw New Year's Eve before the reveal to Lucinda later. We should also have seen the conversation between Jade and Luke at Al's yesterday where Luke asked her advice as a woman and then later we saw her tell him to remember what she said. Unless the show was being intentionally cryptic about all that, but I doubt it.

Even Lucinda's breakup with Brian, and her awkwardness with Luke, has been rushed. There have been just a couple scenes and I bet it will be over next week.

And then there is Lucy ... Lucy came back to town and went on the run again without Lucinda or Lily even knowing or caring. Lily barely even reacted when Craig told her Lucy had come back with Johnny, and didn't ask where Lucy was or try to find out anything about her -- this after we just we saw the show, and specifically Lily, refute the idea that going on the run would be a good idea for Lily's other niece, Jade. This also reminds me how I was annoyed that Dani left without any goodbyes to the Stewarts a couple weeks back.

On the positive side, I did like Jade and Casey's reacquaintance. I like the way Billy Magnussen plays Casey, it is so full of life and charismatic and funny. I also like how Casey/Allison and Jade were supporting characters for Luke yesterday, and not the other way around as might have been the case a couple years ago. I look forward to seeing Casey continue to try to bring Luke and Noah back together, as was hinted at despite Allison giving up on that. This side of Casey of believing so much in love, while as surprising to me as to Allison, is sweet.

Also position, I think Jade's reaction to Lucinda calling her a "user" by blurting out the truth made sense. It was not a reaction in a vacuum to just that one comment, we have seen Lucinda tearing into Jade a couple times already.

Paul was surprisingly tolerable today. I guess I like him better when he is a. not being evil and b. away from Meg. Now that Craig is back as the show's resident bad guy, maybe Paul will be nicer.

The dialogue on today's show was generally dire though -- too clever and cheesy by half. Jack saying "I feel a conjunction coming"? Really?

[Soapsuds]

I totally agree. If we had a HW with a better vision and better actors this week would have rocked! It was a good week but not great. I havent seen todays show yet. So I cant comment about todays show.

[Vee]

The reason I so thoroughly despise the show is because it had all the potential in the world to continue being the cream of the crop as it was in the earlier part of the decade, but it's thrown it all away and is unrecognizable. Writing, editing, story, acting is almost all bad. Insta-relationships. Recasts (particularly Alison, totally unrecognizable from previous actresses; she looks 38 years old and her backstory has become horrendous) on top of recasts that go nowhere. Jon Lindstrom playing Kevin Collins. And the potentially biggest story in years - Lucinda/Brian/Luke/Noah - was thrown away like it was nothing.

The whole thing is sad.

[P.J.]

ICAM. I think that's what makes the show so frustrating. I think with some glaringly obvious and minor tweaks, the stories would be ten times more interesting. For instance, just eliminating some of the tiresome bad plots twists in any of the Paul/Meg stories would have improved them. TIIC over-think everything (which is hard to believe at times, I know), thinking that "tricky" things like Sophie getting knocked up by Cole are interesting...newsflash....they aren't. Or the entire Chris/Ali/Aaron plot last year, when Ali kept giving Chris blueballs, then sued him for sexual harassment. There's no point in the twists ultimately because TIIC just backtrack the next day or next week, and totally re-flip the story in a matter of weeks or even days sometime.

Not to mention, the way they stick with the wrong stories/pairings until hell freezes over. I mean, I wasn't the biggest fan of Casey/Emily...but TIIC threw that out the window the minute Dusty returned, but now Emily seems to have disappeared. (which I can't believe I mind in the slightest....) The Margo/Em snark was at least interesting...but now it's gone.

[Toups]

Gone....as is off the show? Already?

I was disappointed with the reveal too. It wasn't soapy enough for me. I like revelations to happen in a big way.

[brimike]

I'm so glad you brought this up, jfung. I thought I was the only one who did a double take in that scene. Our Jack "meat-and-potatoes-dad-was-a-local-cop-left-the-feds-to-chill-at-the-farm" Snyder says "I feel a conjunction coming"... to JANET?!?! (Who, as much as I love Pinson, wouldn't know a conjunction from a preposition. I think she was too busy dealing with the Terrible Two that day in class)

WAY too much, and completely out of character. Agreed.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

Oh. If only you would take that same approach about another show.