OLTL: Discussion for the week of March 2, 2009

[Vee]

Tell me again that's not Mitch Laurence, I dare you.

From the first day Roxy got that glazed, shellshocked look in her eyes when Rex asked about his father (who he then thought was Wally Balsom) and then reacted violently to the idea that someone would reveal the truth, I knew it had to be Mitch. There is no other man Roxy would react that way to. (And why else would Allison Perkins, out of circulation for almost twenty years since her Mitch days, know the truth?)

If they play this story right it will right the show again. It was going well this time last year until the strike.

IMHO, Ron Carlivati plans very far ahead so long as he can help it (excepting the horrid Tarty). He planned for Gigi and Shane when Rex and Adriana had a pregnancy scare. He planned for Addie's return when Dorian visited St. Anne's in October 2007. He planned Bo as David's father last summer. He planned this story. Why else do you think they'd planned for Roscoe Born to return last February? I revere a writer who can plan so carefully long-term, and when the show is in a good rhythm, it all works. The show is still a mess these days, but I think it can regain balance.

[rangethatrover]

I hope so Vee, but i don't trust this show anymore. Its 50% godawful and 50% excellent

[Vee]

I guess we'll see. I have been firm that Rex's mystery dad is Mitch since, oh, January '08 or so, and so far everything the show has done has backed that up, to the point that many people guessed him at the time. He even made it into a February Sweeps promo last year pre-strike.

[DavidEvanSmith]

I feel like for the story to work, it NEEDS to be Mitch. And they never really did resolve the story of Mitch's murder. But my flaw in this is, would Roxy have been so chummy with Miles Laurence, if Mitch was Rex's dad? I guess I'm willing to overlook it, since Miles just faded away. But Mitch being the father would make Rex a brother to Jessica, which lands him square between Jessica and Natalie, and explains why Rex LOOKS like he could be Jessica's brother.

I'm about 110% certain that it's NOT Victor Lord because the last resurrection damaged a lot of the show's credibility, so they wouldn't make that mistake twice. So no worries, SFK.

Liked Bo/Matthew scenes.

Can't invest in the Starr/Cole scenes. This drug story was just not planned or played properly.

Dorian and David were good, entertaining scenes, but it's getting so convoluted to explain David's comings and goings and he is so hard to get a solid grasp on these days. Who is David supposed to be? His next return really needs to be long term to explore his feelings, his character, his loyalties (himself? Dorian? Bo? The Buchanans?), his relationships to his new family (imagine David trying to be a big brother to Matthew?!)... The coming and going is confusing David's character more than unfolding him slowly.

I saw the Stacy/Schuyler connection coming from the first day they announced Crystal Hunt's casting. But I think it's a mistake to play those two new characters together so quickly. Still, Schuyler needed more ties to the canvas, so mixing him up with Stacy/Gigi/Rex would be a good start.

[Vee]

They did resolve who "killed" Mitch. It was Jessica, on the docks, with a crowbar, trying to save Todd. Todd then planted false leads and evidence to try and prevent her being discovered.

And yes, the weight lies with Mitch.

[NYC123]

Decent show today.

I liked how Roxy was visiting her "husband" That gave suspence which I always love.

[DRW50]

Back when Rex first arrived, they played the conflict he could create with Jessica and Natalie, but now he barely has a relationship with Natalie, so the same tension wouldn't be there. Jessica's become a very vanilla character when she isn't Tess or Bess, and Rex is now too generic to be a contrast to her the way he might have been his first few years in Llanview. I'm not sure what story would be driven out of Jessica and Rex being siblings now.

[Vee]

I don't find Rex generic; different, but still full of idiosyncracy. I think it was Dena Higley who almost blanded him to the point of no return - I suspected she had every intention of making Rex Bo's even-more-surrogate "son" via Paige Miller for a while there. And I think he does still have a relationship with Natalie, as will be re-proven shortly.

[DRW50]

JPL has his own brand of quirkiness, but the writing for Rex is where I think he's generic. He has the long lost love who is his soulmate and they're happy together, unless her evil sister throws her weight around. He has the long lost son who accepted him as a father within a few weeks of learning the news. He has the job he doesn't have to really spend time doing, and the father figure who will always be there for him. He's become an insider. I think the character lost his individuality when he stopped being an outsider.

There's too much of what is supposed to be the perfect family and too much bad acting from the people involved. I think they need to write Gigi out and take Rex back to a more gray place.

[DavidEvanSmith]

I guess I should have said they didn't resolve it to my satisfaction.

[Antoyne]

Easily one of the funniest things I've ever read.

[jinx_avery]

The only other candidate, who had the money and hospital connections to fake his death, is Spencer Truman.

[MichaelGL]

Yeah I believe that unlike some other HW's on soaps, RC actually plans out his stories. Don't you need to plan them out in order to have them connect with other stories on the show, which is what RC loves to do? I don't think it's a coincidence that the story of Rex's father has been revived to play along side Natalie vs. Jessica as sisters. I think down the road, Mitch will be revealed not to be Jessica's father, but as Rex's father, and some how I think the serial killer SL ties into it all. (Mitch would be perfect culprit considering his dislike for Todd. He probably wants to frame Manning for the murders.)

I don't think there's been a time when RC has never had a plan storywise. His stories just simply tend to drag on too long with many ridiculous plot points between the start and the end of a story. The reason for those plot points ridiculous twists? To drag the story out even longer just until it's a sweeps month or the show's anniversary (i.e. time travel SL). RC's planning is genius. One story could lead into another, or causing it to affect another front burner story. His pacing however is atrocious and maybe the fault of that lies more with the writing team.

[Vee]

Only in recent cases do I have a problem with pacing. I do know some people feel his early storylines setting up new love stories (Viki and Charlie, Rex and Gigi, Jared and Natalie) moved too slow; I completely disagree. I think all of them (even Gigi and Rex) flowed more organically and moved more old school realistically. Nobody just jumped into bed. And as for the Buchanan heir story, making Asa give the family a year to save the company allowed him to balance TW's short term returns with continuing, necessitated airtime for all of those veteran characters.

[SFK]

Right, there's Spencer, and what about that crooked cop that Hunt Block played?