GL: April Discussion

[P.J.]

Oh, I expected a fair amount of cheese. I didn't expect two days of Bizzie dialogue describing the various attractions as they ran around in ridiculous hats.

[baller]

that's just it. It wasn't even some good B&B type cheese. It was bad and awkward and cringe worthy.

Which I should have figured from GL.

[Greg's GL]

Hmmm. So all the JLH love has ended?

[AllAboutAngst]

I still have some love for her, but the Phillip/Alan story and this Bizzie in Universal nonsense has to go. Yesterday and today were one big Universal promo, that's it. I expect, or God I hope, that it gets infinitely more interesting when the rest of the Spauldings show up.

On another note, did anyone want to slap both Ashlee and Christina? My God, all of that giggling and shrieking over those plane tickets was so over the top annoying - who would have thought that Daisy would be the most tolerable person in a scene.

[P.J.]

I probably would have....if I ever bothered to watch Ashlee or Christina scenes. I did catch one line where Ashlee was all "I don't have anything to wear" blah blah. I almost expected her to break out in a testimonial for Lap Band Surgery.

I don't think the Bizzie/Universal stuff is a true reflection on the writers---it sounds like crap straight out of the Universal Studios promo department. I think this falls on Wheeler, who decided how to "showcase" the attractions.

[Rakesh]

Today's episode was so good. Sure there is no drama and stuff, but it was nice to see some real outdoor scenes. The Peapack park is so UGLY.

I would recast the actress that plays Christina with Brooke Kerr. Ashlee was a dumb ass today. I thought the guy who was hitting on her was gay. lol

LOL @ Alan getting wet. I felt really bad for him after that though. Then I laughed when Bill and him got on the ride.

[AllAboutAngst]

The only thing I really liked today was the short Phillip and Beth moments

I mean, the episode was fine, it was mostly filler

Does anyone know how long this Universal stuff lasts? Is it 2 weeks?

[Rakesh]

I'm no longer waiting until June to make a decision. Please let GL die on CBS. I cannot bare to watch this crap anymore.

[UCLAN]

I think I agree with you. I think I'm watching out of loyalty. I feel like I have to hang in till the end. I'm not invested in any storyline now even Otalia.

[jfung79]

About the casting spoiler, I'm fine with it, and think people are reacting negatively to just one thing that may please other fans just not them, when several other things they may like more are also rumored to be in negotiation. It's not the only major casting announcement expected in the next few weeks. The show's end on CBS is something that should have elements pleasing a variety of fans.

I enjoyed the week. I still have faith in Ellen Wheeler and the 4-person headwriting team (it was never just JLH).

I got pretty much what I expected from going to Universal -- of course they're going to show off the attractions! But this was still an eventful week in showing character traits and in plot developments (a Bill/Lizzie engagement, and Frank finds out about Natalia) -- hardly just a Universal infomercial.

I enjoyed seeing Alan relaxing a little, and his softer side when he gave what he won to a little kid (as well as his interaction with Ashlee). I still loved seeing Alan get splashed though, and Remy and Lizzie giggling about it. "Splash zone", I'll have to keep that in mind if and when I ever visit.

I liked Bill's proposal to Lizzie (although I was a bit grossed out they had sex in public). I liked how the whole Spaulding family and all the Springfieldians were supportive (in varying degrees), with Alan kept out of the way. The story was not Bill and Lizzie against the "evil Spauldings" as someone predicted. This week was more Bill and Lizzie being happy against a backdrop of Spaulding against Spaulding tension.

Christina was energetic and interesting as usual, and showing a fun side she hadn't done much yet. I wish Remy had kept his shirt on throughout. Oh, I loved their scene with the talking fountain. I wanted to see Alan interact with Christina again though, following up on their conversation after the heart attack.

I thought Ashlee was going to be attacked by that Jackie guy. Might it still happen? I don't know why, but I just got a creepy vibe from him.

I wish Dinah had found Bill (but I did like her and Shayne).

Phillip and Rick had some good conversastion when Rick was showing Phillip how to get out and then when Rick covered for him.

I liked Beth talking to Phillip about some kind of history he had with Universal, and Alan-Michael and Lucy's wedding, that I did not know about.

The cliffhanger on Friday was shocking, but in a good way, and more for what it said about James than what it said about Phillip. It was also revealing earlier that James lied to Daisy about how he feels about roller coasters. James isn't as un-Spaulding as I thought he'd be!

I was intrigued seeing Frank turn to the dark side after he heard from Doris about Natalia "having the hots for" Olivia. Dark Frank could be a nightmare for the Cooper family and for Springfield.

I like that they are still showing Doris as a bit of a villain, with her bodyguards, despite humanizing her now that we knows she is lesbian.

I enjoyed Olivia and Natalia messing up the peanut butter and banana sandwich and talking about going away to a timeshare together. But I wanted Rafe to be on soooo bad. Come on GL, more Rafe, more Rafe!

[DAMfan]

Hope Eddie shows up again - they can't leave us guessing what happened - they must show us DAM [Edmund] doing what Edmund does - however Roc may be sitting on his behind.

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[jfung79]

I hope they show Edmund again too. I expect them too since we saw a note from him, apparently, in the previews.

[RoseVioletDaisy]

I thought the week had it's moments, good and bad. I honestly have no idea what my opinion of Wheeler is at this particular moment. I think she's sincere and devoted, how good she might be at making decisions about running this show without interference? I have no idea. I wish I knew what decisions over the last two years or so were hers and what were things she had no choice but to do.

As for the writing, it's insanely uneven. There is some great stuff scattered around but of those moments are usually overwhelmed by plot points that don't make any sense, shallow and ultimately pointless character interactions, and a distinct sense that most of this show is being thrown together willy-nilly with no plan or even general direction.

I didn't mind the infomercial aspect of the Universal stuff so much since I was prepared for it and when they stuck with Bill & Lizzie having fun together after all they'd been through, it was fine. What I hated was when everyone else showed up and ruined it, not only for Bill & Lizzie but for the viewers as well. They should've just let Bill & Lizzie and their fans have a day or two of uncomplicated fun and romance before coming back to the real world and left it at that. If GL wanted to bring the other actors down for the autograph signing and fan events, fine, but they shouldn't have brought all their characters into the trip onscreen. It was the pointless injection of everyone else that sucked so much. Ashlee, Remy, Christina, Daisy, and James are all horrid characters that I simply don't care about and who had absolutely NO reason to be there at all and every second with them was torture. And Friday, Dinah & Shayne were there too?! Ugh. Why? I honestly don't know how two actors and characters that I like so much and loved as adversarial, uneasy friends pushing each other to face their demons could be so boring together as a couple. They're not as reliably sleep-inducing as M&M but they're getting there. I don't know maybe it's just because I hate all the Lara/Henry crap that they've been trapped in or maybe it's the proximity to M&M and their boringness is so thick that it's actually rubbing off. I don't know, they're just doing nothing for me together.

Anyway, back to the Universal stuff, Alan going down there to try and pull Lizzie away from Bill was a very Alan thing to do. Sick and unconscionable. Beth and Phillip trying to stop him makes sense too. But there wasn't anywhere near enough tension between the three of them. What a blown opportunity. Wasn't protecting Lizzie from Alan's ruinous clutches the whole reason Phillip came back in the first place? And here Alan was trying to do something terrible in his obsession with controlling Lizzie's life by isolating her from anyone who is not in the family and Phillip & Beth just stand there and smirk at him like he's an unruly child? Huh? Beth should be so hostile around Alan right now that she's on the verge of strangling him at all times and Phillip should be beyond taking one ounce of his crap, especially when Alan's goal here is to subjugate Lizzie's entire life to his will even if it crushes her.

I hate seeing those little scenes with Alan because they're so phony. The guy is a complete psycho. No amount of giving toys to kids or eating Mac and Cheese with Gus has ever changed that. The only reason Alan was there was to try to grab his twenty-something granddaughter and drag her away from a vacation with her boyfriend because he wants to control every aspect of her life and her having a healthy adult relationship with anyone outside the family will destroy any possibility of her becoming co-dependent on "granddad" again. He just had Beth evicted from her hotel room/apartment so that he can have her back under his ever-controlling thumb in the mansion. Those are monumentally sick things and everytime they try to sugarcoat this lunatic's behavior it makes my blood boil. There is nothing genuinely soft or cute about that nutcase and I wish they'd just admit it.

I liked the sex scene if only because it lacked the sleazy vibe that every single indoor love scene has had since the changeover to the new format. I didn't really think of it as "in public". He said it was a private garden and while there were people around when he actually proposed after they'd gotten dressed, when they were actually under the tree, there was no one around. So I didn't think about it. I just liked that it looked better and more romantic than any love scene we've had in well over a year.

My problem with the Spaulding against Spaulding dynamic is that despite all the hemming and hawing nobody in the Spaulding family actually has the balls to stand up to Alan in any meaningful way. Phillip comes the closest but when push comes to shove, he backs down and never truly makes Alan pay. Nobody does. So for me, it's kinda moot. I mean if Beth, James, Phillip, or Alex had any true backbone left, Alan never would've even made it to Florida. His motive for going down there was sick and that none of them actually stopped him from showing up and ruining things for Lizzie was incredibly lame of them. Yeah, they kept him busy enough for Bill to have enough time to propose but by then Alan had already done a lot of damage. His showing up at all had to very traumatic for Lizzie really. Bill took her down there to build some happy childlike memories and what happens? The psychos who were instrumental in making her childhood so terrible show up to ruin it. All that was missing was Carl and Edmund.

[JackPeyton]

IF GL was to ever decide to really have one of his own take him on and not back down i think now would be the perfect time and Lizzie would be the perfect choice.

[Greg's GL]

Umm. The writing sucks. And EW's "new" production model was the last nail in the fuckin coffin for GL. These hacks deserve no faith from anyone. They deserve to be run out of daytime TV forever after they finish with what I anticipate will be a haphazard, nonsensical ending for a 72 year old show.

If Nancy Curlee won't come out of retirement to head write the final months, I so wish that they would offer her a consulting gig in the hopes that JLH and the 4-person "headwriting" team won't [!@#$%^&*] it up.