OLTL: Discussion for the week September 28

[oltl1]

Holy crap, talk about cliffhanger Friday. Loved today and can't wait for next week.

[Toups]

Yeah, 3 cliffhangers on a Friday, just like how pre-strike Carlivati used to do them. It leaves you with a good feeling and anticipation for next week.

[Leia]

Jared standing over the body is one and Todd finding out that Tea is already married but....what was the third?

It really makes me sick what they are doing to Jared.

[EricMontreal22]

I agree that I much prefer Layla and Chris in the "kish group" as you say. However I'm so sick of baby stories on soaps--I do NOT want Rachel, in particular, tied into one fo any kind for many years.

It's just a poor poor story. To make it so obviously Jared so early on? (I don't read spoilers so maybe it won't be him or there's some amazing twist, but...) I like RC overall a lot but this is the worse piece of soap cliche writing since the Stacey mess. (in the AMC thread I already said how much Nelson Branco's soap TVguide Canada articles annoy me with his biased faves but I like that he loves OLTL, it's IMHO the best show on right now--that said the fact he praised the stalker storyline and Jared's involvement as a clever twist shocks me--hasn't he been watching soaps for YEARS? Am I the only oen who find this twist beyond obvious and cliche for a soap??) I'm not even a big Jared fan but I don't buy that he'd do this so late in the game.

I enjoyed today but I think you're actually right. That scene was mishandled. Don't get me wrong--I think Kyle not being ready to accept Fish's decree of love and being weary of it was *spot on* as was him pointing otu he had changed a lot since then. but the WAY it was done felt really weird like you said--it was barely a month ago he wanted desperately to be with Fish at any cost--randomly kissing him, etc. He doesn't seem very interested in Nick at all (I like the idea of Nick but something about the actor doesn't ring true for me BTW), anyway, and yeah this sudden change in direction feels solely plot driven.

I rememeber disliking Lowry when he was Jake on AMC (I didn't mind him at first but by the end I really couldn't stand the actor) so have been pleasantly surprised at how winning I find him as Ross--and I love his relationship with Blair. But agreed, the writing for Blair has just been so poor lately--RC and crew have repeatedly told us they're gonna break up Blair and Todd and get them in different stories for a long while now--so why isn't it happening????

I agree. This is what Agnes Nixon soaps used to do SOOO well (and really, my other show is AMC and if they had a steady crew of B characters creatign a community feel the show would bem, even with its current plots, just *so* much better), and it's something RC *when he's good* has brought back to OLTL (I hadn't really seen it on the show since the classic Griffith/Malone days of the early 90s--though both men tried to brign ti back when they were at the show 5 or so years ago for their less successful second stint). ANd while i like when a B character starts to grow and shows appeal and becomes an A character (so much better than when they foist a Stacye on us) and RC ha had SOME success with this, I agree that there's also a time and place for such characters. If that makes sense. (it's like how AMC used to have all those uppity society matrons hanging about looking down on those under them, etc--it gives such a sense of community and feel to the world of the show and is essential to a healthy soap--and sadly seems to be the first thing to go when soaps lose ratings and money)

[Toups]

Ross/Tea.

[MichaelGL]

I think Jared is simply a red herring.

Not only does the set of B characters add a sense of community to the show, but for the first time in a long time, I feel that Llanview is actually an urban area with blacks, gays, hispanics just to name a few. OLTL has always tried to portray itself as this since I started watching under McTavish, but never has it ever rang true until recently with its focus on minorities.

[EricMontreal22]

Well they'l have to have an amazing explanation fro it then...

And yes, completely agreed. It's true that in the past ten years some writers have tried more than others to create this sense of community (when Malone returned he established the Community Center and Llanview U as two such places for this purpose--and at first I thought he was gonna succeed but we all know what happened--I would like L U re-established though as an actual place for meetings,etc. Prior to that the Labines tried during their stint as well and yeah, even McTavish did, though others like the Whitesall/Tomlin era didn't bother going more for rich people and camp) but I haven't seen ti feel this much liek a real community since the glory Malone/Griffith 90s era

[oltl1]

I totally agree with you guys and I think with the Starr/Cole/Langston/Marrko group in or heading to University, L U will become much more relevant and a good place for some of these more topical issues to play out.

[Marc]

Well I for one long for the Paul Raunch 1980s Llanview. Sure they may have been all rich and waspy, but at least they were solacious and fun to watch. I find B-character-B-class Llanview totally depressing and pedestrian.

[Leia]

I don't have a fondness for that time of Llanview, perhaps it was due to the lack of diversity but I understand those who did.

Thanks! Forgot that one.

You and Eric Montreal said what I was trying to say but much more eloquently.

[DRW50]

Some of that era is fun to watch. Some of it was just crazy men brutalizing women. We get enough of that on OLTL now. I would say the worst aspects of OLTL now are the tired attempts to cash in on that era. Stacy is a cheap imitation of the Rauch era. So is this Todd/Tea/Ross/Blair trash. Tess' return last year and the falls and Tina's botched return were also too similar to that era. I think that Rauch was good at some of that stuff but the people at OLTL now are not.

I'd rather see more balanced, character-driven storytelling, with emotional layers, which unfortunately is usually drowned out by the lead characters.

[EricMontreal22]

I love it. The Rauch (Raunch love it!) era started off as fun in a campy way, under Sam Hall and then Peggy O'Shea ( a vastly udnerated writer) who still managed some truth to her stories, but it fell apart to mindless, awful nonsense under S. Michael Schnessel (did he ever write in a soap again? hope not) It made me laugh when Rauch in his tvguice.ca interviewpraised him so fully recently. HORRIBLE--and thank God during that time the ratings finally started to stink--they needed the reinvention Gottlieb/Malone/Griffith brought

[DRW50]

I think OLTL was it for Schnessel.

I really believe what carried OLTL during the Rauch years were some specific characters. I will give Rauch some credit for finding some of them, or showcasing some who already existed, but if you look at OLTL of that era, it's really Viki, Tina, Gabrielle, Megan, with strong support from men like Max, Clint, Cord, Jake, and Bo, that carry those stories along. I think Rauch also made Asa less of a caricature then he became at times later on.

Not to take away from some others like Renee, Sarah, Brenda, Larry, Michael Grande, but I think without the above characters, OLTL would have been nothing. The show itself was very fragile.

I think we're getting the reverse with OLTL now. I think that the structure of the show is not bad, but the lead characters are a mess.