AMC: Friday, October 16, 2009

[SFK]

Wow. Emma's going to grow up to be that girl you're too afraid to break up with. Annie is grooming a little devil.

The girl who had the baby for Liza, how old is she supposed to be? Maybe I'm getting old, but she reads like 13 or 14. She's cute. She was trying to squeeze those tears out bless her heart.

I agree with what others (I believe R. Sinclair mainly) have been saying re: Erica and Annie, they don't seem fairly, or sensibly, matched. I really do not like Ryan, I hate seeing him with *my* Erica, that's why I dislike this story, I could kind of care less about Erica dating younger. I mean, CM is almost 40, it's not like he's 20 or even 30. But it looks a little silly with Erica fighting with this young girl Annie over Ryan, I dunno, I just don't like it, I'd much prefer good ol' Erica vs. Brooke.

[DRW50]

I don't think any of this story fits Annie. The rivalry with Erica, and having her use Adam while pining for his boring nephew. It's all very forced and has made her character even more of a mess.

AMC needs a stronger age bracket in Annie's group so she would be able to have a story with them. And Ryan just needs to go.

What AMC needs the most is to have some strong new characters to take the place of horrible drains like Ryan, but Pratt sucks at new characters.

[SFK]

AMC has an awful track record at casting younger leading men. Just fail after fail after fail. Instead of introducing yet another "Juan-Carlos Menard Egglesfield", they should write and cast from the inside out for a change, create an interesting, dynamic, ultimately human young man. They even turned Scott into a wannabe hotshot. As Erika Slezak would say, the soap world needs more Joey Buchanans (but at least the interesting Nathan Fillion variety). I'm tired of Ryan being the captain of this ship.

[DRW50]

I don't even consider this guy, who only ever got any attention because Branco was agog over his package, to be Scott. To be fair to him, I have not liked any Scott since somewhere around 1996. He is an empty character and they don't ever seem to make an effort to do more than hire actors who bring an uneasy combination of smarm and blandness. Cosgrove, March, this guy. The only time Scott worked for me was in scenes with Stuart, so naturally, they killed Stuart off. And we get this stupid non-triangle with Adam and Annie, and we get yet another familial relationship where Adam comes out the loser.

Marc Menard, heh. What he had with Kendall was probably a more believable gay man/hag friendship than all the years of Sex and the City or Will and Grace.

They should try to cast a good-hearted, stolid leading man, with just a hint of self-righteousness. The Tom Cudahy mold. Instead they seem to only want to write men who are a@@holes with a long rap sheet. And yet I think they actually believe that these men, especially Ryan, are heroes.

[SFK]

I honestly don't remember where Cosgrove ended and March began, or was it the other way around? Wow, I seem to forget that there were so many Scotts. I have an old episode on tape with the first older Scott whose name I'm forgetting, he was on Swan's Crossing as the cool hotshot dude on there with SMG as Sydney, then he ended up playing milquetoast Scott... at any rate, the scene is in Michael's class, and creepy milquetoast Scott is eating his heart out watching Anita go gaga over Bobby who's at the front of the class doing some "funny" presentation to the class. This new Scott reminds me more of an older version of that Scott, Cosgrove and March in between are like another Scott all their own.

ITA that AM did very well with DC as Stuart, they REALLY should have stretched that out longer. But I am impressed with how well he handled that material, I believed his connection to his dad. I also agree with the Tom Cudahy thing, that's the kind of guy. Sort of what Brody's has become/is becoming on OLTL, but it's so true that writers don't know how to write for that type of guy these days without making him zzzzzzzzzz. Look at Cristian too. But maybe it's also the actor, Cristian was imo a much more likeable guy when Yorlin was playing him.

But back to AMC... is little Emma moving to L.A.?

[DRW50]

I sort of liked the first Scott, I thought he was believable in the gooey teen romance with Laura, and I liked the story where he was ashamed of Stuart and Adam made him realize how wonderful Stuart was.

Cosgrove replaced him. This was in late 1996, when AMC decided to "hunkify" the cast to drive up interest. This also brought us Max Caulfield as Pierce #3, and Michael Lowry as the uberjudgmental Jake Martin, whom I always thought of as what would happen if a monkey and Enid Nelson somehow produced a son. Cosgrove had very little to do that I can recall. He had the relationship with Laura, which was now given an odd tone because Scott no longer seemed very young or innocent, and Cosgrove and Lauren Roman had no chemistry. Laura had also started to become a real pill. Then they had the story which never went anywhere where Gillian wanted him for his money, but Kelsey, who was in love with him, got her to marry Ryan instead. Remember when they were all in a bed, dressed in layers, freezing? He left in spring of summer 1998. The last time I remember seeing him was when he was electrocuted by Lee Hawkins. I don't even know if he had an exit.

In 1999 or early 2000, Forbes March started as Scott. By this time Scott was a film student. This was Becca/Greenlee/Scott, all some sort of knockoff of Jenny/Liza/Greg, minus charisma and acting ability and chemistry between any of the participants. Then Scott slept with Greenlee and Greenlee made sure Becca saw a tape of it. The show lost interest in Scott as Leo became a hugely popular character. They had a rushed, bizarre story where a website bet on Becca losing her virginity, and they found out Scott had come up with the website. I don't know if this Scott had an exit either.

Tom, or even Mark, who was a huge mess of a person and hurt a lot of people but was still decent. You can be a jerk sometimes and still be a decent guy. Now most soaps seem to think if you aren't an ass all the time, then you're not a man. And these "heroes" are so dull. Ryan is so dull. What does he even do all day when he's not turning women into complete emotional basketcases? He runs around like the Church Lady.

They never should have killed off Stuart. It was just another failed ratings stunt. Now we're left with Adam, and with these poorly written brats. There's still hope for them -- Colby just needs good writing and acting, JR needs a Mabectomy and to stop with the constant "my dad's bad" self-pity stories, and Scott needs a better personality and to get away from Annie.

[R Sinclair]

Yeah, March showed up in 1999 as part of the new young adult set. Scott went to California and came back with a Canadian accent.

[DRW50]

1999, right, thanks. At the time I thought Forbes was very wooden, the highlight of his tenure was when he got to show his abs. But he has done a lot of work since then, so obviously he knows what he's doing.

They did such a seamless job bringing Leo in. It's not very easy, then or now, to introduce new characters.

[Steve]

It's clear that there is no long-term story projection for Annie. Now we're supposed to believe that she's got Emma faking her condition again?!?!

I think Bailey was based on the movie Juno so I'm assuming she's supposed to be 16 but I could be wrong.

Erica looks silly because she's acting like a teenager. I tried to watch her fight with Annie today, but after hearing Erica threaten to throw coffee on her foe, I had to ff through them (along with the rest of the show except for the final scene). All the growth Erica had shown over the years has been eradicated lately. Erica should understand what Annie is going through with Ryan since Travis kept Bianca from her for so long. I miss the days when Erica could commiserate with her rivals like when she supported Brooke when Laura needed the heart transplant. Nothing will ever compare to the Erica/Brooke rivalry, though. Getting rid of Julia Barr was a stupid move!

[Jonathan]

Brooke never stabbed Erica and left her for dead. I don't think we can expect Erica to commiserate with Annie. Maybe not until they go to Africa together to feed hungry children.

[SFK]

"... if a monkey and Enid Nelson somehow produced a son."

I totally remember that scene with those four huddled in bed. You know, something about that whole white linen opening era was very blah to me. The show seemed sleepy and old-fashioned, not that I don't love old-fashioned Agnes Nixon, but the show was in an awkward transition phase were it felt lamely old-fashioned. It was like AMC didn't know if it wanted to be a small town rustic soap or a big city soap. Charming, or jazzy and upbeat. Many of the vets were still with us so it still had that charm, yet the younger set felt corny and boring. And even still, I'd probably rather have that time back.

Yeah, in that episode I mentioned, there's a scene with Pierce #1 up at his cabin on Phoebe's property with Phoebe and Brooke paying him a visit. Pierce has a line about how nice it is to finally meet that girl who used to tool around on the back of Sago's motorcycle. Brooke musingly chuckles. God I miss Julia Barr. All the while Laura and her mounds of hair are lurking in the background. But I always felt for that first Scott, to be fired and replaced with a "hunkier" version when like I said, he'd been the "hunk" on Swan's Crossing. But I guess being a tween heartthrob and an underwear model are two different things.

A few years ago, before he was on OLTL even, I saw an ad online for Forbes March's ACTING CLASSES. I think something inside me died when I read that. Does anyone remember when he mentioned in SOD how it annoys his wife when he farts in bed? [Donna Dasher]LOVE-ly[/Donna Dasher]. But I must say, I liked Nash.

[SFK]

YES Steve, you know what, that's just it. Erica needs more women her age on the show. How could I be so blind. There aren't ANY. This can't work, no matter how "fierce" Erica Kane is, she needs to tangle with women her own age. And with the move to L.A., she'll most likely be losing her best bud Opal too (not that she hasn't pretty much lost her already). And with no Myrtle, I mean, Erica needs more allies than her own daughters and whatever man she happens to be dating, and we are not going to cheer her on and feel impressed just because she's pulling men 1/2 her age and making girls 1/3 her age jealous. It's just gonna get tired and lame.

[DRW50]

The four in a bed scene was McTavish. Another example of what an erratic writer she was. Too bad she didn't do anything with Kelsey after that story ended; it became about Gillian and Ryan, and then Kelsey just got a news job in LA. I miss her. Then again, better to be gone than to be stuck with the Martins.

I remember that scene with Pierce and Phoebe. I loved the Phoebe/Brooke relationship, silly little things towards the end like Phoebe helping her with the bugs she used to eavesdrop on Jim Thomasen. It's sad to think that by the time Phoebe was gone, Brooke herself was almost gone.

That first Pierce was hot, and also not a bad actor, although I started hating the character when they had him turn against Janet and go to Brooke and they were going to have Janet get plastic surgery to look like Brooke. Then the actor had that big huge mess at Planet Hollywood and the character was never really the same.

OK...so, talking about AMC today, the Annie/Erica feud doesn't work for me for a lot of reasons. I think part of the problem is that the feuds with women on this show now are no longer natural. Brooke and Erica and Erica and Natalie were about EACH OTHER, not about the men. Now it's all about the men. Erica would never humiliate herself this way for a ragemonkey.

[Jonathan]

Not true. Natalie and Erica fought over Jeremy. Someone pull up that classic scene. I love that catfight. And when all three of them were on the ledge clinging for their lives. So soapy.

[SFK]

Childhood memory of Natalie in a wheelchair at the hospital after having Timmy sharing a bitchy exchange with Erica... didn't Nat try to pass the baby off as Jeremy's at first? And he of course was Alex's.

I liked "good", reformed, Nattie, but Natalie was a good bitch. A great foe for Erica. Her look, that voice... Montana Moorehead/Nurse Nan from Soapdish always reminds me of Natalie.