Lorraine Broderick as AMC head writer

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I liked her better as Natalie, I've never liked her as Janet. I didn't start liking Janet until Robin Mattson took over.

[DRW50]

Her Janet has always been a plot device, a random crazy to push story for others. If they ever had her play Janet as an actual character, she might improve.

[sonyab1974]

That would have been stupid! What superpowers were they thinking about giving him?

[sonyab1974]

No I don't think Janet has ever been cartoonish or over the top.

[R Sinclair]

Yeah, because it's every day that psychotic mental patients are able to not only afford an assortment of costumes to disguise themselves while gaslighting a homicidal maniac recovering from a brain tumor, but also to rent a truck and a couple hundred gallons of nitrous oxide to plunge into a pit of quicksand with five or six people in it.

Nothing cartoonish about that.

[sonyab1974]

It's not cartoonish. She has always been a bit crazy. And I liked that scene.

[quartermainefan]

Loved it. Constance Towers rocked the Dr Frankenstein scenes. I just wished she could have channeled Colin Clive and screamed "It's Alive! It's Alive!!! It's Aliivvveeeee!" Then the scene where Lucky had to inject Luke was just really good. That may be my favorite Lucky moment of all because JY really sold it that he was brainwashed but knew it.

[You're Soaking in it]

I don't see how anyone can dispute the differences between Kate Collins as Janet, and Robin Mattson's version - whether it's due to the writing or the acting choices involved. Clearly, Kate's take is that Janet is a kooky / dangerously unpredictable counterpoint to Natalie. Mattson never played a Natalie to go off of, so I sort of think that's one big reason why we saw her develop Janet into this layered - and arguably, when threatended, a FAR more menacing - character. You can tell that Mattson resisted the idea of Janet being a joke.

Kate's version IS more cartoonish, more loopy, and not as easy to take seriously. I've had some people tell me that's how Janet is "supposed" to be. (I know Megan McTavish certainly thinks so!) I happen to disagree: There's no absolute rule about which Janet is accurate. That's just the version some fans prefer.

And I do think Kate Collins is great; I loved Natalie and I liked her Janet when juxtaposed against Natalie. But on the other hand, I find her Janet, sans Natalie, to be considerably less interesting than Mattson's version. Robin Mattson's Janet successfully stood alone as a whole, fleshed-out, singular character - having moved well past her tie to Nat... a lead, front-burner character of her own - and that's something that Kate's version really can't sustain.

[quartermainefan]

Love Robin Mattson, love Kate Collins, but in the battle of Janets I have to go with the original. But I will take Heather Webber over Janet any day.

[sonyab1974]

Well, I liked both of the actresses take on Janet. But that is just me.

[DRW50]

I preferred Robin's Janet because I felt like her Janet was more of a three-dimensional person, but I also feel like we have never seen Kate Collins get to play a Janet with three dimensions. That wasn't her purpose the first time around and definitely not on her returns.

[Faulkner]

Robin Mattson irritated me with her tics as Janet. Her phony jitteriness and anxiety. I also never bought her with Trevor as a couple. I thought Kate Collins brought great dimension to the character on her recent returns.

[Jonathan]

OMG, I can totally picture her "tics." You know who did that also? Alexa Havins. Bugged the sh it out of me. They're great actresses, but that thing that they do drives me crazy.

[SFK]

Totally, she did that stuttery beginning of every line thing, a torch she's passed to AM. I liked her return as Janet, KC's Janet had made for some very entertaining times on AMC so it was exciting to see how she would pull this one off with the new face and all. Kind of an interesting concept at the time too, getting let out of prison early for experimental plastic surgery (I guess it didn't "take", i.e. KC's return ), and I don't remember how this was handled back then, but you'd still think that Trevor the C.O.P. of all people would get wind of the fact that his crazy sister-in-law who threw his wife down a well and masqueraded as said wife and later spawned a murder mystery was getting an early release.

I did not care for KC's latest returns at all, she's like a third character who I'm just not feeling. I'd rather see her play the role more jittery and nervous like her first incarnation, I don't like the newer Prozac-y version.

[LeClerc]

I much prefer Robin Mattson's Janet but her constant "jitteriness", as you put it, annoyed the hell out of me as well. It may have worked well with the early stuff when she was masquerading as Jane Cox, but during McTavish's 1998 run it got ridiculous when all Janet did was stutter that she would go make some coffee or fold the laundry. Not exactly anxiety-inducing activities.

She did the same thing on GH a few years back when she returned as Heather.