OLTL: Discussion for the week January 4

[oltl1]

I enjoyed today's episode. Brian Kerwin and Mellisa Archer continue to amaze me with their subtle and quite performances of grief. Charlie and Viki finding Nat at Jared's grave was both touching and dark. It conveyed exactly how these 2 people are feeling.

Rex is such a baby that I want Mitch to kick the crap out of him and when he's done to tell Rex that he is not good enough to be his son. Really what are the writers thinking. This is the spawn of a psycho, hell Jess/Bess/Tess have more balls then this guy. It's no wonder Mitch is more interested in his "grandchild" then he is in his own son.

Props to Robin Strasser who can do more with her eyes and a facial expression than any other woman in daytime. I hope this story turns to Dorian's favor and soon because she is smarter then this. It was also nice to see Stephan Mackrel back as Mel.

Finally, how great was it to see John lose to Lowell today. I know Lowell is a bastard and I really don't like him but it tickled me to see him get the upper hand and to turn the tables on Johnny McPain.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Mel and Dorian are nice, but I've wanted them to bring Herb back for her. I easily buy their history and connection more than the few years she spent with Mel.

I've never really understood why Herb's been kept off the show for so long, is the actor still alive and doing well?

[DRW50]

I think the man who played Herb is doing OK, although I thought I read he'd retired from acting.

I guess Mel is more recent. I liked her better with Herb, because I usually got the impression Herb liked or respected Dorian on some level, even when he was disappointed in her. Mel and Dorian were wonderful when they were allowed to have fun, but otherwise, he spent a lot of time judging Dorian, and sometimes I thought he wanted her to be like Viki.

[DeeeDee]

Robin Strasser is amazing.

[NorrthCafe]

I want to buy Rex's performance as a potential psycho on the edge, but I can't. It's too much, too soon. I don't know if JPL is so use to playing a goofball character that he can't make the transition to villain, but something is lacking. It's odd because JPL's Rex was a perfect bad boy when he was first introduced. Something about Rex is still too childlike, the characters has never been allowed to grow up, and now the writers want him to transition into 'mean and nasty bad man'.

BTW, Rex should NOT share scenes with actors like Matt Walton's Eli. While Rex was whining about wanting custody of his son, all I could think was, 'Holy CRAP! Don Draper meets the Beave' Rex barely looks older than Shane, and next to Walton, after those hot sex scenes the day before, Rex's scenes were an epic FAIL. While Rex's high pitch yammering was hitting the glass shattering level - I was picturing Eli shirtless.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand that after losing the first 10 years of Shane's life he wouldn't want to lose any more time (it's justification that made sense), but sole custody? Gigi is now an unfit mother? Go away jackass, go quickly. I loved that the writers had Eli warn Rex that he was behaving like Ross. He's all that and worse. Is there any hope that watching Natalie grieve and Charlie fall apart will snap him out of his idiotic behavior? It would be a logical step. Watching Nat today, I was even more disgusted that Rex referred to Mitch as 'his father', just to verbally slap Gigi around. I wonder if the writers will have to do that in front of Natalie.

For now, I see Rex as a whiny putz who can't believe Gigi doesn't want his sister-in-law schtupping arse. I just want someone to grab him by his ear, shove him in his room and tell him to stay there until he can stop pouting and making a mess of things.

[Khan]

I think so, too. OTOH, if Anthony Call hasn't really retired, then they have no excuse for not using him - what, with his wife, Margo, still working on the show and all.

BTW, Carl, thank you for saying you liked Dorian better with Herb! I'm glad I'm not the only one, lol!

[SFK]

I believe Robin said it herself, or I read it somewhere, but Anthony Call was (still is? I don't know) sick there for a minute. I don't have too many memories of Dorian and Herb in their heyday, but I always got the impression that they were going for a similar dynamic with Mel. With an extra dose of wry humor. Herb seemed a little less patient with Dorian, and Mel seemed to call her out in a slightly more sympathetic way.

[Cheap21]

that would be Oliver Fish, the gay cop

[Leia]

But Emma was really Gigi. She didn't brush it off. She understood.

He was hardly in a position to criticize.

Brody had some pyschological problems because he served in Iraq. Adrianna became manipulative and tried to hold the truth about Shane's paternity from Rex.

But were they really all that different from other soap couples?

Shane's remarks about his mother were unflattering but I see Shane as one of the children who had every right to worship his father. His mother told him his father was a hero and he thought Brody was the manifestation of a dream come true. It's no surprise that was transferred to Rex.

Today's show was separated into 2 diametrically opposed and wholly unequal parts. Viki and Charlie. Mel and Dorian. Those scenes were so good it was like a different show.

And then there was the rest. Rex is unlikeable. It's heartbreaking. Do they really think this is good writing?

[Southofnowhere]

Didn't know Chuck Pratt was writing One Life.

[Scotty]

Anthony Call hasn't quite retired. He was the narrator (voice over) for the 2005-2007 Discovery Channel series "A Haunting."

[EricMontreal22]

Since when has the Diner been licensed?

[DRW50]

I didn't buy Emma as Gigi any more than I did Bo as Rex. I think it would have been more dramatically interesting if Gigi had held some sort of resentment over Rex sleeping with this other woman.

Being hypocritical has never stopped Rex before.

The main difference between Rex/Gigi and other soap couples, at least those who work well together, is that good soap couples have a foundation before the obstacles hit. There's a reason to care. All Gigi and Rex had were delusions. Their backstory wasn't even all that different from Stacy/Rex, the main difference was Rex used Gigi for sex when they were in high school.

I thought that Shane automatically going to seeing Rex as perfect was a waste of drama.

Whatever the reasons were for how Adrianna and Brody did, they were used in the story to generate sympathy which Rex and Gigi could not generate themselves. That has basically gone on ever since, the main difference being that over time, the show has decided people will be even more invested in the couple if they paint Gigi as some sort of town whore and Rex as the wronged party.

[Vee]

But there were a decent amount of fans who did care about Rex and Gigi in 2008. It was no different than any other couple. Like all the others, they had obstacles, and far from ruining Adriana, the show capitalized on her newfound popularity as "Bitchy Bangs;" they promoted her, she did press, they brought her back for an unexpected short run to conclude the story because of that popularity, and it was MF's choice to leave the show, not OLTL's. If FV and RC had their way I suspect Adriana would still be on contract today (I think they've also said as much), given how the character blossomed in '08. While Brody was another character they invested in based on the actor's talent. Whatever was intended for him by the scab writers who created him, when the real writing team got back they took him from a barfighting boor to a broken veteran and they kept him because Lawson hooked the audience.

There are plenty of cases out there of soaps (OLTL included) succeeding or being foiled in their attempts to throw good characters under the bus for bad. IMHO, Adriana and Brody do not apply at all. They were written for, the bitchier facets of Adriana were embraced by both the writers and the fans, and the show continues to write for them today. As for Rex and Gigi, they're unwatchable together right now, but they are no patch on Sonny and Carly or Zach and Kendall. They're small time, and like all those other couples they started out with some rooting factor. There is nothing new under the sun, in extremes of good or bad, with the couple, and they were not this unspeakable horror from the jump that some make them out to be. Like a million other couples, they became horrible because of bad writing these past year and perhaps a bit before that (but their fan support was, IMO, much more substantial in '08).

[chrishntr]

I would just like to know why is it that all this Rex/Gigi/Skylar crap gets all this lead in, follow up and AIRTIME and this Viki/Charlie fan gets left out in the dust with no freaking follow up for those two characters. We last saw Viki/Charlie on Monday and then BAM they are at the diner on Thursday, this is what I hate about this show. I am SO tired of Rex/Gigi/Skylar!!