OLTL: Discussion for the week January 25

[oltl1]

I don't think so. I'm starting to feel sorry for her myself. I think Kim has helped a lot in making me care for her a little more.

ITDA, I'm loving the show right now. The vets are front and center in a storyline that gives them real reasons to be working together and has provided some great material for them.

[Leia]

In Brazil that is what is known as a real home run.

[Doyen]

OLTL has been boring for ten-plus years, but this past year has been absolutely harrowing. All these utterly disposable "b" and "c" supporting characters running around twiddling their thumbs, having mundane discussions with each other and doing a whole bunch of nothing, is driving me to sleep. I know cheap labor probably helps keep the show under budget, but damn. Keeping it real, I wish Rauch would leave Y&R and come back here; I have no doubt he'd clean house and put the spotlight back on characters who actually matter.

[EricMontreal22]

He did yes Something to be said for a fairly natural looking, but hot, torso.

I kinda agree--Mitch is just ridiculous IMHO. It's too much to believe the whole town is helpless to do anything with him and the story is being dragged out too long, for such camp. Also how hasn't Vicki clued in that Charlie wants to kill Mitch from all the not very cryptic things he's been saying??

Carlivati has always sucked at this, but is anyone else bothered by the weird sense of time? yesterday's ep started with Kim and Sky both prepping for dinner dates--so I would think around 5 or 6pm at earliest--yet it's still sunlight outside, etc, etc--it's like this endless eternal afternoon (yes I know soaps are bad at this but OLtl has been guilty of this prob a lot lately, it's like the writers don't keep any sense of time or clock when they rite)

[Leia]

This Mitch story is a huge risk. It works at times to give some good scenes but the characters and the stories take such a hit in the process. I like how they integrate much of the cast this week but I'm still very bothered by how stupid some of the people are and this thing is really dragging at times. Viki should have figured out what Charlie is up to by now. Blair should have figured out that Mitch has something on Dorian. Characters who have dealt with Mitch in the past are so isolated from this current plot it dilutes the dramatic impact. John, Rex, Gigi, Stacy, Brody, Fish etc. do not have the history with Mitch to make this believable. Even Dorian and Roxy are off in this bizarre sideline crew. And why would Dorian hire Charlie to kill Mitch in the first place? Sure he has motive but he completely lacks the skill and wouldn't he be at the top of the suspect list anyway? It's beyond stupid that Charlie hasn't confided in Viki since with Jessica missing wouldn't she want him to find Mitch? Why is Bo, the former Commissioner headed to Texas when he should be spearheading this taskforce to take Mitch down and John, Brody and Rex (isn't he a PI) should be supporting him.

I think Carlivati deserves praise for what he does well but I don't like that he isn't criticized for what he does wrong because often he makes the same mistakes and doesn't improve in those specific areas.

Todd's character just needs to be written out. It's just not working. Yesterday, felt like Todd Manning was a dayplayer with lip service history in Llanview. It's really bad when Frat boy #5 was more interesting and am I seriously supposed to care about his nightmares after Airquote-gate?

[DRW50]

I think the show has become very plot-driven. I also feel like somewhere along the line, circumstances forced those at OLTL to embrace the more plot-driven format, and also embrace stories which are very circular (Dorian has had the same story, gaining through deceit and losing it all, for two or more years, although this time the stakes are obviously much higher). This very plot heavy mode can work, sometimes, although it seems to have taken over almost every story. As a whole, it causes a very unique, to say the least, viewing experience. I do sometimes miss the beats which they don't have time for anymore -- Roxy's absence in this Mitch story has been baffling.

[Doyen]

The day Todd is written out is the day that the show gets cancelled.

[Doyen]

...but in the meantime, I'm still clamoring for the firing of Valentini and Carlivati, and the rehiring of Rauch, with whatever gluttonous writer he chooses. At this late stage in the game, I don't want any more "serious" stories, no more socio-political agendas, no more "issues," no more patron banter at Rodi's, and for Godsake no more arrogant and laughably bogus attempts at trying to channel the spirit of Agnes Nixon's urban Llanview, circa 1970...or Malone's attempt to play on it in 1992. It all ultimately folds into nothing. Bulldoze Angel Square, and everybody who lives there, while Todd rebuilds Eterna. Just give me 1987 OLTL (bombs-blasts-waterfalls-dramatic faints-ominous music and Tina Lord) back, and I'm good.

[DRW50]

What did you think of RC and Valentini's attempts to recreate Rauch stories in the anniversary episodes?

What was your favorite part of the Rauch era? Do you miss all the heavy Viki use of that era?

[Cat]

Well, I don't know about Wild West/Eterna (actually, Wild West wasn't so bad), but if I hear Stacy yap one more time about how her baybeeeeeee means so much to her and ohmygodweresoconnectedmybabyandI and Please Kim if I die take care of my baby and tell her what a great person I was, I will have an aneurysm. How many anvils can you cram into a week's worth of episodes? Answer: only a handful, but you recycle and repeat them all week long.

[Doyen]

RC's ploy at channeling Rauch during the anniversary episodes were a complete and utter joke. His faux-Rauchian attempt at trying to go harken to a Agnes Nixon time period with the Buchanan's (who didn't even exist in 1968) was just a convoluted mess. Natalie as a badly accented Maria Roberts (who didn't have an accent), Jared as Clint (!), black haired Gigi as blond Emma Bradley, Cord and David de-aged...come on now, no. All a big joke that went nowhere, failed to recapture the essence of Rauch's style (or to even have palatable retro-appeal) and didn't give any real payoff. And Viki's second trip to heaven was about as exciting as waiting for your number to be called at the secretary of state.

As far as what I liked best about the Rauch era, easy: the Tina-Cord-Max-Gabrielle quad. With Viki's being the everywhere heroine, fighting Niki/finding Megan/constantly playing break-up-to-make up with Clint, a close second. While the courtship of Bo and Sarah is a distant third.

[Leia]

I'll stick with Nixon's vision. Rauch's OLTL would not work today. And OLTL can survive without Todd. We barely have him now as it is.

[Juliajms]

This stuff with Jessica is horrible and disturbing.

[Melroser]

The February stuff sounds good except for Jessica's lame story.

[Melroser]

I guess while Mitch was 'dead' he learned how to administer electroshock therapy on someone.

I really like Dorian and Charlie's scenes together even if i wish he'd stay away from her.