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OLTL: SOAPnet March Preview


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I like her and she did wonders in helping me to grow to like Cristian again. But I don't think Layla is meant to appeal to the more elite soap fans such as yourself. I don't think you have to worry though. I don't see her sticking around much longer.

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It's not an insult. There are some soap fans with a level of sophistication and history that wouldn't find a character like hers appealing. She's more of a reflection of modernized character that doesn't fit the proper soap heroine archetype. I can't remember who said it but she started off of as a shallow one-dimensional busybody. She's evolved but unless you appreciate the actress' talents, I understand why you are opposed to her existence. I watch Gossip Girls and other shows like that and I see characters like hers all the time so I don't see what the big deal is but I do get why some soap fans are resistant her presence as it represents everything that they'd rather not see daytime evolve into.

I was sold when she mourned her sister at the hospital but I've was stricken by her relationships with other characters and find myself rooting for her underdog potential.

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If they ever intend to actually bring the Evanses fully to the forefront (doubtful, I know), I think they would have been helped by having Rachel still involved with Greg as she's a member of one of the show's most prominent families. Of course there's Matthew and Destiny's friendship too, that also helps to strengthe the bond. My fear is that the same thing that happened to Layla will happen to Greg, his family will disappear, and then the two of them will get phased out like Mike and Marcie. I don't want that to happen. I don't mind Greg as much as others do, but I do think Rachel and the rest of the Evanses have made him more endearing. I guess I'm just hungry to see more of that Evans family dynamic, and losing Rachel will make them a little less relevant.

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I really have no faith that the Evans family is going to be utilized anymore than they have especially now that Rachel is gone. At some point, I have to accept the truth. It's not the characters or the actors. All black characters have the same fate.

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The problem with the Evans family is they were so thrown together, there was a very narrow window for people to accept them. Many of their stories were about being losers in love who were on the outside looking in, and those types of stories are very easy to end with the loser being ostracized from any storyline. Making Greg the center of the family drama, when Terrell Tilford isn't the type of actor who can play those layers, was a mistake. I also don't think Greg and Rachel had that much chemistry and the triangle was very rushed. I struggled to care about pretty much everything in the story, and it didn't help that they put Shaun in that awful "let's have Dorian beg everyone for forgiveness so Langston can have a boyfriend (she didn't even want)" story, sitting around with unbearable Moe, somehow acting like working for a sicko like Todd was superior to working with Dorian. And then the callous way they tossed Destiny aside as soon as the overaged miracle child Dani yelled her way onto the screen.

As for Rachel versus Layla -- based on paper I would pick Rachel, but then, what will they ever do with Rachel? Not a whole lot. I think DD is wonderful but I like Tika Sumpter too. If I think back to last year, and what I enjoyed more, I enjoyed the Layla/Cris/Kyle/Fish story more than any of what they rushed with Rachel and Greg. So in terms of what worked for the show, then I would have gone with Layla, because if it's about core families or any of that then why are ciphers like Rex, Gigi, and John on 24/7 while most of the Buchanans and Lords are a distant memory?

So, if we go on the premise that black actors have no real chance on this show (or any daytime show), then if I have to choose between the idea of Layla possibly having some strong scenes, and the idea of Rachel sitting around listening to Tea tell us of her love for Todd, I'd go with Layla.

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It's not so much her character's personality that I don't like, it's more her function. Kind of like how I felt about Aiden on AMC, "Hm, why are you still here? :huh: Well aren't you lucky..." And that's no fault of the actor, it's just frustration with the character born out of a larger frustration with TPTB who inexplicably waste yet hold onto certain characters, while easily ridding themselves of others. Like, why can't Layla do all of the crazy fun stuff that Kim got to do? I know she's a different character and all, but they could use her better. And with the Fish thing, to me it felt like she was just a tool in that storyline, like they pulled her down from off the shelf and used her to move along Fish's story without focusing enough on her side of that particular situation. And maybe that's what a good supporting player is for, I don't know. I'll admit that I'm a little racially sensitive to the whole situation, I might as well just put that out there, I felt like her race was used to drive home the point of tolerance and acceptance. I'm digressing, but all in all, I would enjoy Layla a lot more if they gave her meatier material AND if she had more family around. Maybe it'll be good if she's paired with Greg then, perhaps we'll at least get some great tension-filled sit down dinner scenes with the Evanses and the Williamses, Janet Hubert can come back and everything.

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I'm with Carl. That's a very easy answer and it all to do with her race. Tptb are afraid to do things like that with black characters. I rarely ever see black characters written the way they write for Kim in daytime, primetime or even in Hollywood. Think about it. How many Black characters have you seen like Kim in Hollywood? I don't think you ever will. It hasn't dawned on tptb that black actors can be funny as well as dramatic especially on soaps. When they had the Marcie on the run story there was a very talented black homosexual drag queen who I thought for sure would make a return to the show one day. They could have brought him on as a Lafayette character and written him as a cousin to Layla and made them into a version of Tara and Lafayette from True Blood.

I thought some of Layla's early material with Dorian was funny and also some of the stuff with Cristian and Fish last year but again, she's black. That's as good as it gets. Even when they write Destiny in scenes with David, they never allow her to have the funny lines. She gets the witty one-liners that I remember Layla used to have. RJ was allowed to verbally spare with various characters but he was a villain and obviously he wasn't as valuable to tptb because they didn't move heaven and earth to keep him around.

That's all on RC. They've used her better during Brody's introduction story. She had scenes with Lindsey and several scenes with Dorian as her long-suffering companion that were really popular on here and Daytime Royalty. And I thought her friendship with Adriana was successful because they used that same prototype on Kim and Stacy. I think if Layla had been white we would have seen her interacting with Dorian more and obviously RC did like having Dorian mixing it up with a character of color and recognized that viewers responded to it because he created Amelia as Ghost Mel.

They often pull characters off the shelf to use them to further along a story especially black characters. It's the same thing they did with the Evans family and with Rachel. I don't see why it's necessary to criticize that aspect. If they never did things like that, I doubt black characters would get any material at all because they are surely not going to write them in leading stories. True, they neglected her side of the story but it still qualifies as very meaty material. The actress excelled at everything they gave her in that story and they still haven't done much with her. Again that comes back to tptb and not the character or the actress.

I felt like her race was one of the factors that made that story realistic. It amplified the veracity of the situation. Many black women are so focused on finding the right guy they miss all of the signs.

That goes back to my earlier point about why her type of character wouldn't appeal to some people. By contrast, there are several characters who have meatier material and family and that hasn't helped me to enjoy them at all. I won't argue that I'd love to see Layla with family on the show. I suspect they keep her around to eventually bring Evangeline back to the show at some point. I just don't ever see that happening.

You give too much credit to the writers too much. There won't be any tension and you will be lucky to see them at anything other than Thanksgiving. I doubt Layla is going to last that long.
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Leia, thank you for the discourse, I appreciate it and I've taken all of your points to heart. :wub: And believe me, I don't give the writers too much credit, I'm just indulging my own imagination, lol. And although I think you make a fascinating point about black women searching for the right guy and "missing the signs", I think you may be giving the writers a little too much credit there. :P Though that's okay because if that's what you gleaned from the situation, I have no problem with that, I think that's a very interesting viewer reaction. Case in point, it was never spelled out, but as a viewer I just instinctively connected a few dots of past relationship when Shaun's handsome, light-skinned doctor brother showed up. My own truth informs what I see on screen.

So, to be clear, what you're saying is that you value Layla as a supporting "satellite" character who is a useful aide to other characters' storylines? Okay, I can get with that. She's sort of a Renee of her generation.

What saddens me about your response is that I sense you've accepted the fate of black characters in daytime, and I guess that's a reality I've resisted and I must learn to accept myself. :( I wish we had Tyler Perry back in the '80s when soaps were at their height, he would have most certainly delivered us one.

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