I remember David being very strong in those scenes right after the Rashomon rape getting Victor out of there, it's true. But he also had a very funny moment when Victor/Todd took the stand in his own rape trial not long after: "This is incredible. Where is Allen Funt?" (host of Candid Camera, for the younger ones) They had the balance of David better then.
David was a bit less of a joke on PP and the silly romantic/reality show foibles they got him into, but the humor with him in the Carlivati era never bothered me too much until he was occasionally played as though he was legitimately mentally impaired lol. I did love his relationship to Bo and Nora though. Bo was so gentle with him, even as they were both harried. I miss that.
Yeah, I remember all that stuff well and I agree with you about both their motives. And it was around then that Victor and Kelly kissed, and I think literally a day later Blair stormed in and tore her ass up lol. I think it was right to leave it there. He had gone wild in his war with Kevin but at that time anyway, Malone's vision of "Todd" would still commit to Blair more than to his worst self.
That's not to say that Malone's quasi-heroic Todd or "Todd" was in any way appropriate or not fúcked up looking back today. But the character did have a more consistent morality or personal center than anything that came later for TSJ's iteration. He played the sincerity initially as much as the madness. But TSJ clearly became bored with playing anything approaching a functional antihero not long after, and complained heartily about how boring it was to fans and the magazines as early as summer 2004. (There was one fan event a few years later, maybe in '08, where he sarcastically remarked "I love rape." You couldn't get away with that today.) He always leaned into the ugliness and demented side of the character. As an actor he was very, very good at that (the scene where Blair goads him to admit he's "Todd" in late '03 is still a favorite of mine; he comes off like a sniveling, whining creep with no ego whatsoever, like a total insect, and then raises his hand to hit her). Some people thought TSJ was too much here, but I loved it. He was so extreme and so pathetic at the same time, he was not afraid to let Todd be so vile or weak, and it was a very uncomfortable mix with the intense sexual chemistry he and KDP still had at that time.
The problem was they would try to write more sincere or overly heroic material for "Todd"/Victor after 2004, and TSJ would pretty much laugh it off and tr*ll the screen or phone it in, except when he wanted to play intimacy with a leading lady (like Renee Elise Goldsberry). He grew to have contempt for anything earnest. He only fully engaged IMO when he was playing very, very dark stuff, like terrorizing Marty in her hospital office post-rapemance. He was scorching with Florencia Lozano in Victor and Tea's sick, sadomasochistic romance, but it bore almost no resemblance to the original '90s pairing despite Carlivati's best efforts to canonize it as true love. This carried over to some of TSJ's work with Tucker on Y&R where he also got bored quickly, and it reminded me of what I remember hearing about his original OLTL audition: TSJ came in to read for Kevin, but played Kevin so unhinged, throwing stuff off the Banner desk, that they immediately earmarked him to play Todd instead.
Which is not something TSJ had a problem with. He played the pervier side of "Todd"/Victor heavy, the sexual predator, and it was not for nothing that multiple regimes down to Carlivati had him constantly leaning in to kiss women just to fúck with them. He flashed Cristian in the sauna at one point. I know he planted one on Kelly out of nowhere when Gina returned, as part of their very clumsy 'chemistry tests' in 2010. And I remember him trying to kiss Marcie after their day in court in 2007 fighting over Sam/Tommy, just to screw with her. It was sick but it made sense for that Todd by that point for me. He was just that much of a creep. That's not a value judgment for me per se because he made a very good uneasy villain, but once the rapemance happened there was just no going back. And TSJ clearly wasn't interested. A complicated situation and a complicated guy.
As for Kevin/Kelly re: Alan and Monica, I can only really support 2004 lol. I think most of their dreck in 2005-06 is pretty rough, though I never believed Kevin was sterile and I've always believed Dorian switched the paternity results on Zane to keep them apart.
I think that's absolutely correct. I remember Ron actively attacking his critics not just on Twitter but also onscreen. There was more than one instance where the scripts basically told fans to piss off on various points, namely the scenes where Danielle and little Jack very awkwardly and unnecessarly puzzle out how she could possibly be older than him given the onscreen timeline. Eventually Dani literally tells Jack (and the audience) 'get over it.'
This wasn't an isolated incident in later years. I also remember some very, very clumsy scenes on GH in early 2014 where Robin tells her friends at length how she does not, repeat, not have PTSD after being imprisoned and tortured for almost two years lol. These scenes only aired after many fan complaints about the show eliding over Robin's trauma for more drama re: about Sabrina's heartbreak at her return. Ron did that kind of nose-thumbing to the fans a lot later on. Probably still does as recently as DAYS.
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