Same to you @DRW50 regarding the holidays.
Julie Pinson has charisma and grows as an actress over time, but the show rarely uses her effectively. I just watched the first 7 episode of July, 1999. Eve and Kevin are off to Rome to locate a missing Victor Collins. The writing is trying too hard to make Kevin and Eve this off beat romantic comedy duo who get caught up in hijinks. Michael J. Anderson has been introduced as Peter Zorin who seems tied to the spy stuff (he claims to work for the American embassy in Rome but this appears to be a cover). None of it really gels, but I get what they are trying to do. It just doesn't work. By the time Eve and Kevin discuss the mile high club, I am ready to fast forward.
The rest of July, 1999, that I've watched was fun. There was a guest appearance from 98 Degrees, who were performing on "General Hospital." Frank and Karen took Neil, Serena and nuLark to the sound check. It was a nice little diversion from he other stuff going on. There was a lot of turnover cast wise. On July 1, Michael Dietz makes his last appearance as Joe reading Neil's essay on the future (he's still undergoing chemo) and on July 2, David Gail is around to punch out Frank after learning that Frank set I'm up as a sex addict. Marie Wilson also first appeared on June 30, but I didn't watch that episode. I know Scott Hamner took over the first week of May, so he probably is settling in now.
Two climates happen in the same episode, or an episode or two apart, with Karen learning that Frank has been spying on her from an apartment across from hers and that this is how he set up Joe for the sex phone calls and the hooker Janell. It's like they are resetting the characters, which I don't necessarily blame them. I don't hate the sex addict stuff (but I haven't seen the build), but it definitely feels like something Bill Levinson would have tried on Riche's GH. I think Gail is meant to be a "tougher" Joe, which I think Gail does effectively present even if Dietz is the stronger dramatic actor. Wilson is suitable, but fits in better in some of the family stuff later.
Courtney and Frank are thick as thieves and Frank briefly hints that he is going on to turn on Courtney since he's already going down. This dynamic is fun. I think centering them in the story going forward with a new Joe and Karen would be a smart move.
There is some interesting psychological stuff going on with Karen and her fear of trusting men. It's never directly stated, but Karen lacking trust makes sense. She was molested by Ray Conway and Jagger has cheated on her at the tailend of their marriage. Throw in her stripper past and I could see how this all would leave Karen very unsettled. There is a lot of interesting things to explore here, but I'm not sure they will be.
The other big climax is the reveal that Lucy and DV slept together when Lucy had amnesia when DV sent Scott a video of Lucy and DV making out. This is a pretty decent set of scenes for Lucy and Scott despite the hideousness of the act itself. I was pleasantly surprised to see the show go there, even in 1999, and have Gail say it was a violation as well Scott saying Lee he's afraid he is repeating what happened with Scott and Laura. Scott's source of anger isn't the act itself, but the ensuing lie, while Lucy maintains she didn't want to hurt Scott. By the end, Scott is furious with DV as he should be.
In the other major story, Julie and Chris have announced their plans to marry and Julie wants Lee removed as her guardian, hoping to install Chris' shady lawyer Darren Leopold instead. There is a lot of fun little beats with Julie calling Lucy looking for Lee but hearing Christina crying in the background. Chris goes on the news and blames Lee for some of Julie's issues as she hasn't even been tried for the 5th murder she was accused of comitting. There is a genuine sense of dread about the possibility of having Julie released from Ferncliff.This leads to a standoff between Lee, Chris and Julie leading to Lee having an attack that is later revealed to be a pulmonary embolism.
It doesn't look good for Lee and there are a lot of family scenes. There is a "final goodbye" between Scott and Lee that is very poignant with Scott refusing to say its a goodbye. The Baldwin family is such a tight unit in this sequence with a very nice delivery of a monologue from Marie Wilson's Karen about how she imagined what her grandparents would be like growing up and how Lee and Gail are better than she could have imagined. Playing this with all of the DV material in the background, not mentioned, gives this a little more oomph.
I know Scott Hamner gets raked over the coals for the psychic spy stuff, and rightfully so, but this material isn't bad. It's not Karen Harris' "Port Charles" but more appealing than a lot of Latham's material that I've seen. A lot of the domestic stories are well done and I find the overall presence of characters like Gail and Lee charming. There's something very appealing about this.
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dc11786 ·
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