OLTL: RC talks about the Shane bullying storyline

[dragonflies]

No actual spoilers

http://www.soapoperadigest.com/features/one-life-to-live/interviews/abcs_of_bullying/

[aMLCproduction]

Man my heart really hurts for Shane. I hope Jack gets what's coming to him

[Melroser]

This story could be a good one if it were played by young kids that could act or involve characters that the viewers actually are drawn towards.

If there were gonna be any kind of bullying story at Llanview High, why not have it be against Destiny? With the backstory of her crazy brother that turned out to be her dad, wouldn't kids make fun of her? It's scary to say, I know, but I'd much rather watch Destiny play out this story than the other kids. They can already tie-in Matthew, Dani, and Nate (which you know the show will use anyway...why not for this story?)

Then we wouldn't have to sit through the additional brats Shane, Jack, and Jack's little wanna-bes that we don't even know.

[Soapsuds]

The problem I have is that RC isnt addressing the issue of why Jack is doing it. Ron doesnt even know why he is doing this...

[AllMyDaysatGH]

That is what I've been wondering as I watch this S/L play out...I'm like um why is Jack even doing this? Dude was younger than Shane before the holiday season ended, now he's SORAS'ed to the same age as Shane & he's bullying him, LOL. What are his reasons for even doing this to Shane, why wasn't there any buildup to it??

[Khan]

It's times like these when I wish Agnes Nixon were still writing. She knew how to weave a contemporary issue into a story w/o making it feel like they were doing it strictly for the sake of doing it.

[Cheap21]

I wonder if they will have Shane try to kill himself. Juvenile suicide does happen and has been getting quite a bit of recent coverage

[Khan]

Even better (sort of)? Shane is declared brain dead as a result of his suicide attempt. Gigi wants to keep him on life support, because she believes a miracle could still occur; however, Rex believes the opposite, that there's no hope of recovery for their son. Ultimately, Rex's wishes (that Shane be taken off life support) are granted. Gigi retaliates by filing suit against Todd and Jack, claiming that Jack's bullying tactics directly led to her son's death. She finds an unlikely ally in Clint, who cannot stand Todd or the fact that Bo continues to have anything at all with Rex. Although Gigi wins the case, she has also succeeded in destroying her and Rex's relationship. Unable to reconcile with Rex or cope with Shane's death, then, Gigi decides to leave Llanview for good.

[All My Shadows]

No one in daytime seems to have the patience to write a whole, complete "social issues" story, honestly. If they would only research some of these real-life stories, they'd see that they didn't begin and end within a year. It's a long-term thing, people!

[Khan]

ICAM.

[dragonflies]

I agree but at the same time I don't think viewers have the patience anymore for long term stories. From what I've read at various boards if something lasts more than 2 months people start saying it's gone on too long. This is a fast paced world and people seem to think the same goes for soaps

[Khan]

But are they saying that, b/c it's going on for too long, or b/c it's going on for too long and it's badly written? I think there's a difference.

[teplin]

I really like your ideas, Khan – and I'm pretty darn sure they're better than anything that will actually play out on screen.

I tend to cut Carlivati more slack than a lot of you, mostly because I've ratcheted down my expectations for soaps so far, but story depth is definitely not one of his strengths.

[All My Shadows]

I think if they start slow and start small, they might be able to get the audience to go with it. Don't have nuJack humiliating Shane every week for a year and a half. That would be too much. But little things every now and then...Shane comes home from school upset, his idiot parents might have one brain between the two of them that day and ask him what's wrong, but he says "nothing." We can see some instances of the bullying, and then sometimes we can only assume that it's going on.

I'm not watching OLTL right now, but how does the bullying actually start? I mean, they never really mentioned Shane being particularly unpopular at school before, so for him to go from somewhat well-adjusted (as far as soap teens go) to the breaking point they're trying to get him to all in just a matter of months...it's just so false to me.

[Ben]

It started off really randomly. IIRC Shane started receiving nasty messages online, Echo found out and agreed to let him handle it. FF several weeks of nothing, and nuJack débuts and is instantly revealed to be Shane's bully.

Apart from the fact that the story is moving too fast, I'm really not invested in any of it at all. The horrendous acting just takes me out of every scene nuJack and his bratty followers are in, and the fact we haven't had a chance to adapt to nuJack before all this, makes it twice as hard to care about him. But b/c he's an established character, we're supposed to just go with it simply b/c Jack has changed heads, and except that his screwed up family is the motivate for his bullying of Shane (even though they haven't taken the time to actually give him a motive). The story has a lot of potential, but it's completely wasted on these wooden actors and bad pacing/writing.

And now they're giving the story some added shock value, which will make it even more unwatchable. It all feels like too much plot and not enough character.