OLTL-Shane/Jack/New Character Spoilers

[Khan]

See, this is what happens when a show begins to believe its own hype. For years, critics praised the fact that OLTL was a rare soap that could make otherwise unsympathetic characters - Brad Vernon, Karen Wolek, Marco Dane - into almost antiheroes and -heroines. And that's true: OLTL, under Gordon Russell and Sam Hall, did have the capacity to make you empathize with characters who probably did not deserve it. What Ron and Frank do not seem to understand, however, was that the other guys never accomplished this at the expense of whitewashing their misdeeds or insulting the viewers' intelligence. They just crafted multi-dimensional and complex characters and left the empathy up to the viewers.

[DRW50]

I think it's down to Todd. Todd was the last "breakout" character OLTL had. They could not be more clumsy in their attempts to recreate him if they had Ford and Jack wearing Roger Howarth masks.

[Juliajms]

LMAO! It's going to be very hard for me to ever like Jack again if this ends in suicide. Otherwise, I could probably feel for the kid who did the bullying to some degree, if the show gave me a reason to. I think it's often true that bullies were victim's first, but we know that Todd doesn't beat the kid, so they can't fall back on that.

[All My Shadows]

I totally agree. It goes back to what Irna Phillips said in that all-too-brief clip of her at the 50 Years of Soap thing on YouTube, something about there not being people who are "good" or "bad," that it's not that easy. The problem is that Ron, Frank, and whoever don't have the patience or the skill to carefully and meticulously plot it out so that the audiences goes into the storyline already partial to Jack and his problems (which sounds stupid now because have they even established that Jack has problems?). Instead, what I'm sure they're going to do is save the Crowning Moment of Redemption for some half-ass "twist" that comes out of nowhere, and that's supposed to stick a Band Aid on it. And of course that's gonna suck.

I'm terribly, terribly interested and fascinated by the psychological aspects of deviant behavior, and I'm a strong believer in forgiveness and understanding, even when it's hard to have both, and so this type of story should have me excited but it doesn't because OLTL sucks.

[IcyOne]

Hush.

[IcyOne]

It always comes down to Todd with you. You obsess over, and are obsessed with, this character. The show is pulling your leash and you're barking.