OLTL: Discussion for the week of April 4

[SFK]

With her braces off and her high hair that flatters her face, I thought Destiny looked dare I say kind of pretty today.

HBS played that scene about finding Matthew in an odd, sort of gray way that I think will serve the story down the line.

ES was on fire and did y'all catch Kimmer try to steal the scene back by jumping on her line? I could watch those two all week.

It was interesting how Blair's dialogue seemed to directly address some of yesterday's thread conversation.

Is there a way that I can make the font on my texts as huge as it was on Jack's phone?

[AlexElizabeth]

I don't believe that Nora saw Matthew and left, that just sounded ridiculous to me.

[MontyB]

I think she's doing a good job too. The Talk? Ugh!!! Nothing will ever make me watch that dreck.

+1

[oltl1]

Another great episode today. ES and KZ are rocking it hard! I can't wait for Viki to find out that Dorian has known all along about Charlie and Echo and didn't say anything. Finally, Viki and Dorian can have real conflict rooted in something true and not petty or childish.

Props to the writers for taking the time to show how everyone is being affected by Shane's actions. I enjoyed Blair talking to Starr about her poor choices over the years and how this is her payment, Bo, Nora and Destiny each showing both their fear and concern and even FF and JPL were tolerable today. Now if they could just get James and that new girl off my screen!

[Khan]

Yeah, I get a "too much too soon" vibe from Dirty Deanna, too.

[CouchTomato]

It's not working for me either. The moment where it really jumped the shark was when Blair told Starr she was the wisest of all of them. I couldn't stop laughing. Really? Right after leaving James (who she's spent most of her time chasing after or with), Starr unexpectedly found out her little girl (who she's rarely with) wasn't with one of her many babysitters! She had been taken without her permission by someone she thought was still locked up in St. Ann's for kidnapping a baby. It's like we're not supposed to remember anything that just happened the other day. Drink the kool-aid Blair and Starr are serving. I found Starr to be too young and immature to be playing "You're not a bad parent" scenes with Blair. KA doesn't have the gravitas to pull off mature scenes IMO. It should've been an adult with Blair. But I can't think of anyone in the Cramer family who could've done them. Kelly would've worked except she isn't even raising or remembering her own young son. It's sad how emotionally bankrupt and plot-driven OLTL's familial connections have become.

[CouchTomato]

It's ironic that the instigator of most of the bullying is nuJack's little buddy who's about CLP's size. nuJack has to look down to get instructions on what to do next. Bullies don't always have to be taller than everyone else. Mitch is short and slight. Recasting Jack with someone larger (who can't act) was a quick easy way to suddenly turn him into a deadly bully overnight. I still can't believe they hired someone with no acting experience. I doubt he would've been called back for a minor role on a CW show.

[DRW50]

The familial connections were what drove OLTL for years. Now the show wants it both ways - they ignore and deliberately marginalize most family relationships, yet then when it's time for another contrived event, suddenly you have some attempt to act like this is part of the story. They did this for years with Jessica - gee Viki is just a neglectful mother, so that's why Tess runs riot. Now it's suddenly, Todd and Blair ruined their child, even though for years the writing claimed that it was fun for Jack to be the way he was. Rex runs around for years cheating and lying and having a dozen paternity rewrites, acting like a pampered brat, but suddenly he remembers he's a father again long enough for JPL to ruin more scenes with his monkey faces.

[Lust4Life76]

LOL!

[Lust4Life76]

Oh my God you guys you are killing me over here. I am laughing my bum off at this little sub-conversation, you're so cute. Leave it to soap fan to pick out the fan favorites from yesteryear. I love you people!

[CouchTomato]

I love your avatar, EyewitnessNews! Wish I was that skilled at making an avatar. Beautifully done by you with Erika's help.

I vividly remember Viki slapping Dorian (Elaine Princi) during the Viki/Sloan years. It was while Dorian was stalking them to get dirt on both and Viki/Clint were estranged. She spied them having a picnic in Viki's office at The Banner and snapped a picture of their final hug. It was a farewell hug because Sloan was leaving Llanview for good but that didn't matter. Dorian later ran over to Llanfair to brag on the snappie she was going to show Clint. Viki accused her of doing that just to cause Clint pain. Back then, Dorian still despised both Clint and Viki as well as Sloan and vice versa. "If you want to know who's really to blame for his pain, you should look in the mirror." Viki hauled off and slapped the crap out of her mouth. OMG. Then she looked stunned that she'd done that. More trivia: I think Viki is wearing the same fake-black diamond maxie coat from the Viki/Sloan years that she wore this week with Echo. It always looked stunning on her especially in her scenes with Sloan outside Marty's house after Andrew and Cassie's wedding. The stuff I remember from a "stupid" soap opera yet many times, I can't even remember my PIN at the check out.

[Lust4Life76]

Oh where do I start...after the visual food poisoning Korny Kardissin' gave me I had to shy away from Llanview for a bit. And boy was I hooked when I returned. Now for starters, there have been some great clips of One Life to Live put up on YouTube in honor of Erika Slezak's 40 year anniversary. I was able to recall how richly the show was written back in the early-mid 90's. I also got to become reacquainted with Erin Torpey's work as Jessica Buchanan. It made me think...Erin was a truly talented young girl. She knew how to play her role unlike a majority of the younger set that crowds the canvas today.

I still enjoy One Life to Live. I like some things about almost all the stories that are going on right now...and some I do not. I loved Viki walking in on Charlie and Echo. The events that unfolded afterwards were great, stellar soapy moments and we are so lucky to have Erika Slezak and Kim Zimmer play off of one another in such a fashion. I just miss Robin Strasser and wish she had some better material of her own.

I was very satisfied with the Eddie Ford murder climaxing with Matthew's (nice job Eddie Alderson) confession to his parents Bo and Nora that he shot the b@$tard, not Clint. Matthew was the last person I would suspect and he did it! Robert S. Woods and Hillary B. Smith were super as they weighed the outcome of their son's crime.

All the other characters (especially the young set) seem to come and go, come and go, nudging the story along. Some of these plots aren't evolving fast enough for me. Like the Cutter/Aubrey mystery which has initiated a rampant game of sexual roulette....Aubrey "loves" Joey, Joey pines for Kelly and vice versa though Kelly seeks solace with Cutter and then John who reciprocates after his broken relationship with Natalie who seeks solace from Brody who again seems to be finding comfort in his sister in law’s arms after his broken relationship with Jessica who is not Jessica, but her seedy alter ego Tess who is attracted to Ford, James, Cutter...and yet there is no emotional substance behind any of this. The excuses for why these people are turning to each other are flimsy at best. There is one pairing that actually seems rather interesting but it’s none of the aforementioned. It’s Cristian and Rama, but they weren’t on this week ...though there is always Friday's show

The bully storyline is well executed, but I agree the acting isn't there to fill the pivitol roles to tell this story. Andrew Trischitta, the actor playing Jack, his apathetic delivary is distracting me from becoming engaged. I do like Austin Williams, and I find it ironic he is playing “the bullied” when in the movie "Phoebe in Wonderland" he played the antagonist towards an effeminate male classmate. Austin seems up to the challenge and is doing a decent job with the work. However, John-Paul Lavoisier and Farah Fath (exasperaed sigh)both are inconsistent...Farah is actually doing some good things, but she tends to read almost too contrived in her hysterics. Also, the actress isn’t very giving with other scene partners unless they are Erika Slezak, Austin Williams, or real life honey John-Paul. As for John-Paul, he has the habit of taking the most dramatic moment involving another character and pulling focus when he chooses to "ham things up". There were moments during the storyline where I questioned his choices.

Susan Haskell’s Marty days seem to be numbered. I am sorry to see her go as rumored. What a terrific actress, yet the character suffered due to storyline that was plot driven. I want her character to be redeemed to be embraced again not treated like a pariah. At least John and Starr both showed her compassion while holier than thou Marty haters Natalie and Brody were reminded of the things they have done in their own lives. I am hoping Haskell's leave from One Life will be temporary.

Anyways, those were some things that impressed upon me. And in short the episodes this week showed promise that future stories could intertwine all characters of all backgrounds, cultures and generations, like it used to back in the 90’s. I would love for the canvas to be a bit more contained. I am hoping next week we aren’t buried in Ford brothers and the other game of revolving teenage angst.

PS Is anyone thinking about cancelling their facebook/myspace account after this week? I thought there was some interesting points via sublte commentary in the Jack/Shane bullying storyline about how technology is so engrained in our lives.

Erik

[CouchTomato]

(I still can't get the hang of multi-quote.) Jack was funny at Christmas when he was teasing Sam about Santa. Suddenly he's a big bully who doesn't care that his victim (an asthmatic classmate who he knows survived cancer via chemo and a bone marrow transplant) nearly suicided because of him. Bo, Rex and everyone around them have already forgotten that Rex and Shane are Buchanans. Rex has an Uncle Bo now but that's been dropped to keep fostering their fake father-son relationship. They did this with David too. Dena butchered "Niki" and destroyed Viki to justify her favorite creation "Tess." I shudder to think what Ron will have his post-Dena caricature of "Niki" doing, just to make his own caricature of Tess even more "fun" and viciously deadly towards Viki. His Tess already tried to murder Viki twice. Neither attempt was treated as any big deal more than they were just Tess having "fun" because Viki "deserved" it.

[DRW50]

RC brought Niki back briefly as a vision Tess hallucinated when she was giving birth. The scenes were heinous and destroyed any last value Tess had, not that this has stopped them from vomiting her back up every year or so.

You're right that Rex being a Buchanan was already forgotten. I guess they did that just to try to get another shock value moment, but JPL is so bad with the various characters (and the Rex/Bo relationship is nothing more than Bo endlessly propping Rex through his failures), and the writing has no interest in developing any relationships between the characters, as they don't with David and the Buchanans.

There's no reason why Niki would return at this point. I'm just glad that ABC's ageism makes it less likely that they would have Niki bedding down with various men, the way Tess does. They probably feel sexual abuse is only hot if you don't have an AARP card.

[Cheap21]

I dont ever recall Tess trying to murder Viki twice. If you are referring to the heart attack back around 2006, Tess aggressively and insenitively attacked Viki and that was motivated by blame for her being molested. It was a heated spur of the moment conversation which escalated, NOT an attempt to kill Viki. And if the second time you are talking about is when Viki crashed the car a few years later, that was a murder attempt on Natalie. Viki wasnt supposed to be driving it. Tess didnt care both times as she didnt care for Viki, but neither was her trying to murder Viki.