Up to August 4th, 1992.

"The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist."

 I haven't been writing my thoughts as much as I usually do, because I just didn't have the time. Lots of work and personal events. I still watch religiously - 1 to 2 episodes a day. Today I realized that if I don't write them down soon, I'll just lose track of what I saw. I love going back months and months later and re-reading these posts and that's the main reason I do it. So bear with me, while I dive back into Llanview. A very dark Llanview.

🔷

The judge decided that - No, Leanne is not a slut... and no, she didn't cheat on her "husband". I mean... seriously? I was surprised by this decision, but I also like that the writers are giving Leanne and Jason this honeymoon happy period, before the REAL problems begin. Leanne has lots of bad karma that needs to come back and bite her. 

 🔷

Marty's path of destruction continues. She made underaged Billy drink alcohol to a point he needed to be hospitalized. But this time she was not so good at hiding her trail of lies. Everyone started to suspect she was the one that started the nasty rumor. And in the end... we even got some sort of confession. I think they are beginning to plant the seeds for a future feud between Victoria and Marty. In a way Marty is the anti-Victoria. Good VS Evil. And I like it. The actress that plays Marty has really impressed me the last few episodes. REALLY, really impressed me. 

 🔷

Tina and Cain have been in and out of jails and cages to a point where anytime I see them I cringe. I can't NOT criticize the writers for this. This is so far from anything real or authentic, it borders on cartoon. Tina spends all her time kissing and flirting with Cain and we don't even see her children anymore. She used to be non-stop with them. Now, they have ceased to exist. Tina acts like a single woman. A very stupid one may I add. Their scenes are unbearably boring and repetitive.

🔷

Talking about repetitive. Alex Olanov has been given some sort of adversary - a pathetic caricature of a mobster with a snake as a pet. A snake that terrifies Alex and makes her overact. Yikes. Gone are the nuances I saw in this character months and months ago. She is a full-blown animation character - A Cruella Devil-wannabe which has her own theme song, constantly laughs and pops her eyes to seem crazy and psychotic. I NEED them to tone her the f-ck DOWN. I have no idea where this is going, but I don't like it.

🔷

This is some sort of additional comment - I miss my favorites - Dorian and Blair. Dorian just recently came back for a few scenes, but she is definitely resting and backburned. Blair is nowhere to be seen right now. Maybe that's why I'm having problems watching at times. When you favorites are gone, sometimes it's hard to wait for them. But I know they will be back soon, so I'm just pushing through.

🔷

Overall - 6,5/10.

If I had to vote only for half the show - the serious side of it, the darker storyline... I would vote 10/10, but the rest of the comedic Cleopatra/Mob/Tina/Cain stuff is just so cheap and idiotic that it brings the whole show down. This is the first period since I've started watching where the show feels unbalanced. I hope it will fix itself very soon. It hasn't been that long, so the damage is not done yet. I don't want to sound too critical, but I also try to be as completely honest here.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Clip of the day

Marty vs Victoria!  The source of the horrible rumor is finally... confirmed.

Edited September 7Sep 7 by Maxim

I love reading Vee’s 1991 reflections and Maxim’s 1992 reflections. I love this show so much. 
 

I still have to finish 1992 but at the time I watched it wasn’t available online and it was TOUGH to get through the Carlo murder mystery and the idiotic Tina/Cain scenes plus Maggie the cop. This is a great example of a soap being 30 minutes. Oddly enough I think the brief 45 minute runtime would have been ideal to keep (not that I was watching then)
 

Elaine Prince, Mia Korf and the Billy Douglas story really saved 1992 for me overall in what I have seen although I can’t say I was ever attached to Jason or LeeAnn. 

Those scenes between Marty and Viki are great. I never thought of it, but since Megan’s exit ushered Marty in, I really wish Megan had been this much of a hellraiser when she was revealed as Viki’s daughter, they clashed only very briefly with little character driven drama before getting along well. A missed opportunity there. 

2 hours ago, soapfave06 said:

I love reading Vee’s 1991 reflections and Maxim’s 1992 reflections. I love this show so much. 
 

I still have to finish 1992 but at the time I watched it wasn’t available online and it was TOUGH to get through the Carlo murder mystery and the idiotic Tina/Cain scenes plus Maggie the cop. This is a great example of a soap being 30 minutes. Oddly enough I think the brief 45 minute runtime would have been ideal to keep (not that I was watching then)
 

Elaine Prince, Mia Korf and the Billy Douglas story really saved 1992 for me overall in what I have seen although I can’t say I was ever attached to Jason or LeeAnn. 

Hi @soapfave06, I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in my antipathy for the Tina-Cain stuff... About Maggie... Ugh, that's all I can say. Even though her acting has improved from 1 to a 3 in the scale from 1 to 10... she is still very much... a bad look for the show. Thank God they are at least not attempting to give her anything important. You just can't easily go from a scene with Blair or Victoria... to Maggie and not feel a sense of shock.  

Aaand I'm very happy that you enjoy my commentaries. I don't pretend to know everything about the show and I'm still learning as I go, and that's part of the beauty for me. I used to have a very wrong impression of OLTL, based on some 2003 episodes I had seen and some 80s camp. I had written it off as a very bad show in my mind, not my cup of tea. So when one of my dear soap friends begged me to give late 1991 a chance... I was very reluctant. But now... nearly 12 months into the show... I'm very grateful I did this. 

I can't wait for 1993, as I've heard it's a particularly strong year from people. 

I have no memory of this Maggie character, even though I watched during this time. I do remember liking Cain and Tina, and I especially liked the Angela storyline. I also think they didn't know what to do with Alex once they decided to keep her so she went from vicious to comic to threatening to comic, etc. I don't know if I would have the same reaction now that I did then. I recently rewatched 1990's AW and I pretty much had the same reaction I did back in 1990 so who knows? Humour on soaps tends not to age well so I'm worried about reliving some of this.

I know Gottlieb's more dramatic stuff has aged very well except for some parts of Cassie's miscarriage storyline (mainly Strasser's terrible performance).  

1 hour ago, chrisml said:

I have no memory of this Maggie character, even though I watched during this time.

Maggie Vega is a cop who was intended as a love interest for Andrew in '92. They had planned to cast Saundra Santiago, recently off Miami Vice, but she backed out for some reason at the last moment. The actress they got instead is, uh, a lot. They then reportedly noticed the chemistry between Krimmer and Laura Bonarrigo, and went there instead. To my knowledge Maggie has no relation to the Vega family, but you never know.

SS, of course, went on to do GL before returning to OLTL briefly in 2004 during Malone II, as part of the dismal Santi saga where she played Antonio's biological mother Isabella Santi (a.k.a. Angelina Paredes) in one of the more bizarre and painful death scenes I've ever seen on a soap. Later she was the emergency Carlotta recast in the late 2000s after Patricia Mauceri quit over Carlotta being pro-gay.

Edited September 7Sep 7 by Vee

1 hour ago, chrisml said:

I have no memory of this Maggie character, even though I watched during this time. I do remember liking Cain and Tina, and I especially liked the Angela storyline. I also think they didn't know what to do with Alex once they decided to keep her so she went from vicious to comic to threatening to comic, etc. I don't know if I would have the same reaction now that I did then. I recently rewatched 1990's AW and I pretty much had the same reaction I did back in 1990 so who knows? Humour on soaps tends not to age well so I'm worried about reliving some of this.

I know Gottlieb's more dramatic stuff has aged very well except for some parts of Cassie's miscarriage storyline (mainly Strasser's terrible performance).  

I think your memory did you a favor when it erased Maggie from itself. Overall she is just incredibly stiff and... amateurish. The type of acting you see in film school projects.  

BTW, I just saw 2 more episodes and one of them was really spectacular. It felt like the show was back on it's feet. We saw Victoria torn about what to do when Sloan offered her to go away with him on a boat. She did not expect that. Tried to lie that she has things planned, but he knew that she wanted to say YES. I'm sure of that. It was in her EYES and her smile. Then...  Clint saw her in the restaurant with Sloan... he saw her smiling and giggling. When they were alone in their bedroom, getting ready for sleep, he was questioning her about Sloan. The small gestures... the touch of the nose when she was answering... I got goosebumps. Erika Slezak played this SO well. She was actually lying to Clint in that moment about what they were talking about. Later when feeling guilt that she was thinking about Sloan... Victoria woke Clint to tell him she loves him. I got goosebumps again. This is the type of soap opera I want to see. 

I will write more about it tomorrow in my regular commentaries. I'm just so excited right now. 

3 hours ago, Vee said:

Maggie Vega is a cop who was intended as a love interest for Andrew in '92. They had planned to cast Saundra Santiago, recently off Miami Vice, but she backed out for some reason at the last moment. The actress they got instead is, uh, a lot. They then reportedly noticed the chemistry between Krimmer and Laura Bonarrigo, and went there instead. To my knowledge Maggie has no relation to the Vega family, but you never know.

Thank you Vee for the explanation. I must have really blocked her out. This is my fave period of OLTL and yet I remember nothing. And Thanks @Maximfor the extra information. I think I also confused her with Crystal Chappell's character at first--another character that didn't work. 

Up to August 6th, 1992.

"Sleepless in Llanview."

  I just couldn't wait...

🔷

Just as when I think Leanne can't get any trashier, she surprises me. The newest thing is that she is taking her practically newborn baby in dirty, loud-music, drunk people bars... just because she feels bored and like she wants to entertain herself with friends. Kevin found her dancing with the baby in the middle of the bar and asked a very good question "So this is your idea of being a good mother?" The custody battle will be hardcore. Leanne, IMO is dangerous to this child. She is incredibly selfish and reckless and can't be trusted. But she is the boy's mother. Kevin is not bright either, but at least he has a better support system than Leanne. I would prefer Duke raised with people like Victoria around. Still, a child without it's mother... is almost always destined for misery.

🔷

 What about Tina and Cain? Nothing new, of course, the same old repetitive "Bonnie and Clyde" scenes. Tina needs a reality check. One of her children should get the flu or something to remind the viewers she is not a single early 20s girl. This infantile behavior is so off-putting. I liked Tina a lot better when I started watching the October 1991 episodes. Back then I could imagine a woman like that existing, actually... I know that they exist - a tired housewife that wants to stand out and get back her own identity, yet still keep her family intact and raise her children well. She was rebelling against Cord who always thought the worst of her and underestimated her. Well, what she is doing right now is sort of proving that Cord may have been right - she is irresponsible and stupid. She hasn't stopped for one second to think what mixing with these people like Cain and Alex can do to her family and children. I find her frivolity suffocating. P.S - I adore the actress. She is one of my favorites in the show.

🔷

Reverend Carpenter and his supporters are organizing a protest that has slogans like "Kiss and tell NOT" and they want to protect the rights of all Llanview citizens to keep what is happening in their bedrooms a private thing. (Tell this to Dorian Lord who lives off of people's ejaculate and tears) At the same time, Andrew is being investigated by all kinds of authority figures - from the church, from police... and all of them seem to want to nail him for something. Anything. They don't even care now if he is gay or not. They want to crucify him. This has turned into a witch-hunt. I applaud Malone and the other writers for attempting to tell a storyline like this. It takes guts to show society's true face - to make the viewers see themselves in a mirror.  

🔷

Now let's get to the best part in these 2 episodes. I shared a description of these scenes last night and promised to continue my review today. Hearing Renee say: (while observing Sloan and Victoria dine together) - "If she continues with this... she may lose a lot." sounded like a prophecy. You can't hide that chemistry. Clint sees it too, but for now Victoria manages to come out of the questioning unscathed. I think she is close to having a "Bridges of Madison" moment. At one hand, she feels like she owes so much to her husband, a man that she loves and cares for... but a part of her wants to experience something "just for herself". This is a very human battle that a lot of us go through in our lives. And what we choose determines our future. Internal conflicts like this are gold for drama. Absolute GOLD.

 🔷

Overall - 8/10.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Clip of the day

Clint questions Victoria about Sloan.

 

16 hours ago, Vee said:

Later she was the emergency Carlotta recast in the late 2000s after Patricia Mauceri quit over Carlotta being pro-gay.

Patricia Mauceri says she was fired 

Patricia Mauceri also conveniently forgot that she was in a gay film, I think I Do when she was going on her "I can't do a gay storyline" tour. Tuc Watkins was in the same film so I wonder what he thought of her behaviour.

My sweet Carlotta (the actress) was anti-gay?  Ugh, that makes me sad knowing this after all these years.

8 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

My sweet Carlotta (the actress) was anti-gay?  Ugh, that makes me sad knowing this after all these years.

She made a big production of how Carlotta would not have supported Fish and Kyle getting married. I think the character had not had any problem with gay people (if anyone else remembers otherwise let me know) so it felt like she was pushing her own beliefs onto the character.

5 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

Patricia Mauceri says she was fired 

She essentially refused to do the scripted scenes and got herself fired, so at that point it's a semantic thing AFAIC. It was all because of the silly scenes where Carlotta mistook Cristian for coming out instead of Fish, IIRC. Carlotta had never been shown to be anti-gay.

23 hours ago, Vee said:

SS, of course, went on to do GL before returning to OLTL briefly in 2004 during Malone II, as part of the dismal Santi saga where she played Antonio's biological mother Isabella Santi (a.k.a. Angelina Paredes) in one of the more bizarre and painful death scenes I've ever seen on a soap. 

I was barely watching at this time and one of the times I tune in, she's falling on a glass, whimpering in pain, and bleeding out. I was traumatized and horrified. I don't know what the show was even meant to be at this time.