Unpopular Opinions: 2012 Edition

[DynamiteKiddo]

Though my Lucky will always be GV, I can totally understand why people cry foul that both recasts were wildly different from JJ's Lucky, who wasn't even remotely a conglomeration of JY's and GV's Lucky when he returned (but GV's Lucky didn't incorporate really anything from JY's or JJ's, either). But JY's Lucky was a total jerk, totally vilified until he became afterthought post-Liz (that's when she moved on to the Jason/Zander triangle).

JJ's Lucky was a sympathetic antihero, that's a whole other story.

But GV wasn't written for until the drug story, unless you count that weird Lucky/Summer/Luke story or the briefest brief teasing with Emily when Nik was 'dead' . . . then he and Liz reunited by default and had no story until Maxie/the pills and then they were catapulted onto the front burner with the rectangle with JaSam. L&L2 were basically irrelevant through most of '04, '05 (despite their splashy wedding), and half of '06.

And then Lucky got the AJ treatment, but I'd dare to say that AJ even always had more of a POV than Lucky, even if it wasn't respected by the writers or other characters. But the initial addiction story through the Metro Court hostage crisis wasn't so bad for Lucky, and there was even seemingly hope for him and Liz . . . we saw his struggle, got the "Spencer curse" motif, then he was turning his [!@#$%^&*] around and Maxie and Ric (OMG, I loved that fall with Lucky, Jason, and Ric chasing after Liz) were constantly foiling him, and Laura's return positioned him in a good spot. And we got those amazing scenes at the hospital and, more so, at Laura's house on the porch. And then it was all over for Lucky. Guza made him a FOOL and provided him no POV, ever. He and Sam were HOT, but that's when she was being destroyed and they unfortunately had no substance, though possessed limitless potential. I think Garin Wolf was the only writer to really, truly understand this rectangle during the writers' strike and all four characters came into their own and had logical forms of self-expression with each other. Lucky learning Sam was seven kinds of shady and then her and Liz getting kidnapped . . . even though Jason saved the day over Lucky, that was such a well done climax for those four ending with the CGI areal shot of them on the bridge. But ya, Lucky always, always, always lost to Jason and was treated as a complete reject that they didn't even bother to provide with a POV.

Ugh, sorry for the rant, lol.

[SweetPea36]

Lucky and Elizabeth had the surrogacy story with Jax and Manbeast before the drug storyline, although it segued into it.

[Cheap21]

they were afterthoughts. The story was about Nikolas and Courtney and Lucky/Liz were used as a means to cause some friction between Jax and Courtney so she could cheat. It really made no sense to me why Liz would volunteer to carry Courtney's baby whom she hated and the whole Liz and Lucky were poor and desperate for money bc they had trouble paying bills was so contrived as if Lucky didnt have medical insurance being a cop. Thats another thing. GV's Lucky was ALWAYS in the hospital for something. He got shot by Helena, got injured ruing the train accident, hurt his back following trying to save Liz from Manny, etc... It was pretty ridiculous how many times this guy got hurt in such a short span

[DynamiteKiddo]

Really? I got the impression that RC was very preoccupied with Brody--the PTSD story was from his POV, and RC always gave him a case for raising Shane (which extended past providing Rex with angsty self-doubt). Brody was a tortured character who was the antagonist for an anointed couple, but I think it was clear RC wanted the audience to hear him and Adrianna out through all of it (as opposed to, let's say, Jim Reilly's presentation of and intention for Krista Allen and Julie Pinson's Billie Reed on "Days"). Then his story focused around Jess, but he was still doing his own thing, getting dragged into the Stacy bag o' blood story and even interacting with "Charlie B." (from their AA sessions).

Here's an unpopular opinion--I preferred Bree Williamson tenfold to Erin Torpey as Jess and thought Tess 2.0 was AMAZING. It dragged on for too long, but I thought it was an amazingly plotted story and I completely approved of Tina's involvement, and I understand many think she was misused and wasted there. The only thing I disliked about it was that it let Jared & Natalie off the hook, and they had a LOT to answer for regarding Nash and, well, everything.

[Cheap21]

I liked it too but it had issues. I hated how Bree was an afterthought to her though bc that was she and Nash's kid and she barely interacted with her. I hated how Tina was thrown completely under the buss and got all the blame for it. Wasnt true and wasnt fair. Her role in being blackmailed should have been a bigger deal and enough to get her somet sympathy. I also hated how Tina stayed in that house for 95% of the time she was in Llanview instead of going around town and interacting with people she was previously connected to. I did enjoy Tess though and dont think that story was awful at all.

[Skin]

It's clear as glass that Lucky was vilified to justify Laison's one night stand and so Liz could conceive from the holy Jasus' seed. I mean really, that was painstakingly apparent. Regardless, my main point was to drive home that Brody was seen as complete refuse in comparison to other characters, just like AJ, Lucky and Jax were on GH.

[DynamiteKiddo]

ITA. Save for a teeny weeny bit of teasing between Jax & Elizabeth, L&L2 were afterthoughts in that story. Even their almost-wedding and Liz dealing with miscarrying felt so "afterthought." But ya, what upset me most about that story was Liz and Courtney being all cool with each other, when they were straight-up enemies. On a related note, the bad blood between Carly and Liz during the panic room story never really got brought up, and that disappointed me, too. Not that Liz would ever, ever be ok with Carly being locked up, getting her baby stolen, and then killed . . . but it would've been nice to reference the tension there. Wasn't 2003 the year she started being referred to as "Elizabeth" over "Liz"?

[Skin]

I never liked Bree Williamson but I did love her pairing with Nash. That was the only time I found the character worthwhile her stories with Antonio, Brody and Ford were abominable and I hardcore preferred Torpey's version of Jessica when she was paired with Christian, had her rivalry with Natalie and when she had a still-born Megan. I couldn't stand Bree Williamsons' version of Jessica because the writers had to completely change everything about her character and her history in order to justify her stories and make her interesting. It got to the point where Jessica was completely unrecognizable as a person or character we had viewed for years upon years. There is a reason why fans of the last OLTL years called her Messica. She was pitiful by the end of the show.

[DynamiteKiddo]

IA. Tess' disregard for Bree and Nash's unborn child didn't jell. But I think, whether or not it an-after-the-fact thing or not, RC covered his bases when he had Tess admit she was so consumed with rage and revenge that she couldn't even see the importance of Bree and the unborn baby. Niki delivering that stillborn baby was one of the most heartbreaking, poignant scenes I've ever seen a soap.

IA that Tina should've been hobnobbing about Llanview more, esp. with Sarah and Tood, but I did think she was very effectively used. I loved her with Cain. But I'll fully admit Tina was way before my time so any kind of missed opportunities with her wouldn't have affected me the way it did others. But ICAM that it was ridiculous that Tina got run out of town over this story, but I understand that RC had to write a rushed exit for her that most likely also led to Sarah getting written out a month later.

[SweetPea36]

GH did the same thing with Carly as it has with Lucky. Both of those characters' histories were tampered with when new actors were hired for their parts.

I disagree with the word "afterthought" as it is being used here. I don't think incorporating characters into the stories of others to help drive the story along is ever a writer's "afterthought." They might be seen as somewhat inconsequential in the larger scope of things, but not afterthoughts.

The surrogacy story was part of Lucky's deterioration and the destruction of L&L2's relationship. It was a good deed that was punished.

[DynamiteKiddo]

Fair enough and IA.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Pretty much. The only difference is that poor Brody didn't have the benefit of complimentary writing that Lucky had (when JJ played the role the first time and intermittently during his last run of misery).

I'd say that Jax became a punching bag from the mid-00s on. Hooking him up with the Slagbeast was the nail in the coffin for that character.

[VirginiaHamilton]

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[DRW50]

I thought Tess 2.0 was mostly designed to have us guffaw at her running wild. I never saw an actual storyline. Part of it was probably also down to finding a way to absolve Jared and Natalie. I thought it was a story which heavily damaged everyone and, as with most of RC's stories, had no followup. Todd let Tess plot violent acts against people and he never had any remorse, and no one ever held a grudge against him. Viki sees Jessica dancing around to rock music and sees a broken mirror, and never wonders what is going on. Viki goes on a vacation for months, right after her mentally unstable daughter was widowed. Tess, who supposedly loved Nash, was more than happy to let his unborn child slowly die from neglect and malnutrition. I thought the story was just nasty. We're supposed to get hot over Tess licking a glass door, and then a few weeks later, sit through endless scenes of her delivering a stillborn child? That story was when I realized how tone deaf RC was as a writer.

I felt like all of the initial Brody story was written from the POV of Rex and Gigi. Everything they did was right, and Brody was the guy who may have cared about Shane, but slowly went insane. I think they did like writing for Mark Lawson, since he was one of the only men on the show who could act, but I think that if they hadn't written Nash out and so many of their 2008 stories hadn't flopped with viewers, Brody would have gone after shooting Rex.

As for Bree, from the first time I saw her as Jessica, I thought she was unable to generate warmth or sincerity. They eventually tried to hide this by having Jessica go nuts all the time, but without any base for the character, she amounted to a big freak show. I could always see an actress, not a character.

[DynamiteKiddo]

I don't really know what to say about Jax . . . apart from him popping up on my mid-late 90's Quartermaine tapes (OMG, do you guys remember tape trading?? LOL!), my only experience with him was from '00 (when I started watching) onward until youtube made old stuff available. I was fine with him during the spouse swapping story with Alexis, Ned, and Chloe and I thought he and Skye were ok (loved Skye, just never really saw the Jax appeal), but I turned on him hardcore when he dumped her for freakin' Brenda. I always saw him as a foil to Sonny who would always lose, with Brenda, Sam, and then the Courtney story had disaster written all over it and, ya, once he got with Carly I knew he'd even get more AJ treatment. I always thought it was nuts that Courtney wasn't more of a vocalized issue for them, considering that's how they got together (though I remember Jax and Tamara Braun's Carly being teased for a second, around the time they were testing her and Zander, too).

But even though I thought Jax was, overall, weakly characterized and not nearly as charming as he was made out to be, I thought he represented a very important part of the show and was sad to see him leave. Despite how I felt about Breda's return ruining everything on the show in '02, I did really want them to leave together (romantically) last summer to stick it to SCum. I do remember loving it when he and Kate had sex, even though that was a plot point to vilify them, but I never bought any of Guza's unholy trinity worship.