AMC: Tuesday, May 7 Discussion

[Jonathan]

Glad Tad's not dead, but I'm not liking that he's on assignment. It makes no sense. I just can't believe he would leave his step son who's in a coma and his wife who previously returned from the dead twice.

I'd rather he be estranged from Dixie. That would make more sense.

[Cheap21]

Tad and Dixie aren't married. It looks like they are estranged. Oh and JR has been in a coma for 5 years....what is Tad supposed to do for him?

Id rather he be wherever Jenny was. I just find it hard to believe he'd be separated from her considering he missed out on raising Kathy for the first few years of her life. I think the theory about Tad getting fed up with unstable Dixie obsessing over JR and leaving her to focus on raising his two daughters would have made more sense.

[EricMontreal22]

I'm still not fully sold on Petey--Rob seems to improve episode by episode in terms of his delivery, but I wanna see him more with Opal, and I wanna see him just quit with his "arm gesture" acting style.

However, I agree with you here--at least to an extent. I think given paying more attention to his looks, and being a huge instant money making success (which does make sense with his old character,) I can sorta buy it. Remember too when he was a kid he was a huge flirt with babysitter Kendall, etc, and seemed pretty savvy with people--so he went through an awkward stage post puberty--which happens--and then ina new setting that has changed. Yes, it's a bit of a stretch, but I agree with you, not a huge one.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha I had never heard of these stores, but just did an image search for Lily Pulitzer--and you're spot on.

re Ace. I still wonder how much AJ knows about all that--would Adam or someone actually take Miranda asideand say "Please don't use that name, because, bla bla"?

I do agree here. I will trust that this is being done largely to set up and give context to the new young cast, and that will change, but...

[EricMontreal22]

Stuart coming back softened him? (and Brooke and the JR drama?) I suspect Tad has stayed away on purpose--that would be more interesting anyway.

[DavidsMuse]

Perhaps Tad being "incommunicado on an assignment" is just a cover lie because he's sheltering David and Cara's child at her request in San Juan!

[Chris B]

I'm not feeling AMC as a whole. I don't think they're doing a good job of setting up these stories and I don't understand the pacing, which is a problem I had with McPherson's DAYS. I know it's still early, but I'm not getting that satisfied feeling of wanting to "tune in tomorrow." There are individual things I like, good actors and good performances, but I don't see it coming together.

The younger actors are very, very green. By this I'm talking about AJ and Petey. I just will never enjoy this actor as Petey, or this more generic "soap hunk" that he's become. The entire show seems centered around these kids, which is the wrong way to do things since they're all new actors. I need the adults to start doing something and not all supporting the kids all the time. I want Bianca to have a friend and a storyline, I want Adam to be up to something and have some conflict with Brooke. Dixie seems nuts. I do like what they're doing with Jesse, Angie, David and Cara though.

Now the biggest problem I have is Cassandra. I have a feeling she won't be a good actress, but we'll see. What bothers me is whole sex trafficking aspect of this story. What a random way to start this show. I just don't see much of a purpose in the long term. They're REALLY going to have to sell this for me to be okay with it.

[EricMontreal22]

We need more of a connection than that one meet-cute scene. As someone else said, it makes some sense for Celia--she's the classic gothic girl who's been somewhat confined all this time. But why is Pete so drawn to her? Even if we had another week of them bumping into each other and him being more and more intrigued, it would play better. That's seriously my only real issue with any of AMC right now. I loved the brief spooky music when Celia saw the mirror again today though

I don't think human traffickers really care if their "cargo" have an STD or not...

[EricMontreal22]

The return to a smaller town Peyton Place feeling is *great* I think. (I've quoted Francesca James, when she was EP in the 90s, saying that's how she saw AMC, and I think it makes sense--I hope they can even expand this--eventually bring on some gossipy older society women the way we had with Enid Nelson, etc, though I'm fine with a slow build of characters.)

Welcome to your first post on the forum! Always nice to see another big Brooke fan here

Oh and wait--Cassie tweeted help to you?

[Wizzerkat]

Dixie *is* partially right. Adam was not the worst father on Earth, but he did plenty to make JR the way he is. Dixie and Tad did their part, too. Heck, they spent his early years fighting over him and they both never liked when the other parent's traits showed up in JR. JR has done lots of stupid things but a more sane upbringing would have helped.

[OLTL_fan]

Why would AJ be suspended from school for something that happened outside of school?

Miranda/Bianca scenes were really sweet. Miranda and the actress are growing on me.

Pete's ugly ass friend is disgusting. Hope we don't see him again.

[Vee]

I actually liked Dylan a lot, despite his Quest for Fire sloping brow.

Good stuff with the kids. I rolled my eyes a little at the classic soap bit with Celia walking in, but whatever. I think the move of Miranda to Bramwell Hall will be very smart for story. Weaving stuff together more. I love the Peyton Place feel, and I think AMC in particular has to build from scratch with a lot of its cast so I am a lot more accepting of some of the older characters in support roles, at least for right now. I also suspect they are working with David Canary's availability, as he is, I think, at least semi-retired and had to be cajoled to return. I do wish they could make Brooke's wardrobe a little hipper. I thought the pacing on the Adam/Dixie scenes was really rough, also. That needed a lot more time and dialogue. We suddenly cut back to Adam going, "I love you, son" - no. But I suppose you can also dig into that a lot more when J.R. awakens.

I'm still agnostic on the Cassandra story. I really like the level of detail in the investigation but even as I adjust to the pacing - and know that these thugs are in fact working in a timeframe of mere days onscreen to pacify their victims, so it is a deliberate rush - I just don't have an interest in watching Cassandra turn into a drug addict overnight.

[AMCHistory]

I love that anology, and I definetly feel that was how AMC was in the 96-98 period with Francesca at the healm. We had a school that kids actually went to, we had full family units who went to dinner at the local restaurants, and we had characters like Enid and Marian whose noses were so far up in the air that they could not possible see where they were walking.

I want to see town galas to be masquerade balls at beautiful private mansions, and not at the FUSION wharehouse. I want to see weddings/ birthday parties/ funerals where the entire town is invited because that's just the way it is.

I hope that the current AMC continues down this route.

[EricMontreal22]

I loved the scenes but definitely agree on the editing there--that aspect didn't work.

[jfung79]

Better episode Tuesday than Monday's rather poor one. Rebecca Taylor has now become one of the better AMC dialogue writers in my opinion.

The human trafficking story is becoming more socially relevant, with more depth -- the "good cop, bad cop" routine between Uri and Vlad, manipulative "trust building," and hooking Cassandra on drugs so she will cooperate. From what I've read, these are all real things that happen when girls are forced into trafficking (although I think the profile of most of these girls is not really like Cassandra -- they are younger, from more broken homes, perhaps recruited by unsavory people in their families).

I'm glad AJ was suspended -- zero tolerance for violence is the right policy, although the show still is painting AJ as unrepentant and unwilling to think how he could have taken a better action to defend Miranda. Students fighting each other can be suspended wherever that takes place (and that's as it should be -- imagine if the school bully couldn't be suspended just because he did it all off campus). Hopefully Hunter was suspended too.

Eric Nelsen seemed too one-note in his acting choices when he was outraged. I think he should have toned it down and played against the emotion of the line sometimes.

The guy who played Dylan Wilder was really good. Too bad he wasn't cast in one of the main roles.

Glad Miranda and Bianca had a bonding session. Still a little too heavy on the eye-rolling from Denyse Tontz, but I'm feeling better about the story. Don't like this whole transfer idea though -- feels like Miranda giving up, and it may be contrived plot to send Miranda to Bramwell. Hopefully she won't actually transfer.

Dixie/Adam were okay, although Adam's flip flop to say he loved JR was a little quick. I'm ready for JR to move his hands, talk, or open his eyes when there are people actually there. I liked Adam being worried David might go after AJ next.

I agree with Chris B that the show needs to revolve more around the established actors at first with the newbies being built up, rather than revolving so much around the newbies right away. If these actors were as talented as the OLTL newbies Rob Gorrie and Corbin Bleu, who are probably only slightly less heavily featured than the AMC newbies if not more, and if their stories were more grounded in reality, they might be able to pull it off, but that isn't the case. I'm glad they have Celia interacting with Brooke.