AMC: Week Of July 22, 2013 Discussion

[AMCHistory]

Eric, I am so out of the loop. With my job, I have ebbs and flows of really rough hours versus weeks on a bench (like today). So I do not always get the full 411, but always appreciate getting filled-in Well, I hope we are right, and that Canary is just enjoying his retirement. Though, I do hope he makes more regular appearences. His brief appearences at the end of the ABC AMC and start of the PP AMC were such a highlight for me.

Something not a highlight for me is this whole BCT redemption SL. He is meant to be a villain. A downright disgusting piece of vermin. I don't know why Joe nor Dixie would give this man the light of day. He seemingly killed off Tad, Joe's son and Dixie's husband! He has had multiple opportunities for redemption, and failed everytime. Each time, he was not victimless.

Estelle and Benny almost wound-up burried alive. Emily Anne is recovering in Rhode Island Sanitarium. Donna almost died of CO2 posioning! Dixie was gaslighted by the bastard before. Why the hell would she fall for him again?

[marceline]

I kind of liked the fact that they said that Colby and Cass didn't hang out in Paris. For me, that added a level of poignancy to Colby's reaction. People go their separate ways but that doesn't mean you don't still love and care about them. The fact that after 5+ years Colby raced to be with Cassandra without thinking twice made me verklempt. And she didn't just show up and give some platitudes, she waded right into the emotional mess and was exactly what Cass needed.

Soaps have done such a piss poor job at portraying friendships in the last decade or but AMC has really shown how powerful those connections can be: AJ/Miranda, David/Angie, Colby/Cass even Zach/Jesse. Admittedly when it comes to soaps I'm a friendship nut. I get nostalgic about great friendships the way others get about supercouples. (I'll also confess that I'm really wishing Jenny was here for Jesse right now. She would be the perfect person to help him deal with the mess his life has become.)

[AMCHistory]

Spot on! I never thought of this. The writers are doing a really good job at playing-up friendships which was lacking at the end of the ABC AMC run. I mean on there, you had Scotty and Frankie who were insepearable for years playing as strangers for most of their time together. Jack and Tad were no longer busom buddies. People were either in romances or rivalries, but friendships were non-existent.

[EricMontreal22]

OK you won me over That's true, and something I personally can relate to (although I hope I don't come off like Colby )

And that's very true about friendship. Soaps--particularly IMHO the Agnes soaps--were traditionally as much about friendship as romance, listen to some old Guiding Light radio episodes for example which are at least half just friends discussing their lives. It's nice to have that back (on AMC and OLTL...)

[greens_dupres]

I love this post. I don't think they needed to be recently hanging out as friends recently for the scenes to have maximum emotional impact. The fact that after not seeing her for 5ish years or more Colby dropped everything spoke volumes about how Colby felt about her. These characters losing touch at their age after they left Pine Valley felt very real. Not sure if everyone here watches but OLTL would have been smart to go more this route and acknowledge that Dani/Destiny have drifted apart but still care deeply for each other instead of telling us they're bestest friends when they've shown us none of that.

AMC has been doing a stellar job with the friendships and I love it too. Its something I've really missed on GH as well in recent years so I love that they're filling the friendship void.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha--good to know. I assumed you of all posters would be aware of all the interviews but that makes sense. I would recommend listening to the Ginger Smith interview (you can skip the first ten or fifteen mins of Fairman nattering on about nothing and probably skip some of the phone in questions to her about cast.) It really is heartening to hear her clear vision and understanding of the show and I think answers a lot of worries--or did for me.

I totally relate to your feeling of seeing Canary again. But if this is all on his terms--and I have no doubt that it is at this point--I can live, I suppose, with that (BTW Nader in his interview last week said the same thing about Canary being "semi-retired") Hopefully the writers use it to their advantage and when he does come back it really is used to make an impact and not just a walk on appearance.

I'm kinda of two minds with BCT. I think it would help if we had seen more of Joe and particularly Dixie with him--Joe went from threatening him to just being slightly suspicious--we should have had a few moments between those emotions. And yeah BCT did some ridiculously awful things (not to mention being originally not just someone who ran a escort agency or whatever he was shown here, but an evil, controlling, murderous pimp when he came on the scene)... That said, I think thematically they're going somewhere with this--the whole "forgiveness/can you atone" thing which seems to be the major theme on the show right now in general, and I am curious to see where it's all heading.

[marceline]

I haven't been feeling Billy Clyde either but the Dixie letter worked for me. He stepped up to protect AJ. That's going to go a long way with Dixie. And as a therapist, it makes sense that Dixie would choose to be cautious yet forgiving especially since Joe led the way by saying that he believes Billy Clyde is sincere. If Dixie had sat down at the table with BC and shared a cup of coffee with him I wouldn've called bullshit but I think that letter and the terse, cautious "Thank you." struck the right chord.

Dear Lawd, no wonder I get called a PP cult member. Looking at my last two posts, it seems like all I do is rhapsodize about the genius of this show. I'm beginning to make myself sick.

[greens_dupres]

Nooooo the second ep this week was really just that good. Its warranted.

[DramatistDreamer]

Even though it's not clear how Pete found out, I appreciate the fact that the writers remembered the relationship between Pete, Colby and Cass.

Most soaps often seem to forget relationships between characters (at least they seem to on Y&R).

It just bugs me to no end when you have characters that used to be connected and suddenly they have nothing to do with one another when one is going through turmoil and the other(s) are blithely going about their business. It's like 'Wait a minute, didn't these people used to (be married, be best friends, be lovers, have really close ties between families)? And we're supposed to believe that in these small towns, they would never interact again??

If AMC with their shorter format can acknowledge this, broadcast soaps that are on 5 days per week have no excuse not to do this.

I know the teens can sometimes be on too much (AMC needs to continue to work on balancing the time devoted to each storyline/character) but I can see the dilemma with it being summertime and the show obviously wants to hook new viewers along the way--a tactic that has had success for Daytime Dramas in the past.

Obviously, AJ and Miranda will be a future couple but I wouldn't mind seeing AJ and Heather in the meantime. I think AMC could stand to develop AJ and Miranda as separate characters for awhile.

Yeah, and Hunter needs to have another purpose or take a leave of absence because his M.O. is getting terribly tedious.

I like the aspect of not knowing who might be coupled with whom. Some speculate that Colby and David might turn out to be more than a fling, others see sparks between Angie and David and then there's Cara, who may or may not be developing feelings for J.R. Not to mention the possibilities with Dmitry and Brooke with Adam being away...I like complication between characters, and romantic and sort of romantic- entanglements make it all the more interesting.

As for David Canary, I wonder whether he wanted the grind of a shooting schedule. He wasn't exactly always there toward the end of AMC's ABC run. I could imagine him agreeing to do promotion to help launch the show but wanting a limited shooting schedule. Still, hopefully there will be some way to get Adam and/or Stuart on the scene. The dynamic with Brooke and Dmitry would have definitely step up with him there. The phone call, I think was acknowledgement of this.

Celia's character is somewhat incomplete and it's apparent in the writing. The actress is new and her acting is halting but she needs a bit more to grasp to fill out this character--I get the sense that perhaps the writers are still figuring this out, at least that's the sense I get. I know her background is supposed to be mysterious and all but the writers need to show us who Celia actually is, add some layers. There are ways to write this yet still keep the mystery of her origins.

All in all I found the episodes this week to be very affecting. The Cass/Colby scenes were very effective. I like the scenes with Billy Clyde and Dixie with the letter--I sense Dixie will maintain her distance but she realized the money will help others and couldn't help but be grateful for BCT coming to AJ's assistance.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha I love your posts--only cuz I agree

To be fair, BCT has been absent for almost 25 years--that probably plays *some* part.

[Steve]

ICAM!

I'm expecting David Canary to at least put in a few appearances this fall so whatever Brooke/Dimitri/Opal story is being set up can play out.

I feel the same way about BCT being redeemed and I'm not completely convinced that he is yet. I still think he might be trying to win Dixie's heart somehow and going off the deep end again when she doesn't reciprocate.

If loving this show lately makes you a member of the PP cult, pass me the Kool-Aid!

[dragonflies]

anyone else watch on hulu thru blu ray player? the episodes are listed as standard definition' but look HD

I wish she were here too, so she could give Angie whatfor about treating Jesse like dirt while giving David Hayward a pass for everything he does

[Vee]

So I'm basically repeating everything everyone's said, but yeah, the Colby/Cass stuff was fantastic. I didn't think Brooke Newton had that in her but she was a whole different person in the second episode. Really excellent. And she helped Sal Stowers a bit, who was shaky but better than the other day. I also really liked David and Colby's bond, both in bed - the 'sex tape' was amusing - and when she found out about Cassandra. Really, really good stuff.

I need more Jane in my life. Have they been cutting all her phone call (or whatever) scenes? I only remember one, and that was weeks ago.

Brooke/Dimitri/Opal - all fantastic. I just can't help grinning when they turn up. And sorry, I like Dimitri and Brooke and all and that is fun for now, but I am still shipping Dimitri/Opal.

I wonder if Agnes wrote the latest Billy Clyde/Joe scene, since she apparently did the first ones a while ago. That was a bad gaffe omitting the whole "Dixie-learns-about-A.J." thing, and I have kind of a hard time believing they'd all hop to forgiving him so quickly, but I can appreciate the show wanting a relatively clean slate for Billy Clyde all these years later. I just want to see him get into more stories. And I kind of missed Anders as well - I want more story for Dixie, basically, and they seem to be moving towards that. Even if I'd rather see Griffin, Anders works for now. Is Jordi Vilasuso really that busy on that other show?

Also: I know there was apparently a SOD weekly recap mentioning that

[EricMontreal22]

I do that with my iTunes episodes. I've discussed this before--they don't look quite as good as when I watched on FX HD--but they look MILES better than when I checked it out on non HD FX, and very close to HD. I checked out the size of their video files--and they're almost as large as when I download torrents in HD, so... Not sure what that means lol.

[~bl~]

I wonder too about Griff.