AMC Week of September 2, 2013

[John]

Season Finale

DISCUSS

[Vee]

Don't quote me, guys, but from what I see on iTunes it looks like there's only one episode this week - plus the "More" special with Jill Larson, Eden and Lindsay Hartley on the couch with Leslie Miller.

[John]

Yeah was just gonna post the same. Maybe they only filmed 43 AMC's

[DavidsMuse]

Or they did tape 47 episodes and are saving the last four for whenever S2 starts, to buy them even more production time.

[Vee]

From what I recall, both AMC and OLTL taped more than they're airing. I believe Bob Woods and Corbin Bleu said they had more in the can but chose to cut Season 1 where they did on OLTL due to the appropriate cliffhanger. Which was apparently different originally - Natalie was just going to walk into Clint's hospital room to find him gone.

[alexisfan07]

Sad there's only one episode Doesn't look like there any more revelations about Celia's past or guardian, so lame.

Apparently Liza "went AWOL."

[Cheap21]

anyone have a link bc all Im seeing is More (Ep 62)

[alexisfan07]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/528166

[Cheap21]

LMAO at Jesse giving David that bitch look. Jesse was ridiculous to think another PD would hire him after he just got fired from being the chief of one.

Heck no Dimitri acting all thirsty for Brooke. This "triangle" doesn't work with no Adam around.

They were touting this thing as a season finale but it was rather lame in that regard bc it was just another episode.

Was that MEK at the end? Voice sounded like him but I couldn't quite be sure. In any case, its about time Tad return

[Vee]

So that was a solid episode, but not much of a finale. It was obvious that with both AMC and OLTL they had more footage in the can (something RSW and Corbin Bleu confirmed at OLTL, I believe), but thought certain episodes would work best for this purpose, which was clearly not planned and set in place when they began taping. So with both shows you have sort of a slapped-together feeling for the finales - ironically, while I thought those last two episodes were saggy, in retrospect I felt OLTL's worked a lot better than AMC's - ending on the Man of the Year gala, Clint's meltdown and Alison Perkins's reappearance, coupled with the big Triskelion cartel reveals with Jeffrey and Carl Peterson the week before. With AMC you had a very, very good run, right through to the Chandler Media gala, and then these last couple weeks have kind of meandered a bit by comparison. Good, but not great.

I had a bad feeling they would use the Jesse/Tad clip as the cliffhanger. Despite the omitted line in the preview clip, it was obvious it was Tad - big mistake to preview that beforehand. As I said in the Production thread, I welcome MEK and Tad back on a conditional basis - I can't have him and the whole tiresome "Martins Are God" mindset dominate the show again the way he used to as Sad Overweight Suicide Clown Tad in the last ten to fifteen years. He just became such a sadsack, such a prig, except in certain special storylines like the pairing with Cara; they would expect us to see him as a hero, a crackerjack detective, and I just couldn't buy it - he was such a sad old man. As such I was glad to see the back of him on the new show, though I love Tad. That said, he needs to be back and dealt with, given his endless engagement to Dixie - I've said this before, but I always had the sense he was avoiding her and their relationship due to her loyalty to J.R. I'm much more eager to see Dixie develop on her own sans Tad, with men like Anders.

All that aside, Tad is a fan favorite, he's an important character and he does lend himself to story. If they can handle him properly, with balance, the way they have other things on the new show, then I'm all for it. Hopefully MEK will want to come and go like Canary or Eden Riegel - that suits me just fine.

Miranda's montage was sweet (and I do like that song a lot), but what I loved was A.J. and Heather. The casual treatment of their attempt to have sex was really refreshing - she likes him, he likes her, she wants to do it. You never get that on network soaps anymore, not with teens - everything is sturm und drang, speechifying and sanctimony. This was a lot more candid, and I just really appreciated it. I also laughed out loud when she posed by the (silent) stereo and said "we were listening to music." Stevie Steel(?) is a trip and they need to give her even more to do.

Colby and Cass - brief but great. I also really liked the stuff with David and Colby, and his manipulating her. The various crosscurrents in all those Chandler, David, etc. relationships are just really well-done. And it's good to see that J.R. and Cara aren't necessarily over yet. I was hoping J.R. was genuinely remorseful with Dimitri and Brooke - sooner or later his paranoia has to come to a head. Speaking of Dimitri and Brooke, they're still great. That's not over by a long shot.

I was hoping for some reveals re: Celia, Oliver, etc. but it's obvious they slapped this finale endpoint together even more quickly than OLTL. All in all, a good episode, but not a great finale. I suspect both the Alison Perkins reveal on OLTL and this one with Tad were thrown together to provide proper "cliffhangers"; the dubbing on MEK was awful, and I know they rewrote and reshot the Clint hospital scenes on OLTL (originally he just went missing) and added Barbara Garrick as Alison, though they'd laid the groundwork for her to appear the week before by having Peterson reveal his link to her.

All that said, a slapdash finale doesn't make for a bad Season 1. AMC has been very, very, very solid virtually all season long. And I can't wait for these shows to come back.

[ReddFoxx]

Was that Michael E. Knight's voice or someone else's? It sounded vaguely like his and as if he phoned in the voice over.

[Steve]

I thought it was a very solid episode. To me it didn't feel slapped together or choppy like some of the previous ones have.

Dimitri's persistence in pursuing a romance with Brooke caught me by surprise but also reminded me of how he pursued Erica back in the day. It should be interesting to see how long Brooke can resist him.

JR seemed to finally feel remorse for stealing Cara's scripts when he was trying to get info out of Joe. I can't blame Cara for not wanting to deal with him, though.

Miranda should thank JR for preventing AJ from sleeping with Heather. I liked the montage of AJ/Miranda and was relieved that Heather won't be getting pregnant just yet to keep them apart.

It was nice to see Colby once again being there for Cassandra. I also loved how she stood up for JR during her argument with David, but sadly I think David's right about him being the only person she can always count on, at least the only one currently in Pine Valley.

The David/Jesse confrontation here was terrific. I had to laugh when David offered him a job as a security guard at Cor-Tech. Afterwards, I was getting disgusted at Jesse for once again lying to Angie about what he was up to, but suddenly there was Tad! I can't wait for season 2!!!!

I believe it was his voice and that it was phoned in, which I think is why they didn't show his face. Perhaps that's why taping was delayed until this month because MEK wasn't available in August?

[marceline]

Well, there we go. A nice little season.

I don't know what to make of that Tad thing at the end. I haven't personally missed Tad all that much but as a return he brings LOTS of story with him and with decent writing maybe I can love him again. After all, this show actually made me like Zach and I never liked Zach. This blows my fan wank that undercover Tad was shacked up with undercover John McBain in a little Key West pied a terre.

The David Hayward dickhead tour was in full swing. It's amazing how much I can like him one minute then want to punch him the next. I hated the way he talked to Jesse. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Jesse is being given this emotional turmoil. It's earned and I think it will be good for the character but when David goes into smug, God among men mode, he's absolutely insufferable.

I wonder who writes Jesse's dialogue. There's something unusual about the way he expresses himself that we don't see with other characters. It sounds more like what I'd expect to read in a novel. "Why don't you slither back to that slimy little gutter of a home of yours before I strike you." What? What'll you do after that? Flog him? Excoriate him? Then he'll turn around and say things like "Like my father used to say to reprobates like you..."You ain't worth shooting." One minute he's Sidney Poitier and the next he's Jay-Z. It's a very strange mix. And of course Jesse's back to lying to his wife. He just refuses to learn and Angie's right back to being the supporting little wifey. *waves to Linda*

JR was kind of sad just wandering around town, alternately apologizing and lying. Honestly, we really didn't need to see him at all in this ep. His arc was pretty much perfectly teed up last week.

Loved the scene with AJ and Heather. I was so hoping we wouldn't have any "I want you to be my first" drama and this show delivered. I really like the way she said, "I've done this before but it's not like I go around. I don't go around." Interesting that there was no mention of condoms. I kind of like that for realism's sake. Because let's face it, kids often have unprotected sex. Of course if they wanted to truly double down on realism, they could've had Heather offer to blow him. But I think Pete/Colby was enough oral sex for everyone. I could've lived without the Miraj montage. Since this was the last ep I would've preferred one last Pete/Opal scene.

Dimitri needed to step the !@#$%^&*] back when he was comparing Pete to JR. That was a cheap shot. Keep it straight, Dimitri, you are Brooke's employee not her man. The only person who has the right to tell JR that he's a failure as a son is Adam.

I know some people will be disappointed with the finale but I tend to like finales that wrap things up and just leave one or two threads hanging. I prefer them over cliffhangers where a house blows up and we're supposed to wonder "who will survive." I'm really looking forward to season 2 but I'm not going to stress about the wait because I really want PP to get their ducks in a row before they go back into production.

[marceline]

On another topic can we give the Daytime Emmy for Most Active Extra to this guy in the background?

He is constantly wandering around the streets of Pine Valley. It's like he's homeless which is odd because he's constantly meeting friends at Jane's. You'd think one of them could let him crash on the couch.

[John]

I think if there is more in the can we may ot see it as S2 maybe the new HW's rewrote stuff

Also on both shows producers said they edited the shows differenyly and faster paced the stories so I bet this wont be any more scenes shot in S1 to see . S2 will be brand new.