I've been following the thread for the past few weeks, but I didn't respond so I'll just post my random responses. Gus' messy paternity was never a favorite story of mine even when it was being written by Taggart and Culliton. The original Gus / Selina / Miguel story was under Labine , I believe, or at least I think Labine set the story in motion. I thought it was Lucky Gold who killed that story with the insistence that Gus couldn't have been adopted and was the Augusts biological child. Then, Taggart and Gold revisited it when they were building a Gus / Harley vs. Phillip thread that, as I recall, started with Harley wanting custody of Zach. I seem to recall Phillip having Harley arrested for trying to take Zach from the Spaulding mansion. The Journal was mentioned as late as 2005. In May, there was a thread building around a Spaulding takeover launched by Josh Lewis and Roger Thorpe's children, Sebastian Hulce and Blake Marler. I don't remember what the impetus for the story was, but I felt like Sebastian was trying to avenge Roger or continue his legacy. At the same time, Alan and Holly had spent some time together as Alan was interested in purchasing the Journal. Holly ends up selling him part of the Journal or all of it in exchange for shares in Spaulding Enterprises. Blake has a conniption fit because it was somehow going to disrupt their plans. This was all scrapped with the budget crunch and Sebastian was shipped off and Maureen Garrett stopped appearing. I felt like the show was going to try a Holly / Alan pairing. In terms of gothic storytelling in 2000s, I do think the dreaded Maryanne Carrouthers storyline from 2003-2004 would also fall into the catefory. The atmosphere in that was very well done. Very moody and haunting. I thought the climax was decent at the house of mirrors, but there wasn't a whole lot happening between the reveals. I don't hate Conboy and Weston as much as others do. I thought Ben becoming an escort made sense with who the character had been with Bomer in the part. He had made that sex bet regarding Marah and was pretty worried about money all the time. I could see Ben turning to sex work. I didn't love how Ben's sexual abuse was treated like a post script, but I wasn't as mortified as others. I felt a lot of the online reaction was a bit insane like saying there was no one Ben could have been molested because Fletcher would have known which was more degrading, in my opinion, than Ben actually being abused. I don't think Regina / Sister Lucia was used appropriately. She wasn't just Gus' mother, but she had also been Phillip's (retcon) nanny. If you are looking to do a longer Phillip vs. Gus narrative, this was something that should have been considered. Though, I didn't really have much use for Gus in general, to be quite honest. Gus and Harley were fine as a B-couple, but didn't work in the A-couple role for me. Looking back at the Dobsons, there were references to a woman in black at the end of the tenure. I think people have speculated this would have been Amanda's mother. I wonder if they recycled any of this for Santa Barbara with Sophia Capwell. Who was the writer that proposed the initial Janice Stafford storyline? Was it Doug Marland? I would be curious if Janice (or some iteration) wasn't the original intended mother of Amanda. The Dobsons had Sophia "die" in a boating accident. It could be coincidence, or just another reference reference to A Place in the Sun. It's interesting hearing that they didn't want a strong headwriter after Marland and that was, in part, what led to money issues with Pat Falken Smith and her quick departure. If available, I imagine Smith would have been better suited to continue after the Dobsons rather than Marland. Stylistically, the Dobsons and Falken Smith seem more psycho-sexual in their writing than Dobson while having their own flourishes.
By
dc11786 · 34 minutes ago 34 min
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.