I think the show is fairly character-driven, and I agree with others that MVJ (or someone BTS, anyway) is overly preoccupied with the show not being too driven by plot or stunt action, possibly c/o her years under the Brian Frons regime at GH. She watched the Wards she helped create get wiped out there too. To say nothing of her years dealing with the Forresters on B&B.
The bigger issue is not whether a show is character-driven. It is that many of the characters who are driving daily episodes are not that interesting. Or rather, they haven't been allowed to be. They often speak in platitudes and grand pronouncements (or therapy-speak) while they always reset back to loving their family, their sister, their cousin or spouse or whoever they're with. Eva and Izaiah should be hot, heavy and volatile but they are played like Kristy dating a boy in The Babysitters Club. Jacob and Naomi should be beyond crashing out by now but she vacillates between whining about him and pining for him depending on the day while homeboy is wandering these brick-walled streets looking like Lobot from Empire Strikes Back and telling everyone he is not undercover!
(Lobot a.k.a. Jacob)
I think the show has good bones, many good actors and a lot of raw potential. I think there's also a very real (and valid) concern about what images they're presenting with the characters with a predominantly Black and Black-led soap, and that may be part of the stumbling blocks in story so far. But I definitely don't think there is any answer to be found in getting rid of TMG or Leslie lol, one of the few major activators in the show lol. The new segment of the audience unused to watching annual year-round soaps will get over that. But I do think it is past time she paid for Laura, and I think someone needs to allow these characters to stop being purely sacrosanct or at times idealized, and let them start getting much messier and much more flawed.
By
Vee ·
