Soaps By Remote

The Zombie Brigade

So, Diego Alcazar, dead since November 2006, is General Hospital’s Text Message Killer.

Now, granted, at least Diego had some explicable motivation for the majority of his chosen victims, which could not be said for most of the other suspects. Just a pity he’s already suffered through being rectonned into criminal behaviour once before. And, you know, he’s dead.

And not even "no body found" dead. But rather shot onscreen IN SELF DEFENCE by Sam, traumatising Kristina in a plot point that just disappeared, and dying in his father's arms. Dead.

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Snore

The battle is whether I can reach the fast forward button before I fall asleep.

Yes, sad to say, but pre-Dead Guy is the Text Message Killer reveal, General Hospital this last week had reached a point so boring that it’s best summed up by the following poll:

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Do you lead or support?

Right, so, Emmy pre-noms are out.

As usual these things – even with the rule changes – raise questions.

I’ll choose to ignore, temporarily, the actual merits of the lists, mainly because I’m entirely distracted by the categorisations. Also because these lists don’t actually count for much until they’re culled down. Or after that, let’s face it.

But on the categorisations, I do understand the fundamental problem that some actors are leads in some stories and supporting in others (as they should be) and that causes a big category dilemma, especially when shows are actually balanced. There’s no real way around the problem that causes other than to (a) only nominate people who have genuinely fallen into the Lead or Supporting category all year or (b) specify the story for which they are nominated. Though while I’m almost of the opinion that these pre-noms should come with explanations of which stories have been submitted for which performers, perhaps in parenthesis, I actually don’t think either of the above options would really work, so we’re stuck with what we’ve got.

I haven’t paid that much attention to the new rules, but I assume the pre-noms are still offered up by each show based on what the actors/shows categorise themselves as, but that still doesn’t make some of these nominations any less baffling.

Some are simple enough. In 2007 of course Thorsten Kaye, Ali Sweeney, Steve Burton, Peter Bergman, Laura Wright and no doubt several others on shows I don’t watch, were clearly Leads. In individual stories and across the whole year.

But. But.

How on any planet was Alicia Minshew Supporting in 2007? She was so clearly a Lead that I put her automatically in the above list before doing a triple-take on the listing which shows her to be actually nominated as Supporting. Much the same, with slightly less vehemence, applies to Becky Herbst. For many years a quintessential Supporting actor, in 2007 she was absolutely a Lead. And yet is nominated in the Supporting category.

Going in the opposite direction, even with John’s “death” I do not see any circumstances in which Deirdre Hall was a Lead last year. In any story. So far this year, certainly. Last year? No. Also on Days, yes Peter Reckell and especially James Scott were what I’d call Leads last year, and in certain stories so was Stephen Nichols. But Thaao Penghlis? Even with the dual role? Surely he was Supporting? And Brian Datillo, Supporting? Really? Surely Lead?

I think that Tyler Christopher is a classic example of the story Lead verses show Lead dilemma. In past years he’s definitely been a show Lead, though not so much in 2007 – or maybe most of his stories were just so boring that I fast-forwarded a lot – though clearly in the Black & White sweeps story he was a lead and deserves a pre-nom for it.

I think they got the Supporting category right for GH’s guys – Bradford Anderson (proving himself older than I would have thought), Rick Hearst and Sebastian Roche were all clearly Supporting, even if that is a waste of a certain Mr Hearst’s talent once again. In fact all the other GH noms feel about right, Megan Ward was clearly a Lead, Nancy Lee Grahn is a Lead simply by her presence even if the bulk of her airtime was at the beginning of the year, and Carolyn Hennesy and, sadly, Kimberly McCullough were Supporting.

Over at Days, I’m not quite sure how Judi Evans was nominated as Supporting given that she was barely on, while it’s both sad and appropriate that Mary Beth Evans only made Supporting instead of Lead because she also didn’t have enough to do to justify it.

Which brings me to another point that I’ve just noticed in typing that last sentence. What does it say when in many cases an onscreen partnership splits the categories? Thorsten Kaye is a Lead, but his onscreen partner is Supporting? Stephen Nichols is a Lead but his onscreen partner is Supporting? Steve Burton is a Lead but his onscreen partner is Supporting? Christian Le Blanc is a Lead but his onscreen partner is Supporting? Notice the genders there? The only flip of that on the shows I pay any attention to is Alison Sweeney being a Lead with one of her onscreen partners being a Lead and the other Supporting. I some cases that’s clearly a product of under-use of the female partner, in others already mentioned its silly miscategorisation. Either way, why is the woman always losing out?

As for the Younger categories, it always strikes me as odd that the genuine child actors get nominated in the same categories as those in the 20s. Dylan Cash and Josh Duhon in the same category? It’s clearly the kids verses the college sets and maybe the category should just get split to over 18s and under 18s, with the second category not being something that has to be awarded every year. Though it is nice to see the younger sets of both Days and GH have an opportunity to get some recognition – and it’s nice to see Days acknowledging both their longer term players as well as Kristin Renton and Matthew Florida who were both instrumental in layering out the sorority story and making it work so well.

Again, none of the above comments have anything to do with who I think should or should not have been nominated because that is a whole other ballgame. I’ll leave off weighing in on that until the actual nominations come out.

In the meantime, this being highly subjective, what’s your take on the categorisations of Lead and Supporting? And should the over 18 but under 26s get their own space or be left to fight it out with everyone else in the Lead and Supporting categories?

Stream of Consciousness

General Hospital Three Weeks in Review Part Two

The last three weeks, and the way I watched them over the last three(ish) days, are best summed up as (deep breath) follows:

Balance. Shut up Sonny. “Oh that’s it, go to your room!” Quartermaine squabbling! Yum: wounded, scruffy Lucky. Never would have expected this six months ago: appreciating scenes with wounded Lucky and his ex and his new ex. Thank god, they fixed Michael’s hair. I really hope Dylan Cash is a great little actor, otherwise I feel sorry for his parents. Wow, a Jason/Nikolas scene, that was rather overdue. We’ve wanted the return of the detective agency around here for ages, who knew it would be the Spinelli-Jones Agency and that it would be so much fun. “This litigious cow!” Hey, they remembered Jax and Kate were and should be friends. Ah, the story of The Sam That Cried Truth. And The Sam That Kicked Arse. Is that a scene between Lulu and Lucky? And Lucky and Alexis? And Lucky and Lulu and Logan and Alexis? Wonders, they are not ceasing. I’m beginning to suspect that they actually plotted out this hit-and-run story from beginning to end, with some actual viable suspects set up from the start. That seems wrong. Wow, Devlin’s a dick. And shiny, and slimy. “I don’t like that woman.” “You don’t like any women!” Why are they making Ric boring? While wearing lumberjackets? If Robin and Patrick keep bantering with meaning, I may be able to ignore the lying, especially when roses are involved. Ah, Sonny the hypocrite, I have not missed you; it’s okay for his personal life to rule everything and everyone, but not Jason’s; it’s okay for him to shoot people, but not his supremely snotty son. “I’d rather have a drink.” Claudia, Claudia, I enjoy you sticking it to Trevor – as does Johnny – but why are all your signature shoes so cheap? Is that Tracy AND Monica several days in a row? I feel the earth spinning off its axis. Sam, stop being so pissy. You lied. Many times. That’s why no one believes you. You can continue to tell the truth until it’s proven you’re not lying but you cannot be pissy when someone whose children you put in danger on more than one occasion doesn’t instantaneously believe everything you say. Yay, Ric found his sweaters! “I’d rather have a drink.” Why is Emily dressed like a tree? I think I fell asleep watching the Nikolas/Emily scenes and missed them going into an arbour-al dream sequence. I choose to ignore TMK Red Herring #2765, aka Logan. Except when he's lounging in a bathrobe. Where are our Robin tells her family about the baby scenes? Stupid non-reveal. I know GH is doing a tie in with some heart disease thing and thus Epiphany’s heart attack, but wasn’t that overkill given they’ve had two major characters have heart attacks in the last year? “I’d rather have a drink.” Oh that gangsta rap they keep playing over Michael’s gunplay is so annoying. And rather hilarious. Why are Alexis and Diane also wearing lumberjackets? “It didn’t look like a Mayor!” Jason and Spinelli break in to the police lock-up using Maxie-logic and exasperation. Hee! “I don’t even have my own heart.” Sniff. So Lulu’s still in school? Good to know. Carly is using the possibility of opening a teen centre as a means of thwarting Kate’s office plans? A Teen Centre? How very 80s soap. How absolutely un-Carly. Oh great, more child catatonia. At least they’ve finally decided who the killer is now and are actually laying out proper clues. Though I continue to maintain that Georgie’s “Oh, it’s you” in the park makes no sense. She wouldn’t have greeted Coop, who she suspected and clearly ran into, in that manner, nor Logan, nor, as it turns out, the actual killer. Which I won’t spoil for those who haven’t picked up the spoilers yet. Balance. “We may pass a bar.”

Oh, and here’s Kate’s blue jacket everyone’s been asking about.

The pink one was, however, overkill.

Cap courtesy Clarissa.

I Will Get My Hair Cut and Wear Beige

Or perhaps tan. Maybe light brown.

General Hospital Three Weeks In Review Part One

When even Epiphany’s scrubs are basically beige, you know there’s really a problem.

Then throw in hair cuts for Tracy, Kate, Robin, Jax, Cassius, Logan, Michael, and I feel some themes developing.

November was the Black and White Sweeps, February is the Beige and Sharp Hair Sweeps.

This does, of course, leave the door wide open for a whole range of bland jokes, but I'm actually going to leave those aside because there's been plenty to like about GH over the last few weeks - plus a few things to hate and a few things to sleep through. Actual commentary to follow shortly.

Caps courtesy Clarissa.

Merry-go-round

That casting merry-go-round is now spinning so fast I've been flung off and landed on my arse in the sandpit.

Okay, so now Arianne Zucker is coming back to Days.

Nicole is one of those characters who was mainly of the era I didn't and/or couldn't watch, but what I did see of her, I liked.

Overall I think this is a good development, not least because Nicole - much like Chesty LaRue - is not related to anyone and therefore does not suffer from Billie Syndrome (that is having the best chemistry with her ex who she can't get back together with and one of her many brothers).

However, the whirlygig that has been Days casting over recent months makes me even more certain that the end is nigh and this is just turning into one a lengthy parade of the past prior to the grand finale. Which on the plus side could result in Eugene stepping out of his time machine any moment now.

In the last few months we have the following, just off the top of my head:

Gone or Going: Billie, Adrienne, Shawn, Shawn, Belle.

Gone and Returned: Victor, Lexie, John.

Appeared and Gone and Returned: Anna, Tony.

Appeared and Gone: Jeremy, Jett, Colleen.

Returned or Coming: Chloe, Nicole.

Going and Returning: Lucas.

Coming and Going: Kimberly.

Appeared: Morgan, Crystal, Ava.

Who the Hell Knows: the Writing Staff.

It's enough to cause head spins. And I suspect I've forgotten a few.

Spin, spin, spin.

Put Down Those Signs and Start Typing

Well, the strike is done.

To striking writers everywhere: welcome back to work. We missed you.

To striking soap writers: not sure if you have a job left to come back to and not sure we missed you, but congratulations on holding the line, unlike some of your former colleagues.

The wash-up for soaps? I don’t think we’ll really know until the scripts written by regular writing teams have been back on screen for a while.

The first thing to note is, of course, that the daytime soap genre survived. Unlike the rest of television, that was far from a given going in.

After all sorts of questions about whether things would shut down, whether there would be picket-crossing en masse or whether management would scrabble together scripts, we ended up with shows written by a mixture of unknown scabs, producers, and writers turned fi-core, and the job they did varied markedly from show to show and sometimes day to day.

Post-strike it is unclear the ongoing status of the writing teams at Y&R and Days in particular. It is entirely clear that whatever smidgen of respect the head writers at AMC had before the strike was completely lost, never to be regained. From all reports it was also apparently fairly clear that the pre-planning of the writing team at One Life to Live stood them in good stead. Over at GH, there were questions, but also greater balance and generally a positive feeling. Over at Days there is awful dialogue and plot wrap-ups that were frustrating but hardly moreso than under the non-strike team.

The true comparison will come when those who aren’t fired get back to work and we see the long term impact on stories and shows, if there’s any at all. I’d have to guess that there won’t be much, given the speed with which stories are told these days. Especially not compared to the previous strike days where a story would take months to play out, not weeks (unless it’s Lucas’s “goodbye” on Days, of course) and therefore a change of course because of a change of writer would have a larger impact. Now we have become used to them turning on a dime. Not that we like it, but it’s becoming the way of soap life.

So now I guess we can get back to the business of speculating about which soap will be the first to be cancelled.

Branching Out

I've been tempted for quite some time, but with recent events on Days and the (not at all) startling revelation that John is a Brady, and a DiMera, I finally bit the bullet and set about charting the Brady Family Tree.

Needless to say this was not an easy task. Check it out after the jump...

The Round-About Is Turning Really Quickly

Wow. Via Daytime Confidential.

I hope this one is true for any number of reasons including it likely meaning that Patsy Pease is doing well, health-wise. I would expect it only to be short-term, but could it ultimately mean the appearance of Kim's kids too? It does make me depressed that Josh Taylor is playing Roman though - can you imagine all the real Brady "kids" back together, or even with the Drake when he didn't suck quite so much version of Roman?

Or is it all just part of one giant year-long wrap party?

Again, as with all things Days, we shall see.

Days Catch-Up Part Two: The Revolving Door Edition

Anna! Tony! Lexie! Victor! Colleen!
Rank:

Colleen aside - it was obvious for months we were going to meet her - I never thought I’d see any of them again. But frankly I’m now officially giving up on taking anyone leaving, dying, or staying on this show for granted. Chances are it’ll all change again in five minutes.

Lexie is Chief of Staff at the Hospital!
Rank:
Tom Horton would be rolling over in his grave. Within hours of appointment she’s sending her father off to rot in a coma he's been in for all of five minutes and handing out confidential medical information to people who are not the patients before she’s even told the patients. If that’s how she treats the confidentiality of her friends, I wouldn’t want to be crossing her. You might be told you’ll have major fertility issues you don't actually have, or worse, your organs might be harvested even though you’re not dead.

The conversation between Steve and Crawford in the hospital, the duelling fathers and accusations of enabling and guilt, was a nice turn. Even the posturing was appropriate given the situation.
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Genuine Bo/Hope flashbacks.
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They should have been using things like this more over the strike period. They’re in the fortunate position of having so many of the same cast members currently onscreen that a few more old-school flashbacks in place of flashbacks to yesterday would have been a good idea.

Bye, bye Adrienne. If only they’d given you something to do.
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And of course, as she exits stage right, enter Victor stage left. Yay, Victor! Of course, the fact that he didn’t see his niece-in-law of 20-odd years the entire time she was in town speaks volumes of how both of them have been treated.

Marlena and Hope recognising Colleen straight off the bat, come on! They’ve never met the woman, so far as we know have seen exactly one photo of her which dates back over 50 years, and she’s supposedly been dead for all of the intervening period. Now, I know that the last of those points doesn’t count for much around Salem, but still it should at least put a crimp in the instant recognition.
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And, of course, this:

gets a rank of this: