OLTL Experiment: Days Two and Three

Tuesday April 29 and Wednesday April 30

Initial verdict: not as interesting as Day One, but also still strike writing, so one is not giving up yet.

We continue with our focus on wannabe teen runaways Starr and Cole, with some help from Starr’s friend Langston. Langston? Right. I’m showing my age. I should just accept that all children these days, whether soap-bound or not, are called things like Starr and Langston. Langston’s hair is awful.

The will they escape or won’t they? – they will – story is not particularly compelling, but I also know that I’m not the real target audience of the teen story. Though the heavy-handed family scenes, which involve Todd and Blair corrupting their children with gambling and junk food to emphasise what Starr will be leaving behind, are really rather clunky. Plus this famous Todd Manning character is wearing a vest. And falls for the old pillows-under-the –blankets-pretending-to-be-a-sleeping-teen trick.

The other main story over these two days involves the machinations going on in the Llandview PD squad room. We start with Michael Easton, still refusing to get his hair cut after all these years, bantering with a female cop, Talia, who is in uniform. Has the latter existed since the 1980s on either Days (Lexie/Hope) or GH (Sam Welles)? That’s kind of refreshing.

A trip through the wall of the classic – if very dark - soap police station set finds us with Hunt Block, who has managed to get a haircut over the years, one odd enough that I recognise him first by his voice. As one cannot forget the name, one cannot forget the voice. My memories of said voice go back to his run as Peter Hollister on Knots Landing and his getting buried under a concrete foundation by Abby. Because I am old. Here he’s playing Ramsey the Police Commissioner who has apparently knocked Bo Buchanan out of that job, even though Bo is looking perfectly comfortable over at family corporate headquarters. More on that in a moment. Note to GH: people on this show are fighting to be Police Commissioner.

Every reference to Easton’s character as “McBain” naturally makes me laugh. Because while I am old, my sense of humour is 12 and wedded to The Simpsons. That aside, there is clearly tension in the squad room. So Detective Antonio has money troubles and a sick daughter, and I’m guessing previously had a thing with Talia who dumped him for McBain? Regardless, no one’s too happy, there’s an annoying uniform cop, McBain and Talia don’t trust Ramsey (clearly they’ve watched GH and know not to trust a police chief with that surname) and Antonio has an enormous chip on his shoulder and is lifting money from police stings which Ramsey is giving a good impression of knowing about and waiting for, without saying it out loud.

Now, the Buchanans. Bob Woods as Bo I recognise from many a soap magazine appearance over the decades, not to mention his brief stint on Days as semi-complicit in the long-term kidnapping of Andrew Donovan. Again, I am old. Corporate takeover talk. And that’s Hillary Smith, right? It’s much easier to recognise these vets even though I’ve never seen the show before. As I said yesterday, soap magazine osmosis.

There are ongoing corporate shenanigans complete with mention of dead patriarch (who I assume does not appear as a ghost). Okay, so Viki’s friend Calvin is trying to take over BE – I assume Buchanan Enterprises – and Clint and Bo are threatening to blackmail him to avoid this takeover. As they previously blackmailed someone else. And apparently all of Llanview who doesn’t work for the police works for BE. Based on my two days experience with this show, anyway. But in the end Calvin gives up without being blackmailed. I sense there is more to this story.

Ah, Nora is the DA. Okay. It also appears that she and Clint are together, while Nora sends Clint’s brother Bo off to deal with Nora and Bo's son, Matthew, all of whom appear to live in the same house. Ah, the good old inter-family relationship mess. Remarkably amiable in this situation though.

In the filler I also meet Nash of the big hair and Jessica of the bigger, blonder hair, who also apparently had a thing with Antonio. That guy gets around. As, apparently does Jessica, who also had a thing with Antonio’s brother Christian, who in turn fought with McBain over what I assume is the Talia/Antonio/McBain situation. Everyone is definitely linked on this show. In actual plot developments, Nash runs a winery and some guy is throwing money at it and talks about becoming even more deeply involved. Jessica is suspicious, and so am I.

I also meet McBain’s brother Michael, a doctor married to and having problems with the Marcie met on Day One, and Christian’s girlfriend Sarah.

Sarah brings with her the second of the mother-related anvils of these two episodes. The first being Cole’s discussion about his mother with Nora. General soap news has already told me that two significant actresses are returning to this show in the near future, and a moment’s research after being hit with one “my mother’s not around” anvil after another indicates that Andrea Evans and Susan Haskell, both soon to return, play the mothers of these two characters.

So, after Days Two and Three, I have more questions that after day one, I’ve seen a lot of characters I’ve seen in soap mags over the years, and I’ve been hit with anvils obvious even to me as a new viewer. I have also seen several minority characters, the appearance of a police force that is full of tension and corruption but which does not appear incompetent, tons of family interaction, some apparently happily married couples and indications of a substantial and very, very soapy web of inter-relationships.

Had Days Two and Three been all I’d seen of this show, I wouldn’t be sucked in, but Day One was pretty good, so even if I hadn’t committed to two weeks worth I would still persevere. Especially as indications are that things step up another level when the non-strike team returns on Day Five.

Comments

[TraveSteve]

Curious to see your comments about the episodes of 5/2, 5/5 and 5/6, the first three shows written by the writers who were out on strike. The difference to me has been night and day, meaning, the show is awesome once again.

[zarathelawyer]

I look forward to it TraveSteve.

[Fabobug]

OMG ! I can't believe someone else out there remembers Bob Woods (Paul Stewart) on DAYS and the pivotal part he played in the Andrew kidnapping. I had never seen OLTL back then, and I remember thinking, "what a cool deep guy, I feel really bad about his situation." He only lasted 5 months before leaving back to OLTL, but he made quite the impression on me.

I must be old too!

[James]

What a fascinating experiment in trying to decipher a new soap. Thanks for posting these updates and turning us onto your thought processes.

You're reminding me of the time when I accidently stumbled onto OLTL back in, ahem, 1980. NBC soaps were preempted for Wimbledon, so in channel surfing the three (yes, THREE) channels that were available back in those days, I was stopped on a OLTL scene with Karen and Marco (Judith Light and Gerald Anthony). Intrigued, I kept watching and fell in love with the show.

I went through so much of what you're describing -- recognizing actors that had been on other shows, trying to figure out family connections, deciphering secrets.

Thanks for reminding me of the time when I discoverd OLTL. I look forward to hearing more about your experiement.

And I'm also a Days viewer, so I too remember Bob Woods for that 6 month stint as Paul Stewart on Days. Bo is by far the better character.

[Coco]

Minority characters, yes. Keep watching to see how many of those minority characters the show actually invests in.

Great experiment!