Soaps By Remote

Night Shift Season 2, Episodes 7, 8 and 9

I will admit up front that the Scorpio family has always been one of my absolute favourites – I don’t know if it’s the Australian connection or not – but I suspect that even if that weren’t the case I would still be in love with the team at Night Shift and how they’ve been writing for them over recent weeks.

I have plenty of other issues with NS episodes 7-9, but the writing for Robert, Robin, Mac and Patrick, and the performances from their respective portrayers over those episodes had me laughing and crying and gleefully spotting accurate historical references in turn and all at once.  

More generally they’ve had me enjoying a soap in a way I’d almost forgotten was possible.

First they had Mac show up prior to his brother’s surgery and hang out with him, and keep hanging out supporting his surrogate daughter during the surgery, and then sleeping in a chair waiting for Robert to wake up.  That felt so real.  

I hardly expect realism all the time from soaps.  I hardly expect realism from the Scorpios, because aside from Robin from her mid-teens on, they’re hardly a typical family.  But boy can they deliver on realism when given the chance.  And NS has given them the chance.  From the little things like all of them waiting for Robert to wake up and Robin and Patrick sleeping on the fold-out couch having given Robert the bedroom to recuperate, to the much bigger moments.

Also on Mac, John J. York’s Australian accent may be sucky and variable, but the writers at least get how we speak, because “You know, I miss you all the time you wanker” sounded so authentic I had to press pause because I enjoyed it a bit too much.

Next they had those lovely scenes between Robin and Robert before the surgery which had me tearing up, I’m not afraid to admit. And tell me this doesn’t take you back 20+ years in the best possible way:

Given that this is a show about a hospital, the way they’ve shown Robert as being actually sick has also been great.  And real.  He’s not just unconscious or made up to look a bit wan, he’s actually in pain and struggling, and suffering necessary hospital humiliation. And all that works even more because Robert is such an active character.  Perhaps it hits close to home for me because my Dad was recently in hospital and I saw him going through similar things and rendered so comparatively helpless, so I can relate to this, but I think it works regardless of that personal experience. 

Then, of course, they moved on to some humour – a Scorpio staple.  Whether it’s Robert having the nurse evacuate the apartment, or  “How’d you get so short?” or basic sight gags, it balanced out well the necessary heaviness of the previous couple of episodes.

Finally, they flipped everything back, after the focus on Robert’s illness, with just a simple scene between Robert and Jagger with Robert expressing his feelings about the fact his daughter is also ill. Which pushed me straight back over the over the edge into tears.

Plus they mentioned that the Port Chuck Hotel burned down years ago.  Which is just bonus points after everything else.  As is the fact that despite the fact that under the normal rules of gestation Robin would have given birth about this week, at least now she looks close to appropriately pregnant.

The clan Scorpio has definitely made this show for me, and make up for the other failings easily.  However I also have to compliment the scenes in the support group with the real parents of autism sufferers.  Those worked really well, mainly because it felt real and not stilted or shoved in.  If I hadn’t know they were not actors, I wouldn’t have guessed.

As for the rest, well, whatever.  The Claire-Leo hook-up was certainly soapy, if nothing else, and I liked Claire’s reaction to discovering that Leo wasn’t as single as she had thought when she slept with him.  None of the other medical stories, nor the 4 kidney idiot rip-off story, grabbed me.  But nor did I hate any of them particularly.

So after the praise and the meh, I’ll just end on the moral of these three episodes: never, under any circumstances, put Antonio Sabato Jnr in a suit.  Doing so apparently renders him incapable of speaking, let alone “acting”, even to his usual mediocre but serviceable and very pretty standard.  In their defence, however, it appears that even the director noticed this and almost immediately put him back in a t-shirt even though technically Jagger was still “working” at the hospital.

Looking forward to the next episode and the upcoming appearance of Anna.

Trapped in the basement quite near hell

Not to put too fine a point on it, last week OLTL sucked.

Why?  

Because the crappiest story currently on canvas was on every day, and being on every day only served to make the story worse.

I have moved from apathetic disinclination on to outright dislike - with the potential for future hatred - of the Tess holds Natalie hostage in the basement story.  

The reasons for this immense dislike are numerous, and the blame must be shared by several different people – writers, actors and producers.

Let’s start with how doing this type of story automatically makes things difficult even without getting down to the individual components of this particular incarnation of it.  You lock someone up in a room and immediately they have no one to talk to but themselves.  That is rarely very compelling for more than a very short period of time.  It’s also the type of story that almost requires soap-staple close calls and fake-outs, like Friday’s ending, where people come close to finding the truth/captive, but ultimately can’t.  Which always annoys the crap out of me.

Two strikes down, before we even get down to this particular execution.

So let’s get on to that execution.  

Production and writing seem to have got themselves into a vicious circle.  This story would have annoyed my to not nearly the same degree had it not been on every day.  It didn’t need to be on every day, and that became perfectly obvious by the outrageous level of exposition piled into the story.  How many times did each of Natalie, Jared, Tina, and especially Tess – the Queen of Exposition, more on her in a moment – have to repeat the Jared and Natalie “killed” Nash part of the story?  Or the threat preventing Tina from spilling the beans?  The fact they have to keep repeating that latter point is a sure sign that the threat doesn’t really hold water.  I swear three-fifths of this story this week was exposition, with one-fifth Tess explaining her plan, and the other one-fifth actually getting on with the story in its various parts.

I honestly don’t think they could have made me more frustrated if they actively tried.

Especially as Tess’s plan to seduce Jared is painfully stupid.

Another big problem they have is with the isolation.  As I mentioned above, the story necessarily puts Natalie alone in a box with nothing to rail at but a wide-screen TV – exactly how cameras in how many weird locations did Tess plant, by the way, production?  But she’s not the only one.  Tina is stuck in the house apparently, and doesn’t get to talk to anyone outside the story but Roxie the random drop-in and wet Sarah visiting from another story.  That she actually made it to the police station for 10 seconds in the past few episodes was a stunning development.  I definitely think Tina’s return has fallen flat mainly due to a coincidence of timing in that Viki’s not around, but she shouldn’t just be hanging around in the Llanfair kitchen and living room.  At least Jared got to do a tour of town last week looking for Natalie, but why do I think he’s also going to get stuck in that kitchen and living room going forward too.  This show has, everywhere else, been really good at crossing over stories and characters since I’ve been watching, but aside from Jared actually visiting Natalie’s family, they’ve completely gone against that.

Then there’s Tess.  Even she, who has Todd to torment, didn’t get out of the house until Friday.

Ah Tess.  Lord how I hate this character.  Now, being slapped with all that exposition does her no favours, but really, what is Bree Williamson thinking?  The continual mugging for the camera, the failure to infuse the “Jessica” side with any real sincerity, especially around Jared who she’s supposedly trying to seduce – and that’s another problem with the writing, would a character with a plan to get on someone’s side seriously start trying to bluntly convince him his girlfriend was gone forever and he should give up instantly within hours of her disappearing?  The general flinging about in an over-the-top manner (see her scenes with Todd on Friday).  I would say that if she bugs out her eyes one more time I’ll scream, but I’m already past that point and up to scaring the neighbours with random screeches.

And one thing that has really come to annoy me, for which I’ll lay the blame entirely at Williamson’s feet, is that since Ghost of Nash disappeared I haven’t seen one iota of an indication of Tess’s feelings for Nash.  She supposedly loved him and is taking on this inane revenge plot to avenge his death, but I have seen not a moment of vulnerability from her in regard to the fact her husband is dead since said husband left our screens.

Further I can only assume that on evidence to date that watching her try and seduce Jared, whatever his feelings about it, will be cringe-worthy and exceedingly difficult to watch.

So, in short, I have come to loathe this story, and to feel on the verge of rage when it comes to the character of Tess.  

And therefore, in a week when this story ate the show, I wasn’t a happy viewer.  There were other things that were fine, the kids first day of school up to but excluding Starr’s little speech, Rex and Gigi, Dorian and Ray starting to dance around each other, but I really, really hope this story is going to be spaced out and then ended as soon as is humanly possible.

This is so much fun

Ah, Night Shift, you really are giving Guza & Company the finger in the most delightful way, aren’t you?

I have a proper post about recent episodes coming up shortly, but I just wanted to comment on the ongoing casting news in the larger context first.

Sure, NS Season 2 isn’t perfect and I have some issues with it – many of which could be fixed in the blink of an eye with the return of Original Recipe Leo, or at least Original Recipe Leo’s Personality – but really it’s done a good, enjoyable job of being fun soap mixed up with medical and personal drama.

One may recall that before the show started I was cautiously optimistic due to the promised presence of Robin and Patrick front and centre, the Hospital, Jagger, Robert, new writers and producers, and no mob.  Obviously the show has delivered all of that which puts it streets ahead of regular GH without even having to break a sweat.

But on top of that and the diverse cast, and the existence of a sense of humour, and the symbolic putting of the horrid Season 1 in a box by killing off Dr Ford in the opening minutes of the first episode, they’ve gone and pushed it right on over the top by including such generally unheard of things such as (a) proper use of history; (b) actual use of vets; and (c) placing characters in stories they should be in.

Therefore Monica, you know, the doctor, appears at the Hospital.  Who’d have thunk it was possible?

And in an even more stunning development, when Robert is in the hospital battling cancer he does/will in fact get visits from such people as his brother, his ex-wife, his best friend, and, in a gloriously fun development, his close friends Sean and Tiffany who left town 15 odd years ago.  I’m pretty sure Jack Wagner couldn’t make a cameo, but in the absence of that you couldn’t get any closer to getting the whole gang back together. 

And this from the spin-off of the show that couldn’t even manage a single scene between Laura and Robert the last time they were both in town and conscious at the same time.

I really am starting to get a sense of the Night Shift crew gleefully and deliberately flipping off the Day Shift crew and all their notions of training an audience and romance during wartime and the only vets allowed on air are Luke (part-time) and Sonny.  And even if they’re not actually doing that, they’re providing me with plenty of ammunition to do it on their behalf.

I don’t expect all of this to last, and don’t even advocate everyone from the 80s coming back to the main show in the long term in an all-out nostalgia-fest because things do have to evolve and be refreshed – not that swapping 70% of the current characters and 90% of the current stories for the 80s gang wouldn’t be outright refreshing right now – but this is fun.  And, I suspect, will be more than a poignant too. 

What more could one want from a soap?

Frankly, all they need now is for Bobbie to show up – in the Hospital(!) - and have an awkward conversation or two with Tiff about their children and I might actually have to shell out for the Season 2 DVDs.

Light Relief

Leaving aside all the justified controversy with this story, I was laughing at Marty teaching Todd to play the piano on Tuesday's OLTL principally because Todd leaning in to play Chopsticks made me think for a second that he was going to play with his nose (why yes, I have had a couple of bloody marys)…

…and that, of course, sent me here:

And, whatever else you want to say – and I can appreciate pretty much any perspective one chooses to have on this story – with days like Tuesday, you’ve just got to concede the chemistry. 

A Poll For All

Having recently joined the PVR revolution – things in this area of technology are substantially slower here in Aust – and with more studies appearing which indicate that more and more people are watching television programming online, and with traditional ratings plummeting, I’m curious as to how all of you out there watch your stories.

Personally, other than in the very, very old days of catching the soaps during the school holidays at the very beginning, I have never watched live. I have always recorded or downloaded, and these days I’m not capable of sitting through any soap live. It feels entirely wrong.

poll by twiigs.com

OLTL Week in Review

I don’t have a lot to say about OLTL this past week.

I suspect that’s actually a good thing, on the whole.  I don’t have a lot of raving to do, but I don’t have a lot to criticise either.  

It seemed like things just got done this week:

(a) Tina figured out about Tess and went from talking to herself in annoying circumstances to talking to herself David Vickers where she had no other choice and therefore it made sense;

(b) Tess actually got on with her stupid plan instead of just widening her eyes at the thought of it;

(c) Rex and Gigi finally got home and started having some home truth conversations with Brody in which none of the three of them (well, four of them if you count Shane the Brat) came out looking good, which I actually think is a good thing because pretty much none of them is in the right here and I’d much rather grey messy characters and situations than anyone being painted as perfect;

(d) most of Mendorra seems to be over – hopefully Cristian’s kidnapping with bring the Mendorrans to Llanview, rather than returning there – and while none of these characters are my favourites the homecoming felt fine; and

(e) we, for better or worse, got some of Marty’s perspective on how she’s thinking/feeling about Todd, and while current developments are rather horrifying, they’re also interesting and I definitely want to see what happens next.

So, story progress on almost all fronts, with the promise of A Martinez to come.

There are still issues, of course.

While the flashback stories have now been reduced, we still have the locked in the basement repeat story.  Now, certainly, the writing team gets a lot of credit for knowing they’re doing repeat stories and using it as a point of reference rather than pretending it’s never happened before (cough*GH*cough), but it’s still something I wish they wouldn’t continue to fall back on long term.

Then there’s Todd’s level of delusion, which has reappeared.  I do keep having to remind myself that there’s an extra layer with this baby he’s proposing the raise with Marty being grandchild to both of them, but nevertheless it’s hard to know how he thinks this will ever work out.  Birthing class PR exercises notwithstanding, I hope that this is all going to wind up in some kind of mental health institution, because his level of fantasy is spectacular.  And wholly disappointing if it doesn’t have an ultimate pay-off.  The last round of delusion resulted in him losing his wife and kids, where does the knew round get him?

Now, the random comments and questions.

I like the brotherly by-play between John and Michael.  I also like how they’re dealing with Michael and Marcie’s relationship.  It’s messy and they don’t want to break up and they can’t be together.  Again with the grey layers.  However, where do Michael and Marcie live?  One day he’s staying over with her across the hall from John’s hotel apartment because John and Blair are “entertaining”, and the next day they’re talking about their “apartment” verses him staying at the “hotel”.  So which is it?

I also liked Roxie and Tina bonding by comparing past sins, even if the means of throwing them together was unconvincing.

Why didn’t Blair tell Starr about Sam?  I understand why she didn’t tell Starr about the hearing, but why wasn’t the first thing out of her mouth at the hospital that she’d retained custody?

Even on this show I still hate it when things get musical.

I did, however, love the twin “you did what? you bastard” look that Rex and Gigi gave Brody on finding out about the DNA test.

The axe falls again

Several sources are now reporting that Kristen Renton has been let go from Days.

As with most of these things, I’m conflicted.

I liked Morgan and thought she was a good idea because:

(a)  she came on to the canvas organically

(b)  as initially written she broke stereotypes in an interesting way rather than simply for the sake of it

(c)  she was not related to anyone

(d)  she had good chemistry with first Max and then Phillip

I came to like her less and thought she was less of a good idea because:

(a) they took away all her spunk and independence

(b) they wrote her with Phillip in the most boring way possible

Now that she’s going there are other issues and conflicts.

I think the canvas is too crowded at the moment and therefore something has to give somewhere and it’s easiest to cut the character with the least ties to the core families. Therefore, Morgan.

Also when the would-be sextet contains seven people something has to give, and we know it’s not going to be Sami, because she’s Sami, and it’s not going to be Nicole, because Nicole rocks, and it’s not going to be Chloe, because her milkshake brings the boys to the yard.  Therefore, Morgan.

Still, someone unrelated to anyone who could flit back and forth between the late 20s-mid 30s set and the college set is always a big loss on a show as inter-related as Days.

And what now for Phillip?  Back to the never quite realised triangle with Chloe and Lucas, aka his brother?  Part of the general cluster… that also includes Nicole, Sami and EJ?  I could almost get behind them trying him out with Sami actually, although with Alison Sweeney’s pregnancy likely throwing spanners in plotting works, that seems unlikely and she doesn’t need three men fawning over her.  Beyond that we’re left with Stephanie as the only other of-age, unrelated girl in town, and I know some people advocate for that as a great possibility, though I am yet to be convinced.  Maybe he could hook up with Lexie?

Frankly I just hope that this development leads to things actually becoming interesting, because the show’s kind of a slog for me at the moment – not helped, I will readily concede – by the Marlena-heavy recent developments.

So I guess I fall down on the side of Morgan being another wasted opportunity, however much I understand the departure.  And another example of how some behind the scenes continuity might really, really help out about now.

Night Shift Season 2, Episodes 4, 5 and 6

I have been watching Night Shift as it airs, but for better and/or worse I didn’t have enough to say about episodes 4 and 5 to justify a post on their own. Plus I got distracted by various other things. That said, episode 6 started to deliver something more.

Over the various episodes the parallels going on have no longer been limited to just those between the patient of the week and the doctor(s) of the week.

In addition we now have pushy, inappropriate workplace semi-boyfriends. For a show that delivers Robin and Patrick in a workplace relationship which features public displays of affection – and elevator sex – but yet doesn’t feel wholly inappropriate, both Toussaint and Leo pushing and/or harassing women they’re barely in relationships with into broadcasting budding romances to the elevators of the world, with or without underwear, just annoys the hell out of me.

Speaking of one of those relationships, did they seriously have to dress Epiphany in a non-work outfit that strongly resembled a badly cut pair of scrubs? Yes, they did:

Speaking of the other, Saira’s going back and forth on Leo, treating him first like the pratt he is and then saying he’s “come around” when in fact he’s a frickin’ Neanderthal who has shown her not an ounce of respect also annoys me. That said, they are writing him as if he has 20 different personalities, so I don’t blame her for some confusion.

The idea of the Leo/Saira/Jagger triangle I am torn about. On the one hand I like that they built the Saira/Jagger element over time instead of throwing it up instantly. On the other hand I hate Leo and wish they’d played the Saira/Jagger element a lot earlier.