Soaps By Remote

With this glowing purple ring, I thee wed

As much as I’m reluctant to praise AMC which sucks on so many levels – though the promise of an Erica-Ryan hook-up is the kind of comedy gold viewers have been sarcastically predicting for years, thanks for throwing us a bone, AMC – I really enjoyed the Jake-Amanda wedding.  

Not just because I like the couple, but also because of how it was put together.  

Almost all soap weddings take place in one of two ways: months or years of couple angst finally overcome and followed by a big wedding prepared in what seems like less than 24 hours; or JP/Vegas marriage of convenience/drunkenness/animosity etc.
 
Jake and Amanda’s wedding didn’t break those rules in terms of time, but it turned the haste into an asset – and not even an unrealistic one.  

Having decided to get married – they might be in the midst of an angsty situation, but I loved the way she just said “yes” instead of um-ing and ah-ing before getting there – they did two things so right.  They (a) went straight out and got, dun, dun, a marriage licence (how practical of them); and (b) got Tad ordained on the internet in order to marry them in the living room in slightly dressy normal clothes.  

In this day and age, that’s what you do if you’re not going for the all out a year in the planning affair that most soap weddings usually look like.  You get a friend or family member ordained on the internet (diversion: remember the quaint old days when Northern Exposure’s Chris had to get ordained by responding to an ad in a magazine?), and have a simple ceremony.

There was no improbably big gown or huge floral arrangement, they didn’t have time to go out and buy rings, and it was all the sweeter for it.

Of course, this is a soap, so they still managed to have David show up – out of nowhere admittedly – so Opal could bash him over the head with the bouquet and they could wind up with this set of witnesses:


And it is a calm before the soap storm type of wedding, but such a cute one.  Not overdone, not ridiculous, just fun.  Loved it.


Though, wow, that Marissa is annoying, isn’t she?  Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given her sister, and mother.

Diversion into Pratt-land

I'd been hearing good things about a tiny pocket of AMC known as Jake and Amanda, so I took a moment out of my OLTL catch-up to track down some scenes. 

I had liked what little I saw of them back when I last checked in to the show for a day and a half during Tornado-fest 2008, and sure enough I do rather like them now.  Even if the pregnancy story does have the ring of a copy-cat familiarity and sent me flashing back to the origins of Tad and Dixie, they have really lovely chemistry and it's about time Amanda had a proper story after all that time languishing on the back-burner.  Also, it's nice, especially on this show, when unplanned chemistry is eventually played to when it appears instead of sticking with the original, bad, script.

However, it strikes me that nothing about giving this baby to Fauxliza can possibly be a good idea.  Much as nothing about Fauxliza is a good idea except perhaps the way they have actually remembered the history with Colby's parentage and Jake.  But that's not enough for me to entertain anything positive about this casting debacle. 

Jake and Amanda, on the other hand, I give a thumbs up too.

Tradition!

I am an unashamed contrarian.

I am equally happy to bag use of unimaginative soap cliché and indulge in love of soapy tradition.

So while I am over the Who’s the Daddy? story in 90% of cases and have previously advocated a soap writer moratorium on that story, I’m kind of a sucker for the soap tradition of having the real Daddy deliver the baby whether we know he’s the real Daddy or not at that point.  At which point we instantly know he’s the real Daddy*.

I come to make this point because I have been cheating slightly – sign of good soap – and watching Billy deliver Chloe’s baby on Y&R on the Canadian day-ahead via You Tube.  

Now, sure, quite a bit of it was contrived to end up with Billy delivering his daughter, but less than if they’d had only Billy and Chloe in one place rather than all four of the quad.  But I liked it nevertheless.  Perhaps because I am a complete sucker for Billy Miller and Elizabeth Henrickson and for this quad in general.  Regardless it was the right amount of bonding without any real degree of sap (Cane aside).  Anyway, I liked it.

And I like the tradition of having the father be there for the delivery of the kid, even if they’re trying to pretend it’s not his.  I don’t know why really, given I’m generally anti-sap, but I can’t help it.

*With one caveat.  Summer Newman should break the rule and not be Jack Abbott’s kid.  I know that many, many people – Jack/Phyllis fans, Nick/Sharon fans, fans of soap tradition – would prefer her to be Jack’s daughter, and not just because he delivered her in a lift, in a blackout, in a blizzard.  I disagree, despite appreciating the tradition.  

This is not because I object to Jack and Phyllis having a child, because that would be cool, but because the way they set up that story means that Nick would have to be lying for incomprehensible reasons – given he was the one with access to the DNA tests – to make it work, and because it felt like the old LML regime was unreasonably hedging its bets in that regard and couldn’t even do it properly.

I still like the tradition though, which makes me wonder just how many people are going to be in the room when AMC’s Amanda Dillon delivers.

Assailed

This evening I was standing in my kitchen making salad to take for lunch tomorrow - three weeks to Hawaii, three weeks to Hawaii, must eat salad, must eat salad - ignoring the TV in the other room when I was assailed by the sound of Cameron Matheson yelling at someone.

Needless to say I recognised this sound instantly given it's one we're all very familiar with. 

In this case though, it was coming from something called Instant Beauty Pageant and I was doubly horrified.  I'm sure this travesty has already aired in the US and has probably been around here for a while too, but I have managed to avoid it.  Because arrgg!  And I only came in for the last minute of Cameron yelling.

I'm not even going to get in the stupidity of that show.  But, how does he have the time?  And why is he still contaminating AMC with his "yeah he's a nice guy but his character and most of his acting sucks" if he's got 25 other jobs?

Anyway, just thought I'd share my annoyance.

Now I'm going back to watching Top Chef and eating steamed fish.  They balance each other out.

Three weeks til Hawaii, three weeks til Hawaii...

Farewell 2008

It’s been rather difficult approaching 2008’s Best and Worst post.  

Mainly because there’s a lot that I haven’t watched this past year.  It’s a bit of a challenge categorising things I haven’t actually watched.  

So, I’m not doing a Best and Worst, I’m just doing a quick fire summary of the shows, and then moving on to catching up on the last month’s worth of OLTL and starting in on Y&R.

I saw 2008 in soaps as follows:

Days: BORING and completely unwatchable in the second half of the year.

GH: Boring, but scattered with some great, funny, lovely, occasionally sexy moments.  Making it even more frustrating than Days, because you can’t completely ignore it.

OLTL: Uneven, but never boring, and at times quite brilliant.

Y&R: Apparently so on the upsurge that I must absolutely make time to watch in the new year.

AMC: 90% appalling, but still capable of delivering a lovely tribute episode to a much loved actress/character in Eileen Herlie/Myrtle, a fantastic reunion of much loved characters in Angie and Jesse and someone who looks hot even with a beard and a crappy storyline in Thorsten Kaye.

B&B: I gather there were bears.  Now a prime time show with quite reasonable ratings in my home country.

ATWT:  Still have never watched it.

GL:  On location and in the ratings basement.

Passions: Gone to soap heaven, or perhaps pergatory.

Night Shift:  Some parts were so fabulous that it made the whole show fabulous even though in reality it was a little uneven.  True soap winner of the year.

And because I can't completely ignore Bests and Worsts:

- the Annual Jane Eliot Ageing Gracefully Yet Spectacularly Award this year is a tie between Days' Renee Jones and AMC's Debbi Morgan, both of whom look gorgeous and years younger than their actual years; and

- the Worst Wardrobe Award goes to Days' Kate Roberts, this year finally nudging out Carly Corinthos-Multiple-Names.

A Soap Opera Thanksgiving 2008

It’s Turkey time again!  Well, for you.  For me it’s the beginning of Christmas party schmooze and aching feet season.

For those of you who are new(ish) to the site, although I’m not American and there is no Thanksgiving here where I live, there is Thanksgiving here on this blog.  You can go back and read my Thanksgiving lists from 2006 and 2007, and feel free to get knocked over by the irony of last year’s list in particular (both in its positivity and negativity).

So, what I am thankful for over the past soap year?

 -         Night Shift.  The whole of season two, but especially, especially, the Scorpios

-         That Days has been renewed, even with all the restrictions that come with that

-         That Y&R has improved so much that I’m trying to find room for it in my viewing schedule again

-         That I found OLTL.  Although it hasn’t been delivering as consistently as it was, and has had one particular story that could most flatteringly be described as massively problematic, it’s still more compelling to me than either GH or Days at the moment

-         That AMC killed off Babe.  Just because

-         Daytime Confidential’s podcasts, which always have me laughing while I’m trying to get some serious exercise done

-         GH having found – mainly through accident, rather than design, I suspect – a sense of humour again.  Sure, the show is still mainly dark black and frustrating, but the comedic (but not stupid) duos of Maxie & Spinelli and Alexis & Diane have provided some much needed and sustained levity

-         Kirsten Storms and Maxie Jones. Last year it was just about the transformation of Maxie, but now it’s just about how great she’s (been allowed to) become

What are you thankful for this soapy Thanksgiving?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ding dong

I gather that Babe being crushed under a bar is All My Children’s tribute to the crushing of the Wicked Witch of the East under a house, and that Bianca turning up on the same day was not coincidental in that regard.

Yes, I succumbed to the temptation of The Tornado.  

I haven’t watched All My Children since the Spike is deaf/Ian is born ridiculously immature period – I think it was a combination of the general crappiness of the show and the relentless darkness around Zach and Kendall who were the only ones who had kept me watching for some time, that did it.

But this week I watched the whole week.  Coming in just for the big bang isn’t particularly useful if you haven’t seen the state of characters relationships in the lead up, in my view.

Upon returning I found that I still do not care about Ryan and Greenlee.  Not at all, in any way, shape or form.  And that they spent the first half of the storm actually believing that the weather was ALL ABOUT THEM was so typical.  At least it was acknowledged later that that was outrageously arrogant, so I have some hope (especially combined with all the references to the fact that Ryan was an A Grade asshole the last time they were married), but not very much.  Especially not while Kendall continues to play cheerleader.  Blurg.

Annie is annoying to an extreme level that she never used to be.  While I skipped a bit, to me it seems that her character transition has gone from nice-with-doormat-tendencies through totally-crazy and now on to annoying-paranoid.  And Aiden should go back to doing the light stuff – or you know, nothing but looking pretty - and never, ever have to try and emote.  Ever.

They could not possibly have laid it on any thicker with Babe and JR, but at least that will be going away shortly, so I’ll leave it alone.  

Otherwise the build-up was fine.  Anything that puts Erica and Adam together is good, as is any Slater family time.  On that note, I’m glad Kendall said no to another kid right now. I know that anvil is for what’s to come this week, but after her last two pregnancies there’s no way she should be ready to have another kid for at least ten years.

When it came to the storm itself, I thought the VFX were really pretty good.  Now I’m watching low res on a small screen, which may have helped, but it worked for me.  The build-up of the clouds in the backgrounds to various scenes, especially the Ryan-Greenlee ones where I was paying more attention to the changing light in the sky than I was to them, were great and appropriately menacing.   And the little cut backs to the wind chimes and the porch swing etc help build things up nicely.

And then the twister itself, picking up Zach’s car and dumping it, was pretty damn cool.

Then they topped it off by not skimping on the debris.  The bar, the beach house, that gazebo-y thing, plus the site of Zach’s car:  shredded.  

So, all in all, I thought they did a great job production-wise, and yes, I will be tuning in on Monday.  Because I am a sucker.  And Bianca's back and about to give birth, so one has to see how that's going to play out.

Oh, and Natalia, your father doesn’t want to leave town and visit your mother tonight because of the tornadoes, and the sirens, and that he’s chief of police, and that it is unsafe for anyone but the scored spouses of Ryan and Greenlee to be outside, not because he’s trying to avoid it or slight you.  Someone that self-centred and unaware should be thrown into a triangle with the aforementioned R&G just to see if it creates a blackhole of self-centered-ness that eats the town.

And finally, I couldn’t get a decent screencap, but do Greenlee’s hands have a mind of their own that leads them to do homicidal crazy things if they are not encased in their own private straight-jackets?  Every top Rebecca Budig was wearing this week had sleeves down to the tips of her fingers, and the one from the first half of the week had her hands tied up in mini-straight jackets.  Apropos of nothing.

Will this inspire actual creativity?

So, if the the recent news (or "news" as the case may be) in relation to All My Children's cast changes comes to pass, I can't help but thinking it may actually force the writers to do something creative.

We know that Babe is departing in some form or another in the coming weeks.  Now news indicates that Alicia Minshew has been given several (thoroughly well-earned) months off to get married, so pre-taped scenes or no pre-taped scenes that would also have Kendall off canvas for a slab of time.  Then there's the very realistic (and understandable) possibility that Rebecca Budig will not extend her contract beyond a year, so goodbye Greenlee as well.

Therefore the show's three leading female characters under 40 for the last several years - for better or worse - will be gone from the canvas for a lengthy period.

Add to that calculation that the show has systematically over the last couple of years also killed off or sent away several other women in this age range (or sent them bat-shit over Ryan) - Dixie, Simone, Erin, Di, Julia, etc - and suddenly there's a big hole mid-show.

Sure, into that gap will be coming Bianca and Reese (that's the name of Tamara Braun's character, yes?), and recently Taylor has come into the picture as well.  But when Kendall, Greenlee and Babe are replaced by a lesbian couple and someone with a military background, I can't help but think that the writers are actually going to have to start writing something new and interesting for all the characters in this age group, because they won't have the same worn out couples, triangles, quadrangles etc to play with.  And maybe, you know, give Amanda a decent story.

As always, we shall see.

Join in the Chorus

I've been slightly distracted in recent days with birthday celebrations, unpacking half a dozen giant boxes of childhood memories my mother cleared out of her garage and delivered into my living room, and working as we start pre-production on the new season of the series I get to play actual as opposed to imaginary Executive Producer on. Plus watching the Food Channel. A lot.

I do have three quarters of a Night Shift post done, half a OLTL post and the beginnings of a Days post, and I still haven't decided whether I'm going to watch Genie's return. But before I get to those, I have to just add my dumbstruck praise to that of many others at ABC's new promo which includes its soaps with all its other shows.

Everyone else has already noted why this is more likely on ABC as opposed to the other networks - they own the shows - but nevertheless, between this and the rampant if slightly misguided daytime only "celebrity" ad campaign, I really couldn't be more thrilled to see actual, genuine promotion going on.

And if Days can sustain some of its Olympics-related ratings boost...

Promotions

I see that ABC Daytime/Soapnet is sponsoring Jezebel today, keeping up their rather odd celebrity endorsement program.

I find the whole campaign odd, but I'm glad they're actually promoting their shows.