Obviously OLTL has not been as close to perfect as it usually is over the last few weeks. Breaking it down though, there has still been so much to love about it, and I think the problems come down to only three things:
1. Stacy’s Adventures in Bone Marrow Blackmail;
2. The sudden increase in speed in three stories in particular; and
3. The temporary loss of balance between dark and light.
I’m not going to go on about the backstage stuff that it has been suggested is responsible for these changes – though I have every reason to believe those rumblings of network interference are true, largely because that’s precisely how it reads on screen – but rather just offer up my opinion of the last few weeks and why I’m optimistic going forward.
And hell, in this week when Guiding Light got cancelled it’s nice to have more than one soapy thing to be optimistic about between OLTL and the glory of Billy and Chloe’s wedding week and all that went with it on Y&R (which I’ll get to in more detail in the next couple of days).
One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard around the traps is that OLTL, which has been so good at balancing light and dark for the last 11 months I’ve been watching, has suddenly become so dark. And certainly, over the last month with car accidents and multiple children in peril and a serial killer on the loose, that’s definitely been the case. I’m not that concerned about it though, even in these recessionary times, for two main reasons.
First, sometimes it’s not that appropriate to be playing funny against some dire stories. I think it would have been jarring to have Matthew being paralysed and Cole overdosing and Shane getting cancer and Blair in a coma on one side, and comedy on the other. Of course, they didn’t need to do all those things at once, but that goes back to all that behind the scenes stuff, so I’ll just take it that at this time they did have to have all that going on at once, and feel that it was okay to wallow in the drama for a couple of weeks. Especially when so much of the drama was really good. But I’ll come back to that in a moment.
Second, I think the period of all darkness is over with the show having started to pull out of it in this last week with Dorian’s romantic shenanigans and Jack’s amusing turn at brat-hood, and the future is looking more balanced. After all, out of all of this has come one of the most demented versions of a Brady Bunch-style household I’ve ever seen. I mean, for the time being we’re going to have Dorian, Addie, Blair, Star, Jack, Sam, Langston, Mo, Noelle, Ray, Lola, Shaun and John freakin’ McBain living in the same house. With promised drop-ins by David Vickers. Sorry, David Buchanan. There’s nothing but a pile of comedic potential in that, even if a good portion of it comes from Jack making fun of John’s hair and wardrobe.
As for the speed, there was a sudden fast-forward in Natalie and Jared figuring out the baby-switch, which for the most part I didn’t mind. I’d much rather things go relatively quickly because characters are portrayed as being a bit cluey – Natalie and Jared’s lightbulb moment when Marcie starting talking about Cole’s blood type was a relief more than anything else – than have everyone sitting around being dumb when the answer is staring them in the face. Of course, the non-reveal of the information they now have is bugging me, but at least I know that with Michael and Marcie’s departure scheduled, there’s a time limit on how long they can sit on that secret. And I wouldn’t mind seeing all their hard work at being redeemed from the last DNA secret they kept unravelling because they didn’t learn their lesson.
Aside from the stupid story that I’ve already (mostly) quarantined into it’s own post, the other story that’s suddenly gone on fast-forward is Layla and Cristian. Now, in theory, I’m certainly behind them testing this out. For several reasons, including that when a show has a larger cast I would rather they experiment with relationships between existing players rather than automatically just bring on new characters while leaving established ones languishing. Until it begins to head towards The Bold and the Beautiful levels of ookiness, of course. But throwing them into scene after scene of “combat”, going so far to lock them in rooms a couple of times in a couple of weeks, seems far too speedy for me. The powers that be should be taking lessons from themselves and the great slow burn they did with Jessica and Brody and letting it build a bit more gradually.
On the flipside, the pacing of the serial killer story, and the Matthew/Cole stories and all the things radiating off them, feels pretty good. And, especially with the killer story, feels like they actually plotted it out from the beginning, rather than making it up as they go along (*cough* General Hospital *cough*). Although the same could not be said for Antonio’s departure, which was about as half-hearted as a send-off could get. And he’s been on the show how long? At least a decade, right? Though I guess he wasn’t injected with something and sent off in a wheelchair or just never mentioned again (*cough* Days *cough*).
Really though, in a month when every story has focused on the kids – think about it, Matthew, Cole, Starr, Shane, Chloe, Jack and Sam have been at the centres of each of the current stories and twists – most of the glory has belonged with the relationships between parents and their kids and between parents and other parents. It’s driven dynamic scenes between, in particular, Nora and Marty running a gambit of every emotion of pain and blame and sorrow and love. And Cole and his two mothers, and his “brother”. And between Bo and Matthew quietly working through horrible realities, and Bo and Rex, and Bo and Nora (the revival of that relationship has felt so natural), and Dorian and Viki, and Jack and Todd bonding with Jack taking a Todd’s side on many things but not taking his crap either.
All of that has been exceedingly strong.
And then there’s Tea. I love Tea. I loved her realisation about how she felt about Todd, her conversation with Viki, her turning around and representing, effectively, Marty and Cole and Blair and Starr, and then all her little dances with Todd both in the Court room and subsequent. Florencia Lozarno is great.
Looking at the last couple of days and going forward there are a number of other things showing promise. First, Thursday was clearly Brody Speaks For the Audience Day, as I loved his confrontation with Stacy from beginning to end. “Are you threatening me?” “Well, people are getting stabbed all over town, or haven’t you heard?” If we’re going to have this crap story, at least it’s punctuated with confrontations like that and followed up by Schuyler also calling Stacy on her crap – there would have only been one thing that could make this story worse, which would have been that no one saw through Stacy, but at least as they’re writing it, everyone but Shane does see through her in one way or another.
Second, Starr, Starr, Starr. I actually like where they’re taking this, even if some parts are a bit squirm-making to watch. Starr has been this paragon of virtue since I started watching. Now, I gather that wasn’t always the case, but with all the crap she’s had happen to her in the last year – hell, even the last month – that they’re using that to move her away from good girl and into someone who is troubled, and not seeing straight, and interesting, is quite appealing to me. Especially as they’re having Schuyler react in the right way. I am interested to see how it plays out. Aside from anything else, it doesn’t feel like a soap story I’ve seen over and over again.
So, things in Llanview are imperfect, but I’m still enjoying the hell out of most of the show, and want to see what happens next.
With the darkness, it hasn’t been a quote-heavy few weeks, but a few of my favourites were:
Michael to John, re Todd: “Because he’s a newsman he has access to old school print and random extra Ds?”
“All I’m looking for is a friendly place to stay, no a psycho-analysis.” I hate Stacey, but I don’t mind her pronunciation sometimes.
Addie: “Go home.”
John: “Go home?”
Addie: “Blair’s really going to want to see you when she comes out of this coma, and, I don’t know how to break this to you; you really need a shower.”
Tea to Ray, re Dorain: “In Llanview, by the way, that’s called Poking the Cobra.”
And the whole exchange between Jack and John re John being a vampire and the state of his hair, etc.
