All My Children

It's official: I do not like Ritchie. I’ve tried to get excited about him seeing as how he is being talked about like he is all that and a bag of chips-ahoy, but nope, it’s just not working. Bad guys are needed on soaps so he fits a bill and the actor is certainly easy on the eyes but if this is the best All My Children has to offer they may as well stop production. Did I say easy on the eyes? He really is scrumptious to behold. I’d just like to offer this one new years hope for all of us; could we please stop populating our shows with actors who look too good to let go of no matter how heinous their characters may be?   

Has anyone else noticed that JR and Babe’s coloring is the same? They could be siblings! I had to laugh at the January 2 episode because of the way they kept lighting JR and Babe. Did you notice? He had the “god light” thing going on. His face was bathed in this glowing illumination that was clearly what passes for subtlety with ABC. He was cleaned up and looking good, I just thought the lighting was unusual. It was like they were spotlighting him. To point out he was clean and sober again? I don’t know but he and Babe were clearly well lit; jarringly so, in fact.  

Kendall and Zach; (yawn) honestly I can not imagine what all of the hoo-ha is about Zendall! I liked Zack better while he was in the hole with Greenlee. I can’t really say that I dislike Kendall; she is just on my screen way too much. I thought her revenge plot was ridiculous. I like the fact that finally SOME ONE is going to be honest and forthwith but the woman is insistent on martyrdom. It is so tiring! And of course the “tough”: judge has a complete meltdown and lets the admitted felon off with a tap on the wrist. GAH! I hate the courts and judges on soaps they are just ridiculous, bordering on demented! 

Just so you don’t think I don’t have something nice to say about anything… I’ve begun to like Aidan. Funny thing is I wasn’t really interested in him before Greenlee disappeared. I like the way he seems genuinely remorseful that he did the dirty with Kendall. He seems concerned not because of what will happen to him if he is caught (as so many of these villainous types so often only think of themselves) but because of what will happen between Greenlee, Kendall and Zach (and then him) when they all find out. 

One Life to Live 

Yay! RJ! The year is starting off great. Addie is a blast. I’m having fun watching her experience life outside of St. Anne’s. The Cramer women are supporting Lindsay; and a truce has been struck between RJ and Bo to support her as well. Dorian using the trial as a platform from which to go after Nora is simply delicious.  

Oh double Yay. Yay to the tenth degree; is this story line really about to be over and Marcie be caught? I hope so! How did this become a story I hated so badly? I loved Michael and Marcie, I hate Todd, and Ramsey is the soap equivalent of road kill. As in rotted, festering, gross and something NO ONE wants to see. I adore Gigi and Paris, Texas so why don’t I love it? It must be the fact that I hate stories about people keeping other people children away from them. At least I’m consistent! I swear when I saw Marcie talking to whatever that kids name is this time about how she HAD TO “protect” him I decided that unless she is shot dead or goes to prison I’m not going to like the way this ends. This distresses me for two reasons; first they have just turned Marcie into Margaret Cochran 2.0 and second they are forcing me to prefer Todd Manning. Barely, but still in this case Marcie is lunatic if she believes what she is doing, allowing to be down and justifying it in the name of “LOVE” is just lousy. I don’t mean to say that Kathie Briar isn’t bringing it on. She is consistently believable as newly manic, completely in the wrong and obviously criminally insane Sally Anne, Sally Sue, Sally What's-it-whose—it. 

I adore Talia talking to Sarah about Tonio while Antonio and Cristian discuss them at the gym. Yummy, sweaty, partially naked Vega brothers teasing about showering together is just icing on the cake. Then Carlotta steps in to embarrass the girls and tries to pull the mom card to get some inside information; now this is family based drama at its finest! Now that’s good stuff.   

General Hospital

How much do I love Luke? Well, actually not enough to love his hairy faced, silly looking court clerk performance where he shows up in heels and a blond wig! Why oh WHY must they always go TOO far or not far enough? Wow, hearing what Luke has gotten away with in his time on General Hospital really brings home the fact that he was the first felon we learned to love as a hero, doesn’t it? No wonder General Hospital continues to try to force good looking and charismatic actors in the form on hideous, terrorist criminals down our throats. Apparently we love that shit! 

I loved that each and every person, no matter rather they loved Luke or hated him told the unvarnished truth. Hearing it all laid out like that its rather difficult to see why I love him so much. 

What else do I LOVE? Alexis and Diane up for the same award, Alexis and Ric making amends and Ric babysitting for Alexis to get her award, Ric and Skye trying to get the dirty done in his office, Tracy and Lucky and Lulu and Bobbie all rallying around Luke in his time of need, the hospital staff rallying around Epiphany, Cassius the orderly, Robin telling Carly off and believe it or not; Kate bribing police officers to get the dimpled Don off the hook. I love that Diane walked out on Jason and Spinelli searching for Sonny when she got notification of the nomination. 

Don’t forget the beginnings of what may well become a groundswell of support for a campaign to SAVE THE QUARTERMAINES being featured at Daytime Confidential. The fans are not laying quietly and taking the decimation of a core family any longer, and it’s about time we took comfort in numbers and made our feelings count for something! 

I wanted to share this picture of Maxie with you:

...and share what Karen from Wubs had to say in her 12/20/07 blog; Karen said; “Well, if you watched and saw Maxie's face at all today (12/20), that was me. All Pissy-face... LOL. Hear Felicia talking? Blah, blah, blah… Cut to Maxie Pissy-face; that's me. See Felicia and Robin talking on the couch? blah, blah, blah… Cut to Maxie Pissy-face reading a magazine; that's me! That sums me up watching GH lately. I have this face on...like I smell something slightly off. I read magazines, I go through my mail. I dust. I wish I had one of those 'snappy' cameras that take pics off the TV so I could show you her face.  It was priceless.” No, Karen; YOU’RE priceless! Dang that was good. I’ll end this week by sharing some of my ideas about the last few weeks and toss in some DAYTIME BUZZ.

About Maxie and Felecia it didn’t look like she believed the shit that was coming out of her mouth anymore than we did. I love that Maxie isn’t giving her the pass on being MIA for herself and Georgie. The attack on Felecia by Maxie at the funeral was wildly inappropriate and yet exactly what a mother who abandons her children to her ex-husband to raise while she chases a man all over the globe. It was wrong but it was curiously right at the same time. It may not be as satisfying to Maxie as she thought it might be; to publicly spank her mother that way, but it was passionate and it was heartfelt and it was not a lie. Each one of us who loved this character in the past and who has been let down by her absence on this show when it was completely erroneous for her not to be present can take satisfaction in that verbal smack down.

Son of AJ, future mobster “No Mercy” Michael has declared that he will someday run his step-father Sonny’s “business” and no, Carly, I don’t believe for one moment that the murderous mini-thug does not know “exactly” what it is his step daddy does for a living. He is a murderer, a criminal and Michael’s observations about his life and about how his life works is spot, 100% correct. Is this a proud moment for you Carly? You should have called Sonny and got that on video phone so that you could both revel in the joy of having saved this innocent child from his alcoholic father. Good job. Now at least the kid will know to abuse the expensive liquor, throw the barware that costs more than most people’s rent and exploit the black market for guns, drugs, prostitutes… whatever illegal cargo they keep having stolen off the docks. Whew. Such a relief you’ll never have to be around your real father so he can ruin your life! 

Cindy Devine says, “Ah yes, Guza!  I've said it before and I'll say it again, Bob Guza is the debbil incarnate, times infinity!!!1!!eleventy1!!1!  While it's a given that all soaps must change and evolve over time, that doesn't mean changing the fundamental basics of what a soap is.  Those of us who have been watching GH for a significant amount of time actually recall WHY this show is named "GENERAL HOSPITAL."  It's not because that's where the mobsters go to get patched up after a shootout.  It's called "General Hospital" because the show was CREATED and written to be centered around the daily lives and dramas surrounding those people (and their families) who actually WORKED in the hospital.  Anything else was the "B" or "C" story; not the main focus.” 

About All My Children; the Aidan-Kendall sex and Zach-Greenlee, Kelly writes: “you know what I did like? Greenlee and Zach laying down all the hurt and anger and sadness. They just put it all down and bonded in their mutual fear that they would never again see the people they loved most.  I just found the last few scenes with them in the well to be incredibly raw and endearing. Zach understands Greenlee wasn't acting in malice when she took Spike and now she understands why Zach caused the blackout. I also thought it was so sad when Zach held Greenlee as she fell asleep. It was just raw. Maybe that is what AMC was going for with Kendall and Aidan's inappropriate sex. If so they totally missed the mark.”

While Katrina says; “Wow... Just... wow.  Georgie's death is bringing out an acting caliber from the performers that blow away the acting we saw with Emily's death.  It's either ballsy or stupid to kill off 2 main characters within a month of one another, especially when there is such a dissent between how the two deaths are handled.  From the minute Spinelli started freaking out through Mac's fury through Maxie's breakdown, it has just been spectacular.  It's a bummer that Lindze Letherman has been let go, but since they weren't writing for her anyway, I'm grateful that her exit catalyzed such excellent work!” 

About One Life to Live Carolyn tells us; “I really am not enjoying anything about this show right now.  I fast forward through anything with Marcie in it (unless David’s in the scene, then I suffer through the Marcie parts).  I fast forward through anything with Sarah, Antonio, Todd, Blair, the newbies, John, Jared, Natalie and sadly, Dorian in it too, unless of course it’s Dorian and David Clint.  Those scenes I’ll watch.  I’m also cautiously optimistic about Clint and Nora, though I think it’s kind of odd with the whole, “My brother’s ex-wife” thing going on.  Really, for a soap that has generally had a decent storyline or two at most of the time, I find it to be incredibly boring.  If they drag out the Marcie/Todd story much longer I will have to consider shooting a big hole in our brand new flat panel TV.”

Karen H, our own Media Ho, states; “I’m sure we can thank Bob “Kill A Kid For Christmas” Guza for this special prelude to the holiday. We can thank the genuinely fine troupe of GH actors for turning in such wrenching performances, due to their innate talent rather than the words on their scripts. Even Kirsten “Maxie” Storms’ reaction to Georgie’s death moved me, and I normally have no use for Maxie. (Trust me, if one of the gurrrls had to be murdered, I wouldn’t have chosen Georgie the Good.) 

Mysti muses: “I for one would be thrilled to see the show gravitate away from mob wars and mob molls and gunplay and hostages and strangulations and all that crap.  Let’s have the good guys take Port Charles back.  Bring Frisco back to not only clean up the town, but also to deal with the fallout from his daughter’s death.  You know – the one he conceived and then abandoned?  Give Maxie a chance to actually know her father – not her DAD.  Nope, her dad is Mac.  That’s another story they could explore.  How he let another man raise his daughters.  Not to mention how he couldn’t be bothered to come back for his own brother’s funeral.  Have Lucas come out of the attic and tell his Uncle Frisco off – and introduce him to his life partner as well.