February 19, 2008

My soap watching goes through spurts.  I’ll favor one show over the others, watching the entire show and fast-forwarding through the uninteresting parts of the others.   I tend to favor General Hospital with All My Children following a distant second and One Life to Live never topping the list.  The other day I had all of the shows on my DVR and started to watch GH but ended up skipping through half of it.  I then made my way to AMC and OLTL and found that in 15 minutes I’d finished both of those too.  This is sweeps month and it’s supposed to be designed keep me glued to the TV but something is off.  Is it me or the writer’s strike or something else entirely?   

I think All My Children has done the best job of letting me down lately.  Character assassinations, actor assassinations, episode hoarding and bad acting are just a few of the problems forcing me to fast forward through the show.   The whole tactless and distasteful firing of Sabine Singh and subsequent promoting of the “Real Greenlee” left a bad taste in my mouth; one that has yet to be brushed away.  Other events had led me to my current state of dissatisfaction.   

AMC really should change their name to something like “Kendall’s World”.  What were TPTB thinking, “I guess someone had to replace Alexa Havins so why not Alicia Minshew,”?  I could give them many reasons, with the first one being a lack of acting depth.   Alicia Minshew is great at walking around and whining.  Heck, my 16 year old daughter can do that too but I don’t think its national TV-worthy.   

There are several other stories on the show that don’t interest me either and most of them are entangled with Kendall and her posse.  Ryan’s current state of Kendall-love comes to mind.  Not only is Ryan being reduced to a moaning, love lost wimp but we have to watch everyone around him tell him he’s got a family he loves, who love him too.  Over and over and over again.  Excuse me, but when Dr. Martin explained what happened to Ryan shouldn’t the next sentence have been something like, “...and tomorrow you have an appointment with a specialist to help regain your memory,” instead of just sending him back home with his stranger of a wife to his stranger of a daughter?  Come on AMC , if you’re going to have a storyline like this, give it something to hold onto instead of making it a way to focus even more unwanted attention on Kendall.  Ryan isn’t the kind of guy who would just sit on this and not do anything to fix the problem and Annie should dragging his amnesiac ass straight to a specialist for help.  Oh, and while we’re at it, why isn’t the newly sainted Zach step up to the plate and pull out all stops to get Ryan’s memory back?   Zach.  Remember him?   The somewhat mean-spirited, vengeful and often stone-faced anti-hero?  Miss him?  I do.  I’m not enjoying the sainted Zach, always willing to lend a helping hand, say a few kind words and offer up his true friendship without a negative bone in his body.  All the character is missing is the traditional “Kick me” sign stuck to the back of his shirt.  Get that and we’ve got a winner of an idiot.  I want the old Zach back.   

We’ve also got the “Real Greenlee” who’s really just another nail in the wall of “How Great Is Kendall”.   

 Remember Adam Chandler?  Adam is the character you love to hate because he did something so terrible but in his eyes you could always see the hurt, the loneliness, the desperation and that could hook you every time.  I truly believe David Canary is doing a bang up job given his current material but I’m guessing even he’s frustrated with what his character is being forced to do.  It’s not Adam.  Adam is mean.  Adam is hurtful but Adam isn’t evil.  Since he left Krystal in labor I’ve not seen much of the Adam I like, just some sorry version of an evil twin.   

There are some side stories that may not focus on Kendall but annoy me just as much.  Since Alexa Havins left, Babe has lost her gumption.   Babe always struck me as the somewhat intelligent blond who played dumb and now she’s just dumb.  I don’t think Amanda Baker is the problem either.  I think she’s a respectable actor who’s trapped in the typical “You’re a recast and we’re changing the character so deal with it,” situation.   Too bad for Baker because I don’t see her stealing the show from Alicia Minshew with her recent material.  

I have never been a fan of Tad and Krystal so really anything with them as a couple doesn’t even get a chance with me.  I can’t tolerate them together.  Frankly, I can’t tolerate Krystal with anyone but I especially can’t stand her with Tad.  

I cannot comment on JR, his really bad hair or the incredibly stupid storyline between JR and Babe.  I just can’t go there.  If I did it wouldn’t be pretty.    

I do like the nod to history for the development of the current Jessie and Angie storyline.  I think the integrity of the characters has been preserved and watching these two together takes me back to a time when I thought love was supposed to be intense and dramatic.  Hey, I was in junior high – it was intense and dramatic!   

A few characters I like outside of their storylines and secretly hope for the possibility of different stories.  I like the connection between Zach and Annie and if this whole multi-coupling/best friends forever thing blows up in their faces, I’d like to see Annie and Zach hook up.  The show seems to be dropping small hints in that direction but that doesn’t mean anything will stick.  Of course I’m hopeful that if (and probably when because it’s really bound to happen) the top blows on these couplings, Zach gets his balls back.   

I still love Amanda and still hope we’ll see her in a storyline that does the character and actor justice.  I feel the same Aidan Devane.  The actor had great chemistry with the ‘Fake Greenlee’ but there is no spark with the ‘Real Greenlee’.   Then again, this version of Greenlee falls flat for me.  I’ve really not seen anything to remind me of the character when Budig played her the first time or even from when Singh took over the role.   Maybe it was there recently but I fast-forwarded through it.  

Like I have through most of the show these days.