I Hate the Start of Sweeps!

It happens to me every sweeps period. This first week of set up, where everything is forced into place for whatever stunt they have going for them this time, always looms large and gloomy for me. I think it’s because the sweeps stunts are no longer really much more than connected to the non sweeps periods by only the most tenuous threads. The people are the same, the sets are mostly familiar but all day to day continuity has been blown all to hell along with whatever Port Charles landmark or veteran is targeted this time.

Being basically a big push over for just about any relatively decent daytime drama that doesn’t suck wind, normally by the second week of sweeps I can get into the moment and go with the flow. Usually by the sweeps climax, I can say that there has been something I’ve enjoyed. For that reason, I stomach these transition weeks and try to take pleasure from anything that I can. I go into these periods with anticipation and trepidation.

All My Children is looking good from my recliners edge this week. I mean that. The sets look magnificent and the people all look exceptional even for the daytime type. Is it the lighting?  Make-up? I really don’t know, but looking at beautiful people in beautiful settings is most certainly something that endears me. The hospital set is fabulous. I do believe they must be on location? Even the sounds remind me of real hospitals. Kudos.

Angie is a blessing. Her return seems to have given me a new expectation. I’m also not in complete hatred of Ryan “No Memory” Lavery. I felt sorry for Emma but not so much Annie. I don’t know why.  At one point, I thought she might be a good character for me but… not so much. I was watching today 02-04-08 when Jessie walked up to Tad in the underground parking garage and I loved it. It was one of those cliff hanger shots, which you have to admit are cheesy, but I loved it. I rather thought Angie was going to go catatonic after seeing Jessie in the graveyard 02-11-08 but she is a doctor and she came out of it. I thought Jessie was going to change his mind when he went to Tad and let Tad help him so he could stay. Sigh. Maybe next week.

So, did I miss where they explained how Tad saw Jesse’s ghost a few years ago? That Jessie flashback sure looked like an alien abduction from my recliner. That would be different from the old standby WPP. No way would they go SciFi, though. They aren’t fearless in their plot line choices like Gloria Monty used to be. Don’t get me wrong.  I saw where “Port Charles” went wrong trying to do the Dan Curtis thing and I wouldn’t advocate All My Children goes there. Nope, SciFi and daytime do not mix. Never mind those channels on cable going great guns all day long (clearly some one is watching them all day)… well, ok so maybe it COULD be done but I’d never trust All My Children to do it well. Not at this point in time!

That isn’t much to have to say on the subject of All My Children but I am trying to step back a pace and let the larger scope of the show try to pull me in. Even Erica, who was the reason I stopped watching the show in the first place (it may have been over someone named Cudahy?), caught my attention today with her “Yay, We are such a good couple” speech. Obvious, but not desperate.  Well played, I thought. Of course, I would begin to decide that now that they are apparently done.

Doesn’t One Life to Live’s Blair have great hair? The greatest maybe, but oh, wait, no, there's Starr and her hair is blond girl gorgeous too. Unfair! So, I’m still not feeling Cristian and Sarah. I’m sorry I’m just not. The best part about them today was seeing Layla again! Ha, ha, ha at Ramsey. Look!  It's real cops. How do you like those apples? They wanted Todd to look good by comparison and he does, but take a note: he is a slimy, no good, rich boy who has hurt everyone he ever loved and then some. Even Ramsey can’t make Todd look good as far as I am concerned.

Speaking of Starr, isn’t she turning out to be the chip off the old block? It seemed like she was at least making a token effort not to jump to the conclusion that BF Cole and BFF Langston are “DOING IT." She’s not having much luck keeping that green eyed monster away is she? Like Father-of-the-Year Todd’s jealousy drove him to SELL HIS SON, (among other things) perhaps? Oh what a moment when Todd had to admit to that. I wish I hadn’t missed that moment.

So, is Marcie planning on throwing herself on the mercy of the court or what? I get that she is guilty but the circumstances really were mitigating to borrow a term from Diane on General Hospital. I won’t like it if she gets away with this with no repercussions but after some of the things people have walked for—and why—on these shows I’d settle for some token slap on the wrist. Especially with the viscous, horrible, unfeeling, monstrous things Todd has gotten away with.

Seriously, did anyone think that 'Tonio and Talia were cute as kittens in Sleepy Hollow, er… Cherryvale? It was silly, campy and some of the worse dialog I have ever heard and I smiled all the way through it. Yes, as dumb as it was, I was charmed and entertained by it. More so when I saw that 'Tonio was going to turn it around to manipulate to get Talia back to Llanview and maybe in his bed. Yippee!  Works for me. He had me at “Ola"

Okay, I laughed at the nun’s habits. Very Funny. Do I care what Allison’s secret is? Not yet. The difference between that and indifference is that I am gaining confidence that One Life to Live can bring me around to this story or bring the story around to me. I love Rex and Gigi. I do not normally jump on the bandwagon for a couple so soon, but how freaking adorable are they? Shane is just so cute. He sure is a mature looking 9 isn’t he?  Oddly so, compared to his father, Rex, who is very young looking 27. I have no doubt that Rex is Shane’s daddy. I love it. It's great played out against the backdrop of Roxy and Charlie’s lie. Which, in my opinion, is going to tie back in with Allison’s secret. Tina, from Daytime Confidential, thinks the secret may not be who Rex’s daddy is but more who is Rex’s mother! I don’t think that Jessica quite understands that Nash is not playing around with her pulling Tess shit. She should watch out or Alison will be free and she will be doing the duck dance with the nuns!

A Secrets Box! What fun. The possibility for disaster is so huge, vast, and enormous that it is delicious. I am looking forward to the RED BALL. With as good as One Life to Live is at this moment it is so sweet to have more to look forward to.

General Hospital

I don't want to be insensitive to the people who are offended by the thought of Michael and the gun, but I hope that TPTB do not fink out like they did when they wrote Michael smothering AJ. It would have been a much more powerful story if they hadn't caved in. I think that as a whole, the fans react too quickly to the SPOILERS instead of waiting to see these things played out on our screen to react to them. (NO OFFENSE meant) Does that make sense?

 I completely understand your concerns and I respect them very much. It's just that for 10 years, AJ's fans have watched as Carly's refusal to allow him to be a real father to his son was validated, vindicated. As his murder was passed off on a DAY PLAYER! Sonny is a mobster and Jason is his HIRED ASSASSIN. They kill people. AJ was too bad of a person (and he was, I am not blind to what they wrote him to do even though some of it was just so wrong) to be "allowed" his parental rights. It is only JUST that their arrogance and lack of empathy, their short sightedness believing that a mobster had more rights to raise a child than an alcoholic... it really CRIES OUT for Michael to take a walk on the dark side. He's been raised on video games and justification. The laws, the rules, morality itself meant nothing to his role models. It is poetic justice that Michael, Son of AJ, "no mercy" Corinthos goes down the criminal and maybe mental illness highway.

Why is General Hospital so dismal at who done its? First of all, let’s talk about Liz getting behind the wheel of a car and risking life and limb for a booty call with Jason. Okay, I get that (he is hot and I’m not –ever going to be—that old) but I don’t get that she doesn’t know if she hit something? Excuse me? Monica knows she hit “something”; Nikolas has an excuse for knowing nothing as he wasn’t even with his car when he came out of his blackout, but Carly and Liz don’t KNOW if they hit something? Huh? Liz was sleepy, ok, but Carly is just knocked up how does that affect her senses to the point where she is unaware of hitting some thing? I am not all that impressed with this at this time. Not even going to mention how she was not pregnant, Jax came home with his goat-momma charm and they make love and the next night she is verified pregnant.

There is a new mob boss in town and I love her F-U shoes! That’s the best thing I can say about the entire mob obsessed mess. Yada, yada, yada. I’m here though. I’m watching and I’m waiting and if they could EVER get that the fans of the show would dislike certain faction so much less if they hadn’t hogged the whole show for so long. The mob was in Port Charles as Frank Smith verses Luke and we loved it because it was balanced against hospital based storylines. The Jerome Family, Lucas Jones bio family; mixed it up and we loved them because they were balanced against hospital based storylines. When Sonny first came on the show and his saga was balanced against hospital based storylines we loved him too.

One thing is for sure and that is that there is a LOT more balance now than there has been in many years. Yeah, so another one of Patrick’s medical school friends is a sexual thug. Okay. He hung out with dogs such as himself. Got it. It's pretty obvious that the mysterious whispering tattooed man is Ian. I literally laughed out loud at the scenes today of his shoulders, lips and back while he whispered sinisterly at maggot James Craig. That’s right. Maggot. I’ve got nothing for you Moreau: now or ever.

Oh woe is me! Can we move this Nikolas tumor story along already? Nadine lost someone she loved, she believes apparently in ghosts and it looks like Nadine may have won the chem test trials with Leyla for Nik because I haven’t seen Leyla with him in awhile. That’s it, nothing else to see here, people! Not much to see with Ric and Marianna either, folks. And not since they yanked Lydia with no reason given have we had such a minor character switched so unceremoniously at the beginning of a storyline arc that messed up the potential storyline SO BADLY. When we obsess over recasts in the day players the crux of the story is obviously not resonating with us. Too bad!

Your invited to listen to my podcast The ABC Edition of Daytime Confidential with Luke & Tina that will be posted anytime now. Also, I expanded on my Alan & Monica Thirty Year retrospective piece and turned it into 16,000+ word history of The Quartermaine family. Yes, it's long and I haven’t finished with it yet. I’ll still need to flesh out Skye and Ned and Lois and Brook Lynn and Dillon, so this is actually a work in progress, so bear with me. You can find the history along with a Save the Quartermaine writing contest, memory lane videos, an online petition and more at www.savethequartermains.com. I hope you will help us support this effort. Thank You!