Women in daytime = whores. At least, I think they’re the same. I dunno. It’s hard for me to figure it all out since I’m just a woman. Either I’ve been watching too much daytime or it’s the peyote… (just kidding on the last part, though given what some shows are doing to daytime women and viewers as a consequence, a little peyote might make daytime shows go down a little easier).
General Hospital
I’m all about the ‘I told you so’ lately and I want to hand one out to the writers of GH. I’ve never been impressed with the casting of James Franco in the role of ‘Franco’ and have been horrified by the drooling and self-congratulating linked to the casting of JF in the role. The fact that the character was named Franco was enough to tell me about the lack of creativity attached his development. It seemed to be all about stunt casting and the hope that a primetime/big screen actor could save GH from falling ratings.
It feels as if GH’s PTB were so convinced that negative stereotypes about daytime viewers were real, the stereotype that we’re just a bunch of sex-starved panty-clinching rubes, who lick our screens whenever a hot male actor is featured, that casting JF as ‘Franco’ made sense! As if we don’t already have enough testosterone filled doom and gloom on screen! (As for that screen licking part, I freely admit that I do think about licking the screen when Jason Thompson’s Patrick is on, but hell, who doesn’t?) The idea that “Franco” would cause us to swoon was as big a fallacy as almost everything else the GH writers have offered us by way of propping the Suckpranos storyline. I don’t want to see one more character, stunt casting or otherwise, sacrificed on the altar of the mob boys.
- Give Olivia her brain back. She was such a strong vibrant character for so long and now she’s a walking-talking mess. All the daydreaming about Sonny makes me ill. If I had to worry about Sonny putting a bullet in my kid’s head because my kid was a cop working to make the world safe? I wouldn’t be able to daydream about having sex with the guy or daydream about him holding my hand. I wouldn’t even daydream about spitting on the guy if he was on fire! What’s wrong with this woman? What’s with her libido? Sonny rocked her world over two decades ago, bedded and nearly wedded her cousin – swore his eternal love for Kate before the world while barely noticing or remembering Olivia, and she’s still lusting for him? STOP! IT!
Quit making Carly an idiot who treats Jax’s child as Sonny’s future ‘kidnapped bait’ child. It’s disgusting. Notice that when Carly was listing off the children who were protected by Sonny’s grace, she included Josslyn, and not Molly? STOP IT!- STOP making Lulu fall for the mob boys and/or supporting them to the point of even trying to convince the police that they really deserve to be set free instead of in prison where they belong. Stop making her fall for anyone connected, even tangentially, to the mob boys. Whatever those mob boys have going on below the belt must be some powerful mojo! And it’s demeaning to us all.
- Quit making me feel sorry for Rebecca “NotEmily” Shaw by having her actually be the voice of logic and reason before you ship her off. I really resent you for this one, GH writers. I’m an avowed ‘Remily’ hater and to leave me cheering for her is one of your worse offenses, yet. Even still, I grew tired of the “Liz is a slut’ mantra she had going – not that I disagree with the sentiment, just the constant expression of it. I did enjoy the fact that she continued to remind Liz that her house of cards would soon fold. The sendoff for Rebecca, the Emily- clone was perfect, by having her make friends with a Zander clone… Chad Brannon was pretty darned delicious looking. When his clone character drops Rebecca off in Paris, have him come back! Patrick’s stalker ex could use a good hook up – then again, so could Matt Drake, who spends far too much time trying to convince Robin that her marriage is in trouble!
- Maxie, Maxie, Maxie… REALLY? She’s gives herself to Franco for the sake of getting him to agree to help her out professionally? Then she tries to pimp out Spinelli to make herself feel better? She gives relationship advice to Max and Diane about ‘balanced cheating’? Maxelli, Scrubs Love, and Jax and Carly were the only interesting things GH had going in its favor and the writers are slowly dismantling all three. Speaking of…
- For the love of all that’s soap-holy… give me a Scrubs storyline that has nothing to do with old girlfriends crawling out of the woodwork! Yeah, yeah… Patrick puts it on ’em… they can’t get enough… once you go Patrick, you never go back… Even though I can believe that his arrogant aloof treatment of women made them want him more, I’m getting tired of women who are attracted to him on that basis. The writers made the courageous decision to make him a happy family man, now I wish they’d make the courageous decision to create family driven storytelling around the Scorpio-Drake clan. What makes Patrick attractive is that he’s a man who loves his wife and child. Having him betray them would destroy that. Leave something that’s still a little pure and just for us.
I’d love it if the GH powers that be would stop treating women (onscreen) like a bunch of ‘spare parts’ waiting to be traded by GH males, as they’re needed. Bringing on stellar actors like James Franco can’t cover the holes in plots, the obsession with the dark arts of the mob boys, or the weak female characters who aren’t just damaged- they’re damned deranged. Treating your viewers like sex-starved fiends who’ll gladly buy what you’re selling won’t help either. I know it’s not just my perspective that GH has lost what made it great… I’ve seen the ratings. GH is hemorrhaging viewers and the great ‘Franco’ (onscreen Franco) doesn’t deliver a big enough draw to stop it:
Ratings for the week December 7-11, 2009 (when the character Franco’s arrival and work should have made a difference)
HH
1. Y&R 3.7/12 (+.2/same)
2. B&B 2.4/8 (+.1/-.4)
3. DAYS 2.2/7 (+.2/+.1)
4. AMC 2.0/6 (+.1/same)
5. ATWT 1.9/6 (+.1/-.1)
5. GH 1.9/6 (same/-.3)
7. OLTL 1.8/6 (same/ -.2)
Week of December 14 – 18th)
HH
1. Y&R 3.5/12 (-.2/-.3)
2. B&B 2.3/8 (-.1/-.4)
3. DAYS 2.1/7 (-.1/same)
4. AMC 2.0/7 (same/-.1)
5. GH 1.9/6 (same/-.3)
6. ATWT 1.8/6 (-.1/-.3)
6. OLTL 1.8/6 (same/-.3)
Week of December 21 – 25
HH
1. Y&R 3.5/11 (same/-.2)
2. B&B 2.3/7 (same/-.3)
3. DAYS 2.0/6 (-.1/-.1)
3. AMC 2.0/6 (same/same)
5. ATWT 1.8/5 (same/-.1)
5. GH 1.8/5 (-.1/-.4)
7. OLTL 1.7/5 (-.1/-.3) <—— ties low rating (Last time: August 31 – September 4, 2009)
Ratings courtesy of Soap Opera Network: SON
So why am I still watching? I don’t think soap fans like me want too much. We just want a balance. How about 2 smart women for every woman who is lobotomized for the sake of the dark storylines? I’m hoping Scrubs will survive and find a real storyline and that the writers will give us a storyline about them that will engage the audience without either of them cheating, I’ve FINALLY gotten the Mac and Alexis pairing I’ve been pimping for, through 2009 (don’t think I’m not grateful, just realize I’m not fully satisfied. They’re off to a great start, and I need MORE). Dare I hope that Mac/Alexis/Robert/Anna/Robin/Patrick would be able to restore law and order to PC and that they turn the town around and take down the real bad guys? I’m hoping that smart, funny, and strong-if-not-neurotic, women like Robin and Alexis (and yes, even Diane) will be allowed to lead the way.
One Life to Live
Nora Buchanan. Nora is the woman who slept with her ex, Sam Rappaport, and passed his child off as her husband Bo’s child. Even better is the fact that she did it for Bo– whose son was recently killed. That was the rationalization she gave for betraying her husband, she most saintedly did it FOR his sake – all the while knowing that Sam was deeply in love with her and knowing what the emotionally fallout might be. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for all involved, after Bo and Sam’s deep pain, it turns out that Matthew was Bo’s son after all. Now we have Nora, who’d been warned/pleaded with/begged not to marry Clint because she didn’t really love him, has now left Clint to be with Bo – during a dark time in Clint’s life.
Once again, another ABC male refers to the cheating lying woman who betrayed him as a whore – I can understand Clint’s rage and his willingness to throw Nora’s past in her face.. I just wish I hadn’t already been overwhelmed with the use of the word ‘whore’ from almost every other ABC male before that. Nora’s reaction was still priceless. She’s rude and judgmental and has made a habit of telling others why they’re so unworthy of being loved or trusted. She was stunned that anyone would dare give her the same treatment. I wasn’t crazy about Clint’s choice of words, but I’m glad that the writers finally allowed someone to point out to Nora what a hypocrite she is.
True to form, Nora didn’t let a little thing like the truth stop her from being who she is. A full scene later, SHE referred to Kim as ‘that slut’, the ‘whore in her husband’s bed’, a ‘tramp’… uh huh… Sweet irony! She was talking to Bo, Clint’s brother, the man she’d been having an emotional (almost sexual) relationship with and lying to Clint about it when she said it… YIKES! Something about the way Bo and Nora are getting together and the pain it’s causing Clint that’s causing me to want to root for Clint and Kim (a couple I’d previously referred to as the reincarnation of Asa and Blair).
Somehow, the writers managed to give Clint and Kim depth. Kim was fixated on her ‘plan’ to get Clint into bed to help him forget Nora. She’d treated Clint like a feeble and emotionally dependent ‘old man’ who would be felled by a little bit of a wiggle and giggle. Kim would have loved Asa – being felled by a wiggle and giggle was more his speed. Clint had already had her investigated. He knew about her stripper past, and didn’t care. He also knew that she thought she was gaming him, and he didn’t care. He knew that her plan to ‘drink him under the table’ was about taking advantage of him… and he didn’t care because he also knew three other things:
1 – He had the truth on his side and still had the upper hand.
2 – That being involved with the town’s ‘sainted woman’ isn’t a guarantee that you’ll end up with an honest woman who’ll treat you well.
3 – That Kim isn’t all bad. Her bark is worse than her bite. Despite the fact that there is a risk of turning Kim into a ‘hooker with a heart of gold’ stereotype, the writers have so far avoided taking her quite that far.
The storyline seems to be shaping up into one in which the person in need of rescue may be KIM, not Clint. He’s as intent on using her as she was on using him. I hope that doesn’t happen, because despite my exhaustion with female-male May-December romances, there’s something about this pairing that I like. Nice touch, writers, on having Kim’s plan fail when she underestimated his ability to hold his liquor. BRAVO for letting Clint walk away despite Kim’s offer to let him spend the night and having him warn her to quit while she was ahead. I could root for them as a couple – with Melissa Archer’s Natalie fighting with Kim and making her work to prove her love for Clint. I could <gulp> just as easily root for them developing a strong father-daughter relationship (Oedipal, I know) or have them remain as good friends. Either way, I’m hoping to see far more of Clint and Kim than Bo and Nora. SON’s CarlID offered this observation:
It’s interesting to see the fallout of the Bo and Nora reunion. They were a beloved couple many years ago but not only have times changed, many of the people who were in their lives at that time have changed. It’s like, what if you reunite a supercopule and no one cheered? I don’t mean the fans, I mean the characters in their lives. You don’t have a lot of people endlessly going, “You’re fated to be together,” as you do with many other couples on the show. I also think it would be an interesting writing choice if Matthew wasn’t thrilled they were back together and preferred them apart.
I’ll add one other observation about this storyline. I found Nora’s reaction to seeing Clint with Kim unusual. Kim was the whore in her husband’s bed? Why did she care, she was dumping him!?!?! You’d think she’d want Clint to find someone, ANYONE to take the heat off of her betrayal of Clint. Is it possible that Nora will wake up and realize that her rekindled love for Bo was based on their mutual concern for Matthew and his health issues? Could Nora wake up and realize that she was happier with Clint than she imagined? What happens then? Where does she turn? Does anyone care?
BTW, folks, is it just me, or did Jerry Ver Dorn make Clint his own with this bend in the storyline? JVD’s left me breathless!
Tea Delgado/Blair Manning… not whores, they’re just written to allow Todd Manning to treat them as if they are.
Days of Our Lives
Two words: Carly Manning. Two more words: EPIC FAIL. There are some soap staples I can’t get enough of: scheming liars who are eventually figuratively beaten down and forced to eat their own misery. Bad boys who are only clever by half and outwitted by their victims, victims they eventually fall in love with. Anything to do with corporate intrigue. Good old-fashioned romance. Deep dark family secrets – that have nothing to do with long lost children.
The one plot I’m pretty freaking tired of is the damsel in distress who can’t get enough of the man she left behind and (oh gosh) if only he’d choose her over his wife and family. He (being the real ‘whore’ in this scenario) decides that he can’t leave her to her own fate and risks losing his wife and child/children, while keeping secrets with the damsel in distress. It’s not a stretch to believe that daytime writers typically set this storyline up to do one of two things: try to make us root for our damsel in distress and if that fails, we’re to hate her as a home-wrecking ‘whore’ who broke up a perfectly happy and loving family.
You’d think that watching her ‘get hers’ would be satisfying – assuming that the lunkhead goes back to his family and treats his wife as his equal partner, and not his potential mistress. It’s not. In reality, for fans like me, it only causes us to dislike BOTH partners – the cheating spouse and the idiotic woman who finds his willingness to betray his family a ‘thrill’ and further evidence that she is the object of his desire, not his wife and family. She’s only the next woman to be betrayed when his former victim/spouse becomes the damsel in distress. It’s all less satisfying because he’ll never ‘get his’. He’ll just become the object of desire for two women – who’ll continue to fight over him until one of them is exhausted or dead.
Isn’t it time for daytime writers to leave iconic couples alone and find new ways to make them relevant to the audience? Haven’t we seen these storylines play out a million times before? Viewers exiting daytime in droves isn’t enough evidence that we want something more? When did daytime become a genre about deconstructing and destroying rather than building something new or building better and higher on the strong foundation already in place? Where are the powerful female characters who leave us feeling unashamed of being daytime viewers?
If you’ve made it this fair, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve left poor embattled CBS off the list. Am I sympathetic to the network that’s lost two soaps in two years? Nope. I just don’t have the room to continue with CBS’ list of maltreated women in daytime. This blog would have to be at least three times as long as it is now. I’m saving that one for a later date.
Suffice it to say, if daytime really is dead -running on fumes, kicking the bucket, headed for the big one, living on borrowed time… I’d greatly enjoy being able to celebrate women in daytime before it goes. What do daytime writers have to lose?
1. Shaun finally catches his worthless brother and the ever lying Rachel in the act of kissing in public. What heartbreak! I’d hoped that OLTL would follow GH’s lead and offer an unconventional romantic pairing. GH’s Spinelli and Maxie are clearly mismatched (she the glamazon, he the geek) but they work for whatever reason. I’d hope that cuddly teddybear Shaun and Princess Rachel would work things out, but not so. I’m just glad that the writers didn’t spend months keeping the poor guy in the dark while the audience grew increasingly saddened by the deception taking place around him.
3. Daniella and Tea? PRICELESS! They have the mother-daughter spark that Blair and Starr lost long ago! The writers took the teeth away from Starr when they foolishly shoved her into the teen pregnancy storyline. Starr has been unrecognizable as Todd’s daughter. She had to become soft and gooey, and a whole lot of foolish, to break out of the role that made Starr such a memorable character. That doesn’t mean that Ive been waiting to see Starr take on Todd’s psychotic tendencies. That would be a tragedy as well. I just wanted her to be shrewd and calculating. I wanted to see Starr protect herself and not take garbage from anyone. Starr lost the edge that use to make her such an enjoyable character. She became a weak and whiny thing, all in the name of ‘luv’.
4. Talk about continuity! Most shows have difficulty maintaining continuity on their own shows. OLTL maintained continuity between two different shows. Daniel Manache (Tom) was last seen as JJ on As the World Turns. JJ was sent away to (art?) school by his parents – a boarding school. Manache turns up as ‘Tom’, Matthew and Daniella’s friend from boarding school. Sweet irony.
You know the old writers’ insult, “Monkeys banging on typewriters could do a better job!” Imagine if you not only handed a room full of monkeys a set of typewriters (uh, keyboards), but you then locked them in. Well… that’s ONE way to force them to concentrate on completing your scripts, but watch out! Locking them in a room might add insult to injury and monkeys are pretty vengeful. They also have a pretty wicked sense of humor. Make sure you READ the scripts before you film and then air them for long suffering fans.
It’s annoying enough that Bo and Nora’s situational ethics drag every other living Llanview resident through the muck, but Bo and Tahlia leaving JK/LH alone with an angry and self-destructive Marty? The woman tried to force Todd to commit suicide for what he did to her (with JK/LH’s help). So they let her confront JK/LH, alone, wearing a coat which could very well have contained a weapon, and carrying an uzi sized purse? They actually LEFT the motel? I have to say, violence isn’t my thing, but I got a chuckle out of JK/LH cracking a vase over Talia’s head and taking off. Too bad Bo didn’t get one of those, as well! You’d think JK/LH was a witness for the defense for as careless as they’ve been about her safety. It must be nice to be pals with people like Bo and Nora. They use their offices to go after people you don’t like if you’re a friend, no matter how flimsy the evidence, nor the cost to the good folks of Llanview.
Alan wanting revenge against a cheating Beth? I get that. For once in his life, Alan is as devoted as he’s ever has been to a woman, maybe the most faithful he’s ever been. (Beth hasn’t been faithful to anyone since she was a teen) She gives birth to his child, while still raising his grandchildren and making him part of their lives. Then she cheats on him. He now knows that he’s met his match in Beth. No one loves Alan as much as he loves himself. Ditto on Beth. He’s sleeping with his mirror image and it’s driving him mad, life is a cruel mistress, Alan.
Zach. Killing Josh. Fathering Gabrielle. Eye-boinking with Reese. Expecting Kendall to understand. Vicious little typewriter-banging-monkeys… You’ve outdone yourselves. I actually like the potential fallout from this one. No criticism, here. This is all soapy goodness. AMC was lucky to have you on staff when you wrote that part of the plot. Kendall, forgive Binks, Reese, and Zach. PRICELESS!
There’s so much I love about this show (see below). Then there’s the Todd/Marty rape-is-romance storyline. Why the writers won’t just cut their losses and drop the Manning pursuit is beyond me. Are they sending Todd to prison or is this another exercise in futility?
By the way, why are Talia and Tonio allowed to work together? Come on, writers, we all remember that Bo has had to reprimand Tonio more than once, now he’s letting Tonio work with the person who is most likely to let him have a free reign? Clearly the man needs a partner who reminds him that being a cop is not about nursing his grudges or trying to be a superhero. Any guesses as to whether one of Antonio’s stupid moves helps Todd go free, again?
You’re a great beauty, a marvelous actor, and probably one of the most fan-friendly celebs around. So what’s going on backstage? The hair department loves you – obviously. The wardrobe department? Not so much. Whatever you’ve done to offend them (walked off with the last bottled water, accidently crushed a car bumper, forgot to invite wardrobe to your last big party)… don’t do it again! When everyone goes home for the night, steal that goshawfulmakesmyeyesbleed blue sweater and burn it. While you’re at it, grab “Tea’s” grey coat, “TessBessica’s” institutional chic lounge wear, “Brody’s” gray t-shirt and sweats, John’s black shirts/pants/socks/shoes/belts/coats/t-shirts/ and burn those too.
Coffee At Cafe Russe 