| "Reflections by Jill" - A Weekly Commentary on OLTL | |
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REFLECTIONS
BY JILL…..
Did you ever stop and think about all the storylines that you were following that just seemed to disappear into thin air? And what about those storylines that ended with a thud, leaving you thinking “Is that all there is?” You know what I mean…one day you’re watching OLTL and all of a sudden you say to yourself, “Hey, what ever happened to that storyline? I don’t remember them resolving that.” Lately, I’ve been thinking about these questions a lot when I watch our show, so this week, I’d like to talk about DROPPED STORYLINES.
Now I know there are tons of them, but I am just going to touch on the ones that are presently on my mind and dangling. Feel free to let me know of any others you can come up with that bother you.
I think I’ll start with some that have been left in limbo for quite a while now and the first one that comes to mind has to do with that mean old cowboy, Asa Buchanan. I don’t even know where to begin with this deviant personality, so I’ll just jump in and ask the big question. “When is Asa going to stand trial for setting Will up and almost sending him to prison?”
My gripe with Asa and his unlawful behavior goes back, and always will go back, to Grace’s death. No matter what he does, I have never been able to forgive him for Grace’s death, and although she did not literally die at his hands, I feel he owned complete responsibility for her death. He knew where she was – he new she was in trouble – and he refused to tell anyone about it until it was too late. The fact that he showed no remorse for the loss of Grace’s life made me despise him even more, and just strengthened my belief that her death was his fault.
Whew – that rant felt good – Anyway, since Grace’s death, Asa has racked up plenty of other dirty deeds that I’d convict him for, but the fact is that he has never been formally charged with any of them. HE WAS, however, arrested and charged with setting up Will once Colin turned over that tape proving that Asa admitted the crime, and he even spent a night in jail before he was unfortunately bailed out. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Asa bailed out close to a year ago? Is Hank Gannon’s caseload so backlogged that he can’t find the time to drag Asa into court with an open-and-shut case and lock him up for a while? I don’t think I can remember Hank having anything at all to do from the time Asa was arrested, until the time they started hauling in suspects in the “Who killed Colin” fiasco. Of course, Bo and Hank do spend a lot of time trying to pin all the sins of Llanview on RJ, and with good reason, but that will never happen, so why not lock up an old coot who’s a sure conviction? Of course, in order to convict Asa, they’d first have to be sure that Judge Simmons was locked up…we all know that Asa can literally get away with murder in his courtroom.
It disappoints me greatly that TPTB have let this storyline drop the way they have. With the departure this summer of the character of Will, and with no replacement for the character in sight at least for now, we just know that Asa is obviously going to get away with what he did to Will and what that whole ordeal put Will’s family through. The thing that annoys me the most, is that the writers spent FOREVER setting up this whole storyline…from Asa getting Will to work for him – to Roseanne dragging Will into her plot to get Cristian – to Will being set up and arrested – to Jessica, Cristian and Will taking up all of last summer on the run after that horrible train wreck on the way to Statesville….need I go on? Almost 2 years worth of storyline went into this mess and when we finally cheered about Asa getting bagged for setting the whole thing up, it ended with him spending one lousy night in jail. That was totally ridiculous!!!! Asa ripped everyone’s life apart with his vendetta against Will. An endless amount of time was spent with Sam wondering if his son was dead or alive – with Jessica’s family being worried sick and Ben running a wild goose chase all over the country looking for the kids when Viki was home going through chemotherapy. And for what??? For a miserable dropped storyline! Are we just supposed to accept this? I think the Rappadavidsons deserve some justice before Will leaves Llanview and we all know that’s not going to happen.
OK, let’s leave Asa behind for a while and move on to my favorite little criminal, “The Queen Of Criminality” – Lindsay Rappaport. Now I know that Lindsay hasn’t actually been arrested for any of her crafty crimes until last week (and raise your hands if you think this one will stick…hah!), but the writers drop the ball every time she gets away with something.
The thing that drives me crazy is that although Lindsay has gotten away with a lot of things, she doesn’t even get hauled in when she gets caught red-handed. Let me explain. Lindsay was caught IN THE ACT not once, BUT TWICE that I can remember, when she definitely should have served time. The first time was when she dressed up as Melanie and wormed her way into Colin and Melanie’s safe deposit box, trying to get her grubby little hands on those incriminating letters Colin left. She was caught in the act by Sam, Melanie and the idiot bank employee who let her in there in the first place and she stood there in full drag, staring innocently at them, and talked her way out of it. OR at least the writers let her talk her way out of it. Why wasn’t she dealt with for that incident? Everyone just went about their business afterwards, like nothing happened. I don’t get it….what constitutes a punishable crime in Llanview….being served a watered-down drink at the Break Bar? Obviously there are laws against tampering in bank vaults…or, is that only in the other 49 states and not in Pennsylvania?
The second time Lindsay was caught red-handed was her next attempt at stealing those letters of Colin’s….and this time she succeeded…in a manner of speaking. She was caught in the act of burning those letters by Bo and Nora, no less – the Police Commissioner and the one person in Llanview who would give her right lung to see Lindsay behind bars! Not only did Lindsay have so few scruples (or any) that she broke into a minister’s office, but she busted open his strong box to boot to get at the letters. Oh Andrew, when will you learn? Not all of your little angels can be saved! Bo and Nora knew what Lindsay wanted – they knew where she was going to get it – they caught her in the act of burning the letters and she once again wormed her way out of trouble. I ask you….H O W ????? Do I not remember Bo salvaging pieces of those letters with Lindsay’s name on them and do I not remember him saying that he was going to give them to Forensics to see what they could come up with? I guess we’re just supposed to believe that they didn’t find enough left of those letters to incriminate Lindsay. And there we have…another dropped storyline. Colin only talked about those letters for a year and POOF…up in smoke with a sneering Lindsay still walking the streets. I have to say that having Lindsay being totally exposed on the stand by Nora last week did my heart some good. Some might have felt sorry for her, but let’s face it, she had it coming and if that’s the most punishment we’re going to see Lindsay get (you know Bo arresting her will turn out to be a joke) then she’s getting off easy.
I’d like to take a minute to discuss Gigolo Max. Somehow I remember back when Rae was led to believe that Max could be her son, she was keeping Max’s fraud from John because he told her that if he found out that Max was a fraud, he would arrest him for fraud, embezzlement, and a whole array of charges. Even though Rae couldn’t stand Max (who can?), even the slightest chance that he was her son had her protecting him and keeping Max’s dirty deeds from John. John didn’t say anything about needing someone to press charges against Max – he just said he’d arrest him on the spot if he had the information. Alas, another creep walks the streets of Llanview. I sure wouldn’t shed a tear if they tossed Max in jail for a while. You’d think that after that debacle of a wedding where Todd bared everybody’s ALL, that “brother” Bo could have found some charges that would stick to Max…BUT NOOOOO! I know that Asa is trying to exact his own revenge against Max, but it’s just not the same. I think they should have Max in a cell, and Gabrielle coming to visit 3 times a day – standing outside the bars doing her contortionist routine in a bikini while Max drops on the floor doing 1,000 push-ups to “relieve the tension.” Hey, Max would be behind bars and we would have a good laugh…works for me!
Here’s a quick question…although I don’t even know if this qualifies as a storyline. Is Jessica ever going to finish college? By my calculations, she’s almost 21 and hasn’t even finished a semester yet. Now there’s a girl with a full life…LOL. I hope we get the satisfaction of seeing her dump Will once and for all and find a nice young man. She sure needs some closure after what she’s been through with that whiny Rappaport. In my opinion, he had a lot of nerve on last Friday’s show, allowing her to take even 1% of the blame for the problems in their relationship. He lied and hid everything from her and he doesn’t deserve her. Come on Will…you have evidence in a murder case in your home – you have your girlfriend help you bury the body – you refuse to give her one straight answer – and what do you expect…that she should just blindly go skipping through life like it’s a day at the beach? Get a clue, Will!
I’d like to now talk about those two lovable wise guys – Jackie McNaughton and Harry, the "ever adorable" Hook. TPTB struck gold when they found these 2 guys, but the new PTB have completely dropped the ball here. Obviously, we know that Ben wants to put his mob life behind him once and for all, but there is no reason that Jackie and Harry can’t stick around and get involved in Llanview life. They are treasures – thugs with hearts of gold and they are the biggest breath of fresh air that OLTL has seen in ages. Why can’t they “hook up” Harry with a nice woman. The poor guy can’t have his true love, Viki, so why not give him a break and fix him up with a nice woman? Maybe Harry can even work at Crossroads after going “semi-straight.” He can be the translator when people are too drunk to explain to the cab drivers how to get them home…LOL! Hey, Harry does speak 2 languages…English and ….. whatever. And couldn’t you just see Jackie getting “sweet” on Renee? Asa would pop the last heart valve he’s got left – and wouldn’t you just love to see Ben trying to cope with his mother dating a wise guy? I would pay money to see that. There is tremendous potential here for great storylines and some incredibly funny stuff. These wise guys don’t need to fade into oblivion – they need to hang around. Don’t drop this ball Mr. Tomlin…I guarantee you will regret it if you do. It was proven to me last week during that crazy July 4th episode at St. Ann’s that someone behind the scenes at OLTL DEFINITELY has a sense of humor…and a very good one, too. Who is that person? Give them a raise and let them do more of the same. It was priceless and showed off the diverse talents of many of the cast members who don’t get to shine nearly enough.
How about this lead balloon…this major dropped storyline? Did we spend over a year waiting for everyone to find out that Ben was the real son of Asa and Renee, just to have all of that potential storyline dropped? Did we go through all that angst with Ben just so he could wave to his mother when he dines at the Palace? Come on PTB…give me a break. I have it on good authority that you wanted Ben to be the Buchanan heir from the time Mark Derwin was hired…so what the heck are you doing? This started out as a great storyline – Ben learning the truth – wanting Renee as his mother, but being tortured by Asa being his father – Renee desperately wanting her real son – Ben staying away from Viki because he didn’t feel worthy of her love. What the heck happened here? I know that the majority of the audience was waiting with baited breath to see a warm, wonderful relationship develop between Ben and Renee. Their scenes together before Renee knew Ben was her son were priceless. There is such warmth and affection between this mother and son and it all seems to have been washed down the drain. Are there a lot of fans out there who would rather see Asa and Renee tangle over Asa’s marriage to Gabrielle? Do a lot of people prefer to see Ben wrapped up in a storyline about revenge against Max rather than see him forge a relationship with his mother…a relationship that Renee has always thirsted for and a mother for Ben, who hasn’t had a mother since he was 13? I seriously doubt it! We haven’t seen anything more between Ben and Renee, other than her being upset at the hospital when he was shot by Gina’s hit man and then one other time when Viki left for her “kidnapping” with Gina and Renee stopped by the house under the pretense of leaving some information for Viki when she finally admitted she wanted to see Ben. The Ben/Renee storyline has the potential to be poignant, loving, intense, complicated and wonderful. TPTB made us wait so long for Ben’s paternity to be revealed, that when it finally did come out, the secret had already lost some of its mystique. Mark Derwin and Patricia Elliott, as Ben and Renee, would make this a storyline that would keep everyone’s attention. They are wonderful together. Writers….pick up this ball fast!
Now you know that no article of mine dealing with disappointment would be complete without what I consider, in my humble opinion, “The Biggest Dropped Storyline Of The Year.” That’s right – it’s the Gina Russo storyline. Now don’t misunderstand me – I am thrilled that Gina is gone (for now) and she didn’t leave a moment too soon as far as I’m concerned, but so many balls were dropped in this mess of a storyline, that I have to give it some attention. So, here we go:
No one every confirmed that either Gina’s body was found…or never found. The cop who was on the scene after she fell off the cliff said that she couldn’t have survived the fall, but we never found out for sure one way or the other. Wouldn’t you think that Ben and Viki would be just a bit curious about that?
Shouldn’t there have been some word about the prosecution of James for his participation in holding Viki in that basement and carrying out Gina’s dirty work? And what about the 2 thugs who Ben tossed in his trunk? It would have been nice if we at least got to hear that those guys were prosecuted and locked up, or that Ben and/or Viki were called to testify as to what happened.
And what about Tim Rourke? I supposed we’re just supposed to believe that he wanted Ben dead because Gina couldn’t get over him all these years, and now that Gina is dead because of her obsession with Ben, Rourke just decided to end his vendetta. Yeah, right! Not following through on Rourke’s hatred for Ben was more than stupid in my book. Why did they even replace the actor who played Rourke. I think we saw the face of the new Rourke twice…big deal. Ben and Viki should, at the very least, be worried about what Rourke’s next move would be, especially since he has more of a reason to hate Ben now than he did before.
And now, for the most ridiculous aspects of the Gina storyline:
Are we to believe after all the trauma that Viki went through with Gina, that she would bounce back and just pick up her life after one “on screen” nightmare? PLEASE!!! This is beyond absurd. Viki and Ben should have discussed this situation with each other extensively ON-SCREEN, as well as Viki discussing it with her kids and Viki and Ben discussing it in some detail with Sam and Renee. They treated Viki’s homecoming as if she’d been away on a business trip. It was ridiculous to have Ben leave her home alone the same night she was rescued from Gina, to go to the police station to see Sam, who had just confessed to Colin’s murder. There’s that old Colin murder mystery again. Ben should have been home with Viki. Sam had enough people at the police station and Ben could have come by in the morning. It made no sense after what they’d been through to drag Ben out in the middle of the night, leaving Viki alone. Hadn’t she been alone enough for a while?
We were led to believe that Viki was not through dealing with the trauma of her experience in Gina’s basement and that her alters were not through with their “visit.” Now all of a sudden, Viki and Ben are thrown into the Asa/Gabby/Max mess, leaving everything that they went through behind them. They don’t need to be involved in that Buchanan muck…they need to deal with their own lives and what they’ve just been through. Actually, Ben and Viki have been thrown into oblivion for the summer, but if I started on that rant, we’d be here at least through Christmas…LOL.
I think this aspect of the story upsets me the most. Ben has never dealt with what happened to Viki at the hands of his first love, Gina, and what his part was in all that Viki went through. Now, we all know that you’d have to travel pretty far and wide to find someone who adores Ben more than I do, however, in addition to being completely off my rocker when it comes to Ben, I am also a realist and I believe in dealing with things and putting them behind you. I don’t believe that there is any way that Ben could have come through this ordeal without carrying a tremendous amount of guilt for what his beloved Viki went through, knowing that his refusal to see through Gina’s scheme caused Viki, at the least, emotional damage, and nearly caused her death.
Ben is the first one to want to kill someone if Viki gets a hangnail. That’s who Ben is. So, I expected to see him dealing with his guilt for his responsibility in all this. From the moment Gina kidnapped Ben on New Year’s Eve, he should have questioned Gina’s motives…Viki did! When he came home from being kidnapped and told Viki that Gina was the culprit, he almost made light of Viki’s upset over it. Viki was fuming with anger and was terrified after Ben was ripped from her arms at Crossroads, and she had to put up with him saying she should trust him and that he knew what he was doing. Ben knew every time he walked out that door with Gina how upset and distrustful Viki was, yet he still believed in Gina wanting to “help him.” God Ben, I do love ya, but what the heck were you thinking?????
It is totally out of character for Ben to be able to pick up his life and not spend any time dealing with his guilt over what happened to Viki. After all, this was the second time she was kidnapped because of his past. I know that he has gotten beyond being a loner and dealing with things by himself, but he really needs to face what happened and why. That’s who Ben is and knowing that his blindness where Gina was concerned hurt Viki so badly should have devastated him. We know Viki wouldn’t let him dwell on his guilt, but this all needed to be addressed on the show….IT’S IMPORTANT! We need to see more of the characters being true to who they were created to be…not just moving on to the next driving plot, which has a good chance of also being dropped.
As my good friend Janice would say, WHERE IS THE PAYOFF???? (Janice, you can bill me for stealing that line.) We really need to see some closure to the storylines on OLTL. It’s painful to follow a story for a year, or 2 years, and then to be left twisting in the wind wondering how we got from one point to another. There are so many storylines that need to be properly put to rest, making it realistic for the characters to move on. Some characters need to “face the music” and I, as well as tons of other fans I’m sure, would love to be able to stop singing that famous Rolling Stones tune, ‘I CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION!”
See
ya next week….
Jill
FAN FEEDBACK
AND QUESTIONS ON LAST WEEK’S COLUMN
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Claire writes: “Jill, I think you have a direct link to my thought center. I'd like to add a couple more lines I don't want to hear: Blair: I love you, Taahd(Todd) and I know you love me. Hank: Did you kill Colin? He asked Jen this 4 times while she sat in pause mode before she answered. Thanks for your wit, Jill.”
On Todd and Blair, Jelscareer also writes: “I have something to say. I agree with you on the lack of romance. I, for one, am sick and tired of murder, et al. I need some real romance as well. One question: What is going on with Todd and Blair? When is Todd going to realize the baby's his, not Max's? And when will he admit his love to her? We all know they love each other. They talk about it, ALL THE TIME! When will we see the love?”
Dear Claire and Jelscareer: LOL…I did take notice of the fact that those
Rappaports have an aversion to answering a question on the witness stand the
first time they are asked…and the second…and the third. Must be in the genes.
And I do wish Todd would just admit to Blair already that he does love her.
Even if he doesn’t think that baby is his, he has certainly done enough nasty
things to Blair that he could learn to accept a child that’s not his. I just
can’t wait to see what he does when he finds out she’s been jerking him around
and that the baby really is his. Like Blair said last week, maybe when Todd
realizes she’s pregnant with Max’s baby for 11 months, he’ll get the hint. I am
dying to see the Todd/Blair version of a loving family relationship…now that
should be interesting!
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MLydick writes: “The problem with soaps is that they get boring!!! They keep at the same story line for so long that I stop watching. I catch up on the Internet. What starts out as great acting ALA Lindsey gets very trite the 50th time she gets the look.”
Dear
MLydick: You don’t like Lindsay’s ‘LOOK’??? LOL…I thought it was especially
good last week when she was in the bathroom with Jen, when Jen was trying to
make her believe she didn’t kill Colin and Lindsay was giving her that look that
said, “Sure Jen, sure you didn’t kill him.” Poor Jen…what did she do to deserve
such a trusting mom?
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