| "Reflections by Jill" - A Weekly Commentary on One Life to Live | |
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REFLECTIONS BY JILL….Hats off this week to true love…or at least One Life To Live’s version of it. I thought a lot this week about the supposed “love stories” on our beloved show and I was moved, amused and confused at what passes for couples in the world of soaps today. You know who I mean…Todd and Blair, Natalie and John, David and Dorian…and of course, the ever-loving Kelly and Kevin.
Starting with Kelly and Kevin…can someone tell me why we needed to watch the famous double episode of All My Children and One Life To Live last week? …is there a more meaningful definition of love than the BBS fiasco??? I know you know what I’m talking about…the BIG BABY SWITCH!!! Pardon my sarcasm, but was this so-called major event in daytime television history supposed to move us? Oh sure, I intently watched both shows last Tuesday because being an addicted soap viewer my curiosity always gets the better of me and I always, somewhere in the back of my intelligent mind, worry that I’ll miss something and won’t know what’s going on. How’s that for delusional? Oh, I know that’s ridiculous and that I can skip months and then catch up in one episode, but I will admit that they did suck me in and as the first hour drew to a close and I didn’t even see one actor cross-over except for Paul, I knew I’d been had. If that over-hyped double episode was meant to draw new permanent viewers to either show that weren’t already watching both…in my opinion that ploy landed like a big old lead balloon. Anyone who had read even two sentences of the spoilers that were posted on line before the shows aired would have missed nothing by missing either show, in my opinion…and I can’t see anyone being driven to now watch one or the other show if they haven’t been watching already. Call me crazy, but maybe next time (I hope there isn’t one), if TPTB want to do this again they might try basing the combo shows on a storyline that a lot of people care about. I haven’t heard from anyone who is so drawn to this silly storyline that they would invest another hour every day for God knows how long to see how it all plays out.
I think I cared about Kelly and Kevin’s love story for about two seconds in the last several months…and that might be a generous estimation. Are we supposed to enjoy and be interested in a storyline where we’ve had to watch Kevin spend more time and thought on Blair than his wife and unborn child? Are we supposed to sit day after day and watch a character like Kelly, who was always sharp, independent and a decent adult woman, sink into such desperate insecurities that she would willingly break the law and steal someone’s baby to keep her husband at her side? This pathetic storyline gets harder and harder to watch every week. To take Kelly down this path has brought us to the destruction of a good, core character and the only time I see even a glimpse of the old Kevin is when he’s with his mom and worrying about her health. I would love to see the writers give Dan Gauthier some of the same kind of material they used to give Tim Gibbs…then we’d see a Kevin we can recognize and love.
Did you laugh as hard as I did when Blair told Kevin that KELLY loves attention and that’s why she went away and didn’t tell him where she really went? Oh my goodness Blair…look in the mirror!
And what about Kevin being angry with Viki for hiring Todd to be the City Editor of The Banner-Sun? I nearly died laughing when he told Viki that she was a fool for hiring Todd and that no one else would have hired him. Hey Kevin, excuse me Mr. Perfect, but aside from working for your mom’s newspaper and now running your Grandpa’s company, who in your life has given you a grown-up job? Someone is wearing some major blinders here.
Now, we can’t talk about love without talking about Todd and Blair. Excuse me while I choke on my laughter! The sick thing is that I believe these two, in their own demented way, truly love each other. Sick, I know…but true. The only thing these two have going for each other is Viki, the voice of reason. It’s too bad that Viki will have a heart attack and nearly die from all the stress in her life (Todd and Blair being major contributors), before these two juveniles have a decent word to say to each other. I am getting a bit tired…ok, very disgusted…with the usual routine of Todd and Blair. Now that Blair is finally going to realize she made a mistake…oops, I thought you raped me…Todd is already on the warpath to destroy Kevin…which will ultimately cause trouble for everyone, especially he and Blair. I’m so dizzy from this routine…it’s always the same. I’d say please wake me up when Todd and Blair are on the same page at the same time, but I’d be sleeping longer that Rip Van Winkle. I read that Todd is going to blackmail his way into that Editor in Chief job at The Banner-Sun. How the heck is he going to do that? Is he going to blackmail Viki with the threat of exposing Kevin and the dirty dealings at Buchanan Enterprises? I find it hard to believe that he’d do that to Viki, but who am I kidding? Is there anything he wouldn’t do for revenge? Is it any surprise that Viki collapsed after dealing with those two jokers? They are enough to give anyone a heart attack, especially someone with a heart problem already.
It still shocks me to say that I don’t yet mind anything Todd has done to get back at Kevin. To be honest, I hate all the time Kevin spends with Blair, but what I find most impossible to forgive was Kevin going to the prison infirmary, handing those custody papers to Todd and gloating the entire time he was there. Too cruel for me. That’s why I found it funny that Todd got that silly accountant from Buchanan Enterprises all liquored up to loosen her lips about the company’s dirty secrets. Normally I’d think he went too far in his revenge, but Kevin laid down the gauntlet…and I think he’s going to suffer a lot more than Todd ever did at his hands.
I loved the way Viki blasted Todd…now if it would only sink in.
Back to love matches….on to Natalie and John. Haver sure did a great job of setting John up, didn’t he? John probably wishes Haver were alive so he could really do the job himself. I wonder how long this will go on before they figure out how Haver set him up…and I hope Natalie learns to calm down. She admits that she’s falling in love with John (Excuse me Natalie, you’ve already fallen and who could blame you), and she’s a bit over the top in her enthusiasm to defend his honor. I really like John and Natalie together, but I think Natalie is going to find that although John may be on the same page as she is as far as his feelings for her, it seems like it’s going to take him a lot longer to admit it and accept it than it took her to get over her grief about Cristian. Her frustration was very evident the other day when she locked horns with Jen, literally. Her disdain for Jen has never been a secret, but it sure wasn’t her business to get crazy over Jen hanging out with Riley. Natalie needs to calm down…and fast. Maybe she’ll be able to do that when Jen presses charges against her and she winds up in a cell next to John. Now that could be very interesting…don’t you think?
And speaking of love in a big way…can we talk about love without mentioning Lindsay, Rex and Daniel? Oh my goodness, I am utterly embarrassed for Lindsay. If she didn’t already have a reputation of being a desperate woman who can’t live without a man, I’d say that Rex slipped her something, more than once, to make her fall into his slimy arms. But no…I have to be realistic and say that Lindsay has jumped into this sordid relationship with both boots and she has literally “made her own bed.” Maybe she needs a few sessions in Viki’s office to straighten her out. It seems to have helped Jen a bit. As far as Daniel goes, as much as I could never stand him before, I can’t blame the guy for getting a bit vengeful after seeing Lindsay and Rex getting it on behind the curtain at Ultra Violet. Lucky for Daniel that his cops walked into the club just in time to find Natalie and Jen ripping each other’s hair out and shut the place down. At least Daniel’s raid of the club didn’t wind up looking so lame. And what about that cat fight…Ladies Please…A LITTLE DECORUM!!!
Can we take a minute to discuss the law here? I can understand that you have to suspend your disbelief a bit when you watch something as bizarre as a soap opera…and I know that the soap world and real life have nothing to do with each other…but last week the writers blatantly overlooked major legalities on the show. How appalling was it that Dorian was able to get her hands on Viki’s test results and was the one to give them to her? I don’t care if she is on the staff of the hospital. Has anyone on the writing staff of OLTL heard of our country’s latest privacy laws? Dorian would never have been able to get those results from Viki’s doctor, no matter who she is. Viki’s husband wouldn’t even have been able to get them. And the same thing happened when Todd found Kelly at the hospital in Pine Valley and tricked the nurse in the hallway into telling him that Kelly had lost her baby. In real life, people would have lost their jobs for casually handing out that kind of information…to a relative or a complete stranger. I found this all very annoying and was surprised that Viki wasn’t more angry and shocked that Dorian got her test results.
Now…to the greatest lovers on the show…Dorian and David. They are truly hysterical to watch, but a great romance? Too funny. I loved it when David told Dorian, “I couldn’t pull a dirty trick on you now if I tried.” Now tell me…is that not true love? How funny is it that the tie that binds them is that neither one can outsmart the other? Well, that’s what David thinks…but how did he so easily let Dorian bulldoze him into thinking he was going with her to visit her “friend?” He must be in love because he sure is slipping in the slick con man department these days.
Before I close I just have to talk about Viki for a minute. TPTB have teased us saying that we may not have seen the last of Ben. OK, I was willing to bite. Then someone started a rumor (rational thinking tells me it has to be a rumor) that since Viki is going to need a heart transplant, it will be Ben’s heart that saves her life. After I got through laughing at this preposterous suggestion, not to mention the fact that medically I don’t believe that a person over the age of 35 can even donate a major organ such as a heart, I started to wonder how far TPTB would go to give us what they think is a good storyline for Viki. Obviously they believe that Erika can’t have a good storyline to sink her teeth into unless Viki has a failing major organ or loses a body part. They also obviously haven’t realized yet that if they think Dorian and David can have a relationship that people want to watch, then it stands to reason that Viki and Ben can have just as much humor with the added romance and sweetness that a real love story is supposed to have. Then I read that Clint Ritchie will be back this spring to “help” Viki through her illness. Okey Dokey…now I really don’t care one way or the other about the character of Clint Buchanan. I think he had his time and it’s over and seeing him once in a while as the father of Viki’s children is just fine and not even a bad idea. Obviously, there won’t be a romance between Viki and Clint again because once she got a bit of Ben in her life she was ruined for all other men in my opinion…so why do we need him back to help Viki? Viki needs Ben back…not Clint…and when I say she needs Ben back, I DO NOT mean that she needs a major muscle from his body to pump blood through hers. His presence is enough to pump the blood through her body…and any other healthy woman’s on this earth. Oh, sorry…did I actually write that down?
See ya next week...
Jill Berry
FAN FEEDBACK AND QUESTIONS
Wally writes: “I have been watching OLTL for about 20 months now. I would have been happier to see Mitch as the Music Box Killer. I remember reading that Roscoe Born signed a four-year deal and then a few months later they killed him off. When is he going to see the light of day again? And what about "Rack 'Em" Ross. Vincent Pastore is an excellent actor (as he was great in the Sopranos) and I was under the assumption that he would have a crime family in Llanview. I would love to see that. Also, I do have one huge complaint with the show that comes in two words: Kevin Buchanan. I really feel that Kelly should divorce him. Kelly would be better off with someone else even if she has to stoop so low as to have Todd. At least he is dedicated to his wife......in his own weird sick sort of way.”
Dear Wally: It’s interesting to hear your take on the show since you’ve only been watching for a short time compared to some of us old timers. Roscoe Born did sign a four-year contract as many actors do, but that doesn’t ever mean they’ll be around longer than a 13-week cycle. For people like myself who have seen enough of the reincarnation of Mitch, I say NO MORE. I’ve had enough of him. He was more evil than anyone I can remember and I couldn’t stand to watch him. As far as Rack ‘Em goes, I thought he was fun, but I guess his “family” never materialized and to be honest, you missed several years of a lot of mob storyline in Llanview with Viki’s beloved Ben Davidson and his past. I sure have to agree with you about Kevin. I’ve never made a secret of how much I dislike him, but to say Kelly would be better off even if she were with Todd…now there’s a theory that’s very scary. You also missed a lot of Todd hurting everyone in Llanview, not just Blair and his kids. Hopefully you’ll stick around and be witness to some new great storylines…I hope so.
Linda writes: “I've been a OLTL fan for 21 years, and the Music Box Killer story has been the best. John (Michael Easton) has really sparked up the show for me...I was about to quit until he came along. Tell me he won't leave. Sure hope the writers aren't stupid enough to let him go...any news on this?”
Dear Linda: I couldn’t agree with you more. I love John and Michael Easton has been a tremendous plus for the show. As far as I know, there are no plans for him to leave. I think the bigwigs know a good thing when the see one…I sure hope so!
Sherrill writes: “I have to admit, it took me some time to get used to Michael Easton - I thought the show was completely revolving around him at first...but from the moment he walked on the SCREEN the chemistry with Natalie was STEAMING! I love them together and look so forward to their getting their feelings out. And on another note, please do something with Jessica and Antonio...NO CHEMISTRY whatsoever!! As for Blair and Kevin....Kelly needs to put her BUTT in gear and do a little ass-kicking....and everyone--do not worry HEATHER TOM is a wonderful actress....she is gonna rock Llanview with her portrayal of Kelly. BUT, not sure if I'm a big fan of her brother yet!!! As for "David & Dorian" PRICELESS and ROXY rocks!!!”
Dear Sherrill: I guess you and I both agree with the reader above about Michael Easton. I think he makes the screen steam all the time. As far as Jessica and Antonio are concerned…although I really did like them together a lot, I am becoming uninterested in them and I guess a lot of people are because I hear that they are going to have a lot of strain in the relationship in the near future. Regarding Kelly…yes, Heather Tom is a very good actress, but unless they start writing the character of Kelly with more of a backbone and the self-respect she used to have, no actress is going to make me interested in her. David and Dorian are priceless, I agree…and I absolutely adore Roxy. We didn’t see enough of her last week.
© Copyright by Katherine Thurston, 2004
