Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for November 12, 2007

So, almost all of the Buchanans (and Jared) are assembled in Texas for the reading of old Asa’s will. Raise your hands if you’re totally sick of Natalie and Jared playing their little high school games. Natalie and Jared could definitely take a lesson from the real high school kids on the show on how to behave like mature adults. I find their little love games very tiresome.

Someone wrote in and asked me what I thought of the new writing by Ron Carlivati. This person was not too impressed with the new material we’ve been seeing and aside from the fact that Viki is once again getting a life, I have to agree with her. Although I am usually the one who reserves judgment when a new writing regime comes on board, I have to say that at least one character that I have always stood behind is being destroyed and that is Natalie.

I cannot believe the way the character of Natalie is being written. I felt that she had come such a long way after it was presumed that John had died in that accident and through most of his recovery. Now it seems that every week I watch her regress more and more into the foolish young woman she was during her Paul Cramer days. First of all, it never ceases to amaze me that the writers are so obsessed with this actress’s body (especially her chest) that they use it to such an extent that her upper torso takes over every scene she’s in and does a very good job of taking everyone’s attention away from the fact that Melissa Archer is a very good young actress. Is it the norm when you are attending a will reading with your entire family that you make sure to pack that revealing little black cocktail dress that could double as a nightgown? Come on writers. It has been years already that Natalie has known better than to act like that street kid from Atlantic City. She certainly has had enough experience doing the wrong thing and the writers just won’t give her a break. If I were Melissa Archer, I would be sick and tired of Natalie at this point.

We all know that she has the hots for Jared and can’t admit it, but it is embarrassing to watch her antics and when she goes so far as to get Chuck Wilson to hop into bed with her and leave the door open so that Jared would walk by and see them. I was shocked that even Natalie would sink so low. I wish Renee had walked by instead. Natalie deserved to be mortified by what she did. Let’s not even get into what Chuck was thinking by going along with the scheme when he didn’t even know Natalie. He made eye contact with her immediately upon meeting her and I guess she figured she could wrap him around her little finger and hey, maybe he figured he’d get lucky.

It’s obvious that Jared feels the same way about Natalie, but she is so much more obvious than he is, even if he did show his jealousy when he found her in bed with Chuck. I am disgusted with Natalie, which translates to being disgusted with the writers for destroying a character with so much potential. Whomever she winds up with, she needs to have a complete turn-around in her behavior for anyone to take her seriously any more. And obviously when Clint read her and Jessica the riot act for their behavior, it had no effect on Natalie.

At least Sarah was honest about her feelings for Cristian and isn’t he the fool for turning her down when she gave him the opportunity to be with her. Cristian can dream about making love to Sarah all he wants and pout all he wants to his brother, Antonio about how Sarah gave him an opening and he turned her down, but I hope that Sarah makes him fight hard for her if she decides to give him a chance. I’m curious to see what she does when she hears the message Cristian left on her answering machine. She should make him sweat a little.

Did you think it was as funny as I did when Antonio seemed upset when Cris told him that Jared bought his half of Nash’s vineyard to get back at Jessica? I think the time to worry if Jared meant any harm to Jessica would have been BEFORE Antonio jumped at the chance to sell his share of the vineyard to anyone who could breath and had the money.

On to the reading of the will, or Asa’s rendition of it. I think old Beaver Calhoun is the perfect character to be Asa’s lawyer. I can imagine him hoisting quite a few bourbons with Asa over the years. Asa left everyone in the family a seat on the Buchanan Enterprises board of directors. I can imagine how those board meetings will play out in the future. I remember how much fun it was to watch all the squabbling at the hospital board meetings when Asa, Dorian and Viki were all members. The Buchanan board meetings will probably draw blood. I was shocked when Asa left his mansion in Llanview to Nora and I wasn’t surprised that she resisted taking it, but Renee realized that Asa did it so that she would never be alone in the house and of course, Nigel stays on, too, so that’s a great plus. Hey, we have Llanfair and La Boulaie. Do you think we can get Nora to give Asa’s hacienda a catchy name, too? Chuck Wilson got the ranch so maybe Natalie can get herself a room there with her name on it. I can’t wait to find out what happens when everyone finds out about the son Asa didn’t realize he had before it was too late.

And Marcie’s saga continues. It’s annoying, but true. How convenient that there was a drainpipe right there for her to crawl into when Wendell was getting ready to tow John’s car and she came so close to getting caught. Todd may have been dumb enough to let it go when Wendell referred to Penny and he said Penny was his dog, but John sure isn’t as dumb as Todd. He picked up on it right away when he called Wendell’s house and Wendell’s wife called their dog Lenny and not Penny. I’m glad it’s John who is figuring everything out. But what will he do now? Marcie is on the move again, going to find yet another stranger who will put her and Tommy up. I’ve had enough and I wonder if John will do what he mentioned to Marty and track Marcie down, bring Tommy back to Llanview and let her get away.

Of course John, Marty, Blair and Todd had to wind up in the only motel in town and of course there was only one room available. Let’s give Todd credit for ingenuity.