CHEERS!
This has been an, overall, incredible week for One Life to Live! As I said last week, the whole kidnapping story was *at last* beginning to move again. This week was an even greater testament of it. I was riveted…finally…the show has me riveted.
The Kidnapping Story…
It was a nice touch with Monday through Wednesday steadily building to a climax, while Thursday and Friday’s episodes focused solely on the story. My gripe however was that, IMO, Friday should have had Marcie surrendering to the authorities. That should have been the cliffhanger.
Frankly, I also found it a bit amusing how:
a) Everyone in Llanview just happened to be watching television at the same time when this ‘special report’ broke out.
b) That this news was national (as opposed to just local) interest. Kind of makes you wonder just how famous these people are supposed to be in the OLTL universe.
Marcie pointing a gun at—and threatening to shoot—Viki…all while Tommy/Sam was in the room? Wow. Marcie, what has become of you? We saw her spiraling out of control, becoming disconcertingly erratic, and inching closer and closer to going completely over the edge…but it was still somewhat of a jolt to see it look as though the spirit of Margaret Cochran literally took over her. She came off like a demented psycho.On a practical level, what I didn’t understand was why Viki didn’t grab the gun? At several points while they were hold up in that diner, it looked as though Marcie had placed it down while she pranced around in hysterics. Viki could have easily took over the situation. The fact that she didn’t was undoubtedly a deliberate move on the parts of the writers, so that there could be this sort of ‘profound’ exchange between the two—where Viki (despite the startling situation) would offer Marcie her usual brand of compassion & reasoning in an attempt to make Marcie seem a bit more “sympathetic.”
I just think it went too far when Viki suddenly started having a heart attack. On the surface a total plot device to get Michael (a doctor) on the inside, I also think that it was an underhanded ploy to momentarily de-demonize Marcie. Have her temporarily forget about rancorously holding Viki hostage, and become concerned about her health…just to show that she still had a heart underneath all that mad desperation. The problem, though, was that it only made me slightly more irritated at the whole thing.
When Michael took Viki’s place as hostage, however, was when the situation suddenly became more conducive for me. Michael and Marcie’s “reunion,” with Tommy/Sam in tow, was touching and very effective. I’ve been (and continue to be) on Todd’s side through out this whole thing, but this is one of the rare instances where I empathized with the McBain’s pain. Seeing Michael proclaim that it was “the end of the line” and painfully rationalize to a defiant Marcie, who attempted to reject what he was saying, despite his words clearly beginning to resonate with her, made the scenes brilliant and spellbinding. Kathy Brier and Chris Stack gave A+ performances. (On a side note: Chris Stack has done WONDERS in—and for—the role of Michael McBain. I’d rank him in the top 10 of “OLTL’s Best-Ever Recasts.”)FauxTess v. Jared…
I totally hate it! Really, I do. Usually, I like Jessica, but she’s been taxing on my nerves these past few weeks in her silly obsession with exposing Jared. Yes, I would *love* to see that insufferable snake-in-the-grass Jared get his comeuppance, but this is a joke. Her plot to get him to believe that she is actually Tess is so exasperating that her scenes are insufferable to watch. I still don’t really see what practical purpose she thinks that it will serve. As much as I can’t stand Jared, he’s no fool. Does she actually believe that if he thought that she was Tess that she’d be able to seduce all his secrets and schemes out of him? Tess is the one who got him locked up for two years. I really cannot see why he would be happy to see her again. Jessica’s an idiot to believe that Tess is so irresistible that he’d forget all about that long enough to be put under such a spell of infatuation so much that he’d sing like a canary. Talk about delusions of grandeur. The truly HYSTERICAL part in all this was during this chaos with Viki, when Jessica absentmindedly dropped the whole Tess act and behaved as her obvious self while interacting with the family…with Jared right there looking on and observing.
Just let it go Jessica. While I have no doubt that Tess herself could handle Jared, or at least match wits with him, you simply can’t. Unless you’re willing to have someone scream reminders at you in horrible detail what Norman Leeds did all those years ago in an attempt to lure Tess back out for real, again…just let it go. You look like an imbecile posing as fake Tess. No one buys it.
Why not just go to Clint and tell him what Jared is attempting to do, and see if he can somehow block the board at B.E. from considering the offer. Clint know what the vineyard means to Nash and I’m sure would do all he could to help thwart Jared’s scheme. At this point I wish Nash and Jessica would pull out and let Jared have the damn vineyard. Doesn’t Nash own another one in California? Why not pull your 49 percent share in the Pennsylvania operation and sink that money into the west coast venture to make it bigger? That way he can still hold onto his “dream.”
Honestly, I wish that Nash would find a new career anyway. There’s got to be something else he could do; the whole winemaker shtick has gotten old. IMO, it’s never really been especially interesting. Perhaps I’d feel different if the Brennan Winery was made out to be some thriving success, but after all this time it’s still being presented as this sort of fledgling operation that has yet to really take off. Meh.
More than anything, I just want the writers to separate Nash and Jessica away from Jared and Natalie. Collectively, they seem like a bad rehash of the Cord-Tina-Max-Gabrielle quad from twenty years ago. I’m not finding anything interesting about this foursome constantly joined at the hip. I’d be perfectly content to see Jessica and Natalie on opposite ends of the show, congregating only at the occasional Buchanan family get together.
Odd 'n Ends…
It was cool how Viki’s Texas friends didn’t seem too upset upon learning who she actually is. I was sure that they when they did find out that she wasn’t “one of them” after all that they would be tempted to brand her as a deceitful, hoity-toity Yankee. Now I’m left wondering who will follow her back to Llanview, besides Gigi, of course. In the meantime, it was a lightly comical to watch the reactions of her family in Llanview so spectacularly finding out that she hadn’t been in Paris, France as they believed, and that she’d become a waitress in Texas. I especially got a kick out of Clint’s quasi-cynical reaction to hearing these developments.
Moe and Noelle…awww, even though the two of them define the term “seat filler,” it’s still kind of cute how he seems to have a thing for her. I wouldn’t want to see an entire story unfold centering around the two of them together, but it’s cute just the same.
The “Jared Banks Hour” is killing me. I don’t find him the least bit interesting. I’m not riveted by his plot to con the Buchanan’s into thinking that he’s one of them, I’m not at all sympathetic to his father/son struggle with Charlie, nor am I enchanted by this (self-imposed) “forbidden fruit” angst that he’s having with Natalie. To me, he comes across as arrogant, bitter, chauvinistic, condescending, conniving, egotistical, greedy, masochistic, rigged, spiteful…and most fatally, wearisome. It’s all about Jared: his ambition…his con…his father…his lust…his mother…his upbringing, etc., etc. It’s too much, too soon.
I’ve seen this before and I’m not falling for it. Every one of Antonio’s previous relationships have started off with a quasi-sweetness about it, while a seemingly sincere Antonio acts amiable and attentive toward this new (and seemingly forthright) lady love. Then as the weeks/months past, a shift in dynamic conspicuously occurs. Six months down the line, Antonio is back to being his usual egotistical and huffy-puffy self, while the woman grows into an anxiety-addled mess at the mantle of his smugness. With that whole “George” nonsense, already Talia has been shown to behave desperate and pitiful where he is concerned. Then after she finally made her true feelings known, she attempts to bolt as Antonio stood there pondering about it in all his conceited glory; the idea of being rejected by him was so crushing to her that she made haste to run away. Yeah, I’m going to love this. All of the ingredients are there for this to yet another episode of “Antonio the Asshole & His Pathetic Girlfriend.” Already I’m bored. Hopefully the bulk of this relationship will largely happen off camera.
End this…now. Back in September I thought that this storyline was exhilarating, but they have milked it for all it’s worth. The life has been drained from it, and now it’s just a walking corpse.
Beyond Marcie, I have to say that first runner up for most annoying is fucking Lee Ramsey! This guy comes off like a malevolent Appalachian cop, and is jaded enough to make even Todd seem compassionate by contrast. (And why didn’t he just shoot out the tires of Marcie’s car?) Meanwhile, Gigi comes in second for being fool enough to get herself involved in this mess to begin with. What kind of ditz knowingly entangles herself with someone (whom she barely knows) on the run from the FBI with a child she’s abducted? Even if Gigi sympathizes with Marcie as a mother, and believes in her fight to keep Tommy/Sam, she should think enough of her own son to not deliberately become an accessory to a federal crime.
Years ago, when the show was all about ‘Lindsay v. Nora,’ I firmly sided with Lindsay. Her troublesome antics were salacious and juicy. Today, however, I’m siding with Nora. I enjoyed watching her turn up the notch on her usual high and mighty attitude to sheer vindictiveness. Hillary B. Smith never fails to shine when playing Nora’s more merciless side, and I always enjoy when she goes for the jugular. By contrast, Lindsay was the dull one in those courtroom scenes—sitting there all quiet, quasi-demure, and seemingly doped up. In the meantime, what I found annoying was Lindsay’s cheering section: Dorian, Addie, and Blair, who came off like idiots at a ball game.
The show is doing a real disservice to the Charlie/Viki romance by continually having Charlie fraternize with Dorian. I say that because, honestly, Charlie and Dorian look more interesting in their scenes together. Since, though, it’s been forever since Viki had a man, I’ll still cheering them.
Clint and Nora together, IMO, are just plain wrong. Jerry verDorn and Hillary B. Smith are selling their scenes (simply because they are competent enough actors to do so), but I just don’t see anything “special” about Clint and Nora together. Instead, I feel that it’s treason on both of their parts to be getting with their former sister/brother-in-law. Give Ramsey a soul and have him switch to decaf, then test him with Nora. As for Clint, I know people bitch about newbies, but in this case I wouldn’t mind a new woman being brought on for him to be paired with. No more mismatched Nora and Dorian for him, please.