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There are many things wrong with our show at the present. And not much that is right. In fact I am having a hard time thinking of anything. This new writing team has had four months to show us their stuff. Is anyone favorably impressed? I truly wish I could be. Maybe my hopes were too high! First of all there is too much that remains unexplained. Characters are doing things that make no sense. One may say: It's only a soap, what do you expect? But why can't we expect soaps to at least hang together enough that we understand motivation for the characters' actions? There's the old story of James and David and their vendetta against Lucinda. I have written before and read others' opinions as well that their vendetta makes absolutely no sense. I fail to see any reason that they should continue to want to harm her or her family. They were the ones to deceive Lucinda, not the other way around. Lucinda has real reasons to despise and fear James and David. However, what is happening is that Lucinda seems instead to have romantic feelings about James. Hello? Am I supposed to buy this? Why would she even think of such a thing? If this is a ruse to trap James somehow then the audience needs to know that. I think this senseless story line was one reason that David was fired. The character had become so bizarre he was more a farce than a villain. Now it seems he has totally lost his mind and will be disappearing permanently. The writing totally trashed David. And pairing him with Molly did not help either. As the character was being written I was not sorry to see David go. Except now Molly is free to ruin some other character on the show. Neither do I understand Margo's motivation in getting involved with Eddie. I understand that she could possibly feel guilty about killing his mother and want to make sure Eddie had a good life. But it didn't stop there. There were all kinds of sexual innuendoes and some drivel about "passion" in her life that slid right by me. What's that all about? The entire story was forced and contrived. And it's not over yet. Alas! How is it that Tom, as a district attorney who used to suspect all the wrong people of everything, now suspects nothing? Emily has done everything imaginable, including sleeping with him, and he still hasn't a clue? He and Emily change professions at the drop of a hat. First they are the whiz-kids of the publishing world and now they are professionals at WOAK. And Hal who used to a have a modicum of common sense now goes around wearing blinders saying: "I don't want to know" and forgiving Carly "I-am-so-sorry" Munson on a weekly basis. Can Tom and Hal's acting out of character be explained by a male mid-life crisis? Secondly there are too many "love" triangles and plans for more. We have Carly/Jack/Julia, Margo/Tom/Emily, and Lisa/John/Barbara, with Georgia/Eddie/Katie Paretti waiting in the wings. Romantic relationships usually comprise a majority of soap stories it seems but does it have to be a triangle? It would be refreshing to see some of life's other dramas. Other than Camille's cancer and Ben's rage (which is also a romance story), the James/David/Lucinda vendetta story (which is also tinged w/Lucy's strange attraction to James), and the John/Carly deception story (more about that later) all the rest of the stories on ATWT are romantic relationship stories. Even Brad's friendship with Camille has to have possible romantic involvement attached. None of these stories is compelling and I find it very hard indeed to care what any of these people do. Don't despair Carly/Jack fans! I think it is evident that sooner or later Jack and Carly will have at least another round. (This thing could drag out until the next millennium.) Emily will not succeed in breaking up Tom and Margo and IMO John and Barbara were a mismatch from the beginning. And they drag on and on. How long have John and Barbara been estranged? Who cares anymore? The most consistent romance has been that of Camille and Ben. Even though they have many fans their story cannot be expected to carry ATWT. If enough fans were passionately interested in their romance the writers would find more ways to mess it up. Thirdly nothing gets resolved. Again I am going to cite Y & R, the number one rated soap. No, it's not perfect but they do resolve stories on a rotating basis. While one story is finding a resolution others are in various stages of development. So much build-up, enough lolly-gagging, and something is resolved. They intersperse these resolutions at strategic points. ATWT on the other hand keeps stirring the pot and dropping the ball. The John/Carly deception story held my interest at one point. Plop! It has gone nowhere. This story started last March. Carly and John are still getting away with it all. It is time and then some for the whistle to be blown. Fourthly the ball is being dropped too many times. Why so many changes in direction? For example why hire Georgia when you are going to fire Sam? There was the potential here for an interesting story. How does a mother create a relationship with an almost adult child that she abandoned? Brad was hired supposedly to be Lucy's new love interest. Now Brad is here one day and somewhere else the next. Shall we pair him w/Camille? Molly? It's musical chairs time. Where will he go? Well I certainly think there was no long term future with Lucinda but neither is there any with Camille and I won't even contemplate Molly. We had this discussion on the board once. In my opinion, Brad and Julia and especially Brad and Barbara have that old thing called "chemistry." Think anyone will notice that? Lastly the writing shows a definite lack of creativity. It is about as creative as painting pictures by number. Another disaster! To what end? Was the sinking of the Valetta essential to the story line? And James returns to play another round as the all-purpose villain. It isn't working this time. James as Villain is ludicrous. He should never have been revived again. And then we have another hostage situation in Emma's kitchen. Messages on matchbook covers from the Mona Lisa and in banana bread from Emma's kitchen. Ring a bell? Ho-hum. I'm sure you can think of many more recycled stories. Now I read that Lily is going to disappear. Hasn't she been kidnapped a dozen times already? Ho-ho-hum. Then the next thing will be Holden does something stupid and winds up in jail. Déjà vu? I'm beginning to wonder if any of the writers knows the history of ATWT. So far I do not see that this writing team has produced much better results than the previous two. Of course the fausse Connor/faux Paul/Sarah/Zoe era was the benchmark of how far this soap can sink. But these writers are doing much the same as the other two: introducing new characters at the expense of veterans, still writing a story-driven soap and not a character-driven one. Don't misunderstand, I like some of the new characters: namely, Georgia and Brad. I liked her scenes with Sam and hoped there would be a good story (plop again!) and she brings out a very appealing side of Eddie that I do not see in his scenes with Margo. Brad is simply one gorgeous guy. But if they pair him with Molly, forget it. ATWT has never seemed more contrived than it does now. Nothing flows and it won't as long as the writers keep trying to fit those square pegs into the round holes. The result so far has been (at least for me) confusion and disappointment. * The reference in the title is based on my theory that the writers have a finite number of story lines on a Roladex. They spin it around and chose one at random. The characters are all on cards. They choose, also at random, the number needed for the "story." Then they just write it. Piece of cake! |
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