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This critique is based only on the episodes airing 03/27/00-03/30/00. (The 03/31/00 episode did not tape on my machine.) There's something missing from As the World Turns now. Actually, there's a LOT missing from ATWT now, but one primary, crucial component that a soap needs to survive. No, it's not the younger generation, or a stable full of teens that TPTB seem to steadfastly believe will rescue soaps and bring viewers back in droves. Katie, Abigail, Bryant, Adam, and Jennifer are all a part of the Oakdale canvas now. Three of the five are in front burner storylines or featured prominently (though only two of the five do I really enjoy and care about as characters). It's not intrigue and mystery. The writers have supplied us with more questions than answers regarding Carly's disappearance and the recent appearance of Simon, material I believe that is intriguing and mysterious more from what hasn't been written than what has. With these two stories, I sometimes feel head writers Leah Laiman and Carolyn Culliton are as much in the dark about how they will unfold and resolve as we are. It's not the veteran characters because, though not the primary focus of a major storyline, there has been a steady blending of Kim, Bob, Nancy, John, Lucinda, Hal and others into recent story. This producing and writing team can say with some conviction that the audience is seeing much more of the vets. It's not a drought of story. While there are just three major storylines currently unfolding on ATWT, a number that most hourly programs would consider the bare minimum for sustaining a show, that's the most story ATWT has had going in quite some time. So what one crucial element is missing from ATWT? Well, it is the one thing the show most needs to survive: Its heart. I think back a year ago when I was regularly moved to laughter, or tears, or shock, or an impassioned opinion about a story or character on a regular basis. I think back a year ago when I couldn't wait to watch an episode of ATWT, when some of the dialogue was so beautifully written that I would rewind the tape and watch the scene again and then rave about it on Friday in this very forum. A year ago I felt more connected to the characters, characters which seemed more alive, certainly more well-defined, and infinitely more entertaining. A year ago, even at its worse, ATWT had a pulse and a drive. We knew the stories were going somewhere, even if we didn't always like the story nor the direction it was headed (Reid/David). And when I personally was not enjoying a particular story, I still took pleasure and comfort in other things, such as having a writing team who attempted to tell umbrella stories (Reid/David) and a writing team who believed in long arc storylines (Carly's $50 million baby). A year ago, the audience could see characters evolving and changing (Emily), and we understood most of the time what motivated a character and why they were acting in a certain way (Carly or John or Jack). These days I watch the show detached and mostly unmoved. The show is boring. I took very few notes to assist me in writing this critique because, frankly, there wasn't a lot onscreen worth commenting on. One note I did make was that the show has begun using a lot of characters in an episode. There was at least some movement of people and some variety in who was on-screen. That's a very good thing. Yet the show remains void of a sense of community, of the connections of friendship and belonging beyond the familial and romantic. I think that's due to two primary reasons:
I am rarely moved by what I see on ATWT now, and when I am, it is more from an amazing performance than the written word or an unfolding story. For that is where the quality, the faint heartbeat of ATWT, now resides. To the performer is where you need to go if you want to hear it. The talent of our outstanding cast can sometimes make crap sound like Shakespeare. Kathryn Hays, Scott DeFreitas, Michael Park, Maura West, Kelley Menighan-Hensley, e.g., daily rise above their material in ways that earn our admiration and respect. As an example, think back to the open fragility and unsteady courage with which Lauren B. Martin infused her performance in the aftermath of Camille learning she was still cancer free on Tuesday. Yes, there is also quality in isolated scenes, or in an episode here and there that we proclaim as good, which in fact is indeed good for this particular writing team, but pretty much mediocre at best when compared to any other soap. So Kim gets her moment to shine (and earns Performer of the Week honors from Soap Opera Digest), as does Jake, as does Lily and others. Laiman and Culliton are great at writing big monologues and one or two powerful scenes. But we always return to the deep ditches this writing and producing team have dug the show into, a circular tunnel of repetition and one-dimensional characters with nowhere to go but deeper down. Characters are brought on with a big hurrah and the promise of great story (Lucinda, Jessica) only to fade into the background and be placed on the back burner. Elizabeth Hubbard's performances have lately taken on an animated desperation. Since the words written for Lucinda no longer embody the powerful Lucinda of old, and since the character has morphed into a cartoon, Hubbard now draws attention to Lucinda by taking Bryant into a headlock, or waving her arms around in a wild plea of "Look at me and my character's vitality." That's what it's come to under Goutman and Laiman/Culliton -- actors desperately trying to remain faithful to their characters, plots that are abandoned before getting started, plot points dropped along the way (Isaac and that horse, anyone), and the views spoken by a character one week rarely carrying into the next. It's explains how Lisa turned on Margo during that ridiculous murder trial, and it explains now how Margo could so easily stand up in court and ask the judge to deny bail for her brother-in-law. "Believe me, all of you," Margo said to the assembled Hughes clan, "I agonized about this decision." Yeah, all of three minutes, from the way it was written. Our characters have been dumbed down to gullible robots, or pushed into the most unflattering "characteristic corners." Abigail comes across as spoiled and self-centered. (How about a trip to Paris after running away to New York, honey?) Denise is the epitome of selfishness, taking and taking from Andy and the Hughes family, but making no effort of her own to make the situation any easier for everyone. And Lily just seems clueless. In a poorly written scene that had me scratching my head in confusion, Lily chose not to go to Paris with Holden after hearing a vaguely disguised threat from Simon that he would have to be leaving the area soon, whether the Synder den was finished or not! Hal and Jack arrest Chris with next to no evidence and under circumstances that scream "frame up." By the way, those scenes contained this hilarious exchange on Monday between Chris and Jack: Jack: "You were caught at the scene." Chris: "I LIVE at the scene." The character of Henry is another good example. I mean, how evil or threatening is Henry, really? He's a lot of smirk and a lot of one liners, and not even bright enough to plant evidence wearing gloves. Henry -- no, let's be blunt -- the writers don't even care enough to assume a stalker would be a little more careful than to get rid of crucial evidence by a means other than disposing of it in his own garbage can with his name emblazoned on the front. And it's worth noting that this ridiculous plot contrivance became the foundation for what unfolded the rest of the week. In court on Wednesday, Nancy offered these laugh out loud words of support to Chris: "Trust in the dawn, darling. Trust in the dawn. It comes." The hearing played out like an episode of the old sitcom "Night Court." For all the boasting about how good a lawyer Tom was, the writers had him behaving with ambivalence and resigned defeat. (Chris to Tom right before the judge made the ruling about bail: "He thought about it for, like, five seconds? Is that normal?" Tom, shrugging: "All judges are different. That was his deliberation.") All that little ditty explained was the careless and throw-away style of this writing team. And it symbolized to me their thought process in creating story and characters. Laiman and Culliton think about it for, like, five seconds. And the audience, like Tom, is supposed to shrug and accept it. When the writing is bad, I do tend to focus on other things --the excellent work of Jon Hensley, the only character who has been successfully crossed into more than one storyline; or the radiance of Annie Parisse, still story-less and character-less; or the amazing performances of Scott DeFreitas, who makes Andy warm and endearing even as the writers keep moving the character closer and closer to "too good to be true" territory. For it is through magnificent performances, or chiseled masculine good looks, or awesome feminine beauty that I am subconsciously searching for the heartbeat of ATWT, shining a flashlight into a dark abyss of dismal, repetitive storytelling and hollowed-out characters. I don't dare insult co-head writers Leah Laiman and Carolyn Culliton and executive producer Christopher Goutman by implying that, judging by their work unfolding on-screen, they aren't really trying to create an hour of quality daytime drama. I don't do it because I am tired of flinging that accusation around, practically begging to see evidence which would prove me wrong. No, this time my accusation will be even bolder, will be more direct. I don't think Laiman and Culliton and Goutman CARE about producing a quality daytime drama. They are using the minimum creativity possible and it shows like red wine spilled on a white carpet. The lack of creativity on ATWT is undisguised, the written material is infuriatingly inferior, and the show is consistently below average. Margo's testimony against Christopher on Wednesday and her sudden belief that he could actually be Katie's stalker recalls Lisa's treatment of Margo during her trial and her belief that Margo could actually have murdered Alec. It's loved one turned against loved one, strife within one's own family manufactured to create a semblance of conflict, yet not even closely rooted in character. In fact, I've never seen a writing and producing team who had less understanding of character and character development. Even a casual viewer of Another World would recognize the parallels between the Simon/Lily storyline and the Lumina story. A mystery from the turn-of-the century or the late 1800s. A handsome stranger in town. As a way of getting to know each other better, Rachel sculpted Jordan Stark. Simon is painting a portrait of Lily. Why Goutman and Laiman/Culliton would want to attempt to travel down this muddy road again escapes me, considering how the Lumina story collapsed into the disarray of a child falling out of a tree and a man falling out of the sky. Anyone want to take bets that the Simon/Lily story hasn't been thought out to conclusion, either? ATWT in general feels like it's being written about three weeks in advance, the bare minimum to keep the story going and to throw in the occasional, if not predictable, curve to jolt the audience every once in a while. The most bizarre moment on ATWT this week occurred on Tuesday between Isaac and Camille. Their quiet and poignant scene shifted into the couple talking about cliches! And I thought to myself: Are the writers tongue-in-cheek acknowledging through these two characters their reliance and overuse of cliched dialogue and situations? Or are they perhaps taking a hard slap at the audience who has persistently complained about the cliched and clunky dialogue on the show? Whatever the reason, I'm consistently amazed at how this writing team calls attention to its own inadequacies. For example, the more everyone talked about how absurd it was that Chris could be stalking Katie, the more obvious it became that this entire plot development was just that: Absurd and foolish. Dialogue such as this from Margo on Tuesday did not help: "I hate everything about this case. I hate what it's doing to my little Katie. I hate what it's doing to Tom's family. I cannot fathom how Chris got to this point." Like that garbage can marked HUGHES #4 in big bold letters, the writers point out their material's every flaw and plothole. And like Margo, I hate it. Odds N Ends:
Performances of the Week: Jon Hensley; Lauren B. Martin; Martha Byrne; Michael Park; Scott DeFreitas; Todd Rotondi. |
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