See What Half-Decent Writing Can Do?
Jun. 5th, 2008 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxOne Life to Live is kicking good, old-fashioned soapy ass this week. It's been fun ... in an angsty, heart-wrenching, snarky, grand diva bitch way.
Addie placing David on her "Things to Do" list? LOL.
Dorian drugging Charlie? Evil -- in the truly bad way.
Dorian outing Jared as an imposter in the middle of the board meeting? Evil - in a totally awesome way.
Jessica declaring "Jared is as much a Buchanan as I am" (oh, the irony. Did she forget that she has no actual Buchanan DNA?) followed by Dorian's: "Oh, I hope not. That would mean your sister is sleeping with her uncle." Ha! Evil - in a super awesome badass way!
Natalie and Jared looking like they wanted to sink through the floor and die - nice reaction!
Rex running back into the board room asking for a repeat and Dorian's evil glee in telling her unwanted son-in-law, "That's right. Charlie isn't your long-lost father, he's Jared's." Hee!
Dorian taking over the whole damn Buchanan Enterprises enchilada? Way to get revenge, girl!
Nash attacking Jared? Slight overreaction but -- OMG, Nash being thrown head first through a skylight and crashing two stories? Mid-week cliffhanger!! What did soap-fans do to deserve this?! (And I have to give credit. I love the utter gray-ness of this. Jared and Nat didn't mean to cause any of this fall-out. Jared's offer to rescue Natalie's brother-in-law Nash's vineyard was a genuine offer. He wasn't trying to screw the guy. But, oh, he did totally screw the guy. It wasn't malicious, but it was disastrous. And, truth be told, Nash, got his vinyard into this mess all on his own (being too proud to take his wife, Jess's money). Nash confronting Nat by calling Natalie names? Uncalled for. But Jared pushing Nash away (from Nat) and (accidentally) through a skylight?! Way overreact! It was a tragic accident, but, jeez, they just destroyed Natalie's family (her father lost his company. Her mother's boyfriend revealed as a liar, and her sister widowed. Jessica is gonna want blood. Oh, and, Nat? You're in the doghouse for the forseeable future. Get used to it. And bytheway, totally inappropriate to slip into Nash's room to try to try to apologize for the mess before he bit the dust. Wasn't the time to indulge your guilt, but I'm guessing your parent's death glare made that clear. I'm not surprised that she was rendered speechless. (Nice touch, writers.) Nat, like Jared, meant no harm, but... yeah, I don't think her family is going to embrace her love for Jared any time in... ever, actually.
And about Nat's poor widowed (non-identical, non-evil) twin, while Jess's hysteria could be grating if displayed for too long, Nash's death was mercifully brief making her hyperventilating basketcasedness (made up that word) sympathetic. The actress tugged my heartstrings as she begged God not to let her husband die. Alas, God was in the bathtub. Poor thing. Jessica had no part in the making of this mess and yet now she's a pregnant young widow with a toddler. It's tragic. (But great soapiness) And the recast toddler, Bree, was incredibly cute. Say good-bye to Daddy, sweetheart.
And NICE nod to history as Jess' mom stood in the background, realizing that history is repeating itself (because I still remember when I was a small child watching OLTL and Viki's first husband Joe died leaving Viki with two small children. What soaps have is an amazingly long history and it's delicious when there's headwriter who bothers to remember it.
Also Dorian's Pyrrhic victory, plus her talking herself into believing that this was totally not her fault was dead-on characterization. (No, she didn't throw Nash through a skylight... but she set into motion the events that caused it to happen. So, not guilty, but not quite as innocent as she wants to believe. )
Hand it to Ron Calivarti (the headwriter). Way to come back from the writer's strike. He pulled together a half-dozen story threads and wove them into a giant, grey-tinted character motivated clusterf*ck that most of the characters brought on themselves... and despite that, it's still tragic.
And, because it amused me, the David/Dorian exchange of the day.
Upon her reneging on their 75:20 (lol) deal:
David: I'm not asking for a hand-out. I'll settle for a job.
Dorian: What kind of a job?
David: Anything with a title.
Dorian: How about Chief Executive Gigolo?
David: Yeah! Something people will respect!
RIP, Nash. You were a frequently a douche, but the writers still turned your untimely death into a tearjerker.
Addie placing David on her "Things to Do" list? LOL.
Dorian drugging Charlie? Evil -- in the truly bad way.
Dorian outing Jared as an imposter in the middle of the board meeting? Evil - in a totally awesome way.
Jessica declaring "Jared is as much a Buchanan as I am" (oh, the irony. Did she forget that she has no actual Buchanan DNA?) followed by Dorian's: "Oh, I hope not. That would mean your sister is sleeping with her uncle." Ha! Evil - in a super awesome badass way!
Natalie and Jared looking like they wanted to sink through the floor and die - nice reaction!
Rex running back into the board room asking for a repeat and Dorian's evil glee in telling her unwanted son-in-law, "That's right. Charlie isn't your long-lost father, he's Jared's." Hee!
Dorian taking over the whole damn Buchanan Enterprises enchilada? Way to get revenge, girl!
Nash attacking Jared? Slight overreaction but -- OMG, Nash being thrown head first through a skylight and crashing two stories? Mid-week cliffhanger!! What did soap-fans do to deserve this?! (And I have to give credit. I love the utter gray-ness of this. Jared and Nat didn't mean to cause any of this fall-out. Jared's offer to rescue Natalie's brother-in-law Nash's vineyard was a genuine offer. He wasn't trying to screw the guy. But, oh, he did totally screw the guy. It wasn't malicious, but it was disastrous. And, truth be told, Nash, got his vinyard into this mess all on his own (being too proud to take his wife, Jess's money). Nash confronting Nat by calling Natalie names? Uncalled for. But Jared pushing Nash away (from Nat) and (accidentally) through a skylight?! Way overreact! It was a tragic accident, but, jeez, they just destroyed Natalie's family (her father lost his company. Her mother's boyfriend revealed as a liar, and her sister widowed. Jessica is gonna want blood. Oh, and, Nat? You're in the doghouse for the forseeable future. Get used to it. And bytheway, totally inappropriate to slip into Nash's room to try to try to apologize for the mess before he bit the dust. Wasn't the time to indulge your guilt, but I'm guessing your parent's death glare made that clear. I'm not surprised that she was rendered speechless. (Nice touch, writers.) Nat, like Jared, meant no harm, but... yeah, I don't think her family is going to embrace her love for Jared any time in... ever, actually.
And about Nat's poor widowed (non-identical, non-evil) twin, while Jess's hysteria could be grating if displayed for too long, Nash's death was mercifully brief making her hyperventilating basketcasedness (made up that word) sympathetic. The actress tugged my heartstrings as she begged God not to let her husband die. Alas, God was in the bathtub. Poor thing. Jessica had no part in the making of this mess and yet now she's a pregnant young widow with a toddler. It's tragic. (But great soapiness) And the recast toddler, Bree, was incredibly cute. Say good-bye to Daddy, sweetheart.
And NICE nod to history as Jess' mom stood in the background, realizing that history is repeating itself (because I still remember when I was a small child watching OLTL and Viki's first husband Joe died leaving Viki with two small children. What soaps have is an amazingly long history and it's delicious when there's headwriter who bothers to remember it.
Also Dorian's Pyrrhic victory, plus her talking herself into believing that this was totally not her fault was dead-on characterization. (No, she didn't throw Nash through a skylight... but she set into motion the events that caused it to happen. So, not guilty, but not quite as innocent as she wants to believe. )
Hand it to Ron Calivarti (the headwriter). Way to come back from the writer's strike. He pulled together a half-dozen story threads and wove them into a giant, grey-tinted character motivated clusterf*ck that most of the characters brought on themselves... and despite that, it's still tragic.
And, because it amused me, the David/Dorian exchange of the day.
Upon her reneging on their 75:20 (lol) deal:
David: I'm not asking for a hand-out. I'll settle for a job.
Dorian: What kind of a job?
David: Anything with a title.
Dorian: How about Chief Executive Gigolo?
David: Yeah! Something people will respect!
RIP, Nash. You were a frequently a douche, but the writers still turned your untimely death into a tearjerker.
