It would appear that All My Children is getting much better at writing the big, confrontational scenes. There have been several in recent weeks and they've been pretty chilling.
Last week, we had David vs. Krystal, Round 3. The first time they battled in a scene was when David pushed Krystal and she got the knot on her noggin. That came across as just too violent. The second was the infamous hug when David called Krystal the mother of his "children." I still think that scene was done incredibly well. The latest confrontation was Krystal finally wising up to the fact that she'd been used. "When I couldn't give you a child and you lost Little A because of me, suddenly I wasn't enough for you," Krystal-with-a-K snarled to David. I've been so won over by Bobbie Eakes's work over the past year, that I am really disappointed that she wasn't honored with an Emmy nomination. Though it doesn't come with a golden statuette, she has won my admiration.
Anyone who has ever watched a soap opera for more than a week knows that when a couple gets married out of convenience or when one person is using the other, they usually end up falling in love for real. I've been trying to figure out if David really loves Krystal. I don't think he does. I think he's just miserable and he doesn't want to be alone, but I've rarely seen anything in David that shows me that he loves Krystal.
So the next question becomes: Is David capable of love? I'd say that he is. I've seen him in the past with Erica and with Anna. And who can forget David losing his little girl, Leora? David just seems a little misguided.
Erica as a private detective, on the other hand, is hilarious. How convenient was it that Erica happened to encounter a woman on the housekeeping staff at the Yacht Club who was her "biggest fan." Sure, the scene may have made some viewers roll their eyes, but these are the types of scenes that made AMC so iconic. You know, the staring down of bears, the escaping from a prison via helicopter... they're campy, yet oddly entertaining.
"Miss Kane, I'm such a fan. You're even more beautiful in person -- and so gracious," the housekeeper chattered just before she snapped off a photo with La Kane.
I am so pleased that Chrishell Stause has agreed to stick around through the end of the year to play Amanda. For much of her time on AMC, Amanda has been the town tramp. Now, just as she is got a storyline that didn't involve her hopping into someone's bed, her contract expired. Talk about bad timing. I wonder what the show would have done if Stause didn't renew? Would Amanda have died during childbirth? Would she have run off to the Maldives? We've already learned from Annie's plight that the island nation doesn't have an extradition treaty with the United States. Amanda could easily have been tossed away with little regard from the writers. Her father, Trevor, is dead. Brother Tim(my) is in parts unknown. Janet, her mother from another planet, probably won't be back because Annie seems to the be the only resident cuckoo allowed in Pine Valley right now.
Emmy nominee Cornelius Smith, Jr. returned last week as Frankie Hubbard. It's been weeks since we've heard anything about Frankie. If you haven't been checking out the news portion of the site, click here to get the full story on why Frankie has been off-screen for so long. You know, it's not a horrible thing to go so long without a mention. In real life, we've all experienced moments where we've been left in the dark, waiting without word and fearing the worst. So I don't fault AMC for the way it wrote the story. I did like the way that Angie dropped occasional hints about how painful it was for her to not have heard anything about her son. That kept the storyline real without completely dropping the ball. I also like that Angie and Jesse decided to step back and let Frankie's wife, Randi, take over as the "leading lady" in his life. I'm sure that wasn't easy - and Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan's acting convinced me of that. I really hope the writers come up with a story for Jesse and Angie before too long.
What will be interesting to see is how AMC couples Frankie's make-believe injuries with the real-world injuries of actor JR Martinez (Brot). I received an email from a viewer who told me that Frankie needs to "get over it" and move on to something else now that he has no use of his hands. This isn't a case of someone wanting to be a star basketball player or a rock star and never having had the athletic skills or singing voice to make it happen. Frankie has been a doctor for some time now and an instrument with which he has performed miracles has been taken away from him. Someone else commented that Frankie should be embarrassed for making such a big deal over his accident when his friend and platoonmate suffered significant burn damage. In the moment, we only tend to think of ourselves and our own problems. I would have found it unbelievable if Frankie would have turned to Brot and said, "You know what, you're right. My injured hands are trivial in the grand scheme of things."
I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed, but what is up with the sudden weird orange glow in some of the scenes? It's almost as if everyone has a really cheap spray-on tan. Something like this happened a few weeks back when General Hospital first started broadcasting in high-definition, but there are currently no immediate plans to see AMC-HD -- so what gives?
There was a lot of interesting feedback to my column last week. I was relieved to know that I was not the only person who found Stuart's funeral a bit over-the-top. There were those, though, who took exception to my remarks that the funeral was a bit too farcical.
One reader, Page Goodman, wrote in to explain that Stuart's memorial service was a celebration of his life. "You should let your friends and family know that you want them all to roll on the floor, kicking, screaming, and crying in the most maudlin way possible at your funeral. I know that would make you happy," she wrote.
When my time comes, which hopefully isn't for many years, I just hope that people show up. When they get there if they want to sing, dance, or kick and scream, I won't care one bit. Maybe if I play my cards right, I can get Tad to show up and put on a puppet show about my life!
dan
