It's so hard to believe that the end of the year (and the holiday season) is already upon us! I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed their Thanksgiving Days with friends and families. I myself always brave the crowds on Black Friday as I wake up before the break of dawn to get my shopping started, although for some reason this year, the crowds just were not out in full-force---and I'm not complaining! Nonetheless, it's always a relaxing time at this point in the year, and I'm especially excited for mid-December when Dena Higley's work on OLTL will begin airing. What do we have to look ahead towards? Brian Frons, President of ABC Daytime, gave a sneak-peek at a few miscellaneous stories in a recent online chat, and I thought I'd share those with you with a few of my own thoughts.
Frons: "Big news! Bo will finally admit he's still angry about [Nora's] sleeping with Sam, and that admission will start off a more meaningful emotional reconnection. Boy, [Daniel] does have a big secret, and I can't tell what it is."
Finally, it seems as though the long-awaited reconciliation between these two beloved characters will finally happen! What I especially like about the reunion is that is took place gradually.....VERY gradually. After Gabrielle's death (which I'm still not over, by the way), Bo and Nora could have quickly been thrown back together to form the happy family Matthew has been craving to have. But wisely, the two maintained their friendship and pursued dating relationships with other people, including Daniel and Paige. Now, it seems the infamous "night that changed everything" will be addressed and handled as a way to finally put closure on the animosity Bo still must have for his ex-wife and the decision she made to sleep with Sam. I'm very anxious to see how this rocky road back to love will be handled. Furthermore, what is the secret Daniel is keeping? This guy has been on the show for well over a year (it might be longer, I've lost track!), but he hasn't had enough of his own storyline to even warrant my taking a guess as to what his secret might be. Does is have something to do with his ex-wife? A violent act from his past? Who knows! To say this character has been on the back-burner is being polite; unless he's taking Nora out to dinner or stopping by her house, he's rarely a blip on the screen. And finally, I hope that Bo's growing attraction to Nora does not wipe Kimberlin Brown's character of Paige off the canvas. She is a fine actress, and I think that there are a number of possibilities to keep her in Llanview.
Frons: "[Todd and Blair] are planning a Christmas wedding. The only thing standing in their way is crazy Margaret. St. Ann's is the sanitarium with a revolving door."
Okay, is it just me, or does the reappearance of Margaret just scream of lazy writing? Are you kidding me? This psycho was an annoyance the last time she appeared on screen. I recall one reader telling me that Margaret reminded her of Glenn Close's character from "Fatal Attraction," and I can still see the resemblance. But I beg to ask, why is she back? Is this a matter of the writers not knowing what to write for Todd and Blair after the "Asa's not crazy"storyline and before their upcoming nuptials? Is it a case of filling in the holes between head writers? Whatever it is, Margaret is not entertaining, she is not interesting, and she is nothing but an old storyline device that is being brought back for superficial reasons. Frankly, it doesn't surprise me that this exiting writing regime would end on such a reused (and boring) story point; much of the writing during the past two years has been stale and repeated. As far as Todd and Blair are concerned, I've told a number of readers that my feelings on them as a couple is such: as long as they put the lies aside and plot together, scheme together, and work together, I really enjoy them. I think they make a solid and fun team when they gang up on others. With that said, when they are lying to one another and playing that whole tired game of "I'll never lie to you again, Blair." "Well if you do, Todd, that's it. I'll never forgive you, and I'll never let you see your kids again"----then I just become sick and tired of the whole circle that develops between them and the way this whole conversation is repeated over and over and over and over again. It would be wise of Higley to make them a couple or keep them apart.
Frons: "There are a lot of obstacles [Jessica and Antonio] have to overcome to get back together. [There will be] an emotional journey for Jessica that will make her truly Viki's daughter."
What I really wish Frons would have said was that the whole Santi clan was a dream and that Antonio really is a Vega and not Manuel Santi's son. This past week leading up to Tico's blackmailing Antonio to assassinate the Governor, I couldn't help thinking what a joke Tico is. First of all, his portrayer truly lacks the range to pull off playing such a mean, evil, unremorseful, powerful figurehead. He barks orders like he's ordering food from a menu. He reveals his evil plans as though he's going to play an innocent prank on a sibling. He just was never a convincing villain, and I'm glad he's going to be off the canvas (permanently!) in the near future. As for Jessica and Antonio, even though I never was a full-fledged fan of theirs, I do think they deserve happiness with one another. I think that the only way to get the character of Antonio back to himself is to reconnect him with Jessica. The two of them do share a great deal of history together, and I think their love is far more real than what we have seen between Jess and Tico and Antonio and Sonia. As for Frons' mysterious last comment about Jess being Viki's daughter, the rumor has it that Jessica is going to suffer a multiple-personality disorder similar to Viki (hence, we will once again see Niki Smith on our screens in the future!). I'm not so sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I think that this will ordeal could help Jessica become a stronger female adult than she has been in the last year or so. I think suffering from such an illness could center her storyline to where it belongs. However, if told with the intent to spike ratings, the story will flop. Only if this tale is told with the same skill and care that Viki's problem was (I don't mean during LIVE week, but during Malone's previous tenure) will this story be powerful and meaningful. What I have noticed lately is that the "big" stories (i.e. Viki's heart transplant) are told in one or two weeks, and then they are over! The stories need to be carried over the course of weeks and months---that is what makes a soap opera!
Frons: "Some people think [Kevin] should reunite with Kelly. We're trying to decide what's best romantically for the character."
I can't find any value at all in reuniting these two characters! Furthermore, once it is revealed that Ace is the stolen child of Babe Chandler from All My Children, Kevin is going to want nothing more to do with Kelly, much less want to reunite with her. Frons has commented somewhere else that the baby-switching storyline will go down in history as being one of the most memorable storylines...well, although I would agree with that statement, I would not necessarily view it in a positive manner. The story definitely started off as a bust. It was not told well on OLTL, and the crossovers were so sparse that the point of having two babies on two different shows became pointless. Only in recent months have the characters from both shows been back and forth between towns so that viewers from both soaps may see how the story is being played out. I'm anxious to see how Kevin and David's relationship affects his relationship with Dorian and her relationship with her Aunt. I think that is the better story that would create more drama and tension.
Oh, and one more final comment: does anyone really care who killed Paul?
Enjoy the week,
Ryan
