Soap Opera Weekly: 04/22/11

It’s a hallmark of daytime characters that they never learn from the past; they keep jumping to wrong conclusions, believing lies, and fecklessly accepting assumptions. (Honestly, it’s like they don’t know they’re just characters on a TV show!)

That’s why I want to say “Bravo” to GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Sonny the Skeptic! He has actually shown signs of learning. Sonny was suspicious of Lucian from the moment Suzanne brought him to the house. His jaundiced eye demonstrates that he paid attention to the usual hijinks in Port Charles; he’s seen characters with secret agendas lie, and he’s familiar with Suzanne’s past cruelty to Brenda (Y’know, all that “letting Brenda think her child was dead” stuff.) His wife wants a kid, and lo and behold, Lucian materializes? Seriously?

Soap Opera Weekly: 03/11/11

I would like to take a moment to say how much I am enjoying Bree Williamson‘s depiction of loopy, devil-may-care Tess. I have been critical of ONE LIFE TO LIVE in the past, so it’s only fair that I also point out the good stuff. And Williamson is nothing short of great.

I especially love the joy in her eyes as Tess is indulging her inner devil and doing whatever she damn well pleases — acting on every urge as it occurs, and saying whatever pops into her head. Williamson seems to be reveling in playing Tess, imbuing her with a voracious sexuality and making anyone else in the room uncomfortable.

Soap Opera Weekly: 03/04/11

I don’t know about you, but in the wake of the second car-bombing in eight months and the recent crash of that ski-trip bus, I’m expecting a boom (too soon?) in bicycle sales in GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Port Charles.

If you factor in the 2005 train crash and all the citizenry hit by cars, it’s little wonder that most characters are seen walking around town; neither automobile nor public transportation is safe! You might have thought the reason people walk the streets in winter was just so they can bump into each other and have conversations, but perhaps they’re afraid to take to the roads! Heck, thanks to the late poisoner Andrea Floyd, one cannot even attend a carnival in town without getting run over by a car…

Soap Opera Weekly: 1/21/11

I really enjoyed watching ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s Charlie and Echo square off today over her drinking. Charlie decided to stage a one-man intervention near Rex’s sickbed, entreating her to give up the booze for the sake of her son. Or for Charlie, even!

Echo was determined to make up for not raising Rex by being a mother to him now. However, the flaw in her plan was that she believed an occasional sip of firewater would be just fine. But Charlie pointed out that if that pull comes from a flask you have to hide, then she has a problem.

Port Chuck in Concert

I joined a couple of colleagues from Soap Opera Weekly to check out the first show of Port Chuck’s 2011 tour, at Studio Square NYC in Long Island City, N.Y., on April 15.

For those of you who don’t know, the band Port Chuck is made up of actors from GENERAL HOSPITAL, including Brandon Barash (Johnny), Steve Burton (Jason), Scott Reeves (Steve) and Bradford Anderson (Spinelli). All the guys sing, and they have backing musicians to fill out the band. Scott plays guitar – and Steve can clang a pretty mean cowbell when he wants to! (Yes, we shouted, “More cowbell!”) Check out my photo gallery after the cut.

LONE STAR 1.1: Pilot

The premise of LONE STAR seems interesting yet limiting at the same time. Interesting because of how it amplifies the idea of a con man running a long con and escalates it all the way to faking his entire life. Twice over. And limiting because…where does one go with this high-concept in the future?

When I first heard about this concept, it sounded to me like an extended version of that horrible sitcom cliché, the dummy who accidentally makes two dates for Saturday night and decides to take both women to the same restaurant and try to juggle them. Hilarity is sure to ensue.

Well… not so much.

ROYAL PAINS 2.3: The (really) Big Show

Sure, ROYAL PAINS featured its biggest guest star ever this week – the 7-foot, 485-pound Paul Wight, a.k.a. Big Show of the WWE – but I was more distracted by who wasn’t on the screen very much: Where did Divya go?

This second season of ROYAL PAINS is focusing a lot on adding big names: Henry “the Fonz” Winkler is recurring as Hank and Evan’s shady father, Eddie R., and Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden will be seen periodically as prickly Dr. Elizabeth Blair. And Christine Ebersole’s Mrs. Newberg is also on the scene a lot more lately. Last week, 24’s erstwhile Chloe, Mary Lynn Rajskub, portrayed Mrs. Newberg’s flighty daughter, Blake. Also, AS THE WORLD TURNS’ Marnie Schulenburg (Alison) appeared as Sherrie Tanner, a leather craftswoman (“I’m the only designer on the East Coast specializing in armadillo; it’s my schtick!”) who contracted Hansen’s disease – otherwise known as leprosy – from her own creations. (Get the joke? “Tanner” works with leather?) The soap trend continued this week with Florencia Lozano (ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s Tea) playing Faith, the high-strung sister/business manager of the action-movie star known as the Garbage Man (Big Show).

LOST 6.17: The End

“I got a bad feeling about this.”
– Hugo

I wonder how many LOST fans felt the same way as the final episode unspooled with the sort of musical montage that usually ends episodes. Well, in the words of Sawyer: “Sonofabitch.”

They did it.

LOST ended nearly perfectly.

The-powers-that-be chose to end the story, rather than merely answer questions. Here we the viewing audience were, wondering how the lingering questions were going to be addressed, but it looks to me that show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse said, “Screw that, we’re closing all the character arcs.” After watching the characters finish their journeys, I’ll be damned if I can think of any nagging leftover questions that still seem to matter. I feel totally satisfied by the story. So what if we don’t know the original human name of the Man in Black. Walt was “special” because…well, because he was. Maybe all kids were revered because of the pregnancy thing.

Far more important to me, was the fact that the main characters reached some kind of closure. Almost everybody got happy endings in the Sideways universe, while events unfolded on the Island the way they had to. In a way, TPTB had it both ways: They gave the fans the sweet ending they wanted but also played out the brutal endgame on the Island. And on this show, it made total sense for Jack to die, yet still be happy. And the final funereal moments, when everyone was gathered in the church, made clever use of the concept of the hereafter to gather all the characters together no matter when they died. Everyone was dead. Some folks died before Jack (the Kwons), some long after (Hugo). “There is no ‘now’ here,” Christian told Jack. They all gathered because needed to be together. Jack needed all of them, and they needed Jack. And this was a true ending. As Jack told Hurley, “There are no shortcuts. No do-overs. What happened, happened. All of this matters.”

LOST 6.16: What took you so long?

“We’re very close to the end, Hugo.”
–Jacob

As LOST winds down to its final precious hours, the bodies are piling up almost as fast as the reveals. The question is: Are the corpses and the answers worth it?

This week we saw Jack (Matthew Fox) step up and accept guardianship of the Island, prompting my new $64,000 Question: What took so damn long? I can understand if Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) wanted Jack to accept the job of his own free will, but…why did he wait so damn long to ask? Jack surely would have taken stewardship of the Island in exchange for letting everyone else get off. And the way Jacob casually dismissed Kate’s (Evangeline Lilly) question about why she had been crossed off the list – it was just a line of chalk on a wall and so the job is hers if she wants it – had me ready to scream. He was willing to give it to any of the candidates? Why let everyone go through so much pain and torture? Why all the mystical mumbo-jumbo? Why?

STARGATE UNIVERSE 1.17: Oh, the Pain! The Pain!

Honestly, I dreaded the approach of this week’s episode of STARGATE UNIVERSE because the previews made it look like the silly old “alien makes you face your worst fear” cliché was in full effect. Sooner or later every show gets around to this hoary chestnut, and I figured SGU better just get it out of its system. To make it seem even worse, the fears glimpsed looked to be standard-issue dull; I mean, claustrophobia? Really? Why can’t some alien force somebody to face the terror of…speaking in public? Supposedly most people dread that more than dying!

Happily, the actual episode proved to be much more enjoyable than anticipated. Not stunningly original, but at least well-executed. As usual, the excellent cast stepped up with some terrific performances (special kudos to Elyse Levesque for her conflicted Chloe), and the direction kept the story moving at a good enough pace that the audience did not have time to linger over the overly familiar plot points.