10.17.09
Following the Light
Since Guiding Light wrapped up on Sept. 18, I’ve been following the official Telenext Media Twitter account for Mindy Lewis (http://twitter.com/melindasuelewis or @melindasuelewis), and it has gone a long way in soothing the sting of the show being canceled. Not just because it picks up where the show left off, but because whoever is writing it is doing such a fantastic job. (I should really find that out, shouldn’t I? My guess would be Alina Adams, who co-wrote Jonathan’s Story and authored the As the World Turns‘ tie-in novels Oakdale Confidential and The Man From Oakdale. If I’m right, I’ll buy myself a cookie.)
Mindy’s Twitter is the Bauer-centric GL that many wish we’d had in recent years. We’re “seeing” more of Mindy, Rick and Mel, of Leah, than we have in a long time. And their closest friends and family play a major part, too. Phillip and Beth, Bill, Jonathan and Lizzie’s co-parenting conflicts with Sarah and Lizzie’s new baby, Alana…it’s all just gorgeous stuff. And more than once I’ve found myself tearing up. Mindy’s recounting of her wedding to Rick was beautiful and, then, this week, Mindy tweeted about Leah’s issues at school. With a high IQ and a lot to live up to in terms of a Bauer legacy and a mom who is both a doctor and a lawyer, Leah lashed out at Rick for trying to force her into a gifted program. “I’m already a minority, Dad. You force me into the gifted program, and I’ll be a minority within a minority. No way. I’m not doing it,” she said on October 16, whirling on Mindy to add, “I hear you’re planning on having a baby. Maybe IT can be your trophy show pony of a genius…. At least he or she won’t have to go through their whole life in Springfield hearing: ‘But how can YOU be one of THOSE Bauers, you’re…’ “
Ouch. Ouch. And BRILLIANT. That seriously punched me in the gut and made me ache to see Rick, Mindy and Leah have this out onscreen. How amazing would that have been, instead of seeing Leah languish on the backburner after they went to the trouble of SORAS-ing her? They de-aged Daisy to put her in the teen set again, spent ages investing in her love life — Grady, need I say more?– and yet we had to wait for a Twitter account to explore Leah growing up biracial?
But you know what…? I’m glad to have it, and to have it as GL canon.
So, to whoever is tweeting for Mindy, thank you. Thank you for giving us Lizzie in labor, Leah in conflict, and blue skies and Palomino ponies. Thank you for telling such beautiful stories and for keeping the Light on.
09.18.09
Calgon take me away…to daytime.
Today was a great day of soap. Of quintessential soap. Beginning with the end of Guiding Light, moving on to The Bold and the Beautiful, and then capping off with great stuff on One Life to Live.
I started the day sobbing, saying farewell to a show that I’ve watched for twenty years. Some people had problems with this final week, and I have nitpicks myself (no mentions of SEVERAL key Coopers and Spauldings who are off canvas?!), but overall, it was the kind of goodbye that most longtime soap fans dream of. Happy endings all around, family and children and romance. All the losers at love finally winning. Any sour notes were from what they left out, not what they included. Everybody got closure and yet there was enough left open that you know life in Springfield will never be boring. And fantastic performances were threaded throughout the whole week. Grant Aleksander (Phillip), Ron Raines (Alan), Tina Sloan (Lillian), and Marj Dusay (Alexandra) are just a few of the stand outs. And Robert Newman (Josh) is the one who kicked off my waterworks.
I was so sad that I couldn’t even conceive of turning on another soap today, but then I remembered how invested I am in B&B and OLTL lately. B&B continues to build the romance of Bill and Katie, and their love scene today was equal parts hot and tactful. I’m prudish, and too much skin often freaks me out. I watch many of B&B’s love scenes turning crimson with embarrassment. That wasn’t the case today. It was sweet, romantic, and yet sexy. And how good were Donna and Justin dancing around the subject of Marcus’ paternity and finally stopping the footwork to just put it out there? Jennifer Gareis and Aaron D. Spears are great together.
Also great are OLTL’s twenty-somethings. I cannot say enough about how the Fish/Layla/Kyle/Cris/Nick story is playing out. Oh, hell, I’m just going to call them the Fishbowl for short, okay? So, yes, the Fishbowl today was fab. I had feared that the scenes with Oliver and his parents would be, well, a lot like the jaunty orange How To Tell Your Parents You’re Gay book: glaring, a little tacky, and an obvious prop. But they weren’t, and Fish’s father didn’t come off nearly as much of a caricature as, say, ATWT’s Col. Mayer. The surprise hit of the ep was David Fumero, as Cristian staunchly stood up for Fish and went toe-to-toe with George as if he was the gay one and not his pal. Best. Friend. Ever. And, of course, that leading into Fish’s confession was achingly painful. Much like Layla, my instinct was to go to Fish and wrap him in a hug. Oh, Scott Evans. You rock.
OLTL also featured a little more intimacy than hugging, when Kyle and Nick made out. I don’t want to turn it into a political statement every time a same sex couple kisses, and honestly it shouldn’t be, but go, OLTL! Good. Bravo. Treat them like anybody else…complete with a believable roadblock to them hitting the sheets: Kyle’s feelings for Oliver. I’m not one of those people who thinks a couple has to be chaste on a soap and cleave only unto each other. To me, the fact that Nick and Kyle are together only makes the anticipation for Kish all the more sweet. That’s how you tell a story.
This was the kind of soap opera Friday that would send me rushing home from school as a kid. Must-see, skip-last-period, character-driven drama.
09.16.09
Soap Opera Weekly: Blogging With Mala
Have you ever known me to be at a loss for words? Weird concept, right? But as GUIDING LIGHT winds down with only two episodes to go after today, I find myself scrambling to articulate how I feel about the phenomenon.
I used to rush home from school to watch GL and GH at the same time. I was a habitual channel flipper, and refused to choose one show over the other. (Yes, youngsters, this was before the advent of the DVR.) I loved Harley, and laughed and grew with that character. I watched her babysit little Marah and Shayne after Reva drove off the bridge; I saw her hook up with Josh, and then eventually go on to join the police academy and fall for her gruff instructor, A.C. Mallet. I loved bad girl Blake, first in Sherry Stringfield’s skin and then Liz Keifer’s. Blake and Ross’ affair was electric. There are just so many characters, so many stories, that have impacted me over the years and will stay with me forever. I can’t even list them all right now because it’s too vast, it’s too much.
Saying goodbye to Springfield is like saying goodbye to someplace I’ve lived, to my neighbors and friends. Much like Natalia clutching Rafe before he boarded the bus for boot camp today, I want to grab GL and whimper, “I don’t want you to go!”
But it’s going; the Light is going out on Friday. And even though I can’t bid adieu to Harley or Alan-Michael or Lucy or a dozen other characters who couldn’t come back for this farewell week, I cherish being able to spend this week seeking closure with the existing residents of Springfield. Bye, everyone. It’s been wonderful spending 20 years with you!
originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com
09.11.09
Soap Opera Weekly: Blogging With Mala
I’m going to talk a little OLTL and GL today. First, can you believe there’s only five episodes of GL left? I’m in denial. DE-NI-AL. Thursday’s episode began the rapid wrap-up process, with Phillip and Alan coming out of surgery with flying colors, Jonathan returning Sarah to Lizzie (Oh my God! So much cute!) and Olivia and Emma moving back to the farm with Natalia. Oh, and babies. I remember Josh and a lot of babies.
As much as I love seeing my Springfielders happy, it all feels so rushed and it goes back to an earlier concern I had about the last few months being bogged down by stories that didn’t need the airtime. We watched Olivia angst the entire time Nat was offscreen for Jessica Leccia’s maternity leave. Now they’ve reunited without even kissing, and everything’s hunky-dory? At least viewers got a throwaway line about a box of Olivia’s stuff being moved into Natalia’s bedroom. And I enjoyed Josh, Reva and a room full of munchkins, as well as Jonathan reuniting Lizzie with Sarah, but after all this time, couldn’t have viewers have gotten a longer scene than Lizzie taking Sarah off for a walk while Jonathan told Bill he was willing to work something out? This is stuff that people want fleshed out, something that you’d want to savor.
As I said, five episodes left. Less than five full hours. And that’s not nearly long enough to say a proper goodbye.
On to OLTL. This week’s drug-dealing storyline ended with a much tenser note than it began on, and I loved it: Brody being a SEAL and sneaking around all stealthy and knocking out thugs…John trying to draw out Sergei. I even loved John and Bo rolling under the warehouse door, as cheesetastic as that was. It’s a bunch of good guys doing good things! It’s great when competent police officers are showcased as the heroes. And I especially appreciated that Fish is a part of the team. His role in Llanview is not simply to be The Gay Guy. He’s a cop, too, and obviously very capable of doing his job.
I really feel like OLTL, with this character and Kyle, is realizing the potential set forth by GL and ATWT. GL had two fleshed out, fully realized characters who discovered their lesbian feelings…but couldn’t take that story the whole way to the physical realm. ATWT got Noah and Luke kissing, but hasn’t really given them stories that work or much characterization beyond their orientation. As for AMC’s Bianca, she’s had a much longer arc about her sexuality than Olivia or Luke or Fish and there’s just a whole lot of other stuff going on there. I’d be here all day, and nobody wants to read a blog entry that’s 2000 words long. LOL.
Obviously there’s going to be some “after school special” moments when Fish comes out to his parents, but I think with the tethering of him to the Llanview PD and even to the Stacy pregnancy storyline, it bodes well for the future of organic, character-based stories about LGBT folks.
And P.S…am I the only one who hoped that Kyle would find out Fish was involved in this tense stand-off with evildoers and rush to his side? 
.
originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com
08.31.09
Soap Opera Weekly: Blogging With Mala
Everybody who has read my stuff in the magazine or here in my blog knows that I’ve loved me some GL this year. The show bounced back from its slump in a beautiful, organic way and, sadly, that spike in awesomeness came too late to save it from cancellation. I can talk till I’m blue in the face about how much I love this show and what a travesty I think it going off air is.
However… (yes, I have to say “however”), as we enter the home stretch, I can’t help but feel like the show wasted some time. Did we really need all the Mallet and Marina angst over whether or not she whacked some guy with Henry’s stroller? And Mallet nobly leaving so Shayne could be Henry’s father?
Then there’s Jeffrey’s “death” and subsequent canonization. Did I miss the part where looking like Prince Richard somehow makes him Prince Richard? I love how people forget that he had an illicit fling with Marah and date-raped Olivia when they were teenagers. Aside from the fact that he married Reva and that gained him magical access to the Springfield inner circle, I just don’t see the need to be All About Jeffrey as the show comes to an end. Heck, I couldn’t even enjoy part of the Jonathan return arc because it was about him finding Jeffrey.
And Cyrus…was there really a need to annex him to the Cooper family when so many real Coopers we’ve loved over the years can’t come home? We never met a SORAS-ed Rocky, so I’m supposed to believe Buzz feels a magical connection to Jenna’s oldest and heretofore unknown son? Coop already HAS two brothers, Buzz. I call shenanigans. Personally, I’d rather see Harley or Lucy or Eleni come back than have a jewel thief who slept with Harley and Marina become the prodigal son.
There are existing, veteran characters who could’ve had this airtime. Holly popped on for a blink last week. I would much rather have watched her all week than Cyrus discovering his identity, and Mallet sacrificing himself on the altar of Bosnian Baby Wangst. I’m not saying that they don’t have fans and don’t deserve to be in the last month of GL’s story arc. Of course they do! But not at the expense of people who’ve been there longer, people we’ve welcomed into our homes for 20-30 years now and will never see again in this context after Sept. 18.
What about finding love interests for Rick and Matt or spending more than five minutes on Frank and Blake’s Internet romance? Or taking some time to mention the Bauers and the Reardons and shout-out to storylines of the past? Jenna’s great and all, but I wish Buzz would mention Nadine. Anything and everything is probably going to wind up crammed into the last week, when it could have been stretched out over two months instead of Strollergate and Reva talking to Jeffrey’s pictures like he’s the portrait of a Hogwarts headmaster.
With the Light about to go out forever, why hide the good stuff under a bushel?
originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com
08.20.09
This is not an apologia (except it kind of is).
I think most people who love something passionately, be it soap operas or romance novels or genre TV like Stargate: Atlantis, spend a good portion of discussing those loves being an apologist. We always have to justify or explain it, often with a bullet point list or a slideshow. “This is what is great about it, this is what touches me, this is what you don’t understand.”
Because it’s not something incredibly highbrow or excessively in fashion or socially acceptable: “Oh, I read Kierkegaard for fun and then watch Mad Men or take in a Yankees game.” You don’t have to explain reading a Danish philosopher’s works, or watching an ubercool show about an ad agency in the ’50s that gets a ton of critical acclaim. But if you watch a show where people sleep around and backstab and have all kinds of sordid drama…oh, wait.
Soaps get a bad rap, because they’re on during the day and their stories are bigger than life. But soaps impact people in a way that other TV doesn’t. Case in point, the other day I linked a friend to clips of One Life to Live’s Kyle and Fish. I said, “Look, this is the guy who played Tim on One Tree Hill, and his character bears absolutely no resemblance to Tim whatsoever.” Two clips was all it took for my friend to agree, and to be moved by the storyline. Two clips that probably added up to less than 10 minutes. How many television shows are capable of that?
And, then, on a much larger scale, you have the cancellation of Guiding Light and just how huge that is. 72 years being broadcast. That’s my father’s age, for crying out loud. People have grown up with this show, passed it on to their kids, who passed it on to their kids. I was at the Paley Center tribute to the show last night, and during the Q&A, person after person stood up to speak of how they came from a multigenerational GL-watching family. One woman movingly talked about how Reva grieving Jeffrey resonated with her as she’d just lost her own husband. A man stood up and praised Ashlee’s LapBand surgery, as he’d gotten the procedure himself. Postpartum depression, breast cancer, cochlear implant surgery…and just basic, human stories. GL connected with millions of people in a way that Let’s Make a Deal never will.
When something touches your heart, be it a wonderfully written story that’s hidden behind a clinch cover or the passionate tale of a slut who jumped in a fountain and emerged one of daytime’s greatest heroines, there’s nothing to justify, nothing to apologize for.
I’m certainly not sorry.
08.10.09
Soap Opera Weekly: Blogging With Mala
I think I spent the entire weekend in a Kish-induced haze — leading me to conclude something that’s probably not all that shocking: OLTL’s Kyle Lewis represents daytime’s new generation of gay characters. He’s just your average joe — with a taste for blackmail and a guy named Fish — soap character.
The closest we’ve come before this is probably GH: NIGHT SHIFT’s Kyle (Adam Grimes), who was a doctor with the same problems as anybody else in the hospital. There was no issue of him coming out of or going into any closets. He was a friend, a brother, a dedicated physician, and a guy who fell in love with one of his patients. AMC’s Lena Kundera (Olga Sosnovska), Bianca’s first serious girlfriend after Sarah, was another character whose sexuality was just a part of her and not a platform for anything. These were just people doing what people do on a soap. I had initially hoped that Y&R’s Adam would hold this distinction as well … turning out to be a bisexual villain, but the show back-peddled from that story so fast that I’m surprised they didn’t trip over something. Adam manipulated another guy — NAKED — but, hey, he’s not into boys that way. Riiiight.
Heck, the only bisexual characters on daytime right now are GL’s Natalia and Olivia, neither of whom negate their past relationships with men and their perhaps ongoingattraction to men (hi, Josh!) just because they love each other. Olivia’s very much still Olivia: the broken, dysfunctional woman who will turn to anyone for just a smidge of validation. But the character’s been on a ten year path, and it’s a little bit of a different story than bringing on a brand-new LGBT character.
OLTL’s Kyle is gay from the get-go…in the most shrug-worthy, blasé of ways. His sexuality is as much a footnote to him as it is to hetero characters like Rex or Blair. He never really announced it to anyone, and that’s where the writers were brilliant. Kyle turned down Gigi’s advances when she tried to get info out of him by just saying she didn’t have anything he wants. And Roxy figured out he was gay mostly by context and things unspoken (catching a guy mooning over a photo will do that). And Kyle’s not sanitized, sainted and beloved. He’s no one’s poster child. AMC’s Bianca, by virtue of being the legendary Erica Kane’s daughter and the trailblazer, became all of the above. They couldn’t really let her be a bitch or, as Roxy might say, “let her freak flag fly.” Lest she undo the whole process of introducing daytime to a core gay character. And Binks learned the hard way during Eden Riegel’s 2008-09 return that going from saint to sinner wouldn’t fly with viewers. The show tried, too late, to turn PV’s most benevolent lesbian into someone who might have a secret baby with her brother-in-law. Fans weren’t havin’ it. Kyle, by virtue of starting out a blackmailer and crazy Rebecca’s baby brother, has no pedestal to plummet from.
And he’s found a perfectly imperfect match in terminally nice Oliver, who’s currently doing something not-so nice by dating Layla and breaking poor Kyle’s heart. Yes, Fish is grappling with his orientation and there will be a coming out element to this story, but I really think (okay, hope) it’s not going to be an after-school special. Because these are just guys trying to live their lives. And all my Kyle praise is not meant to diminish Fish in the least. It’s just that Oliver’s journey is different; he still has to get to the place where Kyle already is…and, believe me, I can’t wait till he gets there!
originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com
08.09.09
What would happen if they kissed?
After ruminating on One Life to Live’s Kyle and Fish all weekend, I was inspired to hit YouTube to look up all of daytime’s LGBT first liplocks*. I think I got ‘em all, but feel free to comment and tell me what else to look for.
Daytime’s first same-sex kiss, that of AMC’s Bianca and Lena in 2003
(Since the smooch above, Bianca has kissed Maggie and that one random girl on New Year’s Eve, and had makeout sessions with wife, Reese.)
Four years later, ATWT’s Noah and Luke
2008, GH: Night Shift, Kyle and Eric: (starts around minute 3:51)
2009, GL’s Olivia plants one on Natalia
And a bonus…
Here’s Christian and Olli’s first kiss, from the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe.
As for answering the question in my subject line: What would happen if they kissed? Well, there has been no noticeable furthering of the moral decay of society. The streets are not overflowing with panic. Children are not suddenly waking up gay because they saw it on the TV. Basically, despite any and all pearl-clutching, what has happened is that daytime TV has started actually reflecting its audience and telling stories about people who, previously, had been marginalized or ignored entirely.
Yay!
*As opposed to cut-aways and creative editing, like in the cases of Y&R’s Rafe/Adam, Passions‘ Vincent/Chad, etc. I also can’t remember if OLTL’s Daniel and Mark or Passions‘ Rae and Simone ever had implied kisses and YouTube is short on clips of those stories.
07.06.09
Soap Opera Weekly: Blogging With Mala
Watching ATWT at home on Friday instead of at the office, I was reminded of the tagline for Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Without my co-workers around, I was free to shriek like a horror movie ingenue at Hunter and Alison. Of course, the worst of it happened on Thursday, but still…I felt like I was watchingFlowers in the Attic, as Hunter talked about his FEELINGS FOR HIS SISTER. What in the fresh hell is going on in Oakdale that this is an acceptable storyline twist? Was the Zac/Zoe arc a litmus test for how people would take Hunter/Ali tonsil hockey? Because I gotta tell you: I do NOT need to see siblings make out.
And it sure didn’t help that in recent weeks, Marnie Schulenburg’s hair color and style (which is ever-shifting) began to subtly mirror Evan Alex Cole’s. Look at them now. They even look like they could be twins. Ick!
The Hunter reveal would have kicked ass without the incest component. I am ALL for Emily having another son (even though we never see Daniel)…but not if it’s just yet another verse of the “Everybody Loves Alison” song that’s been playing for the last couple of years. I like Ali. I do. But just like with Meg, it’s hard to convince me that she’s Miss Independent and a woman I should root for if she’s always being pursued by a man. Especially one related to her. And, yes, I am still bitter that they dropped the Chris/Ali/Aaron triangle, because that’s one object-of-affection story for Ali that actually made sense.
Friday’s episode of GL, fortunately, evoked decidedly less violent emotions. I began sniffling when Michelle and Rick watched the next generation of Bauers eat pie in the kitchen and didn’t stop wiping my eyes until the end. I was such a wreck as Rick, Phillip, Mindy, and Beth — the original Four Musketeers — speechified to everyone gathered at the very last Bauer barbecue.
And Phillip Chancellor III walking in at the last minute of Y&R? Now THAT is what good soap is supposed to be! I absolutely loved Cane’s life falling apart, and how anguished Daniel Goddard looked by the whole reveal. The real Phillip III’s appearance was just icing on the cake! Awesome Friday cliffhanger!
originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com
06.23.09
Soap Opera Weekly: Blogging With Mala
Let’s talk various soaps, shall we? Sadly, Y&R won’t be on the list as President Obama decided to host a press conference that spanned the 12:30-1:30 slot. This should probably go on record as yet another change from the Bush administration: President Bush always used to pre-empt our 10 a.m. GL viewing!
Speaking of which, today on Kamikaze GL, a naked Bill almost had his inseam measured by a blasé tailor who observed, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all.” And then Lillian disagreed, citing her nursing expertise. No, I am not even kidding. I laughed so hard that I think I sprained something. Maybe more shows should take the “live every day as if it’s your last” approach to writing? Or, you know, they could all just have dueling babies. Because my other favorite part of the show was when Reva brought Colin over to Marina’s, asking if she could watch both him and Henry (aka The Awesomest Baby on Daytime). It’s kind of ingenious, really. If one baby makes Marina and Mallet interesting, imagine what two can do? Too bad Reva returned for her kid before the episode was over.
ATWT saw the return of everyone’s favorite homophobic colonel, Win Mayer, and I couldn’t help but crack up as Daniel Hugh Kelly puffed on that cigar and played the nefarious villain to the cheesy hilt. Poor Riley, he doesn’t know what he’s in for, getting involved with Col. Homophobe. And, yes, as if there’s any doubt, I’m on Team Riley/Margo during this silly conflict with Casey. Jealousy has no place when someone is grieving the loss of their child. Casey looks like an utter git for trying to take Riley away from Margo and going off on Ali for calling him out on his pettiness. Even if Riley is up to something shady. But more on that at a later date!
Johnny continues to be my favorite GH character, and JoLivia my favorite couple. Their scenes yesterday and today were hot, hot, hot! I just have one request: Can Claudia please knock it off with the cougar talk, as well as the “ho” and “skank” designations? No.1: Olivia’s not that old. No. 2: Let she who is without sluttiness cast the first “whore!” Claudia is carrying a child that may or may not be Ric’s and she has the nerve to cast aspersions on Olivia, who hasn’t slept with anyone besides Johnny since she hit town over 6 months ago? Please! It’s ridiculous.
originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com
