ATWT

[Penelope]

For all my defense of soaps in another thread, it should be repeated that soaps are seriously floundering. Last week, both ATWT and Guiding Light dipped to their lowest ratings ever; I don't what the problem is over at GL, but ATWT troubles can be pinpointed to some seriously sloppy writing as of late--the Gwen/Cleo story unquestionably being the worst, and the Paul/Meg/Craig/Worldwide storyline a close second. Conversely, it's a shame these ratings were so low last week, considering a couple of last week's eps were the best in quite awhile: Carly facing off against Katie; Luke meeting Noah; Dusty coming to Allison's defense. Sigh. Maybe this will be a wake-up call to get some new writers to ditch the bad storylines and ramp up the good stuff (more Henry/Vienna, included).

1 Y&R 4.0
2 B&B 2.8
3 GH 2.6
4 AMC 2.4
5 OLTL 2.3
5 DOOL 2.3
7 ATWT 2.0
8 GL 1.8
9 PS 1.5

daily numbers for ATWT:
Monday 2.1
Tuesday 2.1
Wednesday 2.1
Thursday 2.1
Friday 1.8

[Penelope]

By the way, this week should be pretty good for the Emily/Dusty/Alison storyline: Susan discovers what her daughters have been up to lately--Emily's prostitution, Alison's meth-fueled porn career--and doesn't take it well.

[OscarGuy]

now, if only Meg would just marry Craig (heh...they rhyme), and Meg gave Lucinda World Wide back, we'd be done with this charade and everyone could move on again. I'm tiring quickly of that storyline.

More Luke. Less Craig.

[Penelope]

Yeah, Carly is always at her best when she's on a rampage; these last two episode--Friday and today--have really been great.

[flipp525]

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR POINT IS!" Wow, Carly's kinda awesome. And, you're right, Penelope, she is currently in full-out Mother Courage mode.

[flipp525]

What did we think of Noah's first day?

It was a fairly brief introduction to Noah, but I think there's definitely some possibilities for his character and his relationship with Luke. They went the typical soap route of having the future supercouple start out at odds with each other but I think it'll be interesting to see Noah realize that he's actually interested in guys (or maybe he already knows, I'm not sure). And since Luke has dealt with coming out so recently, his role in this discovery will be very personal. The writers seemed to be painting Noah as closeted and overly enthusiastic about girls (Maddie, in that scene, for example). But the Claude Rains' filmography discussion as well as his penchant for watching old movies was a fairly obvious "outing" to the audience, not that either of those things are uniquely gay identifiers.

Was I the only one kinda hoping either Noah or Maddie would shout out Mr. Skeffington when they were listing Rains films?



Edited By flipp525 on 1180914746

[OscarGuy]

They did quite well. and I swear, they're trying to target our board.

[Penelope]

What did we think of Noah's first day? Wow, he's adorable, isn't he? And it was a classic intro for a potential supercouple. Here are the relevant scenes in case you missed it.

In fact the whole episode was one of its strongest in a while--the standoff between Carly and Katie was great--Maura West was in great Joan Crawford/Barbara Stanwyck mode.

[OscarGuy]

I started watching right around that time when they had their horror in the woods stunt that paralleled the bizarro online-become-a-soap-star reality thing. I think the best storylines were the psycho killer one, the Carly/Simon storyline and the resultant Henry/Vienna line.

I've disliked most everything else.

Meanwhile, over at Y&R, they're ratcheting things up and doing all sorts of stuff I like. I really want them to make Adrian a perma cast member...and I wish they'd dump J.T. What an annoying prick.

[Penelope]

Penelope, could you give a mini recap of the Gwen/Will/Cleo storyline since the freakshow's introduction? Did she try to make herself up to look like Gwen in order to seduce Will (I'm just taking a stab at it)? Or, better yet, he's been with her before and he didn't even know it, right?

No, it's not nearly as good as either of those scenarios.

Last year, Will had a one night stand with Luke's cousin Jade, and when Gwen forgave him and took him back (despite Jade attempting to pretend that she was pregnant with Will's child), Jade developed a kind of obsession with destroying Gwen; anyhow, after the whole Adam "murder" storyline--in which Jade had helped Adam terrify Gwen and Maddie--Jade put an ad on the internet for a Gwen look-a-like, and Cleo showed up--the plan was to get Gwen out of town and have Cleo pretend to be Gwen and somehow bust up the marriage. When Cleo was revealed to be an imposter, Jade cut all ties with Cleo, who in the meantime hasn't confessed what brought her to Oakdale. Jade hasn't been seen in a few weeks--I assume Elena Goode, the actress who plays Jade, has been on vacation.

[flipp525]

Penelope, could you give a mini recap of the Gwen/Will/Cleo storyline since the freakshow's introduction? Did she try to make herself up to look like Gwen in order to seduce Will (I'm just taking a stab at it)? Or, better yet, he's been with her before and he didn't even know it, right?



Edited By flipp525 on 1180487738

[Penelope]

Gwen's lookalike is a total freakshow. I feel embarrassed for the actress, frankly. It cannot be stated enough how sexy Will is.

Isn't Cleo freaking annoying? Based on comments at the various ATWT forums, most fans can't stand her as well, so why they're keeping her around is beyond me; poor Jennifer Landon, giving all that effort for such an obnoxious character and storyline.

Right now, the only really interesting stuff on the show is the Henry/Vienna storyline and the approaching Luke/Noah story; oh, and the Emily/Dusty storyline is kind of entertaining--especially knowing that last year, when Emily was bat-shit crazy, she'd kidnapped Dusty and tied him up in an abandoned cabin.

[flipp525]

uber-bland Katie

Yeah, Will is very hot; that's Jesse Soffer, who played Bobby Brady in the two Brady Bunch movies from the 90s.

My God, you're right. "Katie" is exactly the reason I'm glad I'm not straight. Are all girls that insecure? How fucking annoying.

I started watching this show this week in preparation for Noah's first airdate on Friday which I'm completely psyched about (and that other hottie Kevin's coming back, too!). I'm liking it so far. It's quiet and family-oriented although it does seem like it's sort of in a down cycle. Y&R and Days are both very high drama right now so it's definitely a change of pace.

Gwen's lookalike is a total freakshow. I feel embarrassed for the actress, frankly. It cannot be stated enough how sexy Will is.



Edited By flipp525 on 1180486170

[OscarGuy]

They hinted at that briefly when he started working at the TV station with Maddie who was talking about some new guy starting there.

[Penelope]

Carly looks like she could be Marg Helgenberger's younger sister.

Will is kind of hot.

The only similarity I see between Maura West (Carly) and Marg Helgenberger is the hairdo; West has an affectation in her voice the occasionally annoys me, and the Carly/Jack on-and-off-and-on-and-off-and-on-and-off relationship has been going on for over a decade now; last year, they argued about whether or not to get a divorce for what seemed like 8 months--it was the show's least interesting storyline of the year. Now that she's back (West was on maternity leave), and Jack has hooked up with uber-bland Katie, I'm expecting the worst.

Yeah, Will is very hot; that's Jesse Soffer, who played Bobby Brady in the two Brady Bunch movies from the 90s.

And, don't forget, Luke's new leading man, Noah, shows up Friday, June 1!!! Yay, finally!!!