We don't watch this show, but you do! Discuss.

OLTL deserves better than being on the same network as GH & AMC, they're tanking it's ratings. I rarely use FF when watching OLTL, which is probably due to it being the red-headed step-child of ABC and it getting ignored by Brian Frons.
From the 10,000th episode onward the writing has just been so good compared to the other soaps, though I'm not sure how it compares to 80s soap.

OLTL has improved so much in the past few months. It's the only soap left of all the soaps I've ever watched (and I've watched almost all of them regularly at one point or another, although I'm an ABC girl at heart) that feels like the same show I started watching in 1990, but I couldn't have said that a year ago. Nowhere near as good as early 1990s OLTL, of course, but much better than any of the alternatives. And I rarely want to stab any of the characters to death with a pick-ax. It feels like a soap, and soapy things happen, and at this point that's all I can ask. Now, if only more people would watch the best soap currently producing new episodes (Ryan's Hope on Soapnet is the best daytime soap opera on TV).

I consider AMC and GH unwatchable. I keep up with them almost entirely through recaps, boards, and blogs, which is best for my sanity.

YES! This is exactly why OLTL is better right now. It is "just a soap", and I mean that in a good way. There are definitely characters and storylines I don't love, but when I watch it, I actually can tell I'm watching a soap opera. There's no one theme or element dominating the whole show, like everyone being miserable on AMC, or the mob foolishness on GH. Plus, the cast is actually being used as an ENSEMBLE currently (with a few exceptions) instead of 8-10 people sucking up all the screen time!

Now if they would just hurry and wrap up the Marcie baby-napping story, it would be even that much better...

A friend of mine mentioned that the length of the Marcie storyline worked in that we could believe that Marcie had sunk the point she's at right now and he's got a point. I don't know how I would have done it if I had the reins. Maybe I wouldn't have let it go on this long but, at the same time, maybe that would be a mistake.

I mean, the drag queens were kind of fun (I probably would not have put Marcie on stage to stick out like a sore thumb vamping it up in that ridiculous wig) and they were written with actual sensitivity. The Katrina victims were well into the Sledgehammer style of 'Look! We Care! And So Do The Katrina Victims!'

On the one hand it's very easy to tire of Marcie's shrieking very quickly but on the other hand the pacing of this was kind of old school. Higley took forever to do things. Todd tied to a bed for three months that they tried to convince us was actually a couple of weeks... despite Christmas, New Years and Valentine's Day all happening on screen? Remember when Todd and Blair were on the ledge of the building? They were there for over a week. That's crappy pacing.

Marcie being on the run has taken a long time and I can kind of appreciate a hostage situation taking a week because sieges are kind of meant to take time. And, really, it would appear that Marcie's hostage crisis takes a couple of hours in soap time.

I love seeing the vets have important roles on screen again. Viki in a romance? That we get to see? Hell, the whole concept of romance on the show is back again. It's not full force but the slow development of Antonio/Talia (never thought I'd be rooting for a Tonio pairing!), the slow rebuilding of Todd/Blair (my poor tortured couple, it's so nice to see them written with some care again with attention to BOTH characters as individuals), the extremely soapy pairing of Jared/Natalie. I mean, this is good stuff.

And Addie! Squeee! Plus, has RJ been on more in Carlivati's reign already than he ever was in Higley's? It seems that way. But I still want more RJ.

It's just so nice to be able to enjoy my show again. I do worry what will happen when the scab scripts start to hit. Come back, Ron!

Yeah, I'd say it's not so much the pacing of the story that has bothered me. At least things have actually happened while Marcie's been on the run, and it hasn't just been her and the baby holed up in a cabin for four months or something like that. And I do like that this story has blended into Viki's storyline in Texas. That IS classic soap stuff.

I guess I'm just ready to see it end because Marcie has been turned into a complete whack job, and it's not entertaining at all. I get that she feels desperate, but it's too much. Viki's point today that Marcie is doing all of this more for herself than for Tommy/Sam is exactly the problem. It's hard to sympathize with her anymore.

I'm still amazed by how quickly Ron C. has turned this show from the utter sucktitude that it was under Hackley into something where even characters I loathe don't bother me as much. His use of vets and other beloved characters, his nods to the show's rich history, stories of soapy romance all point to what a good head writer, who loves the show he's scripting, can do.

Why can't the honchos at ABC Daytime see this and make the necessary changes to AMC and GH? Hopefully, Ron C.'s great work will be noticed with an increase in ratings and maybe even an Emmy. Lord knows, he deserves it.

Yeah, I can absolutely understand that and I've been tired of the Marcie-onna-run story since it started I was just able to see my friend's point.

I was sympathetic to Marcie at the beginning of the trial because she really was blind-sided but I quickly lost sympathy for her when she really started throwing away everything she had said before. She was sympathetic to Todd and really hoped he would be reunited with his son... until it interfered with her life... which I get but, at the same time, irritated me because it was pretty much the same way everyone else who found out about Tommy being Todd acted. Rex and Adriana were the same way. Rex would go on and on about how Todd deserved to be with his son... oh wait, this effects people I know... man, I wouldn't want Todd Manning to raise my DOG much less an actual CHILD! All that stuff I said before? Forget it!

When she lit into Starr in the middle of class? Yeah... not cool. Marcie's never been a real favorite of mine so I really don't care whether this is destroying her or not. I don't know that it is... Ron has been writing some pretty damn good stories and I'd like to think he had a definite direction with Michael and Marcie that was not about sending them off screen forever so I'm still wanting to see where this goes now that the running is about to be over.

I think there were a lot of missteps in the story (mainly during Higley's reign) because we never really got the point when Todd decided that he wanted this child and loved it and I think that would have been really nice to see. I've sympathized with everyone at some point, Todd, Michael, Marcie and Blair (let's face it she's involved in a big way and has been from the start) and I've also been seriously annoyed with everyone involved.

Rex and Adriana, though? They can fry. I don't care what happens to them, I just want it to be humiliating and ugly. Because they suck.

I had the best time watching today's episode. Aside from the genuinely suspenseful hostage situation (I actually believed that Marcie could shoot Viki), there were just so many great touches.

Among my favorite moments:
Reporters who have nothing new to report interviewing random bystanders and reporting on the local award-winning pies (the secret is in the graham-cracker crust). Everyone in Llanview finding out about Viki's secret life in Paris, Texas. Everyone was more shocked that she's been working as a waitress in a diner than they were when they found out she was a hostage! Kathy Briar's convincing performance of a deranged woman who can't accept the reality of her situation. And Viki saying to Marcie everything I've been thinking for months.

I think this show is being dragged down to GH's level and whoever is in charge these days is Guzified. There is no mob to use as the moral compass but it appears the TIIC's is criminalizing half the canvas with the other half condoning serious crime and/or harboring & befriending criminals.

Marcie, Michael, John, Rex, Adriana, David & Gigi were all conspiritors in a serious felony and nobody could plead their case to the state or federal authorities, they would all be up on charges that carry 20 to life in prison! And the fact they are still walking around free as birds and getting support from the community is about as insulting to the intelligence as it gets. Marcie kidnapping Tommy, Rex defrauding Todd & forging a legal (death certificate) document was not a rescue mission but the show is putting that angle on it and so they are crossing the line between "right & wrong" just like GH does by glorifying the bad guys as "hero's" and the rest as either bad guys or just just plain dumb. This story totally degraded organizations like Child Protective Services, the local & state police and the FBI! And dragged down characters like Vicki, Dorian, Bo, Star, Blair, Langston and "any" character that offered any sympathy for Marcie or her McBain GANG of criminals. It reeks of the type of SHAMELESS writing of GH.

Miles attempted to murder Todd after stabbing, kidnapping & drugging him for months and even tried to convince the 15 year Cole to murder Todd and yet Todd's sister Vicki lets him live on her property? GMAFB here this is not only absurd but its INSANITY and to me Vicki is at the level of being "too dumb to live"!!

Its like complete anarchy in Lanview these days with almost "everybody" involved in some kind CRIME such as the Newbies Jarrod and Charlie defrauding the Buchanans and its at the expense of the intelligence and integrity of the entire canvas. Will Detectives Vega & Said be able to round up all these criminals or are they going to the way of "Keystone Kops" themselves? I suspect the later.

I predict this style of writing for OLTL will KILL the show because something smells Guza rotten in Lanview these days and I smell the stench of stupidity that is only going to get worse, imo. I'm only a few more "poor Marice" episodes away from DUMPING this crap myself.

Roxie

I love OLTL, and I see your point, but the whole Todd vs. Marcie things goes back a decade imo. Remember, Todd is a "reformed" rapist that's been turned into a sort of hero on this show. Todd and Blair are the OLTL equivalent of Sonny and Carly. Way back Roger Howarth (the original Todd) said that if OLTL ever tried to reform Todd, he'd quit b/c after the rape, Todd would always be a bad guy in his eyes and he didn't want any part of being a "good" rapist. I'm so confused by what the writers want to do with Todd's character. Even while Marty was back in town, while they frequently brought up the rape, I never saw any real remorse or repentance from Todd until (sorta) after Marty died. Even then, that remorse ended barely before it began. So I have to ask, are we really expected to root for Todd? I admit, I was really pulling for Todd during the Evangeline-Christian-Todd triangle. But Todd is a certified "BAD GUY." He's had no real redemption or change of character. He's the same violent, spoiled brat baby he was as a college kid. And, as far as Tommy/Sam being a realistic storyline, no judge would grant custody to someone with his rap sheet. IMHO.

Did you miss the scene years ago after the Hospital Rapist storyline where Todd was held at gun point by Powell (the "good" rapist) after Powell had gone crazy? He made Todd beg for his life and shoved a sweatband in his mouth and all that.

After that, Todd did apologize to Marty. Truly. Sincerely. Honestly.

While I appreciate that they do keep the gang rape large in Todd's history because it was a MAJOR event and should never be forgotten or whitewashed, I also get tired of the repeated repentance stories around said gang rape when you could argue that Todd's rape of Marty (with his friends) is probably the one thing he paid for, understood the damage of, and honestly apologized for.

The biggest crime he's committed since then, in my opinion, was stealing Jack from Blair and telling her he had died. He never apologized for that (just demanded that Blair forgive him immediately because she said she'd forgive him for anything) and that's the woman he loves more than anything!

Are you supposed to root for Todd? Well... Todd's one of my favorite characters so I do tend to root for him but I know he's going to do crazy fucked up things and I know he's going to hurt people. I just keep hoping he'll be smart about it.

When he does vile things he shouldn't be congratulated for them but, by the same token, when other people do vile things they shouldn't be congratulated for them simply because they did it to Todd. That makes the supposed 'good guys' far less rootable in my opinion.

Is it just me or is anyone else having a tough time warming up to the Jared Banks character? Certainly he's not the most sympathetic character as written. (However, I have a sneaking suspicion we're supposed to find him justified because 1) evil Tess got him a 2-year jail sentence, and 2) he's allegedly hot and we brain-dead viewers are supposed to forgive anything if there's some hot sex in the afternoon.**)

The trouble is I just don't find either of those reasons enough to enjoy the sense of entitlement and smug frat-boy superiority that eminate from both the actor and dialogue. How many times does he get to use a jail sentence, caused by a mentally ill woman, as a free pass? He's just way too creepy for me and I don't see any chemistry between Jared and Natalie. (Plus the "ewwww" factor of him still subtly coming on to her when she thinks he's related? How creepy is THAT?!)



**I say that cynically but shame-facedly as well because I have been known to forgive a character for being, as the SD ladies phrase it, "brutally hot." However, I hate that TPTB think so little of us that they actually feel free to write crap because they figure we'll forgive anyone with 6-pack abs.

Well, you're not the only person who hasn't warmed up to Jared, though I've seen plenty that love the hell out of him, too.

I actually do see chemistry between him and Nat and really hope that their relationship continues down the very soapy path they've started. That being said, oh man do I want him to go down ugly for the Buchanan scam.

Watching Dorian spank his ass was joyous. 'You PUNK! You're a first time NOVICE con man trying to pull off this huge scheme...' Man, when Dorian finds out that Jared is, in fact, bilking her beloved David out of his inheritance the fur will really fly then. I can't wait.

I don't like Jared in his scheme because he comes off so smug and entitled so I really can't wait until he's found out. But I do hope that it allows some good stuff between him and Nat. She should kick his ass good for trying to screw with her family... forgiveness will come later.

I like Jared. Yes, he's smug and self-righteous, but at the same time, he has moments of true vulnerability, particularly with Charlie and Natalie. Plus, I find Jessica completely annoying, so I like it when Jared annoys her right back.