WHY CRYSTAL HUNT IS BETTER THAN MOLLY BURNETT

Because she can act!

Seriously, ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Stacy and DAYS OF OUR LIVES' Melanie are both bad to the bone but I enjoy watching Stacy because Crystal Hunt is one stone cold bitch.  DOOL's Melanie, on the other hand, keeps trying to play the "I'm really vulnerable and sympathetic!  Enjoy my mischief!" card that becomes extremely tiresome in the hands of Molly Burnett, who overdoes the infantile pout something fierce.  I also enjoyed seeing Vanessa booted out of Llanview.  She was such an odd, bland character whose motivations were never clear.

GUIDING LIGHT continues to be on an upswing, despite being bookended with Kane Manera scenes.   Any time there are scenes with Reva, Jeffrey, Philip, Buzz and Alan I am glued to the screen.  If there's one thing GL does well, it is grief and its consequences -- remember, GL only started to get good about 5 years ago when it appeared Philip had been killed.    Now, if this absurd Lizzie kidnapping plot comes to a conclusion and Ellen Wheeler takes a leap and makes Natalia and Olivia lovers, GL might just become my new favorite show.  Though I am starting to wonder about Ashlee.  Shouldn't we be seeing her reaction to Coop's death?  (Full disclaimer: I haven't been watching every episode, so apologies if I missed some prime Caitlin Van Zandt emoting.)  

I haven't written about AS THE WORLD TURNS in ages.  That's because our DVR is insanely backed up and we only watched the episode from 1/23/09 tonight!  It is hard to get motivated to watch this show when there isn't a Nuke storyline running.  It is even harder when a boxset of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is competing for your viewing!  Hopefully we will get caught up in time for the ATWT fan club luncheon in April. Onwards!

I LIKE IT LIKE THAT

The GOSSIP GIRL books are better than the TV series because by book 5 Chuck Bass is experimenting with being gay out of sheer boredom, and Jenny Humphrey has also been in touch with her queer side.  In the current climate of MILK love, I want to see more gay stuff on my TV, but especially in GOSSIP GIRL!  Interestingly, gay Eric and his boyfriend are original creations of the TV show.  In the books, Serena does have a brother named Eric but he is older and straight. So GOSSIP GIRL the TV show is definitely gay friendly; how about also giving more airtime to gay stories instead of blink-and-you-miss-them  marginal characters and daft stories about secret whore clubs for straight old men?

You know you love me.

GOODBYE MARY BETH EVANS AND STEPHEN NICHOLS

Watching DAYS OF OUR LIVES today was rather masochistic.   Steve and Kayla's final scenes sucked royally, giving no opportunity for the actors to provide a sense of closure to their characters, thus depriving the viewer of a happy ending to a beloved couple.  Add to that Molly Burnett's childish whine as the annoying Melanie, the pain of seeing the fabulous Chelsea getting a storyline with Max as we know Rachel Melvin is leaving and Nicole's nightmare that stretched OVER A COMMERCIAL BREAK and it's no wonder I'm switching to ONE LIFE TO LIVE!

The aftermath of the Go Red ball was quite compelling, culminating in the discovery that Marty was lying next to the corpse of someone from I WANNA BE A SOAP STAR. Actually, I've completely forgotten his name but the actor did very well in his stint, certainly better than INTURN winner Ryan in ATWT.  The use of flashbacks was handled well, too.  Hooray for a show that screams confidence while other shows like DOOL seem ashamed to hold onto their best assets.

RACHEL NOT GETTING MARRIED BUT LEAVING THE SHOW INSTEAD

With the news that Rachel Melvin is leaving DAYS OF  OUR LIVES, I now have even more reason to spend my 1-2PM hour watching ONE LIFE TO LIVE instead.  With Chelsea gone, what young girl on the show are we supposed to root for?  GOSSIP GIRL wannabe Melanie?  Good grief.

On GENERAL HOSPITAL today, I found Olivia throwing away the DVD incriminating Claudia to be very contrived.  There was no point to Olivia doing that; the only reason it happened was to prolong Claudia Zacchara's life beyond the point of common sense.  Seriously, there is no reason for any of the Zaccharas to still be alive, considering how they have wronged everyone in Port Charles who has access to a gun.  GH should cut its losses and get rid of this daft family once and for all!  Preferably in a blaze of gunfire.

On the Internet front, I have greatly enjoyed watching the 2007 reality show INTURN 2 on cbs.com.  In it, aspiring actors vie to win a 13 week contract on AS THE WORLD TURNS.  Year 2 of the show is gobsmackingly great for 97% of it's run.  Never have I seen such a group of people in a reality show that were just so much fun to watch, from evil hell bitch Natalie, to cute but dim Adam, to the genuinely talented Lauretta Vaughn.  The only bad thing about the whole show was the final segment, which is anti-climatic and a bit dull.  Plus, the person who won turned out to be terrible on ATWT and was killed off!

I finished reading the third GOSSIP GIRL novel, ALL I WANT IS EVERYTHING, and the books are proving to be just as addictive as the TV show, only with an extra layer of wit and satire that inches the books ahead of the show a smidge.  And once you read about the character of Adam on the page, you realize that the show's miscasting and rewriting of this pivotal player is one of TV GG's biggest fumbles.

But no matter how flawed GG might get, it is always 300 million times better than the main GG rip-off, the horrifying new series of 90210.  I was forcibly reminded of this as a street near my destination tonight was blocked off to turn a corner restaurant into the frakkin' Peach Pit!  90210?  More like 90036!

xoxo

THE HOURGLASS IS RUNNING OUT

With the news that DAYS OF OUR LIVES is getting rid of Patch and Kayla, I have to wonder just how long this show can continue.  I think it's time for a deathmatch between DOOL and GUIDING LIGHT.  Which will be cancelled first?  My money is on DOOL.  At least GL is trying to lure viewers with pseudo lesbians and Phillip Happens Here. (The latter is GL's bewildering new ad slogan for the return of Grant Aleksander.  Are they trying to compare him to shit?!?) All DOOL is doing is driving viewers away by firing their favorite actors!

I saw a little bit of ONE LIFE TO LIVE tonight and was happy to see Scott Clifton.  I loved the hell out of him as Dillon on GENERAL HOSPITAL, and that's not just because my boyfriend was a film major in college as well!  I'm not sure what OLTL has planned for Scott's new character of Mr. J.  I would love for him to find out Todd's involvement in his Mom's death, leading to a final, definite Death of Todd story but we all know that's not going to happen.  Yes, all soaps need a good villain, but isn't Todd past the point of redemption many times over?

xoxo I HATE MY DVR

My DVR decided not to record GOSSIP GIRL(pictured left) tonight, leaving me in a pissy mood at the end of an irksome day.  Was DAYS OF OUR LIVES entertaining enough to make me not regret missing GG? No.

Regular readers of this blog will know of my unfortunate habit of letting AS THE WORLD TURNS pile up on my DVR.  Tonight I finally watched the episode from Monday, January 19!  This must be a new low for me.  At this rate, I won't see Eric William Morris' return until 2010.  If ATWT featured Nuke more often, though, I'd be gleefully sitting down to nightly marathons instead of treating the show as a chore.