FRANCORAMA

It's been a very James Franco week for me. 127 HOURS watched, his reappearance on GENERAL HOSPITAL and his Oscar duties all commanded my attention. He appeared stoned and/or drunk as Oscar host but can you blame him on such a blah night? My household perked up when ex DARK SHADOWS and FALCON CREST actor David Selby briefly showed up in a clip from THE SOCIAL NETWORK, but we quickly lapsed back into drunken oblivion.

R.I.P. EILEEN HERLIE

Just watched the 12/20/2008 episode of ALL MY CHILDREN that was a special tribute to Eileen Herlie, who played Myrtle.  Wonderfully touching and sad.  I defy anyone to watch the clips of Myrtle accepting Bianca after she came out without welling up with tears.

Also rearing up from the depths of my DVR was the final episode of DAYS OF OUR LIVES to feature Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn as Marlena and John.  It was well acted, but a bit rushed.  Did they have to make John Black almost completely immobile in order to get rid of him?  Such an odd end to a legendary character.

To concentrate on today's soap episodes, I am really absorbed by GENERAL HOSPITAL's tale of post-partum depression.  Every wrong move Robin makes startles me, and Patrick's reactions feel authentic.  It's a pity such an honest story stands the risk of being drowned in more mob intrigue and the shenanigans of the unlikable and uncharismatic Ethan.  On another plus side, the scenes between Nicolas, Rebecca, Lucky and Elizabeth were meaty, allowing us to play with the possibility of a Lucky/Rebecca coupling.  Hmmmmm...it could work.

I'm very happy to hear that Don Diamont is joining the cast of THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL to hopefully cut through this near-incestuous knot the show has webbed itself into.  (Quick!  Someone stop that metaphor!)  Of course Thomas tried to kill Rick!  As Thomas himself pointed out, Rick killed his (Thomas') sister and slept with his other sister and mother!!  This show needs a new character who is NOT related to anyone on the canvas!

I also watched episode 5 of DARK SHADOWS.  The mystery of Victoria Winter's parentage is brought up, but a greater mystery is why wasn't this ever resolved?  It's the frakkin' premise of the ENTIRE SHOW!!  Surely the writers in later years could have come up with a way to tie the reveal of Victoria's true family history into the supernatural?  In later years of DS, sometimes the show is just one event after another, with no indication of how the characters are affected emotionally.  Characters cease to have personal goals as they traipse through timelines until all sense of the personalities of the present day characters is lost.  I bet if DS had stayed in contemporary Collinwood, it would still be on the air today.  Character always wins out over plot in the world of daytime drama.

FRAUGHT SHADOWS

Work was very stressful today and I didn't have much time for viewing after work, only managing Episode 4 of DARK SHADOWS at around midnight.  Really, really good escapism when you're feeling a bit down.  My recent rewatching of DS also makes me think one episode a day is the best way to approach this show, which can seem annoyingly artificial when consumed en masse.

VIVA ALLEY MILLS!

How great was Alley Mills on THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL today?  It's tricky to get all dramatic when you're playing a comedic character but Alley pulled it off.  I felt so sorry for Pam!  Plus, Stephanie becomes 100% more likable when defending her sister.

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS was also very good.  I enjoyed seeing Ely Pouget as Kay's doctor.  She was one of the stars of the short-lived '90s revival of DARK SHADOWS and also appeared in LA TAKEDOWN, Michael Mann's TV movie trial run for HEAT.  Hooray for surviving the '90s!

ALL MY CHILDREN was not so hot.  Despite interesting new characters like Taylor and Brot, Chuck Pratt's take on Pine Valley has amounted to a big heap of nothing.  I don't care about Zach and Kendall nor do I find it believable that Krystal would be so taken in by David.  Don't get me started on the travesty of Bianca and Reese and how daytime's first lesbian marriage was completely undone by having Reese kiss Zach the day before the wedding! 

ONE LIFE TO LIVE continues to thrive.  The way the plots intersect is ingenious and it's nice to see a show that makes room for fun supporting characters like Moe and Noelle while strengthening new characters like Ray and Stacy.  I am starting to see some serious chemistry between Dorian and Ray that I hope they run with!

DAYS OF OUR LIVES continues to be a bit meh.  Now that Sami is back in town and I've got a chance to see her interact with the 3 men in her life, I'm going to say Lucas is the man for her.  Alison Sweeney and Bryan Datillo are doing a very good job of interacting with the SORASed Will, who is certainly better looking than the old Will but hasn't quite convinced me yet that he is Sami and Lucas' offspring.

Speaking of unconvincing offspring, I have the ghastly feeling that Ethan on GENERAL HOSPITAL will be revealed as the son of Holly and/or Robert Scorpio in a blatant attempt to curry audience affection.  I'm not liking this "lovable scoundrel" one bit; he's not attractive or charming despite everyone on screen telling us he is!  He looks like a bad carbon copy of Tom Pelphrey.  In fact, could Ethan have been the role on GH that Tom Pelphrey was rumored to be up for, as hinted in SOAP OPERA DIGEST?  It would explain Ethan's look and bad boy behavior, which would seem tailor made for Tom -- who could actually have pulled this character off.

LOVED Olivia and Natalia on GUIDING LIGHT today!  Their scenes are so full of believable awkwardness and tension.  Curious to see how much Doris' newly exposed lesbianism will impact the rest of the show -- how about some emotional scenes with her daughter Ashlee, played by the fabulous but underused Caitlin Van Zandt?

Inspired by a new book by Jeff Thompson , THE TELEVISION HORRORS OF DAN CURTIS, I watched an episode of DARK SHADOWS for the first time in many, many months.  It was the second episode of the series and the biggest giggles came from Joan Bennett traipsing around her mansion at all hours of the night, in full evening gown and pearls.  She didn't so much project class as daftness, especially with the implication that she cooks everyone's meals and does the household chores in the same outfit!

EMPLOYED BOYFRIEND!

My boyfriend Darren, formerly known as The Unemployed Boyfriend, has got a job! Say hello to the new Tech Services Coordinator at a major film studio! I am so proud of him and I am soooooo happy that we are both employed full-time in today's wretched economic climate.

To add icing on the cake AT THIS VERY MINUTE Darren is at the Shock Till You Drop film festival in San Francisco, where NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS and HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS will be shown. As well as being, uniquely, feature films spun off from a daytime soap opera, what is also interesting about these films are the HUGE chunks of footage cut out of them. Darren will be doing a presentation of the lost footage from NODS (which he rediscovered) as well as showing his personal print of HODS. So if you're reading this and live in San Francisco, get off your computer and get down to the Castro NOW!!!

I couldn't make it since I don't want to take any time off from my job, which I'm still new at. So, neither of us is unemployed and our soap watching had decreased dramatically -- you should see our DVR, chock-a-block with AS THE WORLD TURNS and NIGHT SHIFT! Is it time to change the name of this blog?!?

Naaah.

BARNABAS THE PINK UNICORN

Was naming Sage's stuffed animal Barnabas a sneaky DARK SHADOWS reference on today's AS THE WORLD TURNS? Hmmmm...perhaps. Or I could have DS on the brain after watching The Unemployed Boyfriend futzing around with his print of NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. He wound up projecting it on the wall, using a projector that I have faint knowledge of (I don't even remember how it got in our house!) It was like an art installation: Adorable Cat, Boyfriend and pink-yet-sharp print of NODS clustered around the dining room table like material in a multimedia piece. (Can you tell I work in an art museum?)

THE GH SPINOFF THAT WASN'T NIGHT SHIFT

I watched two episodes of PORT CHARLES tonight that I DVRed off of SoapNet. I revisit this show from time to time, out of nostalgia for the astonishing TAINTED LOVE arc. It might have been the best daytime drama I'd EVER seen -- vampire Caleb (brilliantly played by the sexy Michael Easton) ran amok in Port Charles, causing more havoc than Barnabas Collins did in four years of DARK SHADOWS. Unfortunately, PC's telenovela style arcs meant that Caleb was gone in 13 weeks, and I stopped watching. The supernatural (and Caleb!) later returned to the show with a vengeance, but I could never get back into it for some reason. I love watching the SoapNet reruns for a hint of how nuts the show became -- werewolves, vampires, angels and a load of familiar faces who would go onto other soaps but never anything as adventurous as this. Unlike PASSIONS, PC played the supernatural seriously, like Anne Rice characters in a Stephen King setting, but that wasn't enough to save the show from ultimately being cancelled (ending on a wild cliffhanger!) Despite being a GENERAL HOSPITAL spinoff, no characters from PC ever made their way back to their origin show except Scotty Baldwin, who I think never interacted with any of the horror elements anyway. I think NIGHT SHIFT could take a page or two from its' wilder predecessor -- after all, what better place for a vampire than a night shift at a blood -filled hospital? ( And fans of the surprisingly defunct MOONLIGHT need a new place for romantic vampire shenanigans! Come on SoapNet! Grow a brain and grab that demographic!)