boren@randvax.UUCP (Pat Boren) (01/10/86)
> This is getting so bad that I have to scream somewhere. Please > indulge my ravings. Me too! I think of AMC as my favorite soap, but lately I can't stand it. Why? Because absolutely no one on the show is "good." I'm sick of good characters going bad, completely changing who they are, just because the old person was "boring." Nobody is ever happy, and EVERYone is deceitful and cheating. Ok, I know we're not all perfect, but we're not all bad either. Take Tom, for instance. He came on the show as a good guy, and as soon as he gets the girl, he's a jerk. Same thing for Adam and Bob, and now it's happening to Ross. Can only wonder what's in store for Jeremy or Greg. I'm also sick and tired of the "dumb broads" -- have all the women taken stupid lessons from Jenny, Donna and Devon? Why doesn't Angie tell Dr. Voight to get lost and at least let Jessie know what's up? (Which brings up another thought -- just once I'd like to see someone be honest with their partner about someone else's come-ons. Real people clear the air to nip things in the bud SOME times!) Why can't shrewd Erica see thru Alex and Natalie's schemes? Does Robin have to be as stupid as Jenny when it comes to Greg's mom? This complaint of mine goes way back, too -- Devon with Sean, Donna with Phoebe, any woman with Tad... For that matter, how could a Palmer EVER be beaten by a Cynthia? Stories I'd like to see: o I can't stand Tom, so I'd like to see him put away for Gilles' murder or hit by a bus and killed. o Erica & Jeremy as a happily married couple, ala Robert & Holly on GH. Just because a couple is together doesn't mean stories are dead. In fact, a whole new realm could open up. o Brooke dredging up who her mother really is. o Tad keeping his sense of humor (anyone notice when he stopped running around to be serious about Hillary, he really got serious and is pretty boring now?) o New characters in the baby boomer group showing contemporary problems facing them: job burnout (yuppies changing careers midstream), having "last chance" babies, things like that. o A little more humor (so do something with Brian). Thanks, I needed that! > For example, Erica has just been deceived and lured into > the Canadian wilderness by Alex [nee Adam], who hopes to > seduce her in order to spite Jeremy. The plans have gone > wrong, and there has been an accident which effectively > traps them [landslide this time, plane crash last time]. > Jeremy, of course has found out about the deception and > races off to the woods in order to play RCMP type hero. > > They have just finished playing the flashbacks of last summer's > abduction, and now they go off and come up with a plot > that is so similar that anyone watching can only > laugh at it. Do they really expect to be taken seriously? > If the writers want to play 'Perils of Pauline' with > Erica, they could at least find something new. Maybe > just have Alex have his boringly awaited heart attack > while climbing into bed with the sleeping Erica, perhaps? > > A much better device would be for Adam to announce that > he and Erica are still married during the wedding > to Jeremy. (Remember, he sent Stuart to get the divorce, > so it isn't binding). > > I guess I have been picking on the Erica subplot, but > less severe examples can be found with Palmer/Nina, > Adam/Ross, and Jessie/world among others. Is Agnes spending > too much time on her other soaps? I dont know, I dont watch them. > > There has been so much lost potential in the last year. > Jessie at the police acadamy would have been great. > Tad's turnaround to a responsible character is overdue. > He would make a good lawyer, and the show needs one > (Who's going to defend Tom?). Instead they wasted > an entire summer on this computer disc garbage. > (even 8 year olds know about backup copies) > > Sorry to ramble, but I feel better now. > > Jay Johannes *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** -- Patricia Boren decvax!randvax!boren boren@rand-unix.arpa
daniel@cad.UUCP (Daniel W. Tyack) (01/15/86)
I keep expecting her to say "auntie Em, auntie Em". Maybe someone needs to tell her to tap her ruby slippers together and think of Kansas and all will be well. At least she is better than the last one (the one with the nostrals that were so big you could drive a Mack truck through when she flared them).
kurtzman@uscvax.UUCP (Stephen Kurtzman) (01/16/86)
In article <2863@randvax.UUCP> boren@randvax.UUCP (Pat Boren) writes: > >> This is getting so bad that I have to scream somewhere. Please >> indulge my ravings. > > >Me too! Me too! >He came on the show as a good guy, and as soon as >he gets the girl, he's a jerk. It's even worse. He didn't become a jerk so much as people started saying he was a jerk and then he started acting it. AMC has not been taking the time to develop characters it used to. A really good example is Jessie's nasty temper. This temper was only displayed about a week after people started talking about it. This is a cheap device for giving a person a characteristic without taking the trouble of developing it. > >I'm also sick and tired of the "dumb broads" -- have all the women >taken stupid lessons from Jenny, Donna and Devon? Why doesn't >Angie tell Dr. Voight to get lost and at least let Jessie know >what's up? This is a sore point with me also. If Angie is an intelligent young woman burning up med school with her brilliance why is she such a dip in every other aspect? > >Stories I'd like to see: > o I can't stand Tom, so I'd like to see him put away for Gilles' > murder or hit by a bus and killed. No, Tom is one of the few people on the show with the potential of being a nice character. Poor Kate was the last one they had. > o Erica & Jeremy as a happily married couple, ala Robert & Holly > on GH. Just because a couple is together doesn't mean stories > are dead. In fact, a whole new realm could open up. They need to do it fast. Erica's inability to keep a husband/boyfriend/love is getting old. I wish they had done this with Mike. Mike was fairly intelligent and made a nice contrast to Erica. They could have shown some real growth in Erica. Instead they have changed to some Himalayan hocus pocus. (Another problem with the show -- too much supernatural garbage; first it was Kantu, now it is RL Peyton.) > o Brooke dredging up who her mother really is. Yes. And then have her grow up. > o New characters in the baby boomer group showing contemporary > problems facing them: job burnout (yuppies changing careers > midstream), having "last chance" babies, things like that. The idea sounds good. But, please, no more women desparate to have children. They have done that one to death. > o A little more humor (so do something with Brian). Only if they approach it correctly. Opal Gardner was hilarious. Recently the humor has been typified by the chase scene at the end of the call-girl floppy disk story. That was so insipid it was painful to watch. My wish list: o Billy Clyde comes back to Pine Valley to steal his daughter (Emily Ann). o Ross leaves Chandler Enterprises because of his differences with Adam and joins Cortlandt Electronics. This would give several avenues for stories: 1. Tension between Ellen and Ross as Ellen tries to get Ross and Adam to reconcile. Of course, the tension in the home makes Julie want to go back to the orphanage. All sorts of problems ensue as Julie becomes a problem child because of the unrest at home. This would give fertile ground for story lines. (In fairness to the AMC writers, some of this story line has been alluded to). 2. As Ross and Palmer come to know one another, they develop a deep personal bond. We can see how Ross overcomes the hostility at Palmer for abandoning his mother. Ross can feel guilty about abandoning Adam -- the man who was a real father to him. 3. Ross can be thrown together with Andrew at Cortlandt Electronics. The past is dredged up and has various effects on them. They never come to trust one another. 4. Ross and Palmer try to destroy Chandler Enterprises. Chandler vs Cortlandt -- the clash of the business world titans. o One week in Pine Valley, everyone thinks things through before they act. They make intelligent decisions and many heartaches are avoided. Well, maybe the last one is too much to hope for.