OLTL: Blair Sees Red

I used to watch OLTL  and man was it great. Karen Woleck, Samantha Vernon, Katrina, Brad, that idiot Jenny, good times. When they decided that OLTL needed to be less like All My Children and more like Dallas I stopped watching. I loved Dallas, I just like to see my Texans actually in Texas.  I’ve check the show out ever so often since but it’s always left me a little cold yet respectful of the actors.

One of the few actors who could hold my interest on the show when I cruise by was Roger Howarth who made anti-hero Todd Manning easily the most compelling character on the show. Kassie DePaiva has her fans too and Blair & Todd fans are impressively loyal. Thanks to RHfan75’s channel I’ve had a chance to check out a story of theirs from 2000.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Ten seconds in it’s easy to see that this was KdP’s Emmy-bait storyline, a chance to strut her stuff playing yet another crazy Cramer. I’m probably biased because I saw Melinda Cramer Goes Crazy Round 2 circa 1979 and Jane Baden rocked it playing paranoid and delusional. Blair’s version of crazy involves her seeing red. Get it? She’s seeing red just like when someone is angry. Ok, I’ll give props for the writers trying to find a visual way to depict a mental breakdown but a red lens gets boring about about 30 seconds.

Also, what did Kassie do to her gorgeous hair? Is that another visual cue of her insanity because if it is then major respect!

A brief synopsis of the action: Blair is finally married to Max but for some reason he’s dumped her for Skye of a Thousand ABC Soaps (Robin Christopher looking fantastic, btw). This seems to have pushed Blair to the breaking point and Todd Manning, once a major villain, is reduced to stalking her. Ok, it’s not written as stalking but he’s at every random logic-free location where Blair is including a church where Blair thinks she’s going to renew her vows with Max but instead gets shoved to the ground by her hubby. Apparently Blair shoots her husband and Todd shows up, again, to help her cover up the crime.

This may be Blair’s big story but the actor I couldn’t take my eyes off was Roger Howarth. He's supposed to be in the background reacting yet he’s way more interesting. He behaves the way you’d expect a caring jerk to react if confront with weird behavior.  And although it’s a very powerful scene when Todd tells a sobbing-on-the-floor Blair she doesn’t beg and he never wants to see her do that again, I had to wonder where’s he’s been. I didn’t even watch the show but I’ve seen Blair fall on her knees begging Max, Cord, and Todd not to leave her. I guess someone at OLTL thinks groveling Blair equals entertainment. KdP gives good grovel, no doubt about that. She’s really sells the naked emotion of someone with nothing else to loose. RH does WTF looks like nobody else, for that matter.

The famous hand washing scene while intimate – almost embarrassingly intimate – didn’t strike me as sexy. Granted, the obvious mental impairment of one party and the presence of the same party's husband lying bleeding on the floor in the next room limits the potential sexiness from the git-go. When Todd hauls out the Comet to scrub Blair’s hands while she stands there like a doll RH plays it perfectly. “Yes, you’re a mess and you’ve seriously screwed up but someone’s got to take care of you.” It’s the fact that it isn’t sexy that makes it powerful. It’s more about devotion that anything else.

Final hair thoughts: I prefer RH with short hair and no beard. Final fashion thoughts: who thought dressing Blair in a Stevie Nicks ensemble was a good idea?

Don't I Have Anything Better to Do with My Time?

Of course I do but the fine art of procrastination isn't about doing nothing. It's about doing something other than what you should be doing. Blogs equal procrastination nirvana.

That doesn't anwer why I should blog about soap operas that aired years ago. That just seems like a cry for help until you try watching one of the soaps airing today. Ten minutes of General Hospital make me wonder why television isn't listed as a lethal weapon. Five minutes of All My Children makes me want to use a lethal weapon on my television. So why did this week's article in Entertainment Weekly about the death of soaps make me a little sad? Because soaps used to be great entertainment. Sometimes the stories, writing and acting were good. Sometimes they were great. Sometimes they were awful but mocking them was satisfying. Now mocking them is like mocking a drunk for their bad driving skills.

I still watch soaps but until they get good again I'm going to wallow in the past. Care to join me?