While perusing
www.soapnet.com, I found this really rich & meaty synopsis (by Mimi Torchin) of "All My Children" in 2006. It's really good:
ALL MY CHILDREN
Honestly, I'm hard pressed to find anything good to say about this once classic and addictive soap opera. Struggling both in the ratings and to hang on to the hearts and attention of its viewers, AMC has gone terribly wrong in the last year, if not before. I'm not going to analyze the whole year and all the mistakes that have been made, but, as promised highlight what I felt was the best and the worst. Nevertheless, I can't help but make one comment on the show overall: It's boring. That is the worst sin of all in my book. Enrage me, enthrall me, simply entertain me and I'm yours; but never, never bore me. There's way too much good entertainment of many kinds available for me to bother watching something that's just ho hum. Since it's my job, I still watch All My Children. I would never in a million years have thought that would be the only reason I'm still tuning into a show that was once one of my very favorites
THE GOOD: Both of these events started off as good ideas, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Dixie's return and Babe and JR's reconciliation were two moves that I thought the show really got right. However, though Dixie's return set a lot of story in motion, I felt (as is usually the case on most of the soaps, but especially AMC) Dixie wandered around Pine Valley for far too long before she finally reunited with her family and friends, only interacting with people who weren't part of her former life. Then to have found out that her daughter Kate was also alive, and Dixie gave her up for adoption was another unbelievable wrinkle in the fabric of this story. I still don't understand why she did that, do you? She isn't yet the Dixie we all knew and many loved, but I guess her travails of the past have changed her. It's good to see Cady McClain back, though, and I hope her return will pay off eventually in a more positive way.
As for Babe and JR, Alexa Havins and Jacob Young have always had true chemistry and I think the characters belong together as neither of them is all good or all bad (though JR does lean towards the "bad" more than does Babe). The show did the right thing and took its time reuniting them so that it was a believable transition. But no sooner had that happened then she and Josh found themselves attracted to one another, crashed their plane on a not-so-deserted island and eventually made love. Now JR has his hate bag on for Babe and nothing she does or says seems to be able to change that. So much for Babe and JR. But they were good while they lasted.
Krystal and Adam, a Match Made in Hell. I also like the fact that Krystal and Adam, who got drunk and woke up the next morning to find themselves married, actually fell in love. They're good together (and the wedding was funny), and Krystal adds a touch of needed humanity and normalcy to Adam's life. But now that Krystal is pregnant with Tad's child (or is she?) I'm afraid that will spell the end of Krystal with a K and Adam with an A! Maybe David got to the paternity tests (wow, what a surprise that would be! Not.) and the baby will really be Adam's. I hope so, though Adam doesn't really deserve another child to screw up. On the other hand, as I write Krystal is having early contractions. So this interesting story complication might never come to fruition at all.
A Killer in Pine Valley.Though it's in its very early days, I'm rather intrigued by the Fusion "girls" murder mystery. I get into serial killer stories, I'm sort of embarrassed to say, and I haven't figured this one out yet…Also, I thought the tributes and affection shown for Simone were touching. Too bad the terrific Terri Ivens never really had a storyline worthy of her talent. As is often the case on soaps, she's getting more attention dead than she ever did alive.
THE BAD:
Unforgivable History Rewrite. Can you guess what wins this prize? If you can't, then you haven't been paying attention. Erica's "unabortion" is probably the biggest travesty to hit the soaps in decades (if not forever, though there was that cloning thing on Guiding Light). I can't imagine what possessed Megan McTavish to undo Erica's brave (story-wise) and ground-breaking 1973 abortion and turn it instead into a surprise, adult miracle child, but it made me want to set fire to her hair. I'm not going to go into all the details yet again (check out my column "The Cranky Zone" in the archives), but everything about it is wrong, both morally and medically. Nothing this year (or last year, or the year before) on soaps belongs in this category more and though Colin Egglesfield (Josh, Erica and Jeff Martin's grown up embryo) isn't a bad actor and is a lovely bit of eye candy, that doesn't begin to mitigate the shameful revision of truly important soap opera history that gave him his big soap break. Is nothing sacred? That's a rhetorical question.
THE UGLY:
Buried Alive. Though the nutso and megalomaniacal doctor Greg Madden probably deserved to be punished especially since he was the Erica-obsessed physician (probably 10 minutes out of medical school) who stole her fetus and raised it as his son the manner of his death was pretty ugly. He was buried alive in a coffin for many days until dirt started to seep into the box and finally smothered him. Nasty. In the process the character of Tad Martin (darling Michael Knight) was also destroyed, if not killed, because he did the deed to try and make Madden reveal who had adopted his and Dixie's daughter. Madden never told and Tad never paid for his crime. Can you think of any secret you wouldn't reveal if you were buried alive and telling it would get you dug up? Yeah, me neither.
Continue..
..Maybe they will analyze it because the store should have surveillance video of David - or whomever - putting the deadly peanut butter in the shopping cart. I think Megan McTavish's days at AMC are numbered
..The Zarf storyline is nothing short of sickening....I'm tired of JR and Babe...Ryan was pretty nice out of his short and yes, he has a nice ass. His face is not as hot as it is on the opening credits. He's still hot tho
.
](/images/smilies/bang.gif "Brick wall ](*,)")
My goodness. I agree with these choices. I loved them all. I had the vcr going everyday while I was at school, and then watched every afternoon when I got off the bus. Loved OLTL and AMC the most. Jenny, Greg, and all that. I loved every thing you chose, funny how storylines back in the day lasted for years and not minutes, like now. Where is the acting that was Billy Clyde, Donna, and Estelle? Now we have Babe, Jr, oh the horror....Soaps can survive, but they need to return to their roots. Embrace the storyline, not the bodies. Yes, hot abs are nice, but dang, where is the substance? I would rather watch Ray Gardner strapped to a bomb, and he was not pretty, than see some abercrombie wannabe "actor" "read" lines and play "actor". Dixie dead, what a waste for such a great character and actor as Cady!!!
McClain FINALLY addressed on her blog that she was off the show. And she did it in a classy way.
