Thursday, February 16, 2012

Love in the Afternoon: Strange and Wondrous Joy

Okay, so at some point, I am going to discuss the state of soapdom as a whole. I have simply tons to say about ABC Daytime, the cancellations, the possible cancellation, the returns and (sobs) the leavings. BUT, before that, I need to start on this. I am 100% reinvested in General Hospital, which, again, I'm going to get into later, but for now--and this could fail at any moment because I am sporadic if nothing else--I am going to try to give a daily recap-type entry on what went down. However, my dear friend, Anne Marie, is allergic to commercials or something, so so she always watches a day behind. So just to be safe I'm going TWO days behind. I had thought about starting when I started watching on a daily basis again, which was the Monday after OLTL ended. But it was just...awful. The worst I've ever seen the damn show in 30+ years of watching. I mean excruciating, y'all. Even at the worst it had ever been, I had been able to watch while spewing hatred and vitriol. But this shit was just boring. And for a soap there's nothing worse. Hence starting this business with two days ago. Valentine's Day. Which, considering that this is, in fact, A SOAP OPERA, should be a big deal. But let's be real...for the last decade or so, "big deal" on this mess of a show means a mob shootout or maybe some kind of an inferno. Which is just offensive. I mean IT IS VALENTINE'S DAY!!! And considering that my very favorite thing that ever happened on GH--and I mean EVER-- happened on Valentine's Day. Twenty-one years ago to be exact. It involved Anna and Robert, which means that it was always a win for me whatever happened. And what happened was that their relationship, eternally at a low simmer, was ratcheted up to a rolling boil. Specifically, Anna used her stockings to tie Robert to a column in his penthouse, then she dumped ice water on him and left him, her revenge for him calling her a 'frump'. It was hilarious. It was unexpected. And most importantly, it was dead sexy. Which brings me to Tuesday. The last time I watched the show with interest was the day that Sonny and Brenda got married. The last time I watched it with JOY was the day Robin and Patrick got married. So, despite the fact that everything that's happening is the lead up to (and this subject is probably gonna get its own EPIC post) Kimberly McCullough's--and her character, Robin's--exit from the show and the role she has played SINCE SHE WAS SEVEN, I must admit to feeling complete and utter giddiness on Tuesday. Because Anna, my beloved and adored favorite character ever, is back. Y'all, I love her so much. I love her so much that even the fact that a portion of the show involved Jason and Sam and his stupid, broken brain didn't make me have complete and utter rage. Granted I only paid attention to it because it is kinda dovetailed into the Robin story, but usually I want to throw things when Jason and Sam are onscreen. And in other parts of the show, Dante and Lulu, who I don't dislike at all, but in whom I'm not really invested, were super cute. But at the Scorpio-Drake house, things were so unbelievably cute that I almost can't process it. Patrick and Emma make a trail of Hershey's Kisses to the front door. And can I just say Emma is the second cutest kid ever? And she's only second because her mother was THE cutest kid ever. I mean for goodness' sake...Emma pronounced it "ValentiMe's". So. Damn. Adorable. And of course, on the other side of the door is Anna. And the pure, and seemingly REAL, happiness that the two actresses show when they see each other...just suffice it to say, I was crying five minutes into the show. And then there was Anna and Emma. I guess it should come as no surprise that the mother who was most adorably real with her onscreen child would be equally adorable with her onscreen grandchild. And, SHOCKER, despite the fact that it has seemed for these many years that the morons in charge at ABC Daytime think that all the viewers want is young characters doing young things, my favorite character interacting with her granddaughter was sublime. So, in short, despite the fact that other things that may have sucked a little happened on Tuesday, the approximately none minutes that Anna was onscreen more than made up for it. And, yeah...I cried. More than once. Sue me. I know that there's no way this ends happily. It just...can't. But oh, but it was lovely while it was happening.