A Little Bit Pregnant?……

A curse of ordinariness and mediocrity plagued basically the whole first chapter of NAKED EYES and sent me into a boredom I just couldn’t shake.  PORT CHARLES hasn’t done that to me in a very long time, even when bitching and moaning through Superstition and Torn I was never bored. Agitated, aggravated, up in arms, passionate about the direction or misdirection, but never bored.  For the past four weeks I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the drama to be shaken out of the stupor and fog it had settled into.  The “supernatural” soap had turned into anything but, it was complacent and biding its time, and now I understand why.

We were waiting for the heralded return of Michael Easton as whoever or whatever.  We were waiting for what looks like yet another recycled soap story line, another “evil twin” character, another attempt at going backwards to move forwards in an effort to improve the ratings.

Whether you’re a fan of Michael Easton or not, whether you  think he can pull this ratings miracle off or not, whether you think the twists and turns that have already begun and are sure to continue will be fresh enough to revive a once successful, but been there done that plot, I for one think we owe him a debt of gratitude for seemingly breaking that curse of mediocrity and ordinariness that had settled into the air.

I shouldn’t have to be grateful to a returning guest actor for snagging this dubious honor, it should have gone to the  amazingly talented cast whose abilities are not being properly exploited of late.  Every actor PORT CHARLES is lucky enough to have on contract can contribute more than enough excitement and drama to keep us interested but for some unfathomable reason the writers have chosen to ignore their considerable talents and look backwards.  Michael Easton’s presence  as Stephen Clay, whether I like it or not, somehow freed PORT CHARLES from the constraints of typical soap propriety and has shaken me out of my boredom.  Campiness has returned to and I am one happy little viewer again.

TPTB are having enormous fun teasing us.  Stephen Clay is having enormous fun teasing Rafe. And its all enormous fun to watch.   Whether we are getting an overflowing barrel of red herrings, every innuendo laced with inside jokes and cryptic references to Caleb, his band of cohorts and Joshua acting as his manservant James, or if that is actually what it turns out to be remains to be seen.  I am still holding out hopes for one big surprising resolution to all this but the writing does appear to be on the wall, at least at this juncture. 

All roads point to the snarling, teasing, flirting, outrageously over the top character of Caleb and to his credit, Michael Easton has slid back into this role as campy and edgy as ever, seducing the town with a brand of sexuality that excites and repulses at the same time.  A double helix of fear and desire, a mesmerizing and seductive party that made me forget everything save for the delicious lies and illusions right there in front of me.

PORT CHARLES tried to push the envelope again and frankly this kind of pushing suits it very well. The frenzied sexuality of that party seemed to upset a lot of fans but it was appropriate to the mood and feel being cast.  Vampires can’t be separated from their dark side, after all that is who they are and they force mere mortals to face their dark side too.  For all the teasing and toying going on, is there really any doubt that Stephen Clay will turn out to be our familiar vampire, perhaps not Caleb exactly as we knew him but some sort of reinvention or reincarnation thereof. Can the showdown between the Slayer and the Vampire be far behind.  

Edgy lighting and camera angles, images out of the soap norm, the action happening in close ups all serve to engage the viewer, to pull us and the characters deeper into the seduction, mystery and manipulation that party has kicked off. Even Kevin is not immune to its effects, his manipulative nature taking over this week.   You don’t get this kind of look and feel to a show too often and no show out there can create this sort of compelling blend of action and imagery better than PORT CHARLES. When they want to that is.   It’s outlandish, outrageous, in your face  and precisely why it works. 

Too bad all that mood and ambiance degenerated into a backdrop to push minor confrontations between an unsettled and unnerved Rafe and a gleeful, gloating Stephen Clay and between Alison acting as the  petulant child and her delusional mother but hey, going with the flow here, not trying to make sense or logic out of it, no need to.

I’ve come to the conclusion, one I’m sure many of you will disagree with, and I look forward to hearing about it, that this show works best when it’s completely over the top, fantasy taken to the max, one big, huge illusion that no one could possibly be so stupid to mistake for anything else.  If PORT CHARLES wants so badly to be that “supernatural” soap, and we’ve accepted that it does, we’re still watching aren’t we, then damn it be one.  You can’t be a little bit pregnant. Either do it or don’t.  Turn that  corner and commit the drama completely to fantasy, illusion and romance or go back to the tried and true formula of reality based (an oxymoron if there ever was one) soap fiction without bogging down into the  commonplace action we were subjected to these past four weeks.

As long as the show goes along in the supernatural vein its so good at, I can accept every single bit of  nonsense they want to throw at me.  I’m not trying to make sense out of it, it may even annoy me at times, yes one would think our beautiful angel turned human slash slayer would have voiced his suspicions about Stephen Clay within the first 30 seconds of meeting him, but who cares, he’ll figure it out eventually. It’s driving the story along and since it’s a story so obviously based outside the realm of anything you could possibly call reality, it’s fine. 

What I object to are half hearted attempts at reality based story lines with action that makes no sense at all and  characters who act out of character and against personality.   When the writers actually believe we should be making sense and logic out of what they may try to pass off as real life but we can only see as illogical and stupid is when there’s just no buying into any of it.

I’d rather process the fantasy.  I’d rather have that fantasy be so obvious, have it hit me smack in the face than try to cloak it or mask it with any misplaced sense of daily logic.

If you make the fantastical story believable within the context of that fantasy, it works.  It worked in Secrets, it worked in Tempted, it worked in Tainted Love and it will work in NAKED EYES. 

The fantasy has a voracious appetite.  It needs to be continually fed and nurtured so that it thrives and is healthy, not starved and abandoned and lost in a swirl of mediocre, fence sitting writing that wobbles back and forth.  You can’t be a little bit pregnant.   

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Email me  musings@soaptownusa.com