Critical Condition

Code Blue, Code Blue - PORT CHARLES is on the critical list, creatively and fiscally and if something isn’t done fast the patient won’t survive long enough for a cure. Everyone loves to bitch and moan and dissect but when push comes to shove no one wants to lose this show.

 

I don’t listen to internet rumors. At least I try not to. Aside from gossip columnists, like our own very well informed Soapboy, who predicate their information with warnings, admonitions and disclaimers that what you’re reading, while based in some fact, is gossip or rumors, the internet rumor mill is usually the biggest game of broken telephone anyone has ever played. Some crumb of truth is leaked out by an illusive “insider” and it takes on a life of its own, eventually swirling into one big fantastical story, debated and speculated on until it’s beaten to death, until there’s no shred left of the original point and no one is any closer to the truth than they were at the beginning.

 The hottest and sadly most likely closest to the truth rumor blazing away on every message board and web site at this very moment is that PORT CHARLES’ cancellation is imminent.  Though no one knows anything of course, no official word has been issued one way or the other yet, it’s fairly obvious that with a July 1 fiscal year coming up, financial and budgetary issues demanding resolution by the end of the month, if the struggling show is to get the axe it will probably be sooner rather than later.

PORT CHARLES is in critical condition, figuratively from a creative standpoint and literally from a business one and if something isn’t done fast the patient won’t survive long enough for a cure. If it were simply a matter of every loyal fan giving blood this show would last on into the next millennium. But judging from the general hysteria out there right now, no amount of dour predictions, low ratings or stupid storylines can dampen the love we have for this little fantasy and its remarkable cast of talented actors. Everyone loves to bitch and moan and dissect but when push comes to shove no one wants to lose this show. The reality is that if the decision is made based solely on the bottom line and its current standings we don’t have a vampire’s chance in heaven of changing things. 

Plagued by poor marketing and sales decisions, PORT CHARLES has always been treated by ABC as its weak step-child, not offering affiliates enough financial incentives to carry it, not packaging it properly so that affiliates have no choice but to carry it, and not demanding affiliates who do carry it air it in decent time slots. Without solid support and mass distribution, attracting and keeping sponsors must have become enormously difficult in an increasingly competitive environment that depends on advertising to fund the coffers. From a purely business standpoint this lack of support over the years practically guaranteed a ratings failure - not enough households have the opportunity to view it. To make matters worse, those households who do wish to view it have to put up with musical time slots as affiliates constantly play footsie with permanent airings. Those of us lucky enough to live in a major market don’t have to put up with such nonsense, but the viewership that could elevate the ratings to acceptable levels comes from the rest of the country too, situated in between the two sacred coasts. 

In an effort to please and attract sponsors, please the corporate machine driving them, please the money people, attract demographics that just didn’t exist, did ABC lose site of the very people who make all the rest count – the fans who faithfully invest their time every day? You bet they did.

Compounded by a shooting schedule that forces the writers to take their chances on ideas without the safety net of correcting or changing something that doesn’t work, that isn’t playing right, that the actors can’t commit to, the viewers are the ones left out in the cold as we watch this mixed bag of what worked and what didn’t. Sometimes you get the feeling that the writers wouldn’t know what works with an audience if it hit them in the face. Sometimes it feels like they bring in new writers for each arc because they certainly have no clue of what happened, or was successful, in the past – or they know and don’t care.  In their efforts to keep PORT CHARLES unique and different ALL THE TIME, they’ve gone so far astray from what the audience actually wants.

In a few short story arcs the collective “they” have managed to alienate every single fan base that exists. PORT CHARLES found itself in a deconstruction zone that no amount of hazard warning signs could help fans navigate through.  By constantly deconstructing history and characterizations, by constantly undoing couples, using the deconstruction itself as conflict instead of life situations they ruined the very romance this show was so good at, and that most soap fans crave. Complicated plots and sensational devices are fine if the payoff in the end is great romantic tension. We’ll gladly sit through the struggle if the result is happiness. Love can’t always be implied, hinted at, alluded to or manipulated – teasing us mercifully into accepting the great loves exist without any concrete, lasting visuals is not going to keep loyalties up for long. 

Great love stories like Rafe and Alison or Lucy and Kevin or Lucy and Ian or even Caleb and Livvie were never given a chance to thrive in their world for fear the romance would get too “happy”.  Obstacles were thrown, and continue to be thrown in their paths before anyone even has a chance to get bored with the happily ever after. Whatever particular romantic fan base you’re partial to - Rafe and Alison, Lucy and Kevin, Lucy and Ian, Karen and Frank, Caleb and Livvie, Jack and Livvie - the fact that those obstacles became increasingly inane and insulting – think Rafe and Alison as siblings, Joshua’s obsession with Alison, the two Livvies, Livvies constant insecurities, Kevin as a drug-induced and drugged psychopath, Ian as the tortured vampire and a dying slayer Lucy – makes these scenarios even harder to digest and become emotionally invested in. 

Fast moving plot twists with no resolution, repetitive plot devices or plot points that are brought up and dropped before being explored haven’t helped matters either.  I keep feeling like I’ve missed the point all throughout DESIRE, as if I’ve missed those episodes (I haven’t) which would explain things and offer a light bulb moment, a desperately needed aha.  I need to feel like I haven’t missed lunch even though I just consumed it an hour before.  But I suspect, in typical PC fashion, the last 9 days of the arc will no doubt be jam packed as they try to wrap up whatever it was DESIRE was supposed to be about, aside from propagating the town with vampires and another excuse to keep Rafe and Alison apart.

As for the characters themselves, our very perceptive Coggie commented to me that “they’ve stripped these people of their humanity”.  I think in a nutshell, for the most part therein lies PORT CHARLES’ fatal flaw.  Character integrity has pretty much gone the way of everything else – to the vamps.  Livvie’s impressive cleavage and constant erotic needs has basically become the character.  Cut to the complete opposite end of that spectrum, asexual Alison’s whining has finally become her downfall, caught in Joshua’s sick clutches. Rafe has gone from being Alison’s sidekick to being Caleb’s, his strength and smarts and utter humanity basically destroyed to showcase Caleb, advance plot (?) and paint Caleb as the saviour of Port Charles instead of, or with Rafe. Either he has slayer powers or he doesn’t, make up your mind. At one time there was more to the character than simply chasing around after Alison. Lucy’s passion and zest are gone, she’s reduced to pining over a vampire and spending every episode impressing us with her endless supply of tears.  Her life appears to be ending but except for a little tug at those heart strings at her sorrow at leaving her daughters - she’s been at death’s door so many times before who cares. Her character has lost its purpose anyways.  Ian is still the tortured vampire but that routine has gotten very old.  Either cross over or turn human again but do something. Kevin has been reduced to the sum of his drug addiction. The interesting dilemma of fusing the two sides of his personality – the Ryan and Kevin side, which was fascinating and fresh, gone out the window.  For a minute there we had a glimmer of the power the character Jamal once was, a fleeting minute at best. No one was fooled by his obvious subterfuge, no one was fooled by Rafe and Alison’s obvious subterfuge for that matter either. And for what, just to have Alison continue to torture us and Rafe with her hypnotic state.  Joshua is single mindedly evil. That’s it.  He has villain stamped on his forehead.  No subtlety left. Caleb at least knows what he wants, he wants the power and he wants the girl and he doesn’t care who or what he has to climb over to get it. At least this is in character and makes sense.  The rest; Casey seems genuinely worried about everyone and everything but is basically useless. Or we’re headed for a SECRETS stunt to find out her real reason on earth was to say, save Lucy?  Ricky is, well Ricky. Nothing to say about him except that he’s utterly self-absorbed and seems to be sticking around for the sole reason of giving Casey her raison d’etre for now. Jack is of no consequence entirely anymore and Frank has once again been taken over by the need to serve an evil force.  Karen’s impending death sadly won’t make much difference if PORT CHARLES continues along the path DESIRE has set; she was of no consequence either the last several story arcs.  Chris, Chris who? Veteran characters like Victor, Mary and Gail who lent credence and a sense of family are gone. 

The characters have no fun, there is no brevity in their lives anymore, how can there be when all they’re faced with is evil and darkness all the time.  A little lighthearted humor, romantic tussles tinged with comedy, gloomy situations made more bearable by comic interludes – any honest human emotion or reactions to relieve the constant angst and pressures brought upon these characters would go a long way in reminding us of what PORT CHARLES is.  

Harsh words, harsh sentiments. It pains me to put it out there. It pains me to watch amazing, committed actors run through ridiculous, repetitious set ups, reciting stupid dialogue while working their butts off trying to stay in the moment and with the action, shooting multiple shows a day to satisfy fiscal necessities.  It pains me to find myself reducing the complex, powerful, entertaining drama PORT CHARLES has always aspired to in such simplistic terms.

Sacrificing romance for clever tricks; sacrificing good drama based on classic soap themes of conflict that comes from emotional truth, humor, intrigue, mystery, family and love for supernatural plot devices that while exciting and interesting as they happen simply can’t hold up on their own; sacrificing honest and developed characterizations for the novelty of evil personas; sacrificing compelling, human interest story lines for ones where everyone’s only concern is vampires has not proved to be in the show’s best interests or satisfying to any viewer for any length of time. Once the novelty of it all wore off we’re left wanting something more dimensional to round it out, something more deserving of the show’s history and the actors’ talents, and that something certainly hasn’t materialized to date in DESIRE.     

PORT CHARLES bit itself in the ass by not grounding its creative, unusual, mesmerizing supernatural themes in reality based life situations that we could connect with in a lasting way. It was done successfully in SECRETS and NAKED EYES.  SURRENDER had its moments, no one can deny the excellence of the first few episodes or the last few for that matter.  Sitting through DESIRE’s darkness and lack of soul has been a laborious and painful process, yet amazingly we still hang on, gluttons for punishment I suppose, a testament to the love and support the show enjoys in its very aggravated fans hearts.  Sinking ratings may tell a different story, or it may just be relative to the state of daytime in general.  Who knows. 

I still have my blinders on, though you probably couldn’t tell from my little tirade, stubbornly viewing DESIRE as a bridge from the one sided vampire world to the two sided humanity is saved and will coexist with said vampire world of the next arc – and a possible cure for what ails the show as a whole. I just hope we get to see it. 

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Email me musings@soaptownusa.com

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