You gotta know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em.  And it's time to fold the 'Sarah needs Bonnie" storyline.  Sarah, the teenaged, orphaned, half-American, half-Brazilian, lying, livin' on the streets sneaky little troublemaker needs to find a new home; in another town far far away.

Okay, I'm a pretty mild mannered person.  I always remind myself, 'this too shall pass.'  I don't get road rage when the idiot in the next lane cuts me off, I don't go apoplectic when the dog waters my carpet, and I keep my cool when everyone else piles their dirty dishes in my kitchen sink.  But when I sit down at the end of a long day on the job and turn to my soap tape, I want to be entertained, plain and simple.  Now I love ATWT, mind you, and most of the storylines that are currently playing out are well-written, well-acted, and I have an emotional investment in them.  However, my finger itches to hit the fast forward button whenever Sarah appears on the screen.

Sarah popped up in Oakdale last year as a troubled teen living at a shelter.  She met Bonnie McKechnie, who was doing community service for accidentally shooting her mother.  Bonnie had been planning to shoot T. Marshall Travers, who had raped her mother and gotten away with it.  Bonnie and Sarah bonded, and suddenly Bonnie was consumed with devoting her life to this kid.  They went shopping, they lounged at the country club, they hit Al's Diner for hamburgers and fries, they laughed, they shared, they were two peas in a pod.  Bonnie's mother Jessica was concerned that her daughter's life was becoming too entangled with this little urchin's, and tried to counsel caution in their relationship.  But Bonnie didn't seem to know the meaning of the word caution, because soon she was talking about adopting Sarah, and even lost her boyfriend over it.

But the monkey wrench in Bonnie's plans came in the form of T. Marshall Travers, her mother's rapist.  His backstory was that he had lost a daughter when she was a baby, after his lover returned to her native Brazil.  He had thought his child was dead, but Bonnie was able to finagle some DNA testing, aided by Dr. Walker Daniels (you remember him, don't you, the doctor we never see?) and of course Sarah turned out to be the long lost daughter.  Marshall was delighted, Sarah was dismayed, Jessica was relieved,  and Bonnie was crushed. 

Now at this point, I was expecting some scenes of Marshall and Sarah learning to live with each other, accept each other, and grow to love each other.  After his first pathetic attempts to provide for her,  they gradually made headway in their roles as father and daughter.  Bonnie, however, was still in the picture, and when it seemed that Marshall was going to take Sarah and leave town, Bonnie confronted him, they struggled, and Marshall went out the window and plunged to his death.  Bonnie got 6 months in prison for her part in his death, and a guilty Jessica offered to take in Sarah. 

Okay, now I was disappointed.  Yes, I figured from the moment that Marshall raped Jessica his days were numbered.  But Marshall was played by Lamman Rucker, who is, in my humble opinion of course, a talented and gorgeous actor.  His portrayal of the sexy, sly, and slick attorney was tantalizing.  Sure Marshall was a bad guy, but a bad guy with a lot of magnetism.  Whenever he appeared on my screen, I had to check the tv to make sure it wasn't overheating.  So why did the writers bring his daughter into the picture if they were just going to kill him off?  What was their reasoning for even creating Sarah, after they'd turned her father into a rapist? 

I am sure that Joanna Hartshorne, who portrays Sarah, is a lovely young lady, and I wish her well in her acting endeavors.  But I have never warmed up to her portrayal of Sarah.  I won't critique her acting ability here, but she just never won my interest or sympathy in this role.  And it's not entirely her fault; after Bonnie went to jail, the writers put Sarah with Oakdale's dullest couple, Jessica and Ben.  So at least the three characters I care about the least were now all together in one storyline; it's a lot easier to ff that way!  This attorney and the doctor just don't spark any charisma.  They have no real storyline right now other than Sarah, and as a couple they are a snore.  Again, I'm sure the actors who portray them, Tamara Tunie and Peter Parros, are also lovely people.  But their romance is kind of like dry saltines, bland and tasteless.  Whenever I do see them together, I keep thinking of how the writers missed the boat by ruining and then dumping Marshall, and instead giving us Jessica, Ben, and Sarah.

Sarah's latest escapade involved getting Jessica in trouble by framing her for smuggling letters into the prison to Bonnie.  For some dumb reason, Sarah and Bonnie are not allowed to have any sort of communication.  Sarah threw a tantrum, so Jessica lied and said she would secretly deliver Sarah's letters to Bonnie.  Sarah found out about Jessica's lies, and she hid her letters in a scrapbook that Jessica was taking to Bonnie.  Sarah knew it would get Jessica in trouble when the prison guards found the letters.  Sure enough, now Jessica might lose her visiting privileges with Bonnie and be suspended or even disbarred.  First, I thought Sarah was supposed to be smart; she won some student government election, right?  So why would she not realize that this could hurt Bonnie as well as Jessica.  Second, she thinks she will just go back out on the street if Jessica doesn't want her anymore?  Can she say juvenile detention for her part in the letter smuggling?  Third, can't she wait 6 months to talk to Bonnie?  Fourth, that was a pretty thick wad of letters, wouldn't Jessica have noticed that the scrapbook felt a little lumpier than it should have?  Fifth, does Sarah have to whine and complain about living in a nice apartment with decent, albeit boring people who are willing to help her have a better life? And sixth, why should I care about Sarah at all?  There is nothing compelling or interesting about her storyline.

Bottom line:  Sarah needs to go.  If the show had kept Marshall and made it a story of a rogue dad trying to change his ways to provide a loving home for his daughter, I would have bought it.  But Sarah living with Ben and Jess, trying to get Jessica in trouble, yammering about missing Bonnie, and rolling her eyes,  is just not the same.  It's not in the same league, it's not even in the same galaxy.  Since the writers tossed out Marshall, Sarah needs to go too.  She is an unneeded character who is taking valuable time away from other more exciting characters on the show.  If ATWT needs teens, let them bring some characters to the table who are connected to established families on the show.  They've brought back Casey, they can return Adam Hughes, Dani Andropolis, or Nikki Munson; there's got to be some other young adult, who is connected with one of the established families,  who could be brought into the picture.  What ever happened to Jeff and Carol Anne (Annie) Stewart Ward's quadruplets, Maria, Lowell, Nancy, and Gregory?  We could reverse the  Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome and even bring them on!  Okay, maybe not the quads, but I just feel like screaming that anyone would be infinitely more interesting than sulking scheming Sarah.  It's time to fold this story, send this girl away, and deal a new game with a new story.

Til then,

I'm in an Oakdale State of Mind!

  CAROL


 

Photos courtesy of CBS Daytime