Magnificent Simplicity 3 . 10 . 00
After today's show, I'm MAJORLY believing in BBS. Michelle f'n collapses after sending Danny away and telling Ray that she wanted to give Danny a baby. Something's fishy to me. Maybe I'm smokin' the pipe, but I'm looking for bouncing bathing boppin' baby bauer santos, 'piche?
Which brings me to something that I thought of today right after the show ended. GL (with the exception of the Rassie crap) is starting to feel like a classic soap. This is a compliment. Right now, I really feel like I'm watching aspects of what makes people love soaps in the first place. Today's scenes with Lizzie and Beth had me weeping, Danny & Michelle (Danny nearly broke down when he put his head down as she left) had me quietly hysterical, the scenes between Rick & Phillip were moving, and even the stuff between Eddy & Carmen, the town schemers being their own biggest fans, gave me a smile. These scenes, and all their elements - they were WHAT SOAPS ARE, standing on the foundation of what soaps represent - tradition, compassion, love, fantasy, deceit, intrigue and pain. I don't mind it when soaps take a chance with a story or two and try to break new ground, but for heaven's sake, why try and fix what isn't broken? Generation after generation have grown up watching soaps, in some households it's as much a tradition as any Christmas or Thanksgiving event, and it makes me sad to see some soaps forget what brought the viewers to their shows decades ago, or even just to daytime TV, and what has kept them there all this time. Daytime soaps have never TRIED to be too realistic, which I think is what so many viewers love. But at the same time, we've always needed to feel connected to these people that we're supposed to care about. Otherwise, the opposite happens - we don't care, and we stop watching. Sometimes stories and ideas succeed, sometimes they fail. It's a long and hard process, filled with experiences and risks. But it's also not a process that should be altogether thrown aside for the quick fix, the summer storyline satisfaction, all in the name of giving the viewers what they THINK they've come to want. We're smarter than that. However, GL seemingly was forgetting that for so long over the late summer/early fall, it seemed like it would never end. But now, I feel like it's starting to truly honor daytime television, honor the characters, and honor the fans - as evidenced in the care they've put into telling these stories the last month or so. FINALLY. I couldn't be happier about it. To talk more in detail about what's making the Manny story work, let's take the trial and its current aftermath. In its "magnificent simplicity", it has been about a girl and a boy whose place in each other's lives, beyond their own comprehension, was written in the stars. This girl and this boy fell in love, their hearts grew, their souls found peace, and they are happier than they've ever been. Yet everyone has tried to keep them apart. When those attempts failed, they were forced to face a bigger challenge, one that neither of them could turn their backs on, one that neither of them had control over, one that would truly test them. Was it a test they could pass? Time can only tell. Over the last few months, they have been forced to fight harder than ever before for the one thing in their lives they can't bear to live without - the love that they hold for the other. For as much as I've spoken about how important the other's love is to them, I feel that the love that they feel for the other is just as important. These feelings of love have allowed them to realize that they have so much to give to another human being, to another who will accept it with an open heart. That love that they feel FOR the other is something that will never leave them, it's something that each of them take to bed at night, even when they're physically separated. It's something that has changed them both for eternity. Danny, for as positive as he wants to remain, also knows deep inside that the possibility remains that Michelle may be in prison for the rest of her life. She may not be with him physically, but the gift that she has bestowed upon him - that ability to love in a way he never thought possible - has helped him go on, helped him fight for her life, and for his. She is always with him, for that very simple reason. Without her, and their love for each other, he would not be who he is today - a man of honor. As he told her, he has faith now, he believes in things he thought were just fairy tales. Having a life to be proud of, a family to love, a hope and a dream that are realistically within his grasp. Michelle, no matter how much she's trying to take her situation in stride, knows that in asking for a divorce and letting him go, she will never lose him. For he is in her, as she said, he's "in her blood". The love that she feels for him is the only thing enabling her to believe that by forcing him to leave, she's helping him. And as long as she has the capability to love him the way that she does, she will also never be truly alone. That thought must be comforting her. In this story, some things will go right, some things will go wrong. Some people will come into this story, and others will leave. Some will leave their mark, while others will be nothing more than a forgotten spec of dust. But in all of the madness and mayhem that has engulfed this trial, for all its mishaps and uncomfortable twists or turns, this story, and all it has brought us, still solely remains about that one boy and that one girl who, above all else, are written in the stars.
Stenz were amazing today. Danny in denial, Michelle trying to be strong, but ever so slightly showing that she wanted to give in to him. The way Danny kept slamming down the phone as a way of saying that he will NOT listen to this kind of talk... and through that phone and that communication, slamming it down to show his frustration was all he could do. The way he waited before he picked it up was his way of controlling the situation. It broke my heart when she even mentioned refusing to see him. His response got caught in his throat, and dammit the camera was on her, because I'd love to have seen the look on his face. One hour a week, he would take it. *sigh* And right before she fainted, that scream. OMG. I never want to hear her scream like that again - it was like someone piercing a sword through my heart. No matter how strong she was trying to be, all she wanted in those seconds when she heard her husband screaming for her was to run to him, to take back everything she said, to look into his eyes and tell him how much she loves him. Instead, she passes out and he never knows about it.. Watching in real time is pure torture, btw. Having to sit through stupid commercials and stupid stories that you hate is like a punishment for something I didn't even do! :P I kept thinking of ways for him to be able to get to her when he finds out she had collapsed, so when the next segment only included Danny on the cell phone (nice chair kick, btw, the German judge gives Danny an 8.5) and then us watching him leave (which seemed odd, but that's ok), I freaked. I told my television (nicely, I try not to piss it off too much so that it doesn't decide to blow up or anything), "ok, Danny, you have to just FEEL that something's wrong with Michelle.. you have to go back! Wait, maybe he forgot his gloves, or his keys or something and there's a door where he can see her, or she's in the infirmary, you know, the special infirmary where visitors have access... oh anything, come on Danny!" His confrontation with Bernardo (I refuse to call him Bernie, it makes me feel like someone should be dragging his dead body somewhere along a Florida beach)... at the end was great, too. Now, this is where I will sort of contradict myself. When I talk about a classic soap, I also relish in moments when the show takes that slight chance to say, "we're better than that". In having Danny, once and for all, saying no to Bernardo's offer, not only do we get a glimpse of how strong Manny truly are, but we see a new resolve in Danny. He's more determined now than ever to do whatever it takes to get his wife out. If that means starting an all-out war within the crime families, so be it. He'll do it in a heartbeat. Many other soaps would've built the suspense, only to have Danny give in and accept the offer, bringing viewers to their screen in anticipation, but leaving viewers gasping and asking "why?". Instead, they bring them in and leave them with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes saying, "yes!". I really enjoyed seeing Danny take charge in this situation. He was running on pure emotion for so long, and now, when things are nearing a breaking point, he's buckling down and getting the job done. I applaud that, and I also applaud the writers for letting us see how scared Michelle truly was as she broke down in Rick's arms. With those simple words: "because I love him...", we are able to see into the psyche of this young woman who is being overwhelmed by a power that's larger than she can even fathom, a love that swells inside of her to the point where she both needs to be with him but pushes him away at the same time.. the easiest and hardest things she could ever do. Magnificent Simplicity.. that's not "reasonable doubt", that's Manny. Candy :)
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