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| Otalia - Guiding Light | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 29 2009, 06:54 PM (21,274 Views) | |
| Jeanna | Jul 7 2009, 03:47 PM Post #271 |
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
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As someone who watched the whole ep as it aired yesterday, I can't improve on what Cagey said, Abzug and then your further reading based on that. I think (I hope) the actors/writers are a little bit more savvy and sly and there is some tongue in cheek and satiric subtexting going on here. It's not all heart on the sleeve sincere small-town america--I mean the very fact that soaps are always set in small generic towns (every state has a Springfield--Maryland has one not too far from CC's ancestral home <G> and she btw did the most quintessentially Marylander thing of all this July 4th weekend--she went "down the ocean," "down the shore" to Ocean City; It doesn't get more 'old line state' than that) where all of this bizarre activity ensues (incestuous intermarriage being at the top of the list for the dramatis personnae) displays great malaise, insecurity, flux, and underlines that the universe is always tending towards the entropy of utter chaos. No one is safe. It's never mom and apple pie. Tho...I say Buy Billy Lewis a Pie! for this:
I so loved that. I've been wanting someone to do that. It gave me great personal satisfaction and a release while fretting over what poor Olivia was going to be going through in each escalating emotional scene. If I'd just watched the Olivia scenes back to back I would've been hyperventilating too. Even her breathing at one point was so on the edge. It was all so relatable to totally losing it. How is the woman not having a complete nervous breakdown? Or has she? From the obvious sitting up all night to confronting Father Ray who lamely reaches out in a weak attempt at conciliation and 'comfort' (don't even... I loved the way she angrily pulled away from him) to finally collapsing to the ground in emotionally exhausted frustration outside the farmhouse, CC was awesome, but Olivia broke my heart too. That was all so painful to watch. But it was somewhat tempered (the way the intercutting between N/H's tryst and Bodybag's party in the series two cliffie was perhaps meant to, but really only distracted and frustrated) and alleved, for me, by watching the comic relief of the other scenes. Otherwise--it would have been unbearable. |
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| ekny | Jul 7 2009, 04:54 PM Post #272 |
In love with a prisoner
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Hm. Do we really have any way to tell, at this point, whether or how the framing of one set of group scenes vs another is necessarily more or less significant? We'd have to either pull them all out or line them up in a row to compare/contrast, maybe. (Which god knows I have no intention of doing.) In this case we're only comparing two scenes which isn't enough to compare; and they're about two different cultural... whatever people call those thingies, structures, institutions--community vs marriage; but it's just as easy to see those as part of the whole larger (GL) package. Misery, meet Olivia; Olivia, shake hands with Sorrow Actually, yesterday's treatment of Olivia's pain went a long way to alleviate my concerns about the BBQ. Maybe that's the wrong way to look at it cause soaps love to wallow. But everything about the treatment of those scenes worked to dignify and legitimize Olivia's grief--and by implication, what she might have lost. None of yesterday's scenes trivialize or diminish her feelings in any way. Nor did she back down an inch around Frank's typically self-involved me-too/it's-the-same garbage. She (and the script) were very clear about that. As clear as they could possibly be: it is not the same. In fact, the more I think about it, the more important the repetition of that It's not the same sounds. She's already well outside 'normal' (heterosexual) parameters. Far enough outside the structure she was familiar with that she can look at it--in the middle of all this--& make a clear statement about its difference. That's very striking. We can certainly read that as Olivia's desperate wish to reassure herself but that's not how it played, imo. She might be in flames & sinking into the ground but the woman who looks at Frank as he sits down to Handle/Take Over This Situation--she's got him in her sights. Ditto that sodding priest. In a fight, Olivia knows who's on her side. Jeanna, I too LOVED her brush-off. Everything about her body-language was just so eloquent there: keep your hands the *fuck* off me. Which, under the circumstances, was eloquent, she's radioactive with pain & he's done dick for her (ohh, I'm sooo sorry, I just forgot to tell you). She might not be in his church but his compassion has serious limits. The writing, again, was very adult, throughout. Olivia continues to do everything right. She tells Natalia that what she's doing is not fair, which is a pretty low-key statement, to say the least; she makes clear she's working hard not to totally lose her shit (even though she's totally losing her shit) or say the wrong things, anything she'll regret. She again handles Emma perfectly. She doesn't lie, she doesn't answer beyond what Emma can understand or needs to know. The only slightly weak part, for me, was the emo notepad-tossing/weeping thing; personally, I didn't need it: we were already there. The understatement of the entire episode worked horribly well, without it: CC did knockout stuff. That sandblasted look at the start is not something I'll be able to forget anytime soon. But as drama? yesterday's Olivia clips were superior. And emotionally far more resonant than anything else going on on the show, far as I can tell (with perhaps the exception of Phillip's soap!disease). Which is the other way to demonstrate their importance, & start to build a final argument in favor of this couple's legitimacy. |
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| molsongrrrl | Jul 7 2009, 05:13 PM Post #273 |
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I liked the tossing scene. I wanted to see Olivia finally some express some anger. Yeah we knew it was shimmering on the surface throughout the episode, but I liked her letting it out a bit. I could have done without the weeping at the end though! CC rocked the entire episode - it just cannot be said enough. And she has a pretty good arm! Ha! Though I felt like the purse throw may have been ad libbed by her. I was also very happy to see her brush off Father Raybrows. He's really going over the line a bit. Yeah Natalia is conflicted, but she is not conflicted about her feelings for Olivia - she never said that and yet he made it seem so to Olivia. edited because spelling matters ... |
| There's nothing wrong with you that a little Prozac and a polo mallet can't cure. | |
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| Jeanna | Jul 7 2009, 05:48 PM Post #274 |
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
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Well said. And any even remotely objective viewers would have to agree with her and not with 'Detective' Cooper. |
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| ekny | Jul 7 2009, 05:56 PM Post #275 |
In love with a prisoner
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Hey Molson--wasn't trying to dis the notebook-chucking scene. I'm sure it worked for a lot of people & did act as physical punctuation to how contained she's been all episode. Just a matter of taste.
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| molsongrrrl | Jul 7 2009, 05:58 PM Post #276 |
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Oh I know! And that's absolutely true - ymmv on that type thing. I just liked that we finally saw some anger. Olivia has been very patient with Natalia in every way. And even now she's trying very hard to hang on, but I liked seeing the little slip on that control. |
| There's nothing wrong with you that a little Prozac and a polo mallet can't cure. | |
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| abzug | Jul 7 2009, 07:31 PM Post #277 |
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In love with a prisoner
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Count me as a viewer who liked seeing Olivia in a complete rage at the end there. She's been sitting back for MONTHS now (since like February or March?), being patient and giving and loving, and this shit is NOT RIGHT. Olivia is not usually one to maintain emotional control--she expresses grief and anger pretty freely, and without Natalia's love to provide her with a sort of emotional safe haven, it makes sense that she'd be back in raw mode. |
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| Jeanna | Jul 7 2009, 07:35 PM Post #278 |
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
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Yes, that. And...CC *tweeted* at one point yesterday that she was 'off to watch the show' herself. Wonder what she thought about her performance and the cross-cutting bits. Maybe she closed her eyes during her own emoting and only watched the bar fight and the pin the Big Banana on the effigy of Bill stuff. <G>Oh...and, so far, no airing of GL today. Apparently we are burying royalty in the states. |
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| abzug | Jul 7 2009, 08:28 PM Post #279 |
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In love with a prisoner
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If I were CC I'd want to watch yesterday's episode. She must know she got amazing material and hit a grand slam with it. She was probably evaluating for Emmy submission potential. And she'd know (mostly) how it would be intercut, wouldn't she? I mean, that's in the script, and it's not like the soaps have time to do creative, restructuring-type editing, the way a film would, do they? |
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| Jeanna | Jul 7 2009, 08:32 PM Post #280 |
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I said SIT IN THAT CHAIR
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Gosh, I don't know. Do they? I've always been under the impression from what I've heard soap actors say that they only get their 'sides' and not necessarily a full script. That way they also can't give spoilers for anyone else's storylines. |
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| abzug | Jul 8 2009, 01:48 AM Post #281 |
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In love with a prisoner
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Oh, you're totally right Jeanna. I forgot how comparmentalized the storylines are. Sorry for pontificating on something I obviously knew nothing about. I hear Reva gave a master class in soap overacting today, in contrast to CC's amazing work in yesterday's ep. |
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| molsongrrrl | Jul 8 2009, 02:19 AM Post #282 |
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G2 landing
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KZ was so horrible today it was beyond belief. She needs to start taking notes from CC. Sadly, we have many many days of her shrieking and chewing scenery. Feel sorry for the trees in Peapack - she'll be eating those too. |
| There's nothing wrong with you that a little Prozac and a polo mallet can't cure. | |
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| abzug | Jul 8 2009, 02:59 AM Post #283 |
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In love with a prisoner
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I hope KZ's been saving her dough all these years, because I doubt she'll be able to get another acting job now that GL is over. Sad but true, for women of her age who can't really act. |
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| cagey | Jul 8 2009, 03:34 AM Post #284 |
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G3 Curtain and Duvet!
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Gee, step outside for a moment and you all start chatting up a storm. While I did have a two hour internet droppage at work, which everyone was sure was Michael Jackson bringing down the internet, he did not manage to interrupt the awe-inspiring splendor that is full-throated Reva. This was the first time I had to leave the room when she was on. Although you can certainly see that Shayne bred true when he finally figured out Dinah might be on the plane to - I love how his concern suddenly shifted from "Jeffrey's plane" going down to "Dinah's plane" going down. If I squint I can see where some of these threads will parallel Otalia. Obviously, Reva will be searching for the man she loves even as Olivia does the same. Baby Henry, for instance, and Marina's speech to him about what makes a family - it's not blood. Phillip/James vs. Natalia/Rafe. But what little I get about soap plotting, this is pretty standard, yes? In terms of what you were suggesting, ek, I don't know that there is parallel *framing* of scenes - that would be really tricky to do, given the circumstances of how quickly they shoot, I'd think. But the episodes usually have a theme of the day, and are scripted so one scene flows into the other. Billy punching Alan flowing into Olivia throwing the notepad, etc. against the door. Jeanna Just as an aside, I fondly think to 1000 years from now when future archeologists discover Forest Lawn, or wherever it is they plant poor MJ and dig up the 14 carat plated coffin. Why, looking at the resplendent nature of his grave goods, this man must have been of very high status, perhaps a spiritual leader who was regarded with great worship and respect. So wrong, and yet so right. |
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| ekny | Jul 8 2009, 04:21 AM Post #285 |
In love with a prisoner
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Abzug, point well-taken: I wasn't thinking cumulatively, only about the day's episode. Cumulatively it makes total sense, you're right. ![]() (I found the rehabilitation of MJ as black interesting; Lisa Marie rather less than persuasive as entirely straight, though I like what her personal trainer's done; and the shoving forward of a small child to weep publicly, possibly for legal maneuvering at a later date, distinctly perverse: as a strategic & staged move by the family, all seen gripping the mike together to bring it down to her height, it would seem to suggest they haven't learned a lot.) |
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Wonder what she thought about her performance and the cross-cutting bits. Maybe she closed her eyes during her own emoting and only watched the bar fight and the pin the Big Banana on the effigy of Bill stuff. <G>

8:46 AM Jul 11