The newest quadrangle on All My Children seems to be wedded couple, Jake and Amanda, Jake’s former wife Cara and Griffin, the man who Jake believes caused the breakup of Cara and Jake’s marriage. At this point, I am not sure what to think and wonder is this just the entry story for Cara and Griffin and they will eventually be going into separate directions or if this will be a long term tale with them coming between Jake and Amanda.
My biggest issue at this point is we don’t know Cara and Griffin. Having scenes online explaining who these characters were prior to coming to Pine Valley is helpful, but it is difficult when you only know two people in quadrangle. We didn’t see Jake and Cara fall in love as it happened, so why should I care. We didn’t see Cara and Griffin become involved either. Are we supposed to like Cara or resent her for what happened in her marriage to Jake? Are we supposed to be glad that Cara/Jake broke up because that allowed Jake and Amanda to happen? Are we supposed to like Griffin for his medical skills, but like David Hayward who supposedly mentored Griffin off screen to hate him for everything else he does? At least Griffin has been able to interact with people without being treated as an awful person unlike Cara.
Jake and Amanda did need a story, as they aren’t just Trevor’s parents. Jake has his job at a doctor at the hospital, while Amanda has modeling for Fusion. Even with their professions for the most part they were happily married on the backburner and eventually they needed to do something. Revisiting Jake’s past in Africa is something I did want to see, but I am surprised it took them this long to go in this direction. Will what happened over there spell the end of Jake and Amanda only the show knows.
When it comes to Cara and Griffin I’m not really sure what to think, but I need to know who they are before I can form an opinion. I’m familiar with both performers Lindsay Hartley (Theresa, Passions and Days of Our Lives Ari) and Jordi Vilasuso (Tony, Guiding Light). While I don’t have much of an opinion of Cara yet, I think I like Jordi as Griffin better than Tony Santos. The other issue I have going on is that at any time Chrishell Stause who plays Amanda could leave as she is working without a contract. While I would be happy for her if she found a high profile acting gig, this may wreck havoc with the story as a recast would cause this plot to be Jake and three new to AMC performers.
At this point, I hope that Cara and Griffin become defined as characters, and perhaps while shading is added to Jake and Amanda that their identities are not wiped in service of the story. With Cara in town, Jake has to face his past and hopefully does not destroy his marriage to Amanda and their family in the process.
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