OLTL: Thoughts on the 2013 Season

When One Life to Live's 2013 ended in August, I had planned to do a post on my highs and lows. Below is what I came up with, if you agree great, if you don't well don't say I didn't warn you.

This will be broken up by story and then just some general concerns that I had.

Shelter

The newest place in town to hang out was Shelter. It was an all-purpose location, where you could have a meal, buy drugs, dance or hold a gala. The set seemed big, and at times I wished they had more places people could go as it was strange seeing Blair and Tea hang out in Blair's club where the 21 year olds would go to party. It was even odder, when Viki and Dorian had a gala there. Rama worked at the club along with Cutter, and new characters like Nikki, Diego, Bruce (who was also a cop) and Dusky disappeared quickly. Part of the frustration some seemed to have with the location was since it was a club, we'd see dancing without dialogue.

Matt/Destiny/Dani/Jeffrey/Michelle

In the about 21-set, the only returning performer was Kelley Missal as Dani, so she was the familiar one in the story. While Matt and Destiny were returning characters, we were dealing with new actors. Jeffrey was integrated by having him involved with the younger set along with working at the Banner for Viki. Dani hooked up with Arturo, a much older man, who had been involved with another girl named Briana who was murdered. Since they never said, and last we saw Dani wasn't sexually active, I wonder if Arturo was her first. Matt got involved with Michelle, an internet girlfriend, who seemed to have issues though it was never discovered. If the story continued, I could have seen the quadrangle become even a larger story.

Resolving the Manning/Lord Cliffhanger

At the end of ABC's OLTL, Todd was arrested for killing Victor, but we were shown Victor didn't die. So Victor came back to Llanview and everyone discovered he was alive. Of course, that meant that Todd didn't murder his brother, even if he wished him dead. Tea and Victor mourned their dead baby and had hot sex. He disappeared again. Todd and Blair had hot sex, got remarried and he left in the attempt to keep his family safe. Both men were there when Dani ODed. They also got to see their other kids Jack and Sam. Sam was adorable as always, while Jack inadvertently got hot for teacher. Jack and his teacher Kate had sex in the classroom.

The Buchanan/Lord Life

Viki got a ring from Clint, and things went downhill from there. By the end of the series, their engagement was off, though it looked like his behavior was due to drugs. The drugs were courtesy of Jeffrey and his mentor Carl, who were also responsible for Todd and Victor's tattoo issues. Viki lost most of her money in a ponzi scheme, due to Dorian, and Clint tried to help her. Clint's interference also hurt Natalie as he kept John away from his daughter. When Clint lost man of the year honors to Bo, their relationship went from bad to worse. Clint got himself under a psych hold and was attacked by Allison Perkins. Dorian and David's marriage started to fall apart as he kissed Rama, which would be now part of David's new reality show. Bo and Nora had no story most of the time unless you count her being an online radio show host a story. Natalie and Cutter being involved also seemed a bit tacked on, but that could have been due to how they couldn't go into details about her relationship with John.

General Thoughts

One of the issues I mentioned in the All My Children post was pacing. With One Life to Live, once the show went on the abbreviated schedule it dragged. That can be blamed on how it was written to be shown four times a week instead of two. Also since it was supposed to be a lot more than 40 episodes, at times I felt like the character arcs were slightly off kilter. I also wonder since the actors received more scripts than they performed if that didn't influence their choices.

A lot of people had major issues with OLTL and felt that All My Children overall was better. I think OLTL had its great points, but was hurt as it felt like it was written to be an introduction to a much longer story. OLTL's cliffhanger was stronger though, but sadly if the show never returns I'll feel frustrated as more doors were opened than closed. Many of the characters were happy at the end of ABC's OLTL and well now they are miserable. A part of me prefers to imagine them doing well instead of being caught up in angst.