AMC: Thoughts on the first online episode

Monday, April 29, 2013 is a day many soap fans have been looking forward to as All My Children and One Life to Live have aired new episodes. This entry is about the first new episode of All My Children.

This episode is just general impressions and not a full summary. We join the residents of Pine Valley about five years after we've last seen them.

Brooke (Julia Barr) has a nightmare about the shooting that happened on the last episode of ABC's All My Children. We don't see exactly what happened. Brooke and Adam (David Canary) are still together though they haven't progressed in their relationship and remarried. We also see Dixie (Cady McClain) alone with photos of Tad, though we don't know yet where he is.

Angie and Jesse (Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams) have a new home, and are still having sex. We don't see their bedroom, which kind of made me laugh. Jesse gives Angie all her favorite foods, and they talk about what happened to Maya and Lucy. Unfortunately there is a slight gaffe as obviously Maya is the one who would be working and not Lucy who was a baby when last seen. They don't know where Cassandra is though it looks like Jesse and Cassandra finally get along.

AJ (Eric Nielsen) and Miranda (Denyse Tontz) are now high school students. They are best friends and look out for one another. She calls him Ace at one point, which is a shout out to earlier story. Miranda is made fun of online due to having a lesbian mother and AJ tells her that no one does that to one of his people. (This made me laugh because of the term I've used to denote my favorites on whichever soap I've watched as "my people".) AJ also has the first real nudity on the program and swear word, as Miranda comes in on him wearing a guitar and nothing else. AJ gets frustrated when the topic goes back to five years ago when he interacts with Brooke, Adam and Miranda. He seems to like Miranda as more than a platonic friend, while she has eyes for Hunter (Daniel Colvin).

Cara (Lindsay Hartley) and Griffin (Jordi Vilasuso) are still working as doctors. Cara  has a fantasy about having sex with her former lover David (Vincent Irizarry) in the locker room at the hospital. Later in the episode, we see him getting out of prison. Why he went to jail for manslaughter isn't exactly explained except it had to do with the incident five years earlier at the party.

Pete (Robert Scott Wilson) came home to Pine Valley for his mother Opal (Jill Larson) as Cortlandt Electronics has been failing. Pete, who Opal still calls Petey, is successful and now is helping save the company. Pete goes around town and meets a new girl named Celia (Jordan Lane Price). Later we see her with another new character played by Francesca James. Pete was outside in the scenes with Celia and also when he drove into Pine Valley.

The show has a new credit sequence and at the beginning of the episode listed the writers, directors and executives. I thought it was strange how they had the characters first names listed only and not the name of the actors. When I saw they called Joe Martin, Dr. Joe I let out a giggle. The episode ended with a next time with clips and cast/crew credits. Unfortunately I wasn't able to read them quickly enough to see who is who behind the scenes.

For a first episode, there was a lot of exposition. I was left with more questions than answers. Hopefully as the week goes on, they will get on with the story, explaining the new characters and letting us know exactly what had been going on in Pine Valley.