Liveblogging "As the World Turns": The Rainbow Reconnection

this should be an interesting liveblog. :-P

 

I've been looking forward to this live blog all week. And yes, it seems like it's been a year.

 

..."Doesn't everyone want to be a disco queen?"

.... seem like it's been forever since the guys were last on.  Damn it, they've got me hooked.

Still not getting WHY Noah is going on a date with this guy.....

god, i love cyndi. how did she know luke was italian? "i sore it in your eyes".

is cyndi really psychic? or was that just some dumb line?

And that's not a compliment.  When they put out a casting call for "gay players" did they specify that they could have any rhythm?  Watching this is like see 20 of me on the "dancefloor" so small Cyndi didn't need a microphone or amplifiers for...

Van looks so good today not even his hair is bugging me.  And whoever thought of putting Jake in red deserves their special place in heaven......

...kept pushing Tony aside to get at Noah! Hilarious!

Nancy Reagan got little red headed Robbie to admit he's a 4th grade crackhead on "DIFF'RENT STROKES"!

..and the frantic gayboy energy is PALPABLE! Admit it guys.. Bette Davis is playing pocket pool in her grave!

Gaytime TV has hit the mainstream, and Cyndi is leading the Pride Parade.

 "May you live in interesting times."  -- ancient Chinese curse

out on the plains... are at their first "rave"...please pray for them while they're thinking... "they're here... and I'm here... so this must really be happening... that kid's so darling... looks a lot like little Jake"...

"May you live in interesting times."  -- ancient Chinese curse

I'm having a little Pride Fest in my cubicle -- at least in my mind. I'm sure when I get home and watch this on TiVo, Gay Yo's will pale in comparision to the rainbow-hued visions I'm having from this great liveblog... Thanks from all us office-bound folks this afternoon!

.... Luke should NOT have taken Noah back so quickly.  He is much too forgiving.  And WHY would Noah get back together with Luke if he's leaving the next day?

Has he never seen Waterloo Bridge? Doesn't he know that he waits until a post-coital embrace to drop the bomb that he's headed to the front?

Now they're not going to be able to be together because of...don't ask, don't tell.

Soap in your eyes?

 

"May you live in interesting times."  -- ancient Chinese curse

I just caught the last 15 minutes and Im affraid in gonna have to watch the video update with a bad taste in my mouth after only seeing Noah diss Luke AGAIN.

I guess the fairy dust isnt working today.

Well at least there was a kiss. Thats good.

And What? Sofie is dead? One cannot stop watching for a week of two without killing someone? 

Oh, big drama on CBS daytime.

Great liveblog.

 

Noah is cut out for the Army.  He can't even take a punch!

I totally agree that the Gay Pride aspect of the show was terrific, great to see it front-and-center on the show, and Cyndi was fantastic.

But Luke and Noah? Noah is such a wishy-washy character, and I am so over how callous he is in his treatment of Luke--I want you, I don't want you, I want you, but I can't be with you. Please. Luke, honestly, go after Reg, he seems to have his head on his shoulders and he won't pull out some irrational reason not to have sex.

With the exception of the writer's next lame plot device to keep Noah and Luke from exercising their noodles....and don't mean Ramen.....it seems like a good episode with a good message.  

After I watch I may take this back...but for now.

As always, Brian, thank you for your entertaining blogging...it always makes my day.

740p EDT - I finally watched the clips of today's episode and I changed my mind about today's episode.....Noah needs some heavy duty therapy and fast.  Poor Luke...he looked so exhausted at the end....I know Noah's not going to go into the army and that the boys will be totally back together soon...at least that's what the spoilers and what the actors have said, but enough already with the lame plot devices....today should have been a celebration of love and a reconciliation....from the scene outside of Yo's between Luke and Noah you get the idea that Noah loves Luke, is hot for him and even says that Luke was right....then 180 degrees later...."I've enlisted"...so love ya, but bye for now....ACCCHHHH!!!!   

 

It was a great first for a daytime Pride (on a budget), and I'd have to love anything Cyndi did (except the current album, just awful - I prefer The Body Acoustic).  I'm impresed with the screentime, and the effort, the risk, etc.  Storyline, not so much. 

I keep finding myself wishing they'd give the boys' storyline to whoever writes Henry's lines - they're obviously different people, Henry gets the best lines (assuming he's not just ad-libbing, it feels like it), and from the tone, I'd swear it's a gay man on his 3rd martini writing for Henry.  Luke deserves that kind of wit.

Kudos to the show for the production.  Now let's ship Noah off to Iraq.

I can honestly say that at least now Noah will get PLENTY of chances to get laid.

I've followed this storyline from the beginning and have become more and more frustrated.  Today, I was hopeful that we would actually have a somewhat happy  reuniting of the boys. But NO!! The writers, in their "infinite wisdom" screwed up again.  Perhaps we haven't gotten past the point of having only sad gay folks on tv.  I'm finished with Luke and Noah!!  I'll stick to Hollyoaks and Forbidden Love from now on ... at least their writers can actually write.

the show could've had luke and noah hook up for the night and then the next day, noah could break the news. that was *SOME* way to end the episode...

cyndi lauper.....pride......army.

it's like those tests. which word does not belong?

 

just came back to look at the comments, and there are more red stars than at...um...a Russian film festival?

I'll let others (on other sites) gush about how romantic Noah was today, but I think what he did was more of the crappy, cold-hearted stuff he's pulled for months now.  Let's look at his behavior:

A.  Showed up with a date at a place where he knew Luke most likely would be.

B.  Told Luke he loved him, that they belonged together and that he's always known that, but was barely able to mumble an "I'm sorry" for his piss-poor behavior.

C.  Got back together with Luke, only turn immediately turn him down for sex AND tell him he was joining the Army, which means that their reunion lasted for all of 2 minutes because they'd never see each other again.

So Noah got Luke's hopes up AGAIN only to dash them and walk away.  And romantic?  That is cruel and it's mean.  Why not just take your issues, leave Luke thinking you are are broken up and GO AWAY!?  Argh!

Wow, I'm not sure whether to be excited or confused by this.

Henry has really butched it up in the last few months, but ever since he started hanging out at Metro, he's back to the double-entendre and "Boys in the Band" delivery.  Now we have him in the Revolutionary War equivalent of a Speedo talking about how his wood will come back soon (fortunately they spared us any Delaware River/Little Man in the Boat comments).

Trent Dawson has a great personality and can do the bitchy queen like no one else currently on daytime.  Is it too much to ask for him to find a long-lost twin so we can have both the fun Henry/Vienna energy and the Oscar Wilde meets Quentin Crisp version?

...That line caused a loud guffaw from my office that has my coworkers sending very concerned glances my way.

...you pretty much nailed it today. How cool you were actually THERE on the day. I crack up at Cyndi's accent. It's such a cliche. She looks great.

Nothing these writers do for the boys makes any sense. AS IF Noah would turn Luke down for sex immediately after getting back together with him. I mean, he's not enlisting to be a chaplain in the army for pete's sake. How utterly ridiculous. In real life even if he had to leave for the recruitment office in an hour, there would have been a quickie in there somewhere. Henry and Vienna on a dirty diner floor (ugh), not once but twice? (he hears his doodle is a dandy???) And Noah has no time to hop in the sack with Luke because he's leaving the NEXT day? oy.

Yes, we know that Noah is not leaving but that is entirely not the point. The writers aren't writing for the publicity leaks that happen in the future. There is NO WAY they are ever going to live up to the payoff that they owe the viewers with this "love" story. The only way they could would be to pull a "Passions" and keep them in bed together for a week. (that would certainly kill off all the old viewers- I mean literally, they'd have apoplexy!) Ha.

 

 

 

 

I say we take the warning labels off everything and let nature take it's course.

After Cyndi sings (delightfully) and our boys reuinite and pledge true love -- Noah says he's joined the army.

 

I'll bet in the first submitted script he was kidnapped by space aliens. It would make just as much sense. Anything to keep them from doin' it!

I've lost count of how many sharks this show has jumped.

(okay, technically everyone keeps their heart in a chest). 

First off, Cyndi was spectacular.

Second off, Luke apparently keeps his heart in a small locked treasure chest, which he has given to Noah who uses it to control Luke's low self-esteem ass. Tony confirmed that Reg is looking for something long term, so flee Luke flee! Steal back the chest and go find your true love, Reg! Rukeg is the way, not Nuke!

Meanwhile Noah can send Luke platonic postcards from the battlefront while he avenges all the gay people mass-murdered in Iraq over the past several years under the "democratic" regime the U.S. government installed and continues funding (U.S. tax dollars from U.S.  taxpayers buy the guns and ammo used to mass-murder gay people. What are we celebrating on the 4th of July?!).

 

People have sex on soaps only so writers can fall back on storylines involving pregnancy.

 

I love Cyndi, and that's why I found this episode particularly hard to watch.  Her speaking scenes with Luke were totally cringeworthy. 

This couple's storyline has jumped the shark.  There's a difference between high drama and just plain stupid.  This is just plain stupid.  I'm over it; I'm taking ATWT off my DVR record list.  It's all about VL.  Peace! 

Where's the drama?

Ok, first off, much love to Cyndi! And I almost fell in love with Noah again for his terrible dancing. Almost. And Luke's hair looked good! At least compared to how it's been looking lately.

But where's the really good drama in this pairing? It's so... wimpy and uncommitted. They never let this couple build up to any heights that they can crash down from. The Reg and Tony subplots were so half hearted. Compare this to the love triangle messes that Katie, Brad, and Janet are in. Or Lily, Holden, and Carly. Or Meg, Paul, and Sofie. I mean those are all pretty terrible too in their own ways, but at least they're actually getting the full story treatment. Luke gets a coffee with Reg, Noah gets to stand awkwardly next to Tony for a few moments, the end. The real complications are never explored.

And now, two minutes after getting back together with Luke, Noah is off to join the army? No, they should have milked this for a lot longer, after several weeks of finally and repeatedly doing something with each other's doodles, Luke finds out that Noah's been hiding his enlistment all this time. They need to invest much, much more in this storyline, or else change it entirely.

smithers, you hit the nail on the head.

I'm tired of guessing and second guessing and triple guessing the political/moral/ethical/representational intent of this half-baked daytime drama. Yes, representations shape opinions. So yes, a gay couple being represented on daytime shapes opinions.

BUT ULTIMATELY, we must acknowledge that soaps are for and about women. Specifically mothers. Mothers were/are/will be the major characters in soaps, and mothers were/are/will be the largest audience segments for soaps. 

Since Luke and/or Noah can't get knocked up, have a crisis pregnancy, wonder about the paternity of said fetus, deal with the whole white wedding angst, go through a life and death deliver, and generally expand the Snyder family tree by natural means, their story is going to be lamely plotted and poorly scripted. 

But what about adoption, you might be asking? Ever notice how many adoptions there are in soapland -- and yet how few ever integrate into storylines on a long-term basis? The child (if he's male) frequently disappears, ages, and comes back to have sex with the youngest biologically generated daughter in an established family. The child (if female) frequently turns out to have been biologically part of the twisted family tree all along; or she just disappears.

But I digress. 

Soaps, like most scripted television, are all about conventions. And that's fine! It's just problematic to expect something unconventional from them. 

Cyndi's cool. There was a lot of gay set dressing today. And that's pretty cool too. But I'm just not connecting with NUKE -- or the way that any stories on ATWT are told. 

I am not suggesting we accept depictions of gay men that are both separate and unequal. (And interesting cases can be made both positively and negatively regarding the depiction of NUKE over the last year.) But I believe there's a time to rock the boat and a time to get out of the boat. SOme may call me a quitter. I don't see it that way.

So as handsome as I find Jake Sielberman (such a weak actor -- but totally humpy) and as talented and adorable as I find Van Hansis (seriously, the dude can and will do so much more), I think it's nearing time for me secure my lifevest and seek out something else.

 

I'm not sure who "The Blonde Obstacle" is, but I laugh every time I read that nickname.  Your recaps are so much more entertaining than trying to watch this show is.

I have never been into soap operas (bad writing, bad directing, usually bad acting).  I have given the show about a year.  I am going to stick to your recaps and stop watching the show.   It's just bad enough to be torture to watch...but not bad enough to be really laughable/entertaining.

Luke and Noah aren't compelling enough to even fast forward through.  This episode, while admirable - big props for the Pride component and Cindi, reminded me it was really time to stop recording.

Was there even a director on the set for the bar scenes? Could someone have come up with something for Luke to do while Cindi serenaded him?  Do either of these boys have an ounce of rhythm in their souls?  Will they ever learn how to kiss? 

Keep up the fine snark, Brian!  I'll keep reading, but I have to stop watching.  "It BURRNNSS!!"