Late Breaking News: Malcolm… Winslow?

For years, The Young & The Restless fans have clamored for the return of Malcom Winters, the sexy character formerly played by Criminal Minds Shemar Moore.  The show has decided to recast the role with Darius McCrary, best known as Eddie Winslow on the longrunning 90s sit-com Family Matters.  My first reaction is: what the hell were they thinking?  Moore is not just handsome.  He is one of the sexiest, most charismatic men on television.  McCrary, in contrast, is the guy who was cooler than Urkel.  Granted, it is unfair to judge an actor by a single role, particularly one he played as a teenager on a corny sit-com.  McCrary may be a talented dramatic actor.  The physical differences between the two men are jarring.  Moore really looked like he could be Kristoff St. John’s brother.  McCrary does not.  It is equally difficult to imagine him as Lily’s father.  Y&R obviously likes casting 90s teen sit-com stars.  McCrary will join his former on-screen brother Bryton (Devon), as well as Fresh Prince’s Tatyana Ali (Roxanne).   One positive thought: this does disprove the controversial theory some viewers had that Y&R prefers to cast multiracial actors in African American roles.  McCrary has big shoes to fill.  Let’s hope he turns out to live up to his predecessor.

Cycle of Abuse

My relationship with General Hospital parallels Kristina’s relationship with Keifer.  The show slaps me in the face, then it sends me flowers (in the form of Dante, Jonathan Jackson, James Franco, and moments of brilliance) then, just when I start to trust it again, it gives me a fat lip.  The Lulu-Dante romance was going so well.  She was fighting her attraction to a guy she believed was in the mob.  He was fighting his attraction to a girl he worried could mess up his undercover investigation.  He saved her life.  She discovered his secret.  There was the promise of months of secret rendezvous, Dante pulling away from Lulu to protect her whiel she stubbornly insisted on staying with him anyway.  Then, in the space of one episode, the show managed to mess it up.  First Lulu was concerned when she saw Luke, meeting with a mobster at Sonny’s request.  I understand why she was worried her father would end up ensnared in the investigation.  Warning him would have been logical.  However, her decision to give Sonny a heads up made no sense.   First of all, Sonny and Luke have not been BFFs for a long time.  His decision to call Luke to help him with a problem reeked of plot contrivance. Second, Lulu is not a mob moll.  For months, she has been rejecting Dante because she believes he is a criminal.  Now that she knows he is a cop — like her brother — she has decided to risk his life out of some twisted sense of loyalty to an old friend of her Dad’s.  Third, I would assume (and Lulu should too) that a career criminal is aware that he is constantly the target of law enforcement.  She is not telling him any new information, other than that someone Lulu knows well is one of his opponents.  Sonny is probably going to conclude that her brother Lucky is trying to get the goods on him, so Lulu has managed to put two of the few good men in Port Charles in harm’s way.   There is only one conclusion that can be drawn: Lulu sucks.  I cannot root for Dante to get involved with a woman who is doing everything she can to undermine him.  Thanks for the punch in the face, GH.  May I have another?

Why yes, I can.  Killing Carly with an axe “accidentally” — in the sense that it was nor premeditated, not in the sense that he did not mean to hit her — has turned Michael into a little psychopath.  He’s like Dexter without the moral compass, as he swaggers around with the delusion that he’s a real man now. Now that he’s had the taste of blood, he seems eager to kill again.  I liked Michael as an essentially good kid with rage issues that scared him.  I dislike the entitled jerk who feels he has a right to order around his father’s henchmen.  His urge to protect Kristina from Keifer is hypocritical even by Port Charles standrads.  Yes, Keifer is an abusive schmuck who deserves to get taken down Thelma and Louise style by the three woman tag team of Kristina, Alexis and Sam.  But he and Michael are the same person!  Keifer is often decent to Kristina until he suddenly snaps, just like Michael.  Keifer has screwed up attitudes towards women, just like Michael the literal axe murderer.  Both like to brag about how important their fathers are.  Why are we supposed to root for one over the other?  Well, Keifer is guilty of the one unforgivable sin in Port Chuck: he is an elitist.  GH is the show that presented Kate’s Princeton degree — which she was able to obtain because she had a scholarship — as a reason the audience should dislike her.  The Cassadines fondness for classic literature is proof that in addition to being evil, they are stuck up.  That’s the real reason they are considered the villains while the hit men are the heroes. Anyone who values the mainstream trappings of success needs to be taken down a peg.  Keifer, who wants to attend Harvard and mocks Sonny for being a high school dropout must be less moral than Michael who hates school.   Damn.  GH has driven me to rant again.  If it wants me back, I better get a special cellphone before Franco’s first show.

Day of Days: Bryan Datillo Discusses Lucas’s Future

On what Lucas will do when he returns to town:  He’s sharing a bed with Nathan.  Nathan lives with him and Nathan takes up all the space.  There’s only one queen sized bed in the house and he felt like he should have it all.  So when Lucas came home, the first thing he did was make Nathan move over.  Lucas and Nathan spoon quite a bit.  Hes got to stay away from Chloe because that ruffles his feathers.  He’s trying to focus on Will and Sami because that’s his life.

On future love interests, and just about everything else: I think I’m related to everyone else on the show or I’ve been maried to them.  I don’t think there’s a lot of options for Lucas. [There's Adrianna but] Lindsay Hartley [Adrianna] won’t work with me.  She’s too professional.  Maybe I could fight Brady.  Put him in the hospital.  I think that Brady needs to sing a song in every episode.  A showtune, if you will. 

On his dream storyline for Lucas:  I would like Stefano to take him under his wing.  I want Stefano to school Lucas in the finer arts of stealing souls.  I think I should follow him around like a little puppy.  Lucas has no mojo. 

On whether there’s a future for Lumi:  Sami has a full plate: Rafe and EJ.  Two pillars of the stud world.  It’s hard to worky my way in there but I will try my best.  I will do everything within my Lucas power to rain on their parade and to restore Lumi to the proper spot.  I got her pregnant the most.

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