Deep Soap: Afterglow

Was It Good For You?

Thoughts while watching Monday’s The Young & The Restless.

1. Michael Munvey is a good actor, but he doesn’t have as much chemistry with Yani Gellman as Chris Engen did.  This was an ill timed recast.
2. Okay Rafe is stroking Adam’s face.  — here it comes, the gay kiss so shocking that a man gave up a six figure income rather than play it… and there’s no kiss.  Was it cut?  Was the script vague, as soap sex scenes often are on the page: “they look into each other’s eyes… Rafe giving in to his feelings for Adam?”
3. Hmmm… Adam and Rafe are buttoning their shirts.  I guess they decided to go all the way before the first date.  And Otalia still hasn’t had a second kiss.  On one hand, this is far more realistic pacing then Nuke.  On the other, this makes their mostly off-camera love scene look like Queer As Folk.
4. And Rafe is out the door.  I suppose hooking up with your straight friend who used to be your legal client who might be framing your aunt would lead to awkward pillow talk.
5. My roommate knocks on my door, asking for clarification about whether they had sex.  I wasn’t expecting Rafe and Adam’s sex scene to be as graphic as, say, Nick and Sharon in the cabin.  But if the audience is unclear about what happened, that’s a problem.   Even Kay and Murphy showed more skin. If they hook up again, there should be a real make out session.
6. Hey, Adam took a shower before sleeping with Heather.  He’s more hygienic about his skankiness than a lot of other soap characters.
7. This may be the only time a soap character has slept with two people in one night without a “Who’s the Daddy?” storyline.
8. If Rafe finds Adam’s Sabrina costume, is Adam going to have to pretend to be into drag, too?
9. I wish there had been a few more beats to this saga.  I would have liked to have seen it clearly established that Rafe had a crush on Adam.  A simple scene of Rafe lamenting that he wished he could meet a gay guy he enjoyed talking to as much as Adam would have done the trick. I also would have liked to have more of a window into how Adam felt about doing this.  Does he feel bad about manipulating Rafe?  Did he hook up with a couple guys while he was on Wall Street?
10. I wonder if Rafe was momentarily glad Estella was fired.  It would have been quite awkward if she’d walked in on him.
11. But not nearly as awkward as if Victor had barged in.  Please, let this happen in the future.  Maybe Victor will fall down the stairs in shock and become permanently sterile.
12. I wonder whether Victor will be more upset that his son caused Ashley’s miscarriage or that his son is willing to have sex with men.
13. On the whole, I think this storyline is progressive rather than exploitative.  Soap characters have been using sex to manipulate people since the shows were fifteen minutes long and black and white.  Due to both a laudable desire to send a positive message and a fear of alienating the audience, gay characters have been portrayed as asexual saints.  Rafe is not a particularly well defined character yet.  But he is a leap forward for daytime in several ways.  He’s openly gay and comfortable with who he is.  He is not a prude about sex.  He is getting used in the same way that countless other soap characters have.  If he turns out to be just a short term plot point, I’ll be disappointed.
14. Adam’s willingness to play gay is no more shocking than his willingness to inject botox into his eyeballs to play blind.   He is willing to do whatever it takes to stay out of prison and make his illogical revenge scheme work.  If the sex is seen as a bigger deal, that says more about viewers than Adam.
15. If the rumors about Phillip III becoming involved with Rafe are true, I hope the show will address the MASSIVE age difference.

A Method To Their Madness

Finally, I understand what SoapNet is trying to do.   I, along with many other viewers, am irritated by the network’s non-soap programming.  This article in Variety, about the network’s latest reality pick-up “Bank of Mom and Dad”, had a salient quote.

SoapNet is hoping “Mom and Dad” piggybacks on the success of “Southern Belles: Louisville.” Nearly half the audience of the reality skein is made up of viewers new to the network.

The network is content with fewer viewers as long as they are different viewers.  That does make a certain amount of sense. The network ultimately must attract new viewers to grow.  In theory, someone will come for Southern Belles and stay for General Hospital.   However, I’m not sure that the people who would be interested in a show about parents taking control of their kids finances — the premise of Bank of Mom and Dad — would be interested in soaps.  (Who, other than Suze Orman, would want to watch that every week?)

I don’t understand why the network isn’t attempting original primetime soaps.  There are a lot more people who watch Desperate Housewives than All My Children.  There are numerous English language soaps and telenovelas airing on stations all over the world that both regular SoapNet viewers and primetime drama fans would enjoy.  Most of them would be relatively inexpensive programming.  MVP flopped because it wasn’t very good, not because viewers are disinterested in international serialized dramas. I wish SoapNet would realize that taking the soap out of the channel is as wrong as airing non-sports programming on ESPN.  But at least I now know why the network keeps airing low rated reality shows.

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