You Call This a Love Story?

It has been awhile since my last post. I was planning on writing a few weeks back, when the Daytime Emmys aired, but I ended up being too pissed off to do so.

As you know, Van Hansis was nominated as Best Younger Actor for his amazing portrayal of Luke Snyder on As the World Turns. Most people seemed to feel that Van and Jonathan Pelphrey of Guiding Light were the front runners for the award, so it was a real shock when the award was given to a very mediocre- and that's putting it kindly- actor from The Young and the Restless.

If Van had lost to someone with some talent- like Pelphrey or his own co-star Jesse Sofer, who was also nominated- it wouldn't have been quite as upsetting. But as it was, the whole thing was just like pouring salt in a wound.

I've never seen a better coming out storyline on daytime and I doubt I ever will again. Both Van and the storyline deserved to be rewarded, but I guess the Emmy panel favored mediocrity over a performance that actually had an impact on people's lives. Yet again, gay stories are patronized with a nomination and then passed over for something 'safer'. Of course, it wasn't so long ago that the story wouldn't have been on daytime at all, let alone have garnered Van Hansis a nomination. That doesn't make it any less of a travesty.

The worst part is, Van has been given nothing to do since last September, so there's little hope of him being nominated again next year at this rate. We can only hope things will pick up soon.

If all of that seems bitter, be glad I didn't write on Emmy night!

It's been about a month and a half since it finally seemed like Luke's love story was starting over on As the World Turns. I can't say that it has heated up all that much in the time since. A good love story on a soap should have a nice, slow build up, of course. One of the things I hate most about soaps today is their tendency to throw two people together and have them suddenly be each other's One True Love in the blink of an eye.

But so far, Luke & Noah's love story hasn't been on a nice slow simmer and it certainly hasn't boiled over too quickly. Instead, it's more like the pot is on the stove, but they've forgotten to turn on the burner.

Let's do a quick recap of where we left off. Luke had just started interning at WOAK, the local TV station, for the summer, and had finally become good friends with Maddie Coleman, fulfilling one of my own personal wishes, since Maddie always seemed like the perfect best friend for Luke.

Maddie & Luke ended up attending the Prom together as friends, although we as viewers only saw the traditional morning after breakfast, not the actual dance. Said breakfast included the first reappearance of Luke's former best friend/crush Kevin since last September, but I honestly wonder why the show even bothered to include him.

Don't get me wrong. I was excited to read that Kevin would be returning (though the initial reports were that he was going to be recurring all summer, and that doesn't seem to be the case after all) and I was hoping for some closure both for Luke and for those of us who'd been expecting something more between Luke & Kevin than what we were left with.

What we actually got, though, was a scene in the diner where Kevin & his annoying girlfriend Liv stopped by Luke & Maddie's table long enough for Kevin to awkwardly compliment Luke on his 'sweet ride' (his Grandmother Lucinda's limo) and Liv to let them know oh-so-subtly that Kevin had been a real sex machine post-prom, and that was it. Of course, his presence did allow Luke to stare a bit wistfully and Maddie to wonder aloud if he was still into Kevin, and that in turn lead to Luke saying that he's done with falling for straight guys and what he really wants is to have someone in his life.

I guess it's possible that Kevin's brief return, which inspired a cry of "That's it?!?" in many of us fans, might have been intended to soften the hearts of those out there who think it's bad enough that As the World Turns has included a gay character at all and hate the idea of him actually finding love. Perhaps they wanted to show those people just how lonely Luke is and how unfair it is that he doesn't have someone. The rest of us, of course, have been saying that for months without need of a reminder.

So, the prom and high school behind him, it was time for Luke to meet Noah at last. I was ready for a really good 'meet cute', that concept from so many romantic comedies where the couple destined to be together meets in an unusual, funny way. Soaps tend to adhere to this time tested plot device pretty closely.

Imagine my surprise, then, when ATWT gave the Meet Cute not to Luke & Noah, but to Noah & Maddie. See, Maddie had taped the whole of prom night with her cell phone to show to her imprisoned boyfriend Casey, in an effort to make him feel like he was there with her. The final bit she taped was her telling him how much she loved him, which she'd then sent to his cell phone. (Don't even get me started on why someone in prison would have access to his cell phone!) Only, whoops!, Maddie sent it to Noah's cell phone by mistake and when he met her he recognized her as the random woman who'd declared her love for him.

After Maddie explained the mistake, the two of them instantly bonded over their love of classic Hollywood films, before Luke came in and insulted Noah, whose work he'd been covering because Noah was late arriving in Oakdale.

So, Noah & Maddie meet cute and Noah & Luke meet... bitchy, I guess, at least on Luke's part.

Still, it was a start. Only it was followed by two whole weeks where we never even saw Luke & Noah onscreen. The show should have taken that time to show them working together, getting to know each other, but they didn't. Instead, the next time we saw the trio, Maddie & Noah were as chummy as could be and though Noah was trying to be friendly to Luke, Luke was still being a total jerk to him. That could have been another twist on the Meet Cute, I suppose, but instead it just came across as Noah being a nice guy and Luke being oddly mean spirited to someone he doesn't even know.

Which would be fine, if ATWT had then shown us some scenes where Luke begins to slowly change his mind about Noah as he gets to know him. Instead, they decided to focus on other (very boring and tired) storylines and then just have Luke fall for Noah all of a sudden, with no real build up. It happened when Luke dropped some of the videotapes he was carrying at the studio and Noah was helping him pick them up. Their hands touched and- Eureka!- Luke was in love.

Now, I did like the actual moment where their hands touched and Luke realized he'd fallen for Noah. It was a well done moment, especially since Luke thinks that Noah is straight and immediately afterwards had this perfect "Oh, God, not again!" look on his face that was both sweet and a little heartbreaking. What I don't like is the fact that As The World Turns didn't give us any build up to this moment at all.

Luke confessed his feelings to his cousin Jade afterwards and worried about having fallen for another straight guy, as he tried to offer both her and we poor viewers an explanation for his moment of Instant Love. After the debacle with Kevin, Luke explained, he had been hiding his feelings about Noah even from himself. Hence the being a total jerk to Noah most of the time.

I'll buy it, because it does at least make some sense plot wise, but I'm still not at all happy with the fact that they opted not to have any kind of a build up to Luke realizing his feelings.

In fact, I have to say that they've so far managed to make Luke a minor player in his own love story. We've seen Noah with Maddie far more than we've seen him with Luke, whom we still see only once a week most of the time if we're lucky.

Anyway, Luke decided to try and give his feelings a creative outlet. The three interns had been given the assignment of creating a summer project, a series to be broadcast over cell phones, with Maddie starring, Noah directing, and Luke writing. Luke is putting all of his feelings about falling for the wrong guy into his writing.

The show is taking the time, at least, to give us some idea of who Noah is as a character. We know that he comes from a military family, wants to be a director, and plans to attend Northwestern. We also know that he's got some mysterious issue with his father that makes him want to be far away from home.

So, of course, home is exactly where he ends up having to go. In this case, home is Branson, Missouri, where the the show has sent its younger actors for a rare location shoot. I won't bore you with the plot details of what is truly the most hideously bad story I've seen on ATWT yet, but suffice it to say that it involves Maddie, Noah, and Luke on the periphery of it, at least enough to get them all in Branson.

Luke, especially, was reluctant to go since he wants to spend as little time around his 'straight guy crush' as possible, but circumstances have dragged him into it, just as they've lead to Noah coming face to face with his disapproving father.

As the World Turns says it's committed to telling this story, and I hope they're not just blowing smoke yet again. But I have to say that I'm not liking the detour it's taking at the moment, which looks like it includes Maddie, upset and lonely after being dumped by the imprisoned Casey, and Noah, upset after a confrontation with his father, hooking up. Just in time, no doubt, for Luke to arrive and see them. That will play out in the next few episodes, it appears.

If that does happen, I hope that they'll at least give equal screen time to Luke & Noah when the times comes for them to be together romantically. Anything less would be an insulting cop out.

Meanwhile, some in the soap press have been raving about Maddie & Noah's chemistry together, which has many Luke & Noah fans worried that the show will take a detour and claim that it had to give the clamouring fans what they wanted. Since I see zero sexual or romantic chemistry between the two, I have to wonder if those doing the raving are trying to subvert the Luke & Noah storyline before it even really starts.

Let's just hope that Luke actually ends up playing a role in his own story, provided, of course, that it turns out to be the love story we were promised.

Van Hansis, I'm happy to say, wants Luke & Noah, or 'Nuke' as many fans have dubbed the pair, to be together as much as the rest of us. So many actors who play gay roles go out of their way to denigrated romantic scenes they may have to do in an effort to prove how straight they are (or, one suspects in many cases, how straight they're pretending to be), but Van is completely committed to playing Luke as a fully realized gay character. Here's part of an interview that he did with TV Guide Online that will give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

TVG: Luke has fallen in love with Noah, and it looks like ATWT is gearing up for daytime’s first real love story between two men. Is daytime ready for ‘Oakdale: Brokeback Mountain’?.

VH: Yes. It happens in real life, so why not in daytime? It’s funny, because people don’t ask that question when it comes to primetime TV. People assume [daytime is] a conservative medium — and personally, I don’t think it is. I read the fan message boards, and trust me: our fans are more than ready for this. Daytime underestimates its audience sometimes..


TVG: Hello —I completely agree! It’s important to note that the writers are always eager to tell these stories, but when you factor in the network suits, who feel the need to pee on the trees as it were, true greatness becomes impossible..

VH: It must be refreshing as a writer to write something new when you’re so used to penning baby-switch storylines! Luke is a character whom the audience roots for. Soap fans are very protective of their characters, and they want him to be happy – which, of course, includes falling in love..


TVG: Will Luke and Noah get physical on the show?.

VH: I don’t know yet..


TVG: Would you be angry if ATWT skirted the physical aspect of their relationship?.

VH: Yes, it would be unrealistic. If two people are in love, they just don’t walk around town holding hands. I would hope the writers include some physicality. If we’re going to go this far, we should do it right..

To put it bluntly, Van rocks.

Oh, by the way, don't even ask me about the 'down low' storyline on Passions and how it has progressed. It was just too insulting (and the show too painfully bad) for me to follow any longer. Sorry about that.

Sadly, that storyline and Luke's are now the only two glbt storylines playing out in daytime and there don't seem to be any more on the horizon.