Welcome to the latest meeting of the I Hate this Damn Show So Much! support group. My name is Seth and I watch As the World Turns even though it frequently makes me want to kick puppies and throw things at sweet little old ladies.
Let's get started. Today's Luke & Noah episode began with Luke arguing with Lily yet again about whether or not Damian is the evil mastermind behind all that's been going on. Lily declared that Damian would never run Luke down with a car because he loves him but for some reason Luke seemed to feel that he's not worthy of being loved. Huh? Where did that come from?
Oh, it's because Noah has dropped him. Wait, what? Luke admitted to Lily that he hasn't heard from Noah since he left the other day and Noah isn't returning his calls. He's worried that they're not speaking because of their argument over Damian. Again: Wait, what? When Noah left, he was smiling and joking with Luke. It makes no sense that Luke would for a second believe that their differing opinions on Damian would lead to Noah not speaking to him. If they'd had an argument the last time they spoke, it might be more plausible, but this just makes no sense at all. Way to go, writers!
Luke left as soon as Damian showed up, not wanting to spend even a second with his biodad. Damian, meanwhile, told Lily that his jeweler in Malta had confirmed that the ring she found was a Grimaldi ring. When she asked who else in the family besides Damian himself had one, Damian revealed that he'd given one to Luke the last time he was in town, and voiced his suspicions that Luke himself was behind all of this, as a way to drive Damian away.
What?! Lily defended Luke while Damian tried to make her confess that Luke is more of a Grimaldi than she'd care to admit, what with lying to the Government (about Ameera) and rigging student elections.
Meanwhile, Luke ran into Zoe in Old Town and told her about Noah going MIA. She agreed to help him look and they headed to Java, where Noah was two hours late for his shift. Luke started to think that something must be seriously wrong, since Noah isn't the type to just not show up for work.
As if on cue, Luke's phone rang and it was a call from Noah. Noah explained to Luke that he'd gone to Lisbon on the spur of the moment for a film festival because he feels like they need time apart to think, and that the Damian situation isn't any of his business since Damian is Luke's family, not his.
Van Hansis broke my heart in this scene when Luke said "Noah, you're my family and I'm yours." He looked like his own heart was breaking into a thousand pieces as he said it.
Noah hung up quickly, leaving Luke even more confused. Back at the Snyder place, Lily managed to convince Damian that whatever Luke's past mistakes he's a kind hearted, good person who's grounded and stable now that he's with Noah. Of course, right at that moment, Luke flew through the door in a rage, grabbed Damian and accused him of driving Noah away.
Luke was convinced that Damian must have threatened Noah and congratulated him on his victory and for ruining his life. Damian protested his innocence but Luke stormed out after yelling at Lily for letting Damian back into their home yet again.
Damian told Lily he was going to go to Malta to talk to his jeweler in person to get more information about the ring and that he would be stopping in Lisbon on his way back to talk to Noah and bring him home.
Luke went back to Old Town and explained the Noah situation to Zoe (who of course wasted no time in offering to fill Noah's place in Luke's empty bed). When Lily called to tell Luke that Damian had left for Malta (not mentioning his plans for a Lisbon stopover, of course), he passed that information on to Zoe.
Zoe then headed to one of those seemingly plentiful empty warehouses that abound in Oakdale, where she found Zac and filled him in on the news that Luke had bought everything and, even better, Damian was going back to Malta.
Zac & Zoe crowed about this news to Noah, whom they of course had tied to a pole right there in the warehouse. I mean, why wouldn't they have Noah tied to a pole, right?
Noah asked what they wanted with Luke and why they were doing all of this. The twins taunted him that he'd find out and then left him alone in the dark, shouting for them to leave Luke alone.
Why do I ever bother to get my hopes up about anything happening on As the World Turns? I've heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, and I think I must fall squarely into that category when it comes to this show. Time and again a new story will start for Luke & Noah and there I will be, feeling hopeful that it will prove to be better than what came before it.
When I heard the rumors that twins were being introduced, the male of whom would be gay and involved in a love triangle with the guys, I was excited. Even after the Z Twins made their debut, I remained largely positive, seeing real potential for a decent story and trying to ignore the all too familiar warning signs that we'd just be introduced to the latest members of Passanante's Psycho of the Month Club.
I can't use the old 'fool me once, shame on you' saying, because these writers aren't fooling anyone, not for one second. Instead, I keep wilfully deluding myself. Why don't I just tune out and save myself the frustration? That's a question soap fans have been asking themselves for a long while now, no matter what shows they follow.
In all honesty, I would have abandoned ATWT a few years ago if it wasn't for Luke & Noah. For the most part, I don't even watch the rest of the show anymore. It's true that the writing has never been good for the guys and is often downright horrible, but from the moment Van Hansis debuted as Luke Snyder back at the end of 2005, I knew that he was something special. He'd have to be, to keep all the Nuke fans watching as the show served up one God awful story after another.
When Jake Silbermann debuted as Noah and was eventually paired up with Van's Luke, history was made and, perhaps even more importantly, magic was created. The onscreen chemistry between these two is unbelievable.
I'm in it until the bitter end, simply because Van & Jake make it impossible for me not to be. They, and the many other talented actors and actresses on this show, deserve so much better in terms of writing, and yet there they are, day after day, giving it their all and managing to spin some gold out of pure crap.
Still, the wasted opportunities on this show are enough to make me want to pull out my hair. Adding in another gay character to create some romantic tension between Luke & Noah would have been such an exciting idea, not to mention making history as daytime's first all male love triangle, but that was clearly never the show's intention with Zac. That is a shame, because in spite of all the annoyances in the writing, I think Nicholas Galbraith brought a lot to the role and easily demonstrated the potential to do quite a bit more if he'd been given some decent writing.
If they really wanted to make the twins villains, they could have introduced them, spent some time developing their relationship with Luke & Noah, and then slowly made the audience start to think they might be up to something. That, while not my preference, would at least have been decent story telling. This should have unfolded over a few months but instead they had to do it all at warp speed in a handful of episodes in just two weeks. It's ridiculous.
These writers seem to not want to make a soap opera so much as an episodic drama where everything is wrapped up within the hour. They're destroying the show, there is simply no other way to put it.
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