Playman Daddy

Nuke and the Z Twins (sounds like a bad garage band, doesn't it?) were back on As the World Turns today. As you probably know, I've kind of been on the fence about the twins, both liking them and being annoyed by them all at the same time.

Today, though, I realized that they're at least making the story interesting and fun for the first time in a long while. Luke & Noah always have their sweet and romantic moments amid the various badly written dramas they're in, but I can't remember the last time there was a light, funny touch to their story.

I'm enjoying it a lot, even while I still have my reservations about how they're being written and where things are going. I wish this show were in the hands of a head writer who would introduce the twins, let us get to know them and care about them a bit, see their relationships with Luke & Noah developing, and then show us that they're up to something. Telling a story is an art form, but it's one that head writer Jean Passante clearly knows nothing about.

So, instead, we'll have the usual rush to cram the twins down our throats and reveal everything quickly, as I'm sure will happen in the days ahead. I've learned with this writing team, though, that you've got to just sit back and enjoy what little good comes your way amidst all the dreck. For now, I'm enjoying how different and amusing the twins are from everything else on the show.

With that said, let's get to today's action. The show began with Damian strolling into Old Town to discover his own face everywhere he looked. I suspect that this probably would be pleasing to him in most cases, but today it so happened that his head had been photo shopped onto the body of a cover model for a gay magazine called PlayMan. I especially had to laugh when I saw that one of the article tag lines on the cover said 'Sex Pigs'!

Needless to say, Papa Grimaldi was not pleased. He ripped down one of the covers and headed straight for Lily's place.

Luke & Noah were at Java sharing a kiss when Zac & Zoe came in. Noah did not take kindly to Zac calling him lover boy, but Zoe explained that she & Z both 'do the nickname thing'. The twins promptly showed the guys the posters of Damian that they'd just finished putting up all over town. Noah was horrified that they'd embarrass someone that way, but Luke was clearly amused.

At Lily's, Damian went off on Lily for raising his son to do something like this, but Lily insisted that it wasn't Luke's style at all. She got Luke on the phone and asked him to come to the house. I loved how casually Luke explained to Noah that there was 'drama at my house', as if it were an everyday occurrence. Which, of course, it is. I always kind of want characters on soaps to be a bit more self aware about all the stuff they deal with. Like, "Your husband just came back from the dead? Yeah, that happened to me a few years ago. Let me get you the number of my support group" or "Damn, that's the third plane crash I've been in. I'd better start taking Amtrak."

I digress. Luke & Noah headed to the Snyder residence, where Luke immediately claimed responsibility for the posters and said that they were his way of getting his message across to Damian that the doesn't want him around. Damian asked if Luke couldn't just show some respect for his father and Luke pointed out that A) He doesn't respect Damian and B) He doesn't consider him his father.

While Lily couldn't get Luke to apologize to Damian for the posters, he & Noah did agree to go take them all down. Once they were gone, Damian vowed again to Lily that he was going to win his son's respect and love.

Once they were alone, Noah asked Luke why he'd lied about the posters and Luke explained that it was a chance to get his point across to Damian, that he loathes him. Noah wondered why Luke had to be so extreme about his feelings towards his bio dad, pointing out that Lily, at least, could tolerate Damian. Luke said that was because she'd once loved him and that if he and Noah broke up, even if Noah had betrayed him (uh, oh!), Noah would still get to Luke.

I really liked the next part of the scene, where Luke confessed to Noah something that he said he could only tell him: that he has to remind himself every day of what Damian did to him so that he doesn't let him in again and get hurt. It's easy to forget, with all that's happened since, how hurtful Damian's betrayal truly was. Luke was a newly out teen dealing with a mother who was not okay with his sexuality, and along comes his biological father, proclaiming that he's completely accepting. All the while, he's scheming to send Luke away to be reprogrammed. Seriously, how does someone get past that?

I think all of those feelings were present on Luke's face, thanks entirely to the talent of Van Hansis, the day he first saw Damian again at the hospital. It's still great to actually hear Luke articulate it, though, and to know that he feels he can only open up that way to Noah.

Noah understood what Luke was feeling and turned the conversation to his issues with the Z Twins. He warned Luke that underneath their playful surface he thought there was something dark. Luke thought they were completely harmless but Noah said he wanted to have nothing more to do with them.

The twins, meanwhile, were also hanging about Old Town and soon spotted Damian. Zac gave a wolf whistle and called out "Hey Playman!" which totally cracked me up. The sight of these two taunting Damian Grimaldi is somehow just completely hysterical.

Damian gave them his best menacing attitude and warned them that while they think they know him, they obviously don't. If they did, they'd know better than to mess with him. After he walked off, Zac & Zoe joked about being scared, but I kind of think they were a bit shaken. Or at least they should have been.

The twins headed back to Java to tell Luke & Noah of their bio dad encounter and Noah immediately got in their faces about how Damian was a human being, and what gave them the right to humiliate him? When the twins suggested that Noah should lighten up like Luke, he didn't take that well, either, declaring that he doesn't lighten up about things that matter to him. The twins apologized, saying they didn't want to come between their two new best friends.

I was kind of confused by the next scene. Noah had been angry with the twins, not Luke, and yet when we saw them again he & Luke weren't speaking for some reason and Zac & Zoe were literally pushing them together and chanting "Kiss and make up." Which was actually pretty cute and all, but I feel like there was a scene left out somewhere. At any rate, Luke & Noah did kiss and make up and the twins swore 'by the mark of Z' not to play any more pranks unless they were authorized.

As they left, Luke said to Noah "See, they're not so bad." Famous last words?

Oh, while all of this was going on, Lily discovered that the Foundation computers had crashed and that the back up discs had been stolen from her office. She immediately headed to Damian's room at the hotel and broke in to look for them (which is probably not technically a crime, given that she's a co-owner of the place), only to have him catch her in the act.

He insisted that he wasn't the one out to destroy Luke's foundation but swore that he was going to find out who was.

Soaps, with their high drama, always run the risk of being too depressing. To do a soap well, you've got to mix light hearted stories in with all the betrayal, crime, and death, scenes where viewers can laugh. Just as a soap should never ignore romance, they should never forget to add some humor. Right now, Zac & Zoe are bringing that much needed touch to As the World Turns. I'm sure that will change any moment, of course, but for now they're a breath of fresh air.

I just hope they don't turn out to be the latest members of Passante's Psycho of the Month club. I'd really hate that.