Saturday, November 13, 2010

LuRe/Nuke: The End (In So Many Ways)

Almost two months have passed since the venerable soap opera As the World Turns aired its final episode, bringing to a close over 54 years of television history. That history included the groundbreaking character of Luke Snyder, whose story I have covered here in detail over the past several years.

The last time I wrote about Luke's story was back in May. After that point, I became too busy in my personal life to keep up with the show. I did save all of the Luke related episodes on my Tivo, though, and last month when I'd taken a week off of work I managed to catch up with the final four months of the LuRe/Nuke storyline.

It's rather sad that I stuck with the show through some really terrible stories (The Z Twins? Ameera? I could go on for a few paragraphs, but let's leave it at that) and then, just when I was delighted with the electric chemistry between Van Hansis and Eric Sheffer Stevens as Luke and Reid, I had to step away.

I've been wondering since I finished watching the show just how much I should write about the way it ended. Too much time had passed for me to try and do any sort of thorough recap of the story. In the end, I decided to just do a brief summary of the action and then talk about what, exactly, this story meant and the impact it had.

There was much talk among fans about how the show would end: would Luke end up with Noah or with Reid? Both couples had their die hard fans who believed that the wrong choice would be a betrayal of their favored pair. I myself was firmly in the LuRe camp.

In the end, the show opted for door number three in an attempt to try and satisfy everyone involved.

Luke chose Reid over Noah, who decided to leave for school in Los Angeles. Luke and Reid were briefly happy, though they never actually got to make love. Luke wanted to hold off, since he'd only ever been with Noah, and Reid agreed to wait until Luke was ready.

This being a soap opera, things didn't go as planned. Reid's rival at the hospital, Chris Hughes, needed a new heart quickly, or he was going to die. Reid learned of a heart that was a match in nearby Bay City and rushed off to bypass the bureaucratic red tape and get the heart. His car stalled on a train track on his way there and he was hit before he could escape.

He lived long enough to be taken back to the hospital in Oakdale and say good bye to Luke, to whom he gave his power of attorney and instructions to make sure that Chris Hughes got Reid's heart if it was a match (which, of course, it was).

It goes without saying that Van Hansis was heartbreaking in these scenes. Watching Luke grieve Reid was incredibly hard.

So, the show gave the LuRe fans what it wanted, sort of: Luke and Reid remained in love and would have lived happily ever after except that Reid died a noble, heroic death.

They also gave the Nuke fans what they wanted, sort of: Noah and Luke didn't end up together, but the possibility of Luke eventually joining Noah in L.A. after he'd grieved Reid was very much hinted at.

Instead of making both sides happy, I suspect that it actually left everyone unsatisfied. Still, I greatly appreciated that the very last scene we ever had of Luke Snyder was of him placing his head on Chris Hughes' chest to listen to Reid's heart beating.

I bemoaned the awful writing on this show many times but in the end there is no denying that Luke's story broke a lot of ground. Like many pioneering stories, it won't be as good as what comes after it, the stories (like the much superior Kish storyline on One Life to Live) that don't have to break down the same taboos themselves.

Those stories, though, would never be able to exist if Luke's story hadn't lead the way. Let's recap here:

Luke was the first out gay male character from a core family on a daytime soap. This means that the character wasn't a disposable one, easy to remove when his purpose had been served.

Luke was the first gay male character who remained a leading character on a daytime soap once his coming out storyline was finished.

Luke and Noah shared the first romantic kiss between two male characters on a daytime soap. In fact, they shared the first several.

Luke and Noah were the first two male characters to make love on a daytime soap, though of course we didn't get a scene of them in bed together before or after (that ground was broken by Kish).

Luke, Noah, and Reid were the first true all male love triangle on a daytime soap (one in which both sides of the triangle had fans rooting for them).

Luke and Noah were, in fact, the first gay supercouple on daytime TV.


In the end, these milestones will be what truly matters, not the awful plot twists that cluttered things up along the way.

None of this would have happened, of course, without Van Hansis. His talent was what made people care about Luke. Van quickly developed a legion of fans that championed Luke and then the Nuke pairing, bringing the show the sort of attention in hadn't had in years.

If the writing had been up to the level of Van's talent, this attention could have been parlayed into ratings and the show might still be going strong today.

With the end of As the World Turns, there are no longer any out gay characters on daytime television. A truly sad state of affairs given that just a year ago we had Luke & Noah, Oliver & Kyle, Nick, Mason, Philip, and Rafe spread out over three different soap operas.

With all the talk of ground being broken, it's a bitter irony that we're suddenly back to where we were before Luke ever came out of the closet.

3 comments:

dkellergrl said...

I'm so glad that you mentioned that none of those other characters and storylines wouldn't have happened in American daytime tv, without the introduction of Van Hansis as Luke Snyder.

In the 2010 LuRe vs. Nuke shipper wars, it seemed (in my opinion) that Luke (and his happiness) became an afterthought to folks who were die-hard Noah or die-hard Reid fans. Nothing Luke could do or say, would be right and acceptable for them, because one of them (and the two separate fanbases) wouldn't "win".

With the end of As the World Turns, there are no longer any out gay characters on daytime television. A truly sad state of affairs given that just a year ago we had Luke & Noah, Oliver & Kyle, Nick, Mason, Philip, and Rafe spread out over three different soap operas.

With all the talk of ground being broken, it's a bitter irony that we're suddenly back to where we were before Luke ever came out of the closet.


It's very bitter irony, Seth and something that the American Daytime powers that be (and not just the critics of these shows) have to answer to their dwindling viewing audience.

I hope that you have a wonderful holiday and a terrific New Year.

Seth said...

Sorry it took me so long to approve this comment!

I agree completely re: the powers that be in daytime TV. I just think at this point that they're never going to wake up and see the true effect of what they're (not) doing, not until it's far too late.

I hope you have a great new year, too. :)

dkellergrl said...

Have a great New Year, Seth.

I just think at this point that they're never going to wake up and see the true effect of what they're (not) doing, not until it's far too late.

Exactly. At the end of 2010, you can still have straight characters, who can steal a baby from one female character (for months) and then have those two characters end up romantically together on a soap, but you can't show two male or two female characters expressing love, affection and sexual desire for each other on a soap.

The hypocrisy of what is "okay" for American Daytime TV to show to their audience, sickens me, because there's a lack of awareness TPTB are existing under and it's somehow acceptable, because longtime viewers are so desperate to make sure that the remaining soaps continue to survive, regardless of what's being produced and shown on our US tv screens.

When I or anyone else, can do a search on YouTube and find that an Argentinean telenovela can have the balls to feature a love story, between two fictional male characters, who also happen to be professional football (soccer) players and allow them to be together romantically in the final episode, tells me alot about where we are in the status of our American Daytime television.

It's just shameful and there's nothing that can be explained about why the remaining 6 soaps don't feature gay fictional characters on their soaps.

Bianca's back on All My Children and The Young and The Restless let Rafe out of the closet, every now and again, but that's it.

I started watching US soaps again, in 2007, because of the Luke Synder character and I stopped watching US soaps again, in 2010 because of what happened to Luke and Reid in September (and the horrible way that Kish were blamed and tossed aside by ABCD in April 2010).

I know that I can never watch the remaining US daytime soaps again. I don't trust the folks in charge anymore, because there's a clear lack of respect for their audience and it shows everyday in what they produce.