ESPRIT LIBRE // Press Archive

Miss -- Give the Strangers a Rest-on, OLTL (SOW 8/1/06)

One Life to Live is breaking one of the cardinal rules of daytime by force-feeding viewers a story of complete strangers, and it's a bland diet, indeed.

Claudia...Reston...Bruce... Who are these people? More importantly, who cares about them?

It was one thing to see Nash (the charming Forbes March) at play in the fields of the Buchanans, but mixing him up with marginal characters like Claudia, her father Reston (who doesn't even rate a first name) and good ol' boy Bruce, is a recipe for yawns -- and exercising the remote control.

OLTL apparently is trying to...er, lay out options for Nash should Jessica be Jessica and turn her focus to Antonio. But there was no need to shoe-horn boring Claudia and her merry band of wannabes into the mix when babes like Evangeline, Natalie and Layla are all single. The last thing Nash should be looking at is his terminally whiny, pill-addicted, lounge singer/psycho ex.

Consider this: Claudia just killed her father. Did anyone even notice? Also, there is absolutely no reason why so much of this already disconnected story has to take place in Napa Valley. What is this: Falcon Crest: The Next Generation? OLTL takes place in Llanview, Pa., with occasional forays to nearby Pine Valley or exotic New York. (Or, oaky, Eterna and the Wild West.) Instant cross-country flights just add to the silliness.

It's not too late to save OLTL from making hash out of Nash. Put him back where he belongs, sampling a romance from Column A and a conflict from Column B. In Llanview. And ship Claudia back to Napa, where she can happily star in a Grapes of Wrath musical -- off screen. -- JD