ESPRIT LIBRE // Press Archive

Hit: OLTL's Explosive Hospital Drama (Soap Opera Weekly 7/10/07)

No one can tear up a set like One Life to Live (remember the plane crash?), so it was no surprise that after the OPP hit Llanview Hospital, the place looked like hell. Which was a good thing.

The brilliant set and lighting designers did not miss a single detail, from the subtle, murkey illumination to the treacherously placed piles of rubble and handful of unconscious doctors strewn about. The atmosphere was downright eerie.

But OLTL did not forget about story amid the visuals: Viewers never saw the clever second bomb coming. After the heart-stopping sequence in which John defused the first bomb, he found a note hinting at another one. That device not only devastated the building, it shook up several storylines. Most intriguingly, it left Nash the only man standing to sew up Antonio. What could be more dramatic than saving the life of the man whose wife he just stole? (With the help of Michael, who walked him through the surgery.) And why was Tate slipping out the back exit?

After weeks of just slack storytelling, the bombing brought OLTL back with a bang. Literally. -- JD