Anyone who thought this show would improve with the
departure of Lynn Marie Latham as head writer and
executive producer must be feeling the pangs of
disappointment right about now. If anything, the
writing is worse than ever. Not only are we seeing a
continuation of Latham's bad ideas and focus on
boring characters, but we're getting more gimmicks
than ever and the dialog has taken a nosedive.
John Abbott's double is the latest in a year's worth
of doubles that started out with the Carmen Mesta
double, moved on to the William Bardwell double, and
wound up with the John Abbott double. Granted the
first two were the products of team Latham, but the
John double is the brainchild of the current regime,
headed by executive producer Josh Griffith and
co-head writer Maria Arena Bell. Which goes to show that
being married to the family who created this show
does not necessarily equate having the talent of
said family. Rather than ditching the bad storylines
of the previous writing team, the current one seems
determined to copy and expand on them.
They don't even seem to know how to do it right.
Whereas the introduction of Double Carmen and Double
William at least produced some scene stealing worthy
gasps, the arrival of Double John has fallen flat on
its face right out of the gate. Katherine was
reduced to shouting from her doorstep "Hey, you
there, stop running" to entice the John-a-like into
her home. What the man was doing prowling outside
her home is anyone's guess, let alone why she'd
invite a prowler inside while she's home alone.
Apparently these writers don't even have the
wherewithal to connect even the simplest of dots.
The whole idea of Jeffrey going along with Jack and
Sharon's wacky scheme is even more implausible given
that the only reason he's married to Gloria is
because he is blackmailing her. If he wants her to
move out of the Abbott house, he simply has to
threaten to send her to jail for the umpteenth time.
It's worked up until now. Yet there was Gloria,
somehow sitting in the catbird's seat with a smile
of self satisfaction while confronting Jack, Sharon
and her husband over their deceit while Jeffrey
looked sheepishly down at the floor. Does he have
the upper hand, or not?
Even Michael made the comment that this whole wacky
look-alike scheme was very "Saturday morning
cartoon." Seemingly the writers are aware of its
flaw even as they present it; are they admitting
their lack of creativity or do they think it's
actually something viewers want to see? Neither
scenario flatters them.
Wouldn't you think that with "John" sitting down to
breakfast at the athletic club with Jill half the
town would be either screaming in horror or calling
the National Enquirer after seeing one of the
formerly most prominent men in town come back from
the dead? If Victor had died (God willing) then came
back to life I'd think it would create quite a stir.
I don't think the show has gained anything with the
introduction of this new character Sabrina, either.
Her fascination with Victor (and vice versa) is
creepy to say the least, and her very existence
defies a willing suspension of disbelief. Victoria
has been back from Italy about three years now and
in all that time she never mentioned such a person,
not even once. Not a phone call, an e-mail, a
postcard or a letter. And if Victoria was living in
Florence (Italy) and Sabrina is from Paris (France),
when the hell did they ever even meet let alone
become such good friends? Suddenly they are
inseparable. One is almost given the impression that
Victor is not the only Newman smitten by this
strange foreign woman. Victoria's eyes light up at
the sound of Sabrina's voice more than they do at
the sound of her own husband's. Or course,
considering she's married to JT, that's hardly
surprising.
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