From: sasse@netcom.com (Ellen Sasse)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Melrose Place (08/19)
Date: 25 Aug 92 22:43:18 GMT
Organization: Not

Gordon_Wong@mindlink.bc.ca (Gordon Wong) writes: 

> Comments regarding Melrose Place (08/19/92):

> What a yawner of a series ... the characters on the show doesn't seem to be
> going nowhere fast and the storylines seem so thin:

> [1] On last night's show, Michael who was anxious about being a father,
>     dropped a chest of drawers on his foot, while trying to make room for
>     the crib. Come on ... the baby is not scheduled for arrival for another
>     8 months. What was the purpose of moving the drawers anyways?

   I greatly improved my enjoyment of Melrose Place by TAPING it, and FF-ing
through EVERY scene with the Young Married Couple. I think Josie Bissett
is a pretty good actress [ pretty surprising that someone with her looks can
act - DON'T confuse her with Chynna Phillips who looks similar but isn't
quite as beautiful and CANNOT act ], and for all I know the Young Intern might
be too, but their storylines are just so ridiculous even for a show like this.
I stomached it okay until the Great Misunderstanding about the Baby - please.
In real life, whenever someone is afraid to tell someone something there is
a good reason why. If I want to see images of women as bimboes I would
watch Charlies Angels reruns. 

> [2] The characters are going nowhere fast:

>     [b] Billy will always struggle to become a writer. The newspaper he was
>         writing for (for a very short time) went under. He was driving a
>         taxi, but he doesn't seem to be doing that anymore. Last night, he
>         was a furniture salesman for a day. Man of many jobs?

   Oh, and speaking of the FF key. Sometimes Billy's saccharine smile annoys
me as much as his sister's, but he's usually okay. I did skip over a lot of
the Silly Furniture PLot and the More Ridiculous Alison-is-my-girlfriend plot. 
A kid "owes" his father a year of his life at the time that is going to
determine what he gets stuck doing for the rest of his life just so the father
can wish-fulfill whatever things he thought he should have accomplished,
through his son? What is the average age of the writers of this show, 50?
Maybe they should be listening to their kids. Then again if they were
listening to their kids, we wouldn't have Melrose Place we might have
something approaching reality.

>     [c] Rhonda is happy being an aerobics teacher. She turned down her
>         chance at stardom in a previous show.

   Yeah, that made a whole lot of sense, didn't it? Most of her plotline
focuses on how jealous she is of her friend, and at the end we find out
she faked her injury so she wouldn't have to worry about whether she
was good enough to make the group, but everyone thought she was good
enough and competitive enough, and in the rousing conclusion all of a
sudden a) she drops her lifelong dream of joining a dance company and
decides she loves teaching aerobics classes after all, and b) it's
allright because she was too wimpy to face the tryout the first time? 
The concluding dialogues involving Rhonda were a total turnaround from
what the previous parts of the plot were illustrating. Of course I've
got an easy solution for the writers to resolve this one: drop her.

>     [d] Matt? What does he do anyways? Supposedly he was supposed to be a
>         gay character ... seems like everyone knows except him.

Hah! that was funny.

>     [e] Jake? Repairman at a motorcycle shop. What storylines can they build
>         from that?

   I think they could do a lot from that: they have made it clear he has
had a lot of jobs and some history. Sandy is supposed to have the
hots for him from a past one night stand or something. One thing I do
like about this show (and why I continue to watch it) is because they
try to have some character history and relationships among the characters.
There are always overtones in relationships among people in a group;
one person will be chasing someone else, one person may have been involved
with another in the past, people who used to hate each other can become
inseparable best friends. As far as the job at the motorcycle shop
specifically, I would actually be interested in hearing him talk to
people there, what kind of bikes they like, why they ride, who they
ride with.

   Someone posted some ideas for storylines I thought were fine. I hope
the ones the show actually does are as good.

> [3] Other comments:

>     [a] They sure have a lot of barbecues by the pool, don't they?

Heh.

>     [b] The only real story left is will Alison fall in love with Billy and
>         that's about it. 

   I hope they don't do it. I don't think Courtney Thorne Smith likes
the actor who plays Billy very much. Their shouting/misunderstanding scenes
have a spark of realism that their other scenes don't quite match. I
think they both play it well, it just seems like the fights are more -
honest.
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