From: rose@cecily.UUCP (Rose M. Delckum)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.soaps
Subject: DOOL: Carly Haters
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1992 19:36:01 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The New Alaska Riviera
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     Hmmm...this Carly thing seems to have stirred up quite a fuss.  (So
what else is new, right?)  I'd like to offer my $0.02 on why so many of us
hate her so vehemently.  Once again, I'm not speaking for everybody, but
I'd like to think I'm speaking for a few others at least.  I think that the
reason I hate Carly/Crystal so much is that she has come to symbolize
everything that I hate about the current Days.  Crystal has no previous
acting experience and isn't a very accomplished actress.  She's mediocre at
best and doesn't even touch people like Susan Seaforth Hayes, MB Evans,
Frances Reid, Arleen Sorkin, Genie Francis, or any number of other talented
actresses who I've had the pleasure of watching on Days.  I remember when I
first started watching (circa 1985 or 86) characters were first of all
introduced gradually and sort of tossed from one castmember to another till
they found someone they had chemistry with.  Stephen Nichols was not
brought on the show to be paired with Kayla.  He and MaryBeth just had good
chemistry, so what was supposed to be a temporary part was expanded.  Same
with George Jenesky.  He and Charlotte had such good chemistry they kept
him too.  When Diana came on the show she wasn't immediately paired with
Roman.  She spent most of her time with Mike (as can be seen from the
Classic Days posts).  Crystal was brought on the show specifically to be
paired with Bo.  They had her interacting with S-D before Hope even died.
They didn't try her with anyone else, and despite the lack of chemistry
with Bo (IMO) they were stuck together.  And despite the fact that there
were numerous other, more talented people on the show, she was immediately
given a front burner storyline.  I've rewatched several tapes from 1990,
and I honestly think the beginning of the VonLeuschner/Alamain storyline
was the beginning of the end.  I watched every episode and I still am
confused about what happened!  To this day I don't know what was going on!
(This may become disjointed..for some reason Cory has chosen to give me a
lecture on learning to read! :-) ).  Anyhow....from that point on the
stories became (to me) incredibly contrived, and the show began to lose its
sense of humor.  Jack and Jenn were separated, Nick, who had previously
done lighter, more romantic/comedic storylines, began freaking out, and
Calliope disappeared.  Bo, for unknown reasons, pledged his undying love to
Carly, forgetting all about Hope.  Their relationship wasn't very romantic,
at least to me, probably due to the lack of chemistry.  And Lawrence's rape
of Jennifer was totally pointless.  The only reason for it was to place
another obstacle between her and Jack.  They destroyed all of Eve's
previous development and put her with Frankie, once again not caring that
the only chemistry there was negative.  But, to get back to Carly...I think
one of the reasons so many of us were offended by the pool table scene is
this.  I don't know about everyone else, but one of the big things I like
in soaps is the romance.  Steve and Kayla were romantic.  Early Justin and
Adrienne were romantic.  Kim and Shane (early) were romantic.  I like
romantic love stories.  So sue me.  But Bo and Carly have been pushed as
the new supercouple of the century.  But there has been no romance or love
evident in their relationship, just constant rutting sex!  The pool table
epitomizes to me the problem here.  TPTB think this is what I, as a viewer
want to see.  And I don't! I want love.  I want romance.  I want adventure.
I want humor.  I want decent actors and stories.  Yes, lots of the stuff
they used to do was unbelievable (Steve and KAyla in the sewer in Stockholm
comes to mind) but what they concentrated on was character development.
The characters grew and were true to themselves.  Now, they change at the
drop of the hat.  There is no development.  There is no growth.  Carly and
Bo's relationship began as a sexual, lustfilled one, and hasn't changed a
bit.  Yet they are the focus of the show.  Meanwhile, other, better actors
are given dumb storylines and ignored. And just as another note on the pool
table incident...not to be too gross here, but lets face it, what they did
involved bodily fluids on felt here.  They had to have ruined that pool
table.  If it had been their own pool table, okay.  But they probably cost
poor Chuck several hundred dollars!  Bo and Carly are very selfish,
juvenile, egotistical, narcissistic characters.  And they are both
dangerous.  Yet TPTB expect us to root for them, to love them.  I think Bo
and Carly show ow out of touch TPTB are with a large segment of the viewing
audience.  Anyhow, I realize this has been long and rambling, and I
apologize (Cory's mom, the drill sergeant :-) forced us to clean house all
day long!).  But I think that some of us hate Crystal/Carly not just as an
individual, but as a symbol.  A symbol of how bad Days has become.  And
that's why some of us are so violent in our hatred.  Maybe the show
wouldn't get any better if she left.  I don't know.  But it seems to me
that crystal gets lots of airtime and drags down everyone she shares the
screen with, so it's hard to imagine things getting worse (knock on wood).
And as Tim says, I admit that I seriously doubt that I would ever approve
of anything Carly ever did, other than commit suicide or put herself in a
position where she was immediately killed.

Signing off to go to bed with less than 48 hours to go!

Senorita Chiquita Rosita la Guavita 
 

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"You can blow out a candle        |      Rose Delckum
 But you can't blow out a fire,   |      rose@cecily.UUCP
 Once the flames begin to catch   |          or
 The wind will blow them higher"  |      uunet!coplex!cecily!rose
             --Peter Gabriel      |
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