How To Construct A Quality Episode In Three Easy Steps

1. Unify it. Say, have an episode made up entirely of nothing but continuing scenes only in pairs up until the final segment.

2. Don't be afraid not to move the plot along at breakneck speed (even in a sweeps month!). It's okay, you have five days a week, 52 weeks a year. But if you don't move the plot along? Showing us scenes that are just rehashed versions of things we've seen already is repetitive, so why not skip that and get crazy. Try some character development.

Try deepening relationships.

Try putting some characters in a room together who rarely get scenes together -- or never get scenes together!

Try putting Slezak and Strasser in any scene together about anything at all!

3. Leave some people out. Leave a lot of people out. It provides focus. How about: no Fords, no Todd, no Rex, no Gigi, no Starr, no Langston, no Dani.

Simple! One, two, three. In other words, put together a lovely episode about character, points of view, and relationships such as Thursday's very focused, tight, and classic One Life to Live. 

That's it. I'm serious! I'd feel too guilty nitpicking moments in such a nice package. Well done.

Destiny out! (Which might be part of Step 3.)

Comments

[JT]

It's nice that every now and then OLTL takes the time to do the family/friend bonding shows where they each exposit their troubles to one another. It's a nice balance to the drama between characters.

I think it's a clever move to have Tomas be Tea's brother if they do go forward and pick up the ball w/Todd's mystery. He doesn't know Tea is married to Todd yet so I hope things get interesting when he finds out as well as when it becomes known to all parties that Tea & Blair are good friends now (for the moment) and have shared Todd as a husband.

I love that they are making Echo out to be a very layered character. She can be both a loving mother/grandmother and a good friend (as seen in her scenes w/John today) and a very subtle villain/schemer/enemy making the moves on and finally sleeping w/Charlie. She has also been a great catalyst in bringing out the friendship part of Dorian & Vicki's frenemy history.

Joey's idiot line of the day: "Maybe it was just someone who looked like Kelly".

[Ron]

Thank you for mentioning Joey's idiot line about Kelly! No way should Vicki and Clint's kid be this stupid. Of course, that doesn't explain Natalie....

IMO, OLTL is just superb right now - at least when there is a minimum of Fudds on screen. They are using the vets and older actors - like Kim Z. - superbly. The stories are moving along at a good clip. It looks like Kassie de Pavia is finally getting a good storyline of her own. And there is so much they have us wondering about, that each episode is something to anticipate. Much to my surprise, I'm even invested in Natalie's storyline, and that's a first for me.

Bravo to OLTL! And Bravo to Serial Drama for the best coverage/commentary on the web!!

[K]

Excellent episode (though I could have done without Echo and John, personally). Strasser and Slezak were awesome, as usual, complete with a classic hat from the Dorian Lord Collection.

And I am so relieved Tomas is Tea's brother, and even more impressed it didn't take three months of hushed, ambiguous conversations to find out. The thought of a Blair/Tomas/Tea/Todd quadrangle was creeping me out.

[Dawn]

Hands down Dorian and Vicki always have been and always will be the best couple on daytime television.

[annabel]

Also, no Cutter or Aubrey.

[Louise]

Ron, thanks for the Serial Drama love! It's only 'cause we have the smartest and coolest readers on the web...

annabel, you're right! We were blissfully free of those two as well.

[Knope]

I think I like Joey. I've noticed he's fine around everyone but Aubrey. He's not my favorite, but he's someone I don't fast-forward unless he's with Aubrey. I would love to see home scenes of him with Dorian.

My favorite part of the episode was when Natalie and Joey simultaneously looked down at the non-existent hair on their chests. That was cute.

I am officially declaring Tomas and Brody the hottest men on the show. Also, was it just me, or did John and Echo have chemistry?!

[annabel]

Agreed that Joey is tolerable away from Aubrey, but he also needs to not talk about her.

[guilty pleasure]

Why did they hire Ted King to play Tea's brother when TK is not an HISPANIC man at all?!?!?!? Are they possibly going to pair up Dorian and Cutter as a romantic couple? That would be very ICKY since Cutter breifly dated her NIECE Kelly!!!! And a Cutter and Dorian hook-up is more like a rip-off of the Dorian and David pairing from a decade ago!

[LadyBug]

Thursday's episode of OLTL was excellent.

[Dawn]

@guilty pleasure. My mother and I had this EXACT conversation yesterday about TK. He seems to play hispanic quite a bit. Remember Luiz/Lorenzo Alcazar? ;-)

[guilty pleasure]

@Dawn: sorry but I had no idea that the Alcazar Bros. were hispanic latinos!!! but what do you think about Dorian and Cutter? I think Cutter kinda acts like he's gay or bisexual since he have the tendencey to "flame" out his words when he opens his mouth and speaks!

[Hermes]

Web sites frequently shut down after

[Burberry Handbags]

savings from winding down combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.