All My Children: The Moment of Truth Edition

Wow, someone seems to have slipped some veritaserum in the Pine Valley water supply, because yesterday's episode was chock full of quotes that exhibit a shocking sense of self-awareness on the part of some of the show's more, shall we say, annoying characters. It was sort of refreshing to hear people fully admit to the flaws we've all been screaming about for months.

(The fact that Ryan, Annie, Babe and a non-dream sequence Greenlee were not part of the episode is no coincidence; I can only imagine that all four characters expired rather than make any statements contrary to their "Who rules? I rule" mantra)

Krystal: Look, I know I've made mistakes with Babe that I will regret for the rest of my life...

She practically admitted to having a profoundly bad influence on her daughter's life by keeping her in close to proximity to her skewed view of morality and twisted view of sex. Granted, she did it in a vague, roundabout way that gave absolutely no detail as to how she made mistakes with Babe and, in all honesty, it is entirely plausible that her idea of screwing her child up is not telling Babe enough how awesome she is, but I prefer to give her the benefit of the doubt, because I am in a generous mood.

Confession Time: Krystal and Adam are not...it's like...they...they're not bothering me, okay? I don't know what's come over me. I really don't like Krystal and I resent the way that Adam has been demonized over the past few months to make Krystal and Tad look like upstanding citizens, but their renewed feelings for each other are sort of not terrible. Granted, my feelings of positivity may be colored by the fact that the rest of the show is so bad, but I really, really like the way that David Canary and Bobbie Eakes work with each other and I wish the character of Krystal wasn't anything like, um, the way that she is so that I could enjoy them with no misgivings.

Ava: I'm -- I'm the world's biggest idiot

Yes! I am delighted that she's finally caught on.

I think Ava has outstayed her welcome. Yeah, she's only been on the show for a few months, but that's plenty of time for me to realize that she has no redeeming qualities. I had gone on record saying how I enjoyed Leven Rambin in the Lily/Ava dual roles but I was wrong. She's not as, I don't know, on when she plays Lily anymore. I guess it's probably hard to routinely play two characters and you have to be incredibly skilled to sustain the differences in the two characters and she's not quite there yet. I recently saw a repeat of Law & Order: The One With Mariska Hargitay where she guest starred and I was really blown away by how limited she really is. Her character was pretty much a rich version of Ava. And Ava pretty much sucks.

Tad: Let's try this again. I was a jackass

I want that line to be my ringtone, you guys. It made me so happy. It could have only made me happier if he went on to describe himself as a self-righteous, lying, murdering, hypocritical jackass, but beggars can't be choosers.

Of course, he shot that to shit by telling Hannah

Tad: Men like Adam, Alexander -- they're put on this planet to ruin lives. It's what they do best.

I know that Adam tried to sell Jenny on the black market, but he gave up on that plan pretty quickly. He doesn't have NEARLY as much in common with Alexander Cambias as someone else does. A certain, doctor-burying-alive-letting the love of his life stand on trial for his crime someone else.

Okay, so he's not actually that self-aware and his one moment of self-awareness was aiding him in flirting with Hannah (who, seriously, could not possibly be more boring) and he still has no idea how obnoxious he is, but I had to commit the immortal "I was a jackass" line for posterity.

Comments

[DarylE]

I have never liked Ava and this week's Lily scenes .. the hospital supply closet as well as the scene in Richie's hospital room ... were just poorly acted. Its time for Ava to leave town and take Lily with her.

[annabel]

Hmm, I FFed through most of yesterday's show, since I have no use at all for Tad and even less for Hannah and dislike Krystal to the point that I not only refuse to watch her, regardless of who she's with, I refuse to watch any scenes that take place in that awful bar of hers even if she's not around. So thanks for the quotes.

[Becky]

For whatever reason, AMC is a day behind in my viewing area, so this is what will happen today on AMC for me. Hmmm...as much as I agree with your opinions on all other shows, we part ways on several AMC characters.

I feel about Adam the way you feel about Tad. Let's see - Adam locked Stuart up in the mansion for years, tried to gaslight both Dixie and Liza, hired someone to shoot Palmer, kidnapped Erica, Jenny(and others), blackmailed Erica, Leo and others. That's just a partial list of his crimes.

And there are a few more characters that I would like to see some self awareness from, namely, Kendall, Erica and Zach. Those three are supremely self-righteous and hypocritical.

I have to agree on Ava though. It was a good idea, but it's just not working.

[Beth R.]

Perhaps AMC's Awesome Writer is taking notes from the Awesome Writer at GH and more will follow?

Hey if Monica can disown Jason finally and call down Sonny and not be immediately struck dead? There is hope for the verbal smackdown of truth on Ryan and Babe yet!

I live and die in delusional optismism....I really do.

[Jes]

And to think I used to like Tad. Ok, so that was when I actually watched the show, when I was about eight years old. I'm glad I'm not watching now to see what he's become. Adam was always the best character on the show.

[Cece]

While Tad's actions with Greg Madden were uncharacteristic, you have to remember that wasn't his fault, but the fault of horrible writing. We all suspected Zach would bury the bad-doctor alive. It's in his DNA to be cruel -- for a reason. Tad, however, has never done anything as awful as that. The writers were trying to shock, but what they ended up doing was repulsing viewers. For this reason, Tad will never pay for what happened to Greg Madden, unless Josh actually finds out, which is highly unlikely. Plus, doesn't Josh know that Zach knew about Greg's early burial? And look at those two. They're bosom buddies. So, no, Tad will never pay because there was a change of the guard at AMC who are trying to get the show back on track, albeit horribly.