When the Last Act Makes You Hold Your Applause

Eh.  The three musical episodes are over and I found the last one to offer the least.  Sure, the first two involved Pat Benatar, The Go-Go's, REO Speedwagon, and Cher, so it's hardly fair to hold the third to the same standards of awesome, but at least it moved some plots forward in big ways.

The sequence of Langston walking in on Ford and Karen was pretty spectacular in execution.  Shall we re-visit?

 

All the hard-to-identify body parts flashing on the screen followed by Langston's look of abject terror had to be the best thing going this afternoon.  Langston later being shocked -- shocked! -- that Ford was "cheating" on her was as soapy as it gets; this from the girl who has left her live-in boyfriend at the prom she brought him to in order to check on the guy she's cheating with to see if he's cheating on her.  Oh, it was juicy watching her buy his excuses because she deserves everything she's got coming to her.  I'm glad they didn't change directions and try to sell Ford/Langston as some sort of actual love story.

And Markko finally found out!  At last!  He was devastated, heartbroken, and full of rhythm.  He expressed his feelings through interpretive dance (if you haven't seen it, trust me on this, you need to).

Other soaps, take note!  Is anyone with me in desperately wanting to see Jax do the same thing on General Hospital when he finds out about Carly's latest romp with Sonny?  What if Lucky had danced at Liz and Nik?

Meanwhile, Brody followed Jess around and Jess followed Cristian around and Cris followed Layla around, and finally proposed to her.  I am thrilled about the proposal, though I worry that marrying off Cris and Layla will move them directly off the canvas.  And that's not cool.  Layla (and her undervalued player Tika Sumpter) stole the show today.

Now, I can't say I understood this particular number (I asked and was told it's a Jordin Sparks song, but that doesn't contextualize this concept here) but who needs to be understood when you look like this?

And then she was feeling so confident that she got a little fresh with Brittany Underwood (Langston) at the end there and grabbed her ass, which was beyond excellent.

Personally, I could've done without seeing Kristen Alderson, who we've been watching since her toddlerhood, wear a dominatrix outfit and grab herself a lot, but I understand that I need to get over it and accept that she's grown up.  (Side note: on www.abc.go.com today, they had Brandon Buddy and Kristen Alderson doing commentary on the episode, and they were adorable the way they acted like they had never seen or known about any of this before!)

I tried to care about Natalie today (who is for some reason pining after a man who she hopes would ditch a woman who just lost his child to go answer her ultimatum), and I tried to care about Marty and John's breakup, and I did not try to care about Starr and Cole.  All these attempts or lack thereof yielded similar results: I didn't care.  They'd clearly decided on a Natalie and John reunion the second they lowered Jared into the ground, so it's hard to invest in any developments here when the end goal is so clear.  I'm dreading it, to be sure, but it is what it is.  Also, since I'm not new, I know that Natalie saw the good-bye kiss and didn't know it was a good-bye kiss and it will be such! a! terrible! misunderstanding! that she goes off and behaves scandalously or self-destructively and.... that cycle.  Snore.  (And what story will they even have for Marty now?  Just yelling at Todd about Cole?)

The Michael Jackson song was cute, but that's about it.  I was let down that they didn't have a big finale -- just a standard-issue montage song that they could've played at the end of any episode.  And I was disappointed that they didn't bring Hannah back for this episode or any of the other folks they have on payroll that could've been great contributions to this musical, but at the end of the day, I'm glad it's over.  I've missed Clint and Bo and Nora.  But on the flip-side, the end of the musical means the return of Rex and Gigi.  Does this mean we won't have to actually watch the Starr X'ed Lovers musical when the high school really "performs" it?

Bittersweet.

Is everyone else glad to see it go?  I thought three episodes was a pretty good number -- not too much, not too little, enough that it stayed a novelty but did not overstay its welcome.  I'll miss the theme song, though.

And with that, Destiny out!

Comments

[Beth R.]

If Lucky had danced at Liz and Nik...I might have bought into the hype! I kinda want to see that version you dreamed up.

[cindy]

I figured that the Marty/John break-up is laying down the groundwork for the inevitable return of Thorsten Kaye since he's no longer at AMC.

[Sandy B]

The musical was okay but I am really glad it is over. I think that three days may have been two days too many. I also hope that Markko just completely loses his shit tomorrow. I want Markko to say awful, hurtful things to Langston and for her to cry like no soap opera character has ever cried before.

Cindy, I do hope that is not the case because there are no words to describe how opposed I am to the possible return of Patrick Thronhart. We just had a return from the dead in Mitch and I think it is a little soon to go there again. Really, what would Patrick do other than write poetry and sneer at Rapey Turd Manning??? I am not sure how others feel about this but I see very little point in bringing this character back to Llanview...unless his only purpose is to go over to Todd's house every single day and punch him square in the testicles!!!

[John]

Tika Sumpter was amazing today. As was the choreography for Jason Tam's dance. I want to know who actually did choreograph that.

I'm really looking forward to the fallout of the Langston/Ford thing. It better be epic.

And lastly, I'm hoping that Brody just gives up on Jess now. I'll take one for the team and cheer him up.

[stace]

Sorry but I found the last three days BRUTAL. My son literally ran out of the room after asking why they didn't use a computer to make them all sound better!

[Louise]

stace, that's a great "out of the mouths of babes" moment! For me, though, I thought they over-used the autotune so most of them sounded kind of... dead and bland. I'm not a fan of the autotune age -- I'd much rather hear bum notes out of a voice with real character than all polished pitch perfection. We got neither with most of this musical, somehow.

[Bourgeois Nerd]

I enjoyed the musical with all its cheesy, awful glory, but, yeah, glad it's over. I'm with you, Louise, that the third day was a bit of a letdown, so Lord only knows what a fourth would have been like.

Since it seems that all talk about Markko's... dance have to be prefaced by saying that JT is very talented (and he is, definitely), I'll say that now, but that was... I still don't know what that was he was doing.

[Lisa]

Stace, I'm with you on the brutal description. I loathed this musical with the heat of a thousand exploding volcanoes. Once I figured that the musical numbers were not moving the story forward, I fast forwarded through all of it. On the bright side, it only took me about ten minutes to watch OLTL and freed up my life for other exciting ventures such as doing laundry and stuff. I hope to holy hell they don't do this again ever.

[LadyBug]

I liked the musical it was fun and carefree...

[Ashlie Dill (Steward)]

I got linked to this from one of the recent GH posts and I want to try about how much I miss OLTL. Sometimes when I'm driving I sing the tune of the opening song to myself and I get weepy.

[Ashlie Dill (Steward)]

wanted to cry!

[Ashlie Dill (Steward)]

ok seriously, last correction attempt WANT TO CRY***