Passions Problem #3: Sheridan's Death....AGAIN
 
 

I've been watching soaps long enough to know that stories are repeated.

But, rarely, if ever, have I seen the SAME STORY REPEATED WITHIN A YEAR!

I have to wonder if ANYONE in NBC Daytime actually had ANY experience in Daytime. Couldn't ANYONE with sense, see that repeating THE SAME STORY within a YEAR is a BAD IDEA?

LAST YEAR at this time, Sheridan was dead. We were forced to live with the stupid Sheridan buried alive story, which undercut a great deal of the Sheridan/Luis love story. Unlike others, I didn't enjoy this story in the least, because a lot of genuine emotional problems that Sheridan and Luis should have had (Luis dealing with Sheridan's lying about the Ethan/Theresa mess, the ridiculous badge toss, etc), and we were given that hokey 'down from Heaven' mess.

Well, fast forward a year.

What do we have?

Another death with Sheridan. But, this one makes less sense than last years. At least with last year's, they did try to link it to the drug dealer plot that had been going on since the beginning of the show.

This year, we had Alistair Crane decide that his daughter had to die. Not because she had uncovered some deep dark secret. But, so she wouldn't marry Luis and he couldn't get close to the Cranes.

HUH?

Excuse me. Alistair owns the Crane Estate, he could easily kick Sheridan off of the land the minute she marries Luis. As well as double, if not triple security around the Crane Vault.

They never came up with a REASON why Sheridan had to die, and because the initial premise of it was so weak, well the rest of the story was equally as lame.

Shuis fans were insulted further with the moronic double wedding plot-device, which had nothing to do with Shuis, who soon became bit players in their own wedding.

So, now Sheridan 'died', and we had to suffer through once again, Luis' grief.

Not only was it repetitive, but, it made no sense.

Sheridan survived a direct explosion? Huh? Not a mark on her? Huh?

Ridiculous.

We had SEEN Luis grieve. We had seen all the rest of them grieve Sheridan before. WHY do it again?

If they had made Liz, Doc and Brian out to be grifters, who found out about Sheridan's identity, and were making sure she didn't try and find out who she is...THAT would be a plot twist.

As it is, we're supposed to believe that Sheridan hasn't spoken to ANY law enforcement about her being lost. The inaction on her part to solve her own past is just symptomatic of how they've done Sheridan in the past year. The quintessential Sheridan moment was her standing there, looking at a BOMB, and yelling for Luis.....

DUH!

What? She couldn't do anything for herself? She couldn't get the hell out of there and try and warn Luis too? She couldn't take an offensive stand in defense of her OWN life? Had she forgotten how to stand up for herself since she got together with Luis?

Man, she looked pathetic in that moment, which should have been an indication as to how this entire story was going to go.

People say that the point was to introduce Brian, Liz and Doc. Maybe it was, but, I still think that they could have gone about it better.

Has JER been desperate to have Shuis involved in one of his farcical triangles, that he's had with Ethan/Theresa and Miguel/Charity?

I have news for him: no triangle worked with Hank #1, or NotHank, BECAUSE THE STORY WAS NEVER WRITTEN. It's downright insulting to think that Dalton WAS fired, because he wasn't a 'hunk', and that they actually thought by changing Hank to a 'model/hunk', then suddenly, the audience would think that there was actually a 'triangle' there. Umm....I don't think so, because the story WAS NEVER WRITTEN. The CHARACTER of Sheridan is NOT a 'torn between two loves' kind of gal. (Ooops, I'm going back to character-based storytelling in my thinking).

She has ALWAYS been loyal to a fault. If a man got her heart, then he had it, until he revealed himself to be a jerk (like Jean-Luc). She doesn't do 'torn'.

So, you can't set up a triangle with the point of contention being someone who can't be torn. IF they wanted to do a triangle with Shuis, it SHOULD HAVE BEEN done with BETH. The long-time girlfriend, and first love in Beth vs. the 'true love' of Sheridan. Luis was never a man who took his commitments lightly, and it would have been a good story to see him torn between something he expected and something he didn't think could ever happen. I've read fanfics which make this scenario very real, so, don't tell me it couldn't happen on the show.

And, IF they had done this story, you could use the 'eternal love' angle of Sheridan/Luis to further sell them.

Now, we had the non-issue of Hank, and now, this ridiculousness of Brian. Brian, who fell in love without Sheridan even uttering a word. This isn't like Theresa, who was a child going after her obsession that she had made up over time, this was a grown man, who, if he was serious, was a little 'off'. I guess they figured people weren't buying this crap, so they brought up Tabitha's curse, thus letting him off the hook for his ridiculous behavior. The 'curse' excuse is an example of weak writing. Does that mean that those of us who are Shuis Fans, and even Passions Fans, will be stuck watching Brian in his own Hamster Wheel story like Kay and Gwen, doomed to be chained to a story in which they have no chance of being a full participant, thus wasting them for other stories in which they could shine?

I hope not. For if Brian IS Antonio, I expected more from that character, than to be sloppy thirds to Sheridan and Luis.

What angers me about Sheridan and Luis, is that they have enough natural conflict within their own personalities, and families, so that they could have natural stories for themselves, without Sheridan being killed every few months. It's lasy and bad writing.

IF as we suspect, Sheridan/Luis will get a 'Christmas Miracle', will anyone care? Will we sense that this is THEIR hamster wheel, and that we can't trust that the story will PROGRESS?

When an audience can't trust that the story will PROGRESS, it undermines the basic fundamentals of soap viewer watching. And, it begins to beg the question, " WHY should I even watch?", which should be the ONE thing anyone in television doesn't want to hear.