I haven’t had the desire to write anything about One Life To Live in Months because there hasn’t been much to write about. Ron continues not to use his veteran actors in any meaningful way and he has made the mistake of bringing on a whole slew of newbies to the canvas. It appears that he has the lineup that Brian Frons has been looking for, so at least the head mouse is pleased, and I have to admit that it is somewhat of a fete to have accomplished. The newbies include a mother and her three sons, one for Langston, one for Starr and one for Dani. That is music to Brian Frons’s ears? “Teeeeeeens, Glorious Teeeeeeeens” is the tune Frons has been singing since he took over as the head of Daytime TV. The Ford boys are the answer to his prayer. Too bad the viewers don’t see it the same way, but that has been the problem for years. There is a huge disconnect between the Idiots In Charge and the audience. TIIC believe that they can train viewers to accept what they give them. The result has been thousands of viewers turning off their televisions and walking away for good.
Ron introduced a character named, Ford briefly last summer. He brought him back, supposedly because the audience response to him was positive. So what did Ron do? He made Ford a repulsive misogynistic womanizer, but now, he is trying to re-train the audience so that they like Ford who actually has a first name, “Bobby”, (Ford just sounded too cold, too distant, which was what Ford was for months). Ron had to go back to the Todd Manning Manual on “Redemption”, Chapter One to redeem Ford. Rule Number One, Blame everything on an abusive father and the mother who walked out on the abusive son of a bitch, leaving the son (or sons) behind to take the brunt of the father’s abuse. I mean, it worked for a rapist, right? Why shouldn’t it work on Ford, “Bobby” Ford that is? Ford has been a lean sex machine, since he came to Llanview, having sex with young girls for his pleasure and then discarding them without a thought. Ford’s major conquest was Langston, Dorian Lord’s adoptive daughter. His goal was to seduce Langston, not just to have sex with her, but to humiliate Langston’s long time boyfriend, Markko as well. Ford succeeded in doing that. Ford also so seduced Viki’s emotionally imbalanced daughter, Jessica, who is now pregnant. He’s a pretty scummy dude, but it’s all because of his mother.
The second son in this un-holy trinity is James, who kidnapped Starr Manning after her graduation ceremony. At least he waited, right! That actually went over pretty big since Starr’s current boyfriend was behind bars for beating her daddy’s ass pretty good. Some Todd Manning fans love him and they are eating up the James and Starr relationship with a very large spoon. Why might this be good for the show? Well, it seems that bad-boy James Ford brings out the bad girl in Starr and that’s a side of her personality that has been missing far too long. James redemption for kidnapping Starr came when Starr shot him.
The third son needs no redemption as he was introduced before the other brothers showed up. He is a good boy who loves his mother. Nate is dating Dani. Dani is also the daughter of Todd Manning.
The problem is that Dani is new also.
Then there is Inez. She is presented as a hard working, long suffering woman who has been dedicated to her son Nate his entire life. Well, it turns out that she is also the mother of two other sons, the sons she left behind with their abusive father. Because she was abused by him as well, she fled for her life when she was pregnant with little Nate.
That about sums it all up. Too many newbies in the soup is a recipe for indigestion.
