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Post by Hawthorne on Aug 17, 2014 21:08:42 GMT -5
Thanks, Mark! This appears to be the point where Noud first starts getting drawn into Lucas' situation. I like that Noud is sensitive to what's going on with Lucas and notices that something is wrong. Noud's part in the story is what makes me able to watch it really. I cling to it like a shipwreck survivor clings to a piece of floating debris.
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Post by Hawthorne on Aug 17, 2014 10:00:12 GMT -5
Next season I hope Lucas doesn't get portrayed as being as hapless as he was this past season. Almost everything he said or did this season reflected poorly on him. Everything he touched turned to crap. He was an immature screw-up all season long. It used to be that Lucas was always the smartest person in the room. He was the one who saw through everyone's bs and called them out on it.
When he gets back from New York, I'm hoping we see a stronger, more mature Lucas. A good story line would be him being there for Noud just as Noud was there for him. I want to see him having a positive, assertive presence and not being a victim. I'd love to see him being more of a Sanders and being a match for Ludo's scheming instead of being afraid of Ludo. I want to see him outwitting his opponents.
On the romance front, I hope Lucas meets a sweet guy his own age. I'd love to see a romance that develops naturally instead of one that's forced together quickly for plot purposes as it was with Menno. I'm not going to miss Menno, that's for sure.
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Post by Hawthorne on Aug 15, 2014 15:54:16 GMT -5
Thanks, Mark! I can't wait until we get to the part where Noud gets involved.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jul 20, 2014 7:59:51 GMT -5
Lucas sure finds himself in some tough circumstances at the tail end of this season.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jul 16, 2014 12:20:12 GMT -5
Thanks, Mark! Really good acting in those scenes, especially from Ferry.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jul 15, 2014 13:04:31 GMT -5
First, I want to thank lies for those translations. That was very kind. Second, welcome back, Mark! I am jealous that you got to work with Ruud, but also very happy for you. Just remember that he's mine and we'll be fine.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jun 27, 2014 21:08:58 GMT -5
Congrats to Chandler! He is too talented an actor to not be doing any roles. Is he really going to stay a full time student?
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Post by Hawthorne on Jun 21, 2014 22:19:01 GMT -5
Here are some more pictures from Noud and Lucas' "date." It wasn't really a date, of course. Lucas and Noud are not headed towards a romance. Nor will they ever be, I think, since Noud is 100% straight. I'm OK with that. I love their friendship. Neither one has a brother and I think they've sort of become each other's brother. It definitely feels like more of a family connection between them now than just two guys who are buddies. Noud really sets a great example of how a straight guy can be close to a gay guy. Noud doesn't relate at all to any of the gay aspects of Lucas' life, but he wholly accepts Lucas. The only way there could be a romance between Noud and Lucas is if they made some big changes to the character of Noud and that would be a shame since he's so wonderful as he is. Noud and Lucas attend a Jersey Boys rehearsal with Rikki and Wiet. Apparently Noud intends it as a surprise for Lucas. Lucas is surprised and thrilled since he's a big fan. Lots of smiles and enjoyment - a rarity on GTST. Lucas says something that suggests he doesn't consider things are over with Menno. Noud isn't happy to hear that. (Not because he wants Lucas for himself, but because of what Menno has done.) There is actually a lot of intimacy between Noud and Lucas in this episode. They're both relishing their friendship. This episode was created with people like me in mind. Lucas buys Noud a drink and pays him an enormous compliment. Noud is flattered in a cute, embarrassed way. Sweet scene. Lucas actually sings in this episode. He does a brief passage of a song with the cast of Jersey Boys. Unlike in an episode from a previous season where Ferry portrayed Lucas as being a terrible singer, this time Ferry lets loose with his own voice and sounds great. Noud enjoys it. Some of the love songs being rehearsed make Lucas think of his own romantic situation and he feels sad. Noud recognizes this. Latter on Lucas makes Noud think he's about to kiss him on the mouth... ...but instead kisses him on the cheek. They both have a good laugh at this. Foreshadowing? Probably not. So actually ... it is kind of a date - a friendship date. They are special to each other and I'm glad that their relationship has been reinforced within the show.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jun 19, 2014 7:34:01 GMT -5
Some screen captures from the story: Menno's anger at Lucas goes off the scale. Noud can't believe what he's witnessing. Later that evening Noud hears intense violence happening in Lucas and Menno's room. Menno's reaction to beating Lucas. Noud begins paying close attention to what's going on between Lucas and Menno. Menno realizes that Noud is a threat. Lucas collapses and is attended to by Janine and - of all people - Ludo. He tells everyone his injury is from an accident he had in the gym. A weird and ironic moment. Lucas is in the hospital to have his wound from Menno's beating looked at by... Anton, who beat him far worse a few years earlier. Noud knows what's going on, but can't get anything but denials and lies from Lucas. Nina sees through Lucas' lies and realizes Noud's concerns are well-founded. Janine is shocked by what Noud tells her. Noud, Lucas and his family confront Menno. Noud is horrified by Lucas' wounds. Noud keeps Menno away from Lucas. I like this image because in addition to Noud's fury at Menno we see how pained and upset he is at what's happened to Lucas. After Menno is gone Lucas and Noud go on a date where they confess their love for each other. OK, I made that part up. I don't know what they said to each other in this episode actually, but it could have been that, right?
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Post by Hawthorne on Jun 18, 2014 17:08:47 GMT -5
Yeah, the very mature and sophisticated way the show treated Menno is unusual - at least from my American perspective. Even after they'd witness some horrifying things Menno did to Lucas, both Noud and Janine treat Menno with surprising compassion in later scenes. He's viewed as a person with an illness that can potentially be treated. That reveals a big difference between Dutch culture and other cultures, I think. The same story presented on a U.S. show would portray Menno in a much more black and white way. He'd be portrayed as a monster pure and simple and while some hints about why he was that way might be allowed, they wouldn't be explored and the emphasis would be on Menno getting punished, not treated. The U.S. version of the story would likely conclude with Noud, who naturally has a concealed weapon permit, whipping out his handgun and blowing Menno away as he's about to strike Lucas again.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jun 18, 2014 13:38:28 GMT -5
Yes, LadyArmand, this story is done MUCH better than the one on Holly Oaks. It might be my very Noud-centric viewpoint that made me view the story as "Noud rescues Lucas." That is the aspect of the story that drew my interest and focus and probably made it easier for me to deal with seeing Lucas suffer so badly. I do think Noud has a heroic role in the story. It's his alertness and intervention that puts an end to the horrible abuse Lucas was enduring. I'm curious about how others see it.
I don't think Lucas being annoying means he's to blame for the abuse, but it did portray how Menno devolved from being a highly respectable, high integrity person to being a bully. I think the writers wanted to explore the issue of blame. Menno found Lucas highly annoying. Frankly, Lucas was very immature and annoying all season. His thoughtless immaturity created a tangled mess of sh*t that all came raining down on Menno, eventually making Menno lose his job, which he loved. Until the moment when Menno first hit Lucas, Lucas was the one at fault, the one who had a LOT to make up for. But once Menno crossed that line and hit Lucas, everything changed. I think the writers wanted the audience to find Lucas annoying and be disgusted by his childish, reckless behavior (I know I was) and then pull the rug out from beneath them by having Menno cross the line and scramble all their assumptions.
It happens a lot unfortunately that the victim gets blamed in situations involving abuse. Why this is so, I'm not sure. Perhaps people are conditioned to look down on weakness. With this story line, I think the writers played a game with the audience. They set the audience up so that they were all disgusted with the mess irresponsible Lucas had created for mature, responsible public servant, Menno, then forced them to abruptly re-evaluate what they were thinking/feeling. They wanted to show how nobody deserves such awful abuse even if they have been behaving in a less than acceptable way. It's a difficult balancing act when writing. This is what puts GTST above the other soaps because you just don't get writing with that kind of subtlety and complexity on the other soaps.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jun 18, 2014 11:34:52 GMT -5
In all fairness, very few soap characters are meant for happiness. The path the story of Lucas and Menno has taken is disappointing in some ways, yes, and difficult to get into, but I think the show had good intentions. Spouse abuse is a big problem and people generally don't think about it happening with gay couples. But it does. I imagine the writers weighed the downside of having Lucas take a beating yet again versus the benefit of telling this story and decided to tell it anyway. With Menno becoming abusive, at least now we can understand why the writers have made Lucas so immature and annoying all season long - it was to push Menno over the edge and create the abusive relationship drama. And there is a LOT of drama in the scenes that Mark has yet to translate.
So lately I've been catching up on all the episodes and have finally finished. My Dutch is not very good, but I can often figure out generally what is being discussed in the scenes. I think the story is worth being told and worth viewing. I hope Mark eventually subs the remaining episodes. The difficult part is that Lucas does get badly beaten a few times. But there's a flip side - an up side - to the story, which is that it is just as much a story about how Noud rescues Lucas from this bad situation. It's very uplifting seeing Noud be such a true and caring friend. For Loud fans like myself, this makes the story VERY watchable because first of all we gets TONS of Lucas-Noud scenes and also this is the most dramatic presentation yet of just how strong their friendship is and how very, very much Noud cares about Lucas. It's the biggest story line the two have had together since Lucas' first season and I have to admit that because of that I love it.
Another good aspect of the story is the acting. Ferry, Ruud and Dave do a FANTASTIC job in some very tough scenes - especially Ferry, who has to portray all the layers of fear, heartbreak, sorrow and anxiety. I thought the writers did a good job of portraying what it's like to be trapped in an abusive relationship - to live in fear of the person you paradoxically love. I know most of us would have preferred to see Lucas in a loving relationship, but at least GTST is avoiding all the boring blandness that DOOL has created for Will and Sonny. TV shows are about drama and this story does generate quite a lot of very well done drama.
In a day or so I'm going to post a pictorial montage with commentary that visually portrays the scenes that Mark hasn't had time to get to. If you're a Loud fan, I think you'll really enjoy it.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jun 5, 2014 2:26:29 GMT -5
I've been taking a break from soap operas. Now I think I want to catch up. Let's see... where were we? Lucas had just gotten married and is probably set for a long spell of uneventful happiness with the perfect husband...
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Post by Hawthorne on Apr 11, 2014 16:29:59 GMT -5
The wedding was done much better than I expected. Caroline's speech was especially good. Days frequently gets the big moments right, I think. It's the span in-between where things tend to fall flat. In any case, they have certainly shown that they are committed to the characters and to gay equality. I remember when Days first brought Sonny on to be Will's love interest only to almost immediately shelve that story line for a year. Then Will's ridiculous coming out story where his best friend was gay and gorgeous yet he somehow never noticed him. For a long time I had my doubts about whether Days had the courage to do a gay romance. When they did finally put Will and Sonny together, it almost seemed as if they were pressured to do so by the fans. But since then, Days has been pretty committed to doing the story right. I'm sure the political events happening in society at large have helped them feel as comfortable as they are with the story line. It's been a remarkable last few years for gay equality.
I don't know if Will and Sonny will now be consigned to a boring background role. That's certainly a danger. With a little inventiveness, though, the writers should be able to keep (make) them interesting. We'll see...
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Post by Hawthorne on Mar 14, 2014 0:38:04 GMT -5
I predict Sami is going to be disappointed when she finds out Abigail is pregnant with EJ's baby.
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Post by Hawthorne on Feb 18, 2014 3:22:46 GMT -5
I'm glad the actors are excited and their fans will be exited and the show is being progressive and all, but there was nothing in that article that tells me they will be *interesting*. They are still supporting players with no actual storyline. Much like their entire relationship, once they are married, they'll be that happy couple everybody wishes they could be. Zzzzzzz..... Sonny has the potential to become a darker character. If I was writing for the show, I'd try to make Wilson interesting by having Sonny discover his inner Kiriakis. Perhaps with all the danger always swirling around Will and Ari he could become a little heavy handed in the way he tries to protect them.
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Post by Hawthorne on Feb 12, 2014 17:46:35 GMT -5
Guy's scenes with Deidre really work. I'm finally starting to see Guy as Will. He's doing a more convincing impression of someone in love, I'd say. I get a real sense of how deeply he feels it for Sonny.
Remember all the incessant fretting about how Sonny was just an appendage and probably on the verge of being written out? Seems like ancient history now. I love how Sonny has become so central.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 29, 2014 5:16:53 GMT -5
That's pretty impressive to have a band as famous as the BSBs perform at your wedding. On the flip side of that, quite a comedown for the BSBs from selling out Madison Square Garden to doing weddings. During his stay in Meerdijk, I sure hope Stefano gets involved in a more interesting story than the story of Lorena chasing after him. This thing where Nina is in love with Vincent, not knowing that he's her cousin, while Maxime anxiously observes their growing bond has been going on forever, it seems. Let's have the big reveal already! It's pretty presumptuous and even condescending, I think, for Rikki to think that now that it's over with Tim, she'll just take Sjoerd back - as if dumping him for his brother wouldn't change how he feels about her. She's viewing Sjoerd as a possession that she can just pick up again from where she discarded him. I can't wait until she finds out about Sjoerd and Wiet. I have a feeling, though, that news of what happened to Rik will make Wiet and Sjoerd keep it secret for awhile longer. It seems I had sort of a mixed reaction to the episode... Beyond looking happy and smooching occasionally, Lucas and Menno weren't really the focus of the episode much. I did like Janine's speech, though, and the mention of Edwin. A scene between Lucas and Bianca or maybe Lucas and Sjoerd about Edwin would have been nice before the wedding. Or maybe Lucas visiting Edwin's grave the day before. That would have been really touching.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 26, 2014 18:51:10 GMT -5
Thanks, Mark! That must have been a lot of work. I thought it was a great wedding. I was confused about why Stefano was performing it. Is he a magistrate? Also, I couldn't help but notice that Ludo wasn't there. I guess that relationship, such as it was, hasn't been repaired yet. I didn't quite get the woman doing aerial acrobatics to deliver the rings. Is that a Dutch tradition? Too bad the wedding scenes kept cutting away to Rik having a heart attack. So Rik has died? I'm confused. Maybe it's his turn for a coma. Probably Aysen gave him something to cause a heart attack. I'm going to have to go back and look.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 22, 2014 21:24:38 GMT -5
You're awesome, Mark! About Meno's secret: I sure hope it is connected to a child. That could actually be fun, but Menno's expression when he was looking in the mirror suggested something pretty grave. Perhaps he had a child who died and that's why he overreacted when Lucas mentioned getting a child. Roel wanted to know if things had been better since Menno had been in Meerdijk - as if a change of location is something that could have helped it. That does suggest Menno experienced a great emotional blow and was perhaps suffering bouts of depression. That also could explain why Menno would be so attracted to Lucas' zest for life and fun factor. I'm curious about whether Menno's brother, Roel, is just a vehicle to enable us to learn of Menno's secret or whether he's going to stick around for a role in the story of Menno's secret. I got a bit of a weird vibe from Roel. Perhaps he's been doing something to Menno like slipping him some poison. That would also explain why Menno's been better since he's been in Meerdijk away from him. If Menno starts experiencing his problem again now that Roel is around, that could be a clue... With this show, whenever a guest character is introduced, there's a 70% chance that he or she is a psycho.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 18, 2014 2:36:14 GMT -5
Thanks, Mark! Those are great scenes with Lucas and Nina.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 16, 2014 21:51:56 GMT -5
I was sure he'd say yes. I suspect he will in the near future. I appreciated the bed scene. It still fills me with joy that scenes like that now occur on U.S. mainstream network shows. Sometimes you have to pause and just marvel at the progress that has been made.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 16, 2014 17:33:06 GMT -5
So Lucas is welcome at the Sanders mansion again?
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 15, 2014 21:25:35 GMT -5
Hmm... I wonder what Will's answer will be... I agree that getting married is not going to make them more interesting, at least in the long run. In the short term, though, at least they'll have a story that's focused on them. That kiss was not bad. I'm sure Guy was aware he had to make an impression. I'm still having a hard time seeing Guy as Will. I can also see why the show wanted to do the recast before the proposal. Would make it doubly hard for viewers if they did the transition during the run-up to the wedding. (They should have given Chandler some advanced warning, of course, though.) I can't stand the whole keeping Nick's death a secret story. It's just too stupid. I did like Sami's line about how EJ had to "plug the Abigail leak." Ha-ha! I'd like to see T start pursuing Abigail and winning her over slowly. That would at least be enjoyable.
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Post by Hawthorne on Jan 15, 2014 20:38:08 GMT -5
If I lived in Meerdijk, I would never get married or go to anybody else's wedding. Too hazardous to your health. Probably a train derails during the ceremony and floods the area with toxic gas. We'll have to wait until Monday to find out who survives.
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