I was taking a little break at work late Monday afternoon, scrolling though the Media Domain site, and there it was - actually, there were two - "Finally, Sheesh" and "Finally, Spoiler." I didn't even have to open the posts to know that almost a year-an-a-half after their first kiss seen ‘round the world, As the World Turns' Luke and Noah had finally done the deed.

Historic, yes; milestone, for sure. From a political perspective, this is a huge step forward. So let's give Procter & Gamble, TeleNext and CBS all the credit they deserve for finally (and finally is the operative word here) taking the plunge. But it's been a long time since a morning after left me feeling as empty, disappointed - and yes, sad - as this one. The whole thing had this perfunctory-we're-going-through-the-motions-let's-just-get-it-over-and-done-with-so-these-people-will-shut-up-about-it-already feel to it that says as much about the sorry state of storytelling on ATWT in general, as this storyline in particular.

I watched this episode as I do most on ATWT these days: thinking about the story TPTP could have been telling; filling in the emotional spaces between the plots points - this is what soap writers do when they're actually writing a soap opera instead of racing to see how many storylines they can squander in the shortest period of time. Who knows, maybe there's a prize. So, perhaps it was simply storytelling as usual that the consummation of Nuke's romance was as compressed as a bouillon cube -- and about as satisfying.

And while the fact that the episode came in under the media radar speaks volumes, I'm not entirely sure what's being said. A rating-challenged soap; a groundbreaking event, highly-anticipated for many months that should spike the ratings, and maybe, just maybe, a few of those viewers will stick around. Let's crank up the PR apparatus: send out those press releases; get the editors of Soap Opera Weekly, Soap Opera Digest and Soaps in Depth on the phone; schedule photo shoots for the covers. Wait a minute - maybe not. You know - the gay thing - might offend a few viewers. But what about the ratings spike we'll get? Yeah, I know, but...

As my mother used to say, "Nothing like cutting off your nose to spite your face."

© 2009 Lynn Liccardo

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