Mourning Sickness – plot or ploy, it’s just sad
July 1, 2009 by admin
Filed under Entertainment, TV
Oy vey! GL, did you really do it? Is Natalia really pregnant? I would love to win a fabulous dinner off my partner, but I admit it would be bittersweet. Yes, I bet her an expensive dinner at the restaurant of our choice that Natalia was going to end up pregnant with the Frank-furter’s baby. I called the old soap ploy from the first inkling of the suggestion; Nat throws up. I hope I am wrong, but all indications for now point to a knocked up Nat.
I’m usually pretty savvy that way because I have been a lesbian more years than I will publicly admit. I’ve seen a multitude of attempts at trying to portray my life, but sadly, they always come up just a little bit wanting…as in wanting less cliché, wanting fewer platitudes, and wanting more than a few crumbs thrown my way. As a result, my first inclination is to jump to the obvious conclusion, but I have to ask myself have you planned it this way?
I admit am skeptical that once this boulder is in motion there is little force to stop its Newtonian progress. There are rumors about false positives and “pregnant doesn’t always mean baby”…well, I think the latter is disingenuous and opens a Pandora’s box of controversy with this character. A false positive is something I gave little consideration considering Proctor & Gamble would never allow one of it’s well place products to come up short in accuracy. I gave it little consideration until yesterday when Natalia picked up the aptly disguised “OPT” box. There is no OPT, just a very cleverly and legally defensible transformation of a competitor’s product. Is this a cheap ploy to ramp the rhetoric of a marginalized community and check the temperature of its fever pitch? Pregnant or pregnant ploy, how is either one of these plot devices loyal to the representative narrative you set in motion?
I am the biggest cynic south of the stratosphere, but I have to give you credit. This storyline began beautifully. I even called the label-less approach genius as we could apply our own labels according to life’s lessons learned. The slow, quiet build was a traditional soap ploy that worked. It gave us time to buy in with little preconceived notion…even those of us who resisted for so long couldn’t deny there was something there, something different.
What happened? That glacial soap movement soon turned into something just short of continental drift. OTALIA became the melodramatic Pangaea. De-sexualizing this couple out of whatever corporate pressure you are under anesthetized the pace. And now you are impregnating or simulating the impregnation of Natalia as a logistical answer to Jessica’s maternity leave? I cannot begin to tell you how many ways that is insulting whether plot or ploy, but I can offer you a few suggestions on how an alternative would bring about a better result and a happier ever after…especially since this thing is a wrap in a month. Who knows, this is a soap, and things change. Depending on which way the public or corporate wind blows, Natalia could wake up from a very bad dream of failed pregnancy tests and soap fan blow-back.
Ok, why not have a little fun, shall we? It’s healthier than ranting about how pathetic another stereotypical and trite, pregnant, lesbian couple, that can’t stand alone as an independent family unit, is portrayed on TV.
4-Week Arc Suggestions Better Than Pregnancy
Kidnapping – Blake and Doris concoct a scheme of misadventure to create Doliva and Nake, their very own portmanteau.
A coma – Father Ray is the Prince of Darkness and sucks the life out of Natalia. He’s got a good start; just allow this over-bearing element of the storyline to continue to suck for the next month.
Buried alive – Natalia gets wrapped up in one of those huge scarves and is stuck in her closet for a month.
A fat farm – Considering the only cooking going on between Nat and Olivia is limited to what comes out of the cookie pan, Natalia needs more hiking.
Demon possession – It’s not quite as trite as lesbian pregnancy and it gives Father Ray just one more reason to damn Natalia to hell.
Cloned – No, that would ultimately create an Olivia sandwich, and since they can limit the eats to only cookies, then CBS would never go for that.
Unexplained Illness – IDK-itis manifests as a four-week blank stare.
Now, these are only a few suggestions quickly thrown together by a non-professional. I realize the point is probably moot now the Frank-n-bun is baking, but come on how long did it take you to sit in a room and come up with pregnancy? I just can’t fathom how even a potentially pregnant OTALIA would fit into the deserved ideal of canceled happily ever after.
While I share your feelings on this story direction, I’m trying not to miss what they are giving us. This week we saw Natalia passionately defend her feelings to Father Ray (making the right decision, not the easy one), Olivia discussed their coming out plans with phillip (mention forseeing frat boy reactions at BBQ). I truly appreciate these moments.
I’m not saying that if Natalia is pregnant I won’t be disappointed, because i will. If this is a ploy, were they really trying to get this reaction from fans? its definitely delivering a roller coaster ride.
Sarah, I agree completely, and I have to ask if those moments with Father Ray and Phillip, and the other subtle positive messages would have been missed or deemed inconsequential if we weren’t so busy reading the fine print on pregnancy tests? Thanks for the comment, and let the conversation begin…
The fat farm paticularly stands out to me as a winner. For me and Nat! Every time the girls have resorted to making “cookie-woopie,” I’ve broken out the Oreos. Forget P&G, NabisCo should be the sponsor. But I digress.
Here are a couple of other ideas to explain the maternity leave:
1. Nat writes her own book and goes on a 4-week publicity tour to promote her title: “Strange Love: How I Learned to stop Worrying and love the Blonde” (okay that’s going way back and some of you have no idea what it means.).
2. Nat has to go into witness protection for a few weeks to hide from nasty evildoers. Perhaps she cold do a cameo on In Plain Sight for the heck of it.
Okay, this is good therapy…let’s hear some other ideas.
LMAO Kerry! Agree with you too Sarah. Like the fun that mindschmootz is creating here.
Kerry—I like In Plain Sight as even with suitcases, bushes, coffee pots, walls, shawls, blenders, and puffy coats JL’s pregnancy has been In Plain Sight.
Now in ultimate form of flattery “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is being paralleled in daytime with “The Deflating of Natalia Rivera”
i’m back with my suggestions now….
1. natalia finds out her dad died (like in Wonko’s Crossroads fanfic). We know nothing of her backstory. there are many variations with people from her past needing her.
2. Nat takes Rafe to college to get settled for summer classes before freshman year. Would get RAGE out of the way too.
3. Natalia goes to set up the new beacon franchise location. Olivia can’t go because of Emma or something.
OR…maybe GL will truly surprise us in a way that makes us glad they told it exactly like they did. Its still possible.
Big, fat WORD to everything you wrote! Whether this will turn out to be plot or ploy, it is such a letdown that they are even going there. And the fact that this story started out so amazingly makes it even harder to bear as I am left with all too clear visions of what could have been had TPTB shown just a little more care or guts. They can call it label-less all they want, this story just died the mandatory death by double standard that killed all the lesbian storylines I’ve ever seen on American TV. Props to CC and JL for hanging in there, I am sure they’ll make it watchable to the bitter end, but I am not sure anymore I want to follow them there. Shame.
Ummm… just WOW! Another great take on all things Otalia. You never cease to amaze me! Thanks!!!
BRILLIANT! From thoughtful to comedic analysis of this OTALIA phenom. BTW, “Buried alive” is the winner pitch.
I do see where you’re coming from, but de-sexualizing? With those two, it’s not possible! Anyway, I still have my fingers crossed it will all work out – somehow!
I agree with everything you wrote especially the part about the multitude of attempts to represent our lives and always coming up so short. If Nat is pregnant then even if there is a happy ending it will be really contrived I think. How could something that started so beautifully become so convoluted?
Agreed on every point. And b/c I want to bring some fun back:
Natalia goes out of town to take a special 4-week intro course on loving a woman. By the end, she’ll finally understand what it really means to tell someone she loves them, like kissing the girl after all they do is stare at your lips, all day.
Love your writing. So agree. It is odd. Seemed like after the Otalia date with both women standing at Olivia’s door at the Beacon – that the direction of the story seemed to shift. Where did the flirting and passion go? Not sure we will ever know.
I wish you wrote for Guiding Light.
I agree with everything you said and as always, you say it so well. I have one suggestion. Instead of Natalia being possessed, I think Father Ray is and he is the one who kidnaps her and she fights back with all of her goodness and light…and her best snark.
Well said. Lot of the same thoughts going on for me as well. Sad and yucky. To have JL in front of us for months and we have to pretend she’s NOT pregnant, now we get to watch her pretend to BE pregnant? It’s just sad and yucky.
Great blog as usual. After such an amazing orginally storyline the prgnancy does seem rather lame even if it turns out to be false. And I agree with the post that the door scene was so smoldering..what happened??
Maybe it was inevitable that a soap s/l that had so successfully toyed with the usual soap conventions (runaway bride anyone?), would finally mis-step. And in a big way.
Maybe they thought this would just be another soap cliche they could riff on, and ultimately give another Otalia twist, that would make it all okay in the end. They seem to be unaware at just what a raw nerve this plotpoint is in our community, and have obviously underestimated how badly this would go over.
My only – slim, wafer thin – hope is that people in power are aware of this blow back and are scrambling to do script damage control. Cause JL returns to work on Monday, and the die will really be set after that.
*sigh*
Another option: What if Otalia decided that they would be more of a family (and the biological clock is ticking) and Emma would understand the idea of family better if Otalia got pregnant together and had a baby and asked Frank to be the donor. Then you get the same tension/drama of baby daddy. It is a soap opera world. I just hate to see all of the crap Olivia has had to wade through. Her big understanding listening doggie eyes get me every time.
I love the huge scarf stuck in closet for a month s/l the best. So creative next to the one we’ve been handed. Thank you for making me laugh today, not much else has.
Just wanted to say this post is brilliant. The pregnancy thing is tedious (whether it is indeed a false positive or not). I am curious about why a slightly altered ept box was used- it gives me some hope that the character isn’t pregnant for realz.
Thank you for articulating our collective disappointment that a s/l that had been handled so sensitively,up to that point, could take such a wrong turn. I am really far more bothered by the *way* Natalia left, than the pregnancy (or red herring) itself, at this point. But those two plot points have almost tainted the s/l for me, now, because I know it could have been *so* much better, had they gone a different direction.
“Ok, why not have a little fun, shall we? It’s healthier than ranting about how pathetic another stereotypical and trite, pregnant, lesbian couple, that can’t stand alone as an independent family unit, is portrayed on TV.”
This is what really bothers me. Others are saying this show is about different types of families, as if a lesbian couple is not different kind of family enough. I agree with all of your brilliant post.