A few months ago, I wrote about Season One of Hope Royaltey’s online Twitter soap opera, The P@ssionate and the Privileged, and what I like most about the unique concept.  The mythical Hunston Hill soon became one of my favorite places to visit, and in anticipation of Season 2, I looked forward to getting the answers about the feuding families, the Logans and the Randolphs, that left me hanging… Is she?  Did they?  Will he?  Could she?  Fallan?  Really?

I have to admit, I tried to catch the live Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts of the serial, but life, work, and responsibility soon got in my way.  Lucky for me, catching up is made easy as all Season 2 (and Season 1) episodes are posted on the website.  Upon completion and clicking off of the finale episode, I verbally exclaimed, “Holy frack, Hope, you are one sick genius!”  And I mean that in the best possible sense.  Were my questions from the Season 1 cliffhanger answered?  Without giving too much away, I have to say, yes.

Is she?  Well, let’s just say the uptight and needy, rich housewife protests that she is not a lesbian, but she portrays a mighty good one on TV…uh, web enabled device.
Did they?  The avatar with the orchid has been deflowered.
Will he?  A resounding “yes” for all characters in which this applies, and for some, twice.
Could she?  A resounding yes for all characters in which this applies, and for one in particular, God, yes!
Fallan?  As in all good soaps, there is a wicked and scheming, family matriarch, and Fallan Logan doesn’t disappoint.  In the same vein as AMC legend, Enid Nelson (and throw in a little Phoebe Tyler Wallingford), this greedy old bitch star-crosses the secret lesbian lovers with another flaming hot celestial body from her niece’s past orbit.  And you guessed it, the big bang.
Really?  It looks like they really did, but Jesus, Hope, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.  Isn’t that illegal even in Alabama?

Without a single sign of the sophomore jinx, Season 2 of The P@ssionate and the Privileged certainly lives up to my high-bar expectations set in the inaugural season.  I tweeted upon completion of the final episode that P&P is part real soap, part Dynasty, and part Game of Thrones.

As I stated initially, this is a real, daytime soap’s younger, more hip sibling.  Granted, this younger generation is a bit of a twit, but in reality it is merely a melodramatic mutation. P&P, like any good soap, is humorously over the top as it pushes the envelope to address social norms and sexual desire.  Add to that the writer’s innate ability to throw in dormant (but hardly dead) 70’s pop culture trivia, like the lyrics to Cher hits, and you have the necessary kitsch.  As a contemporary of Royaltey, the vintage pop culture references are like knowing the secret sorority handshake.  For you younger sisters, I once again encourage you to look up anything you might not understand.  You will be happy you did, because there is nothing more Dynasty that two power hungry, scruple-less, family matriarchs, with ovaries the size of 80’s shoulder pads, fighting it out for top billing on the bottom feeding.

My questions for Season 3:  Is Simone fracking crazy?  Speaking of crazy, as Lydia becomes more agitated over the Logans and feeds her compulsive disorder, will the price of sidewalk chalk continue to rise in Hunston Hill?  Will half-breed brother Arthur be sweatin’ to the oldies?  (Insert my Game of Thrones question here.)

I have to admit that I have heard rumors that this soap could be cast with real actors in place of the twice-weekly, Twitter posted dialogue.  Now, I realize that there are quite a few daytime veterans whose prospects are parked in the unemployment line, but my plea is don’t do it.  What I enjoy most about this production is that I hold complete ownership in my head, with my own personal adaptation of scene, set, wardrobe, and character.  No two fans will ever experience the exact same show.  You don’t have to be born in the wagon of a traveling show to appreciate the entertainment factor of this uncommon offering.

I finally succumbed to the gentle prodding of a few friends to take a look at Hope Royaltey’s new Flagship TV creation, The P@ssionate and the Privileged.  Described to me as an online soap, I have to admit, I was hesitant.  I made a conscious decision a while back to wash my hands of soap.  I need to get involved in another melodramatic fandom about as much as I need another pair of pumps…wait, hold on.  What am I saying?  I can never get enough of a good thing, so I decided to take the advice of a few trusted friends and take a look.  I’m very glad I did.

As I alluded in the title of this piece, everything old is new again.  The P@ssionate and the Privileged” (P&P) is an online soap, yes, but it’s a Twitter production in that the actual characters are never actually seen.  The “viewers” are transported through dialogue, and their own imaginations, into the trials and tribulations (and the secret lives) of the fictional Hunston Hill’s most interesting inhabitants.  Hmmm…sounds familiar.

A similar format to the infancy days of soap operas during the golden days of radio, P&P mutates the daytime DNA in an attempt to save it from extinction.

In a pseud-studio somewhere, Hope conducts a symphony of characters from behind the P&P Narrator Twitter profile through each live serial episode.  Character conversations are kept separate with personalized avatars that are just generic enough to separate the individuals, but not too specific in cast description to spoil the viewer’s mind’s eye.   A “family” synopsis is provided on the website, but I didn’t dare look.  I wanted my well refined soap intuition to figure it out on its own.

I sat down at my computer and (watched?) read all 26 archived episodes of P&P Season One at one sitting.  It’s not because the episodes are short, and they are, it’s because it didn’t take me long to realize I was clicking from one cliff-hanging episode to the next because I wanted to know, without hesitation, what would resolve in the next episode.  Isn’t that what interest-piquing, episodic programming is all about?  I know, I know, that sound you hear is Agnes Nixon turning over in her Manhattan apartment, but this is the 21st Century, and damn it, I don’t wanna wait!

I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will give my honest opinion about what I read.  Episode one started off from behind, but soon caught up into a web of feuding family secrets…financial, criminal, and sexual.  The Randolph’s and the Logan’s have a sorted past and a painful history, but the present is about to get pretty prickly.

In this day and media age of the Sperminator, it’s not difficult to telegraph what will transpire when a young, gorgeous (in my mind GORGEOUS!) nanny, who is a bit of an enigma, is hired by the high powered, workaholic, male heir of the Randolph family to look after his precocious six year old.  Though I would have enjoyed a bit more build-up, it doesn’t take long for the boardroom executive to knock naughty parts with the fake-French name nanny.  But what’s this?  The expensive suit jacket on the floor next to the bed is white Chanel (in my mind with black eyelash piping and large black and gold intertwined C buttons)…looks like there’s more coming out of the Randolph closet than designer labels.

P&P has all the ingredients of a good soap: a murder mystery, unbridled passion, forbidden love, mistaken identity, an evil twin, addiction, and an orally-fixated, Botoxed, matriarch of a powerful family who has put at least two husbands in the ground and one on life support.  Frankly, I can’t wait to see what happens in Season 2, coming back from the dead and aggressively aged children?

This is certainly Hope’s script as I smile/smirk at some of the pop culture references from the 70’s and 80’s.  My advice to younger readers/viewers is to embrace your inner geek and get your Google on when names like Brenda Vacarro crop up and the questioning lyrics of Burt Bacharach suddenly appear.  What’s it all about, Alfie?  Ask Nancy Drew.

I have to applaud you, Hope, somewhere along the way to San Jose, you made a turn toward the road less traveled.  Your approach to the soap is nostalgic, yet innovative.  I look forward to watching the live feed with that element of anticipation not garnered from reading the previously aired episodes from the website.  What do you do when an “actor” flubs their line?  Twitter timeout?

Season 2 airs every Tuesday and Thursday at 3:00 EDT beginning July 5th.  Simply go to the website and click on the LAUNCH LIVE STREAM button.  It goes live 30 minutes prior to broadcast.  Finally, I will get the answers that left me hanging… Is she?  Did they?  Will he?  Could she?  Fallan?  Really?

The P@ssionate and the Privileged..it’s kitschy, it’s over the top, it’s funny, it’s intriguing, it’s a little gay…and it’s good.  What more could I ask for in a soap…written, televised, broadcast, or otherwise.

I have watched the premiere episode of Open Book Production’s Venice several times, and I believe I am prepared to take an honest and constructive look at the new webseries.  I approach this endeavor with the same critical eye I apply to all entertainment, and for that matter politics, as I believe they are one in the same.  I don’t think Kim, Hope, or Crystal would expect anything less from me.

My favorite part of the five minute episode came in the first thirty seconds.  It is the part where the CBS/P&G executive yells, “Cut!”, and Crystal Chappell says, “Fuck you AND your standards and practices.”  OK, that scene is in my head, but I see it every time I click “play”.

I believe the script inaugurated the two characters of Gina and Ani very well.   It established their relationship obstacle right away, giving an insight to their history and the possible flaming circus hoops to jump through in the future.  Complicated is an understatement.  Gina is aggressive, broken, and flawed, and for that Kim Turrisi, I say good on you.   Meat to chew is so much better than milquetoast to swallow.  Speaking from someone who now sarcastically and unfairly equates the phase “I don’t know” with Jessica, it is refreshing to see her play opposite Crystal with desperation and frustration but not with a pabulum resolve.

The first screen shot was generally well constructed.  I have to admit, though, the slow pan across the discarded clothes trail revealing a morning-after scene with two perceived as passionate lovers that are HALF-DRESSED leaves me perplexed.  I don’t say this as a titillated fan with an overwhelming desire to see the girlie bits.  Hell, anyone with access to an internet connection or a Netflix account has seen Jessica naked.  This is merely a pet peeve of mine in a PG-13 world.  A well placed sheet around “the girls” would have been more realistic.

I would have preferred the Galen character’s familial relevance to have been established with more definition.  Unless you are a reader of the soap press or a Twitter hound bird-dogging the series and it’s production team, it’s not necessarily obvious that Owen and Gina are related.  Nevertheless, they have a resemblance, and he teased her as a good brother should.  I loved the sarcastic little brother “re-tread” line as visually I can see the shiny new facade of the old worn pneumatic unravel and peel away with time.  I look forward to more glimpses of why Gina keeps pushing Ani away when clearly in the “body clutch” before the shower scene she loathes herself for not being able to step up.  Gina is troubled, emotionally cold, and possibly, a bit mean.  Everything I love in a dramatic lead character, but thankfully not in a partner.

How will the other romantic characters play into this broke-back relationship?  How does Gina’s family tree shade her truth and her confidence?  I have about a week to decide if $9.99 and a Paypal account is the price to pay for my curiosity.  No matter the school of thought on this subscription-based internet programming, and there are plenty of opinions out there, I am interested to see where this business model will lead for a “soap” series.  Open Book Productions is in a very unique position that many web producers can only hope to be. Crystal Chappell has a pool of friends to pull from that are experienced TV and theater actors that will work for free (for now). Crystal also has a maniacal following willing to finance the initial phase of this dream with Venice swag and in-kind drop off programs.  Is the webseries the future of the failing daytime serial model?  Are Crystal Chappell and company riding that proverbial elephant I gave them right down the middle of the world wide web, a socially-marketed entertainment juggernaut?  Will this niche audience be sustainable? Time will only tell.

Now, can anyone loan me $10?

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Schmootz on Venice Interview