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.

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.

I have been hearing quite a bit lately about labels. Labels are everywhere, from the cereal I eat to the fabulous new shoes I bought. I use labels to make sure I wash my clothes so they don’t come out looking like toddler apparel. I use labels to ensure I am getting my recommended daily allowance of all that is good for me. My virtual girlfriend, Jillian Michaels, taught me that in all those weekly product placements on Biggest Loser. I just can’t get away from labels.

The same can be said about societal labels. We are all subject to labels just as the food we eat and the laundry soap we choose. From the time I came out at the Junior League’s cotillion until the time I came out for good, I have always been labeled. Most of the time, I had little say in the matter. As if a can of green beans, I was marked with a societal insignia that is mass-produced with a generalization about what is inside. I don’t think it is a stretch to infer that has happened to everyone. Labels such as geek, loner, popular, wealthy, jock, pretty, plain, fat, skinny, and millions more are all part of our school years. We spend so much of our time trying to scrape off those labels, but no matter how hard we try, or what we accomplish in life, only the first layer of the label comes off, and we are left with that white glue part that is never fully removed.

As regular readers of this blog can attest, I comment quite a bit on Guiding Light’s storyline of OTALIA. When you get past the demon possession, the alien abductions, and the coming back from the dead, soaps can be a microcosm of the society that envelops us. On the heels of other daytime, same-sex storylines, Guiding Light has quietly stepped through the door the others had to kick their way through. Guiding Light has been keenly careful in its attempt to market this same-sex coupling as label-less. I believe that approach is just short of genius. By leaving OTALIA naked, so to speak, it allows the network and the producers the unofficial luxury of placing it in the hands of the viewers to apply the label. And let’s face it, no matter how Telenext, CBS, or Guiding Light decides to doctor the spin, we, and I mean the collective we, would diagnose it the way we see it anyway.

I have read in recent days where some closet OTALIA viewers or fans of the other network’s team, this competition of sorts mystifies me, have publicly chided CBS and Guiding Light for this tactic trying to force some kind of official statement. It will never happen. By staying pat on some kind of official moniker, the powers that be allow thousands of different labels to be applied, each and every one placed by a different viewer. It’s personal and assumes ownership, and it allows infinite boundaries. Why confine this storyline to the two dimensional signal of its origin?

Oh, and let’s face it, who really comes out any more? You just are. A confident courage is the new rainbow flag. I didn’t send out any formal announcements letting the new neighbors know I am a lesbian, I just baked them muffins and introduced them to my soul mate of many years. When did Jodie Foster officially announce her pride on The View, I must have missed it? I am not so naïve that I would expect everyone to live as I live. I judge no one. Living our lives openly and honestly is the most difficult and the most courageous decision one can make. It is a personal truth that involves deep introspection. It does not come easy. Easy, is allowing a corporate entity the power to do that for us.

I believe the OTALIA characters are trying to define their relationship, not label it. Labels are superficial and cover the surface, but defining a relationship goes to the core of its foundation. Upon that foundation the careful construction of a lasting relationship begins. True, the pace is excruciatingly and frustratingly slow, but I have to remind myself at times that a definition runs deep in the best of reality. This is a daytime drama where the only thing done with any semblance of speed is aging small children at the whim of script development.

Some can question my knowledge of the daytime drama, and to that, I say, that’s fine, it’s not rocket science…though I do know a great deal about rocket science, so maybe I should find a new metaphor. I’m not really sure how you become an expert on soaps other than to watch them, or if there is some class to take. I guess I could expound upon my experience by soap-couple name-dropping the likes of Tara and Phil, and Jenny and Greg, but that just makes me sound old. I have experienced quite a bit of life in my years, so maybe that allows me to elaborate on life situations personified on screen, but that doesn’t make me unique either. Perhaps there is no expert ranking, just varying degrees of fandom. As a fan of the genre, I admit I am enjoying the opportunity to watch and at times question a storyline that parallels my life experiences in so many ways.

So, back to labels. We all have them, we all assign them, and we all run from them. Labels are better left to nutritional information and haute catoure. When applied socially, these sticky notes are most times erroneous first impressions imprinted with little thought of what lies beneath the exterior. Why must we be so concerned with applying labels? Maybe we should all follow Guiding Light’s example, though probably with a different motivation, and resist the urge of reactionary characterization.

Shall we dance?

One Step Forward: The fan writing campaign was an astounding success, and Liz Hendrickson returned to the show only a couple of months later.  Mary Margaret “Maggie” Stone arrives in Pine Valley to find out who murdered her identical twin sister, “Frankie”.   Inevitably Bianca and Maggie run into each other in the small town, Bianca faints at the likeness to Frankie, and as a result they become fast friends, evidence that soaps can move quickly when they so desire.
One Step Back: Bianca brings champagne to celebrate Maggie and Frankie’s birthday.  The situation gets a little too close as a slightly intoxicated Bianca touches Maggie’s face.  Maggie runs to a neutral corner professing with frenzied anguish, “I am not gay, I am not gay.”   Me thinks she doth protest too much…just like Reverend Ted and the meth massages he used to pray away the gay.

One Step Forward: Bianca and Maggie mend their friendship as soap time has a way of accomplishing.  Maggie’s heart goes out to Bianca as she overhears the resident Pine Valley High “mean girls” verbally gay bashing Bianca.  As a result, Maggie asks Bianca to be her date to the prom.  Pining looks held just that much too long lends to foreshadowing…and angst.
One Step Back: Maggie kisses a boy and tells Bianca about it.  That’s the natural progression, don’t you think?

One Step Forward: BAM takes a playful midnight swim protecting each other from the fabled “monster of Willow Lake”.  Maggie asks Bianca why she swims away every time she touches her, was it because she freaked out at the champagne incident? Maggie also questions how Bianca knew she was gay…
One Step Back: Bianca confesses her romantic feelings to a “friend” once again, but this time she feels she has reciprocation.  Maggie says, (all together now) “I’m into guys”, a natural progression, don’t you think?   Enter Henry, the nearest escape hatch for Maggie, All My Children and ABC.

Bianca, with desires of her own and tired of riding the pine so to speak, becomes involved with another woman, a dark, smoldering eastern European, named Lena.  Daytime’s first same-sex kiss is a result of this pairing.  A media blitz by ABC did little to soften the effect as a warning label was slapped across the beginning of the opening sequence.  ABC, citing the often quoted, but never producible book of Network Standards and Practices, thought the kiss required a few moments warning for the housewives of the Midwest to lock the kids out of the room.

See a pattern, but wait, there is more.  You might want to take your Dramamine now.

One Step Forward: In one of the most heartfelt, yet vulnerable scenes ever, Bianca reveals to her best friend, Maggie, that Pine Valley’s resident evil monger had raped her.  Maggie lovingly holds Bianca all night and tells her she is safe.
One Step Back: The message of this particular part of the storyline was somewhat lost in the backlash of gay and lesbian groups accusing AMC of raping the lesbian as a statement.  Gay fans of this couple, with years of soap-watching experience, saw this for what it was, an act of violence and revenge, not the prescribed cure for lesbianism.  We are our own worst enemies at times.  Who knows, AMC’s reluctance to move forward could have been partly shaded by this incident.

One Step Forward: This part of the storyline is truly groundbreaking.  For the first time in daytime television history we have an all female love triangle as Maggie becomes jealous of Lena for taking her place in the acronym.  Maggie kisses Bianca, then freaks, and you guessed it, runs away screaming in her mind, “I am not gay, I am not gay!”
One Step Back: Maggie sleeps with the nearest Y chromosome to prove she is not in love with Bianca.

One Step Forward: Lena leaves town to care for her ailing mother.  Maggie confesses to a friend she has feelings for Bianca, or according to every soap magazine spoiler, Bianca and Maggie grow closer…
One Step Back: Even though Lena is off screen, it’s a very convenient device to avoid moving BAM forward.   Maggie confesses her love to Bianca, but Bianca reiterates her commitment to Lena…somewhere in the Balkans.  As a result, Maggie runs to the waiting arms of an abusive relationship with a man.

One Step Forward: Long distance relationships just don’t work, so Bianca breaks up with Lena over the phone (classy), giving Bianca the space she needs to save Maggie from her verbally and physically abusive boyfriend.   When Maggie said she needed Jonathan because no one else loved her, Bianca once again confessed her love as more than friendship and tenderly kissed Maggie on the lips.

Now, finally, there is nothing, no antagonist, no unrequited love, nothing left unspoken to keep the powers that be from moving forward with this storyline.  Think again.

One Final Step: Bianca decides to leave Pine Valley and asks Maggie to go with her.  They fly off into the off-screen sunset together only after Maggie once again confesses her confusion and her inability to commit to Bianca.  Essentially, after three very long years and a myriad of  “growing closer spoilers”, we have BAM standing somewhat where they started…only the geography has changed.  True, the writing had to reflect the sudden decisions by the actresses to move on from daytime, but once again, we have to play pretend with characters off screen. Did they, or didn’t they, will they, or won’t they?  I don’t believe as committed fans, a mad rush into “the mile high club” was desired, either, but something other than the status quo would have been a more acceptable closure. However, as I pronounced in Part 1 of this posting, although fans would have preferred more network commitment to a more forward movement of the BAM storyline, at least the dance was begun with this pairing.  Being the first is never easy.  As a result of BAM’s success, soaps have dedicated more front-burner space to same sex couples.  Through a forward and back and forward again progression, BAM eventually sambaed down the daytime door allowing pairings such as Breese, Nuke, and now Otalia, to two-step through it.

An Aside
An article about BAM and how the couple became the first same-sex super couple cannot be written without acknowledging the fanbase that provided the support and the gentle network pressure required to move the storyline forward as much as it progressed.  The Bianca and Maggie pairing set the standard for which all other same-sex pairings would be compared.  The same can be said for the BAMfans, who danced that Sapphic samba with the network until the very end.

As I noted in Part 1 of this piece, there was a large contingency of viewers searching for any semblance of representation in the media.  Having seen little more than titillating exploitation from primetime television, AMC’s Bianca became a symbol of possibility.

A group of talented and creative individuals from across the nation became a network of concerted voices united in their desire to have BAM portray their own untold story. Until the Internet age, there was no way of organizing these voices.  Fan pages and forum boards became the party lines of the decades past.  A simple “Google” search connected you to a community welcoming your participation and your views.

Respectfully commenting on aspects of the BAM storyline that were sensitive to the ones it represented, the legion of BAMfans used letter writing campaigns, graphically designed materials, and themed giveaways to bring attention to the cause. The BAM brigade was given national mention in televised and written media across the county.  When was a fan group ever contacted by Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly for a quote used in production?  The BAMfans created a marketing campaign that rivaled anything Madison Avenue could produce.

Having the desire to be an effective force outside of the entertainment world, the BAMfans turned their attention toward charitable organizations.  Realizing its outreach numbered in the thousands, and having well placed contacts in the soap industry, the BAMfans began to make a difference in all parts of the county.  With the unselfish and unwavering help of Eden and Liz, the BAMfans have raised tens of thousands of dollars for such charitable organizations as RAINN, the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the Pediatric Aids Foundation, and BCEFA.

Part 3 – AfterBAM, the present.  (to be continued)