These are some of the thought I’ve been having as ‘Guiding Light’ winds down with less than a month of airtime left.

As odd as it might seem, I remain optimistic about all things GL. Sure there’s been some WTF moments, but it’s also the journey to get there. And perhaps it’s I, as a long term soap viewer, that has me more forgiving of some plot points (and there’s been doozies) in daytime tv, for which GL has not been exempt. It’s why we stick around, there’s always pay-off in some form. 

Would I love a kiss amongst other expressions of love for Otalia? Hells bells, yes! Will I be disappointed if there’s not, also yes. But is it the end of the world? No. I get why many people are upset, I do. As a lesbian, sure I love to see accurate expressions of our love being given airtime on a daytime serial. However in an historical context, look at the sheer amount of screentime this story has had, depicting two women (both of whom’s pasts were only seen as being involved with men), who were rivals to start, then grudging friends, colleagues, to raising Olivia’s daughter together and gradually falling in love with each other. 

We’ve seen so much more of that groundbreaking, quietly subversive family unit for a year and a half. That’s no small measure on an ensemble show that runs 5 shows a week, year round, as opposed to about 22 eps per season. That’s more than we ever got from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘ER’, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, ‘South of Nowhere’ or even ‘The L Word (esp last two seasons). These are also prime time shows.

Could they have done more with Otalia? Yes. And more than likely had either planned and/or filmed more but it didn’t get past Standards and Practices. And without CBS to go to bat for them (and why would they esp after their cancellation date?), GL’s writers/producers were essentially cut out of that process and had to adapt/rewrite scenes. We were never going to see the kind of love scenes out of “The L Word” (or fanfiction). As much as I would love it, we were unlikely to get any of the tame morning after scenes such as Dinah & Shayne or Remy & Christina. I wish we could have. There may have been a better chance if GL had been airing in the evening, but no one knows for sure.

And so, with all this verboseness on my behalf, I’m going to sit back and watch to see what happens with our lovely duo of Otalia, esp with the chemistry of Crystal and Jessica on my screen, along with all the other storylines. I’ll wait to see what Crystal and Jessica bring us as their suprise on Sept 19th, and enjoy Venice when it graces the web. At this point I will tune into ‘Days of Our Lives’ to see what CC brings to Carly 2.0. 🙂