July is a sweeps month for daytime television, apparently. I think this is one of the reasons that we had the whole drama with The View at the end of June: I'm sure the controversy, combined with the interest generated by the guest hosts, has boosted the show's ratings.
As the World Turns feels like it's in sweeps mode as well right now. Last week, as I think I mentioned earlier, they played the protracted death of a central character, Jennifer Munson (Jennifer Ferrin). This week were the funeral and wake. I've been totally sucked into the sadness, even though I never cared for the Jennifer character. I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff anyway and there's another contributing factor: Benjamin Hendrickson, who played Jennifer's father, Hal, since 1985, committed suicide on July 1. Hendrickson, a member of Juilliard's inaugural drama class, was among the most compelling performers in soaps. Watching him play the grieving father all this week was both moving and deeply uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, a new arc seems to be starting for Luke. Lily is still comatose and Damian still seems to be interested in curing Luke of his gayosity, but those stories are both definitely backburnered. In yesterday's episode, Kevin tried to fix Luke up with Ada, a friend of Kevin's new girlfriend, Liv. Luke told Kevin he's "not into girls." Kevin clearly didn't understand what Luke was trying to say, assuming that Luke prefers "women," like Jade (Jade is apparently older than the other kids? Even though she used to refer to Luke as "like a big brother"?), to "girls" like Ada. Kevin assured Luke that Ada "has potential," which, I don't know what that means, but I find it troubling. Is it clear yet that Kevin is skeevy? Luke finally caved and agreed to a double-date. So, it's something. It's not "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!" but it will do for now.
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