I've been so busy writing fan fiction based on the "SexyBack" video a hit play that I haven't commented on As the World Turns in a long time. That's too bad for a few reasons: 1. I think it's important; and 2. lately I've been mostly very critical of the show and it's time I praised it like I should.
About three weeks ago, all of a sudden, the Luke storyline got very good. Damian went back to Malta in disgrace, after all his schemes were exposed. There was a vaguely climactic scene in the airport with guns. It doesn't matter. Afterwards, Jade convinced Luke to accompany her to Raven Lake, where all the straight kids were going to get massacred by the local serial killer. This was great: one of my big complaints about Luke is that he's never allowed to interact (read: "make out") with kids his own age. Luke for some reason decided that he really wanted to use the serial killer field trip to come out to all the kids in his class, particularly Kevin, the boy he likes. That went badly in a really good way: Kevin got angry and threatened to beat Luke up. Jade, in full fag-hag mode, showed up and turned the mother out all over Kevin. It was awesome -- for Jade, anyway. Then Kevin called Luke a faggot in front of a bunch of other kids.
Later, Luke was sulking by the side of the lake while Kevin was out in a boat with his girlfriend, Liv, drinking. Liv hit Kevin over the head with an oar -- it made sense at the time -- knocking Kevin out. Of course stupid Liv can't swim, so Luke had to swim out and save shitheel Kevin, diving into the water just as the serial killer was going to grab Luke and slash his throat!
Of course Kevin wasn't breathing or not very much, so Luke had to give him mouth-to-mouth while rubbing his chest. It was hot.
After that, there was a series of good scenes: Luke being gracious to Kevin and Liv, who looked like total assholes; Kevin trying to be decent to Luke; Holden showing up and talking Kevin into maybe possibly not being such a tool anymore when school starts. The Holden-Kevin scene was a real highlight -- well-written and -acted, very affecting.
Also crammed into this week was an episode in which Holden told his mother, Emma (Kathleen Widdoes) that Luke is G-A-Y. This was sort of necessary because, back in the 1980s, the other time ATWT had a gay character (Hank, played by Brian Starcher), Emma totally wanted to run him out of town. This time around Emma was a lot less mean. The whole thing was pretty good, mostly because Widdoes is an interesting, idiosyncratic performer who does unexpected things with ordinary material. -- Peter
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