Monday, March 19, 2007

Future Shock

Thanks to a gracious slip in providing a strip early, we can see the storyline about Mike’s party is going to run at least to the end of next week. Tomorrow’s strip tells us that if Gerald does come over to visit April, she has already managed to get the kids in bed before he gets there; but Liz’s arrival back at the house does not appear to be the arrival which will surprise April and Gerald.

I am really beginning to think that Lynn Johnston is going to drag the Liz / Warren / Anthony triangle out until the very last minute, which is going to make it difficult to do any kinds of wedding preparation storyline, or revenge against Thérèse storyline, unless it’s like the week of April at the mall where new characters popped up every day without any kind of resolution (Luis’ refugee background story, for instance). The odd part about the slipped strip is that Lynn seems to be turning the formerly mild-mannered and nicely-restrained Warren Blackwood from 2003-2004 into a man whose unbounded enthusiasm for Liz is starting to duplicate that of Paul Wright.

Playing Warren as so enthusiastic is going to march Lynn right down the same pathway she went with Paul Wright, where if she portrays him too positively (ignoring the creepy helicopter ride to Mtigwaki sequence), then she puts herself right back into the position where the fans are saying, “Why is Liz continually rejecting men who seem to adore her for Mr. ‘Expresses Feelings Only in Thought Balloons’ Anthony Caine?” We know the answer in advance is going to be Liz is a homebody and Warren travels too much. After exposing Paul Wright as a cheater, it would be unlikely Warren could be portrayed as a cheater also.

I really hope Anthony Caine will be at the Mike party, because Lynn has the opportunity to balance the newly-enthused Warren with the “increasingly more sedate with every appearance” Anthony. Lynn intentionally avoided any mention of Paul Wright to Anthony Caine, when there were many chances, so it is just as likely Anthony won’t be at the party, and the entire Warren cycle will run to completion without Anthony Caine knowing a thing. I will curse Lynn, if she misses the opportunity and does that.

The other possibility is Anthony’s Caine’s historic tendency to go off with other girls, when Liz runs off with other guys. In high school, Liz didn’t want Anthony to date while she was dating, and we could be heading back in this direction. Anthony sees Liz with Warren at the party, and assuming she is officially with him (for a number of good reasons), starts to see other women. Then Liz sees Anthony with other women, breaks things off with Warren, and declares her love for Anthony. With a little more than 5 months left to September, there is no way Lynn can tell a complicated story like that without rushing through it. It will be truly awful. I can't wait.

4 Comments:

Blogger April Patterson said...

Found the advance strip. OMG, does Warren come off as pathetic! Another personality transplant.

3:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where did you find the advance strip?

3:19 PM  
Blogger howard said...

anonymous

Here is an on-line version.

http://i13.tinypic.com/49lk3rd.gif

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks!

8:31 PM  

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