Venice: The Series - Season 1 Impressions

With all the hullabaloo about Otalia, the chaste lesbian paring on the now defunct Guiding Light, (which I knew of tangentially and not from watching), my interest was definitely piqued for Venice: The Series. There was tremendous buildup on the soap blogs. So, after watching the first episode (a freebie) I was more than ready to dive into this new web soap. I paid my $10 subscription fee and jumped right in. Rather than give my opinion in a piecemeal fashion, I thought I would wait until Season 1 ended to give a more fulsome assessment.

So...what did I think?

Venice is really a welcome respite from the usual fare on daytime these days. Women have lately been given really short shrift - one needs only to look at the storylines on Young & the Restless (my favourite soap), General Hosiptal and One Life to Live to see evidence of some truly bizarre portrayals of modern women. Some current examples feature a woman who was gaslit until she miscarries followed by an hysterical pregnancy, only to be given another woman's child as her own. The poor woman whose baby was kidnapped was deceived into thinking her child is dead and then actually marries the man who stole her child. There has been a sickening rape-mance on another soap and my personal favourite: a diabolical mobster's wife is bludgeoned to death with an axe by her stepson - and his father, an abusive, psychopathic mobster, is covering it up! And this is DAYTIME television!

Needless to say, I find I miss what soaps used to show: romance and relationships. I really enjoy seeing a relationship grow, blossom and evolve - with well-drawn, well acted characters. Venice provides all of this and more.

The acting is fantastic, from leads Crystal Chappell, and Jessica Leccia in particular. The supporting cast (which appears rather sparingly) is also strong, although it is harder to assess them since they didn't have a lot to do. Nonetheless, the show is populated with interesting characters (Gina's brother Owen, Jamie the bar owner to Michele, Gina's assistant). I hope we get to see these other characters fleshed out more in Season 2.

Since webisodes are much shorter than traditional soaps; the average episode is 7 or 8 minutes; pacing is a real challenge. Venice probably had a tad more exposition than needed and things really began to pick up in Episode 5. Things hasten forward pretty quickly after that and lead to a fantastic, soapy cliffhanger ending that leaves me just dying to see what happens next.

The weakest link in the series thus far is Leslie Kay/Tracy. We are introduced to Tracy as a highly professional, confident, slightly icy attorney based out of London. Within a few beats, she's saying she's in love with Gina and is totally falling apart. Her uneven character is not helped by Leslie's basically non-existent British accent.

Most pleasant surprise is Nadia Bjorlin/Lara. She has fantastic chemistry with Ani and their growing relationship is well drawn and very well acted. I want to see more of this couple.

All in all I'm very pleased with the series. It features strong women in compelling relationships and also has a diverse cast - another thing that is sorely lacking in TV soaps. Another great thing is that women feature behind the camera as well. I must applaud Crystal Chappell for pulling this series together. It shows that with the right mix of talent and drive one can create work that speaks to an audience, even when the mainstream media is not supporting it. (A-)

With Friends Like These

This whole Desirée Rogers business is very silly. I tend to think that Ms. Rogers got a little too high on the fumes of her lofty position prior to her arrival in Washington. Things came crashing down (as they often do), if this article is to be believed, before the Housewives wannabes swooped down in all their tacky glory. But such is life, I suppose - even Desirée Rogers can't be perfect.

My one big objection to this article is this:

"Public life has singed presidential friends over the years with striking regularity, people like Bert Lance during Jimmy Carter’s administration, Vincent W. Foster Jr. and Webster L. Hubbell during Bill Clinton’s, and Harriet E. Miers and Alberto R. Gonzales during George W. Bush’s. Washington can be seductive and then destructive."

I really don't think that the Rogers flap is any comparison to Vince Foster - who committed SUICIDE or Harriet Miers and Alberto Gonzales - two bungling incompetents.

Classic lack of perspective, in the redoubtable New York Times, no less!

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