BEDA #17 - Banking, Panicking And Nuking

Well, today was a day much less eventful than yesterday. I woke up in bed with Charlotte (read into that however you will) and when I got home there were *more* builders in my house fixing the guttering of something. Then I went to the bank and took out £800 to pay my dad back for interrailing.

I was going to talk about panicking for results, which I am doing, but I think I'll save that for tomorrow. Needless to say when people talk about it, I can feel my stomach bubbling and dropping at the same time.

I am, for maybe the first time in BEDA, talk about Luke/Noah/Reid. I really want to clarify my position. Reid has quite literally split our happy fan community down the middle. Half the people (some new, some long-standing fans, some who faded away when the storylines were particualary slow) think Reid is a godsend to the show and the other half think he's a betrayal, and a lazy one at that, by the writers.

I am torn. The reason I love Luke and Noah is that, unlike many others, I like the soapy, ridiculous, fluffy aspect to them. It amuses me and entertains me and, coming for Europe, it's a novelty to me to watch something so unashamedadly dramatic. Luke and Noah are genuine opposites in many ways, which made for (some of the time) a realistic dynamic. It's also important when building tension: soap couples break up a lot, and Luke and Noah are treated no differently in this respect.

But I like Reid. Genuinely. He's like a PG-13 Brian Kinney (so without all the sex). He's snarky and funny and believeable. I think he's incredibly well-rounded considering the time he's been in the show, well-acted and his being gay is not his defining feature. Saying that, it's not ignored and he and Luke have had some of the hottest kisses on the show ever. You know, in my humble but scarily well informed opinion.

I, unlike people who have @ replied me on Twitter, do not think this is because Luke and Noah did not have chemistry on screen. I think it's because, predominately, Luke and Noah has been a love story first. While waiting for sex was a drag, I do respect that they were portrayed as a couple willing to wait for each other.

So, my loyalities lie with Noah but I do have a massive fan-crush on Reid Oliver. So I'm torn. a lot like Luke in many ways. And I can see the pros for Reid:

1. He challenges Luke on many levels Noah does not.
2. He's opening himself up to Luke in a very uncharasteristic way - shows deep emotion.
3. He's funny and witty and the kind of guy Oakdale needs.

But then Noah has upsides too:

1. He tolerates Luke's obsessive need to be needed with more grace than Reid does.
2. His love for Luke got him out a wheelchair and got him his own sight back. That's the kind of love you hang onto. Or bottle.
3. Luke and Noah fit together in a way which seems much more comfortable - Luke's fought enough battles.
4. They both want the same things out of life - excitement when they're young, a family when they're older.
5. Noah is not an emotionally unavailible workaholic. He's more committed to Luke than anything else.
6. After everything they've been through, and how groundbreaking they are, they deserve a happy ending.

So there you have it. It's Luke and Noah ftw. Let's just hope (and they haven't got long left) that they handle it well.

And yes, I am mainly using them as a distraction from the fact my fricking life gets decided in a few days. Humour me.

Getting what you wish for!

So, exactly a week since I posted my 2009 wish-list, and my second wish for the year has been granted. Luke and Noah, the sexiest couple in American soap opera As The World Turns, finally had sex.

This may not seem like a big step, so if you don't know, here is a brief back-story. Noah joined the soap last summer, a love interest for the long-standing but newly-out Luke Synder. He struggled to hide his feelings but failed: and his and Luke's first kiss has been watched over a million times on YouTube. After two kisses they stopped kissing for over 200 days: and the cock-blocking began.

There has been self-hate, denial, girlfriends, paralysis, Green-Card marriage's, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', farmhouse rules, ex-crushes, step-grandfathers with inappropriate crushes and conversations about meat (if you know what I mean). The kiss clock has been ended, with those back on a regular basis, but then the fans started asking why they were the only couple on the show not to be having sex. Everyone's doing it: the underage, the elderly, the married (and not to their spouses in most cases). In total, it's been over 500 days since they meet until they had sex. And, as we know, that day was today.

But with all that waiting, you may ask why I kept watching? Well, that's simple. I love them. Now, anyone who knows me will know I am a McDeaner to the end. But Luke and Noah are different. Similarly to the great QaF debate, Nuke are a far more American story: focusing around a love of family, of commitment and companionship over the immediate need to feed your hormones. And, as frustrating as waiting for them has been, you have to admire the show for trying to draw their gay couple away from the stereotype that homesexuality is all about sexual desire: a very damaging assumption and one the soap should be proud of denying in it's ground-breaking storyline.

What I love about Nuke is what I love about today's episode. They argue, and they make up. They have a support network, who recognise how much they love each other. They are friends as much as they are in love. They kiss and you believe it. They have issues that don't disapear when it's convienent for the writers. Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann are two actors completely at ease with the roles and with a genuine talent. Even when the writing is stale, the acting is witty and engaging. It's a show unafraid of happy endings, or of sad ones, and keeps enough element of melodrama without (most of the time) slipping into the absurd. I honestly believe this is in part to the actors and the fans, some of the most vocal in the fandom community.

There are things that are missing in these clips as in Nuke as a whole: a decent storyline, for one, and a lack on on-screen bedtime antics is another. They need to move in together, and start doing this on a regular basis. But I honestly believe that is to come: the show has consistently proved me wrong when it comes to how far they will go, and the first time they give us what we want is always the tamest. I think things will heat up...

And here it is, in all it's glory:





Overall, what is so beautiful about Luke and Noah is the fairytale element that American shows seem to love to add to the equation. Now normally, cynical as I am, I brush this under the carpet as them being afraid to tell an honest story. But, in reality, I believe it is more daring. Rather than making this a modern story, pushing the boundaries, it is a soap storyline before anything else: with all the melodramas and repressions that go with that. And in doing that, they capture not only the magic of the characters but the magic of the genre.

So, to summarise, Happy Nuke-finally-had-sex Day everyone! I can honestly say it was worth waiting for! Who'll join my campaign to make it a national holiday??

xXx