I have watched and enjoyed ATWT for a long time - however, this is a sweeps period and the stories are not quite sweeps worthy. I changed the channel a few times this week and tuned into OLTL (major revelations and huge drama) and earlier in the day, The Young and The Restless focused on stories about long-term characters like Victor Newman and the presumed death of Katherine Chancellor. Would we ever see Nancy Hughes in a major storyline? Where are the imaginative stories for the folks of Oakdale?

Sage - The Bad Seed
After all of the things Sage has done in the recent past, how could Carly not believe Janet about what happened at the farm? I know that Carly does not want Jack to marry Janet and Janet is not a bad person, she would not hit a child - though Sage is becoming a bad seed lately. Jack is doing the right thing by standing by Janet. We all know that with these constant fights between Jack and Carly is only going to bringing them closer.

Why would Carly decide to go into a courtroom with her past? All of this is not too plausible - Carly has to know that Sage is not telling the truth. Is Sage so good that she has fooled the master manipulator, Carly? The fact that Sage is being allowed to get away with these kinds of antics makes this story not work as much; I feel that the writers/producers are sending some bad messages about children.

Josie
Who is this Josie person that appeared out of nowhere? Is she for real or is someone behind this? As I watching this week, it hit me all of a sudden about what could possible be happening here: it's Craig! Craig Montgomery has masterminded this whole thing - he hired the psychic who told Dusty to go to Ohio and he finds a woman who is so much like Jennifer. She has been trained so well: she walks up to Barbara and befriends her, knows about Hal, knows things that Craig would know about everyone in Oakdale to make this seem real.

Emily is suspicious and now Paul has his doubts as well. She has Dusty pretty much convinced that she is indeed connected to Jennifer. However, she came completely out of nowhere after a year and a half. Wouldn't this be just like Craig to do something like this to keep everyone off guard so when he makes his reappearance all of his enemies would be focused elsewhere? If this is Craig, this is keeping everyone preoccupied.

Emily still wants Dusty pretty bad still and she will not rest until she can get Josie out of the way. It now looks like she and Paul might partner up and try to get rid of JMD.

The Election Fiasco
Why would Luke do something like this and think he could get away with it? This is so out of character for him to agree to something like this. He had to know what the repercussions would be for cheating. This story did not play out as I expected it to. I thought he would end up with a surprise win - a huge underdog story; however, this rigging of the election took the fun out of the story.

He is having major problems with Noah; did he expect Noah to lie for him? He has been disgraced by being expelled from school. Last we saw him; he was starting to drink again to drown his sorrows - a bad move on his part. We know that somehow he and Casey both will end up back in school and no one really pays for their bad deeds much in Oakdale these days.

Where is this going with Casey? It looks like he and Alison are getting closer and that they will be more than friends very soon. So then the Hughes and Stewart war will continue with Margo and Susan being upset about their getting together - more of the same. Why couldn't they just be good friends for a while until she met a non-Hughes man and he met someone else as well? Here we go again with the same retread story.

The Spencer McKay Murder
Who cares if she is dead or alive? She was not in town long enough for anyone to really care about her. The fact that Henry and Vienna are involved adds something to this story. Why did she do this and who is helping her. I said this before that I suspect Dani - Dani is the only person who has been sort of involved in some of these goings on. She was the person that Katie spoke to about the money and Spencer turned up with fake money. Dani was the one to find that the body had disappeared and had the medical examiner's report. I am sure we will find out soon how these two are connected and why Brad or Katie was targeted in this scam.

Lucinda's Cancer Has Returned
Lucinda is handling things with the strength that she handles most things in her life. This time though she has a man, Brian to help her through this. Not that Lucinda is not worthy of romance, I don't buy Brian's attraction to Lucinda. What is he really after? We still don't know more about him and I am surprised that Lucinda has not had him investigated personally to check him out.

She made up with Lily and I knew she would once Lily found out that her mother was sick again. Now, Lucinda also has the support of her family as well. I was a bit confused when Lily volunteered information with Barbara that Lucinda was sick again. When did they become friends again? Did Lucinda support Barbara during her illness - did I miss something?

Finally, I have been pretty vocal about the storytelling of the show lately - there are not a lot of original things happening in Oakdale and story moves at such a rapid speed these days. Watching the show on a daily basis is always enjoyable; I continue to think that there should be some new blood behind the scenes to shake things up a bit in Oakdale. I don't think the show is using its cast to their best potential.

That's all I have for now.
Reggie Jackson