Jamey, you hit the nail on the head again! In the 20 years of watching NOTHING has moved me to write a fan letter but Farah's performance did. She emanated every emotion a mother going through anything like that would feel (I know)and delivered flawlessly. I look forward to much more from her, AW and JPL.

www.tinyurl.com/saveabcsoaps

I agree wholeheartedly. I never understood the hate for Farah or Jean-Paul. I think they're a great couple and I've been impressed by their work through the bullying storyline. OLTL has a great cast right now, and it was stupendous to see the younger actors (Eddie and Austin) knock it out of the park this week! When you see them doing such great work in the very same episodes where Erika Slezak has done some of her best work (and THAT's saying something), it makes me proud to be a fan of this show!

i adored farah on DAYS and have been really puzzled by much of the criticism thrown her way during her OLTL tenure. i agree that she didn't really bring it during the morasco fiasco storyline, but i attribute that more to the suckage of the story than to FF's acting choices. but i agree with you about this... she has been bringing it this week. FF shold be very proud of the work she's doing with austin williams. those two have such an authentic chemistry IMO, and the scenes from the past two days were outstanding. she is definitely stepping up and deserves these kudos.

Agreed!

Also, I have not 'heard' of an outpouring to recast a terrible actor this this loudly since oh what was that girl's name Charity Rsomething who played Bell on Days for like a week, lol. They have GOT to get this kid off of this show! And like yesterday. Seriously, I need them to start re-taping his scenes & re-airing them!

Agreed. The kid playing Jack is a cutey, but a terrible actor. He's bringing down the scenes.

As far as Fath is concerned, I've always liked her and never really understood all the hate.

Farrah had me crying when she was begging Shane not to die telling him that she needed more minutes. I watched Shane since his very 1st appearance and it breaks my heart that this sweet little boy I watched grow up try to commit suicide to end his torment. Minus NuJack this storyline has been top notch storytelling.
Like Jamey always says "That baby don't know where he is!", that expression totally applies to NuJack. Please recast or have him invest his OLTL paychecks into some acting classes.

If there was any animosity towards Farah Fath I would say it was based on years of often shockingly poor performances, not just in the Stacey story, but also the Gigi/Rex time travel mess, Rex being shot, telling Shane he was Rex's son. This carried on through 2009.

She has been better recently, which is more than I can say for JPL, but a few decent performances after years of dross is a very generous learning curve considering ABC fired many actors in her storyline who were much stronger on a more consistent basis (Rachel, Kyle, Fish, Sky).

Can I be a terrible bitch here and just do this...

Who is the worse actor?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXQ1IQ-OUwY

Or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jclf5Z0giM&playnext=1&list=PL7B9BB47AAB4...

You decide! Dun, dun, dunnnnnn.

Bwahahaha!! I am terrible.

Farah Fath and John Paul Lavoisier both have always shown great COMEDIC talent, but have never really shown much DRAMATIC range. While I have never been a real "hater" of either actor, and I actually ENJOY John Paul as an actor, I have always felt that Farah would be better suited to situation comedies or TWEEN shows like "One Tree Hill" or the new "90210," where it doesn't matter if you can cry on cue or really give Erika Slezak a run for her money.

I do find it refreshing that after a DECADE in daytime television, Farah has FINALLY learned how to EMOTE dramatically in a way that doesn't scream TWEEN!!!!

This shows me that it is possible, and that maybe there's hope for actors like Amelia Heinle, who has been on soaps for damn near TWENTY years and still can BARELY manage to handle heavy dramatic material!!

Hope springs eternal, folks!!

Amelia was much better at dramatic material in her first few years on soaps than she is now.

I think something must depend on backstage. Loving from what I've seen and remember was a very well-acted show. Y&R allows actors to just phone it in, or not even bother with that and instead put a tin can to their ear. OLTL seems to be the same way. Many of its actors don't bother, and considering how many of the actors who did make an effort ended up being fired, I can't blame the actors who stopped caring.

Thanks Jamey......Since I am not a fan of Faith, I usually ff thru her scenes. Actually I heard she was leaving the show??

Say what I will, her performance in this storyline was awesome. This entire storyline was awesome. I say KUDO's to everyone, the writers, Faith, JPL, Austin.
You could feel as a parent what that child was going thru. And the parents 'helplessness'.

Would LOVE to see this story end with Rex taking Jack out back to the 'shed'

I have always liked Farah. I didn't like her acting during the whole Stacy but I don't blame her for that, that whole storyline sucked donkey ass. This week she was ON FIRE. I found myself crying as she begged Shane not to kill himself.

FF has been bearable in this storyline, but fantastic? Not in my opinion. I don't want to praise an actress just because she doesn't make me cringe in a few scenes. Imagine if the roles were reversed with Shane and Jack... Kassie DePaiva would have MURDERED the scene on the roof!

And as for JPL, his "signature, juvenile facial expressions" that have been absent in the past couple of months were back with a vengeance! I almost had to fast-forward through the rooftop scene just because of his absurd expressions. How could the director allow such foolish acting choices to make it on screen!?!? I know they have to usually do one take, but in an important scene like this in a high-profile storyline, surely Frank could have yelled cut, slapped JPL across the face, and tried again.

Kudos to Austin Williams though. He is definitely the most talented one in that family.

Completely agree with you emblazoned; Fath has been bearable, better than she normally is(which is saying precious little), but "awe-inspiring" frankly is over-generous in my opinion. Frankly, despite his constant mugging, JPL is a far better actor than Fath; the rooftop scenes did occasionally border on cringe-worthy, but I thought JPL killed it on Wed's ep when he went off on the school administrator and was extremely effective(and mugging-free)when he told Gigi that they and Shane needed to get help. That ep was probably the best work I've seen from him ever. All that said, I agree both(but particularly Fath) would be better served in a more comedic arena.

P.S. Carol2 is spot on with regards to Amelia Heinle; I'm not sure where she went off the rails because I seem to remember that she was actually good back in her LOVING days(and wasn't bad on AMC either).

Even broken clocks are right twice a day. Farah was good in the rooftop scenes, but once she's off the roof she'll be the same subpar actress she has always been.

JPL's facial expressions were ridiculous.

Austin was great on the roof, but all that stomping he did in the scenes leading up to it didn't seem like a defeated person. (I blame this on the director tho, not Austin)

The kid playing Jack has been thoroughly awful. It's bad enough that they recast his character right before this story kicked off-- it's harder for viewers to relate to an actor they aren't familiar with than with an established one -- but jeez... it's like Frons is secretly paying the guy to suck as badly as possible so he (Frons) can rationalize canceling the show

FF even said In Interviews with NB That she hated the stacy story and didnt give it her all. Im sorry But even if you dont like the material you still give it your all. I Lost respect for her as an actress at that point. She does seem to be doing better with this story.

Wow! The scene today where GiGi registers at the hospital just blew me away! That was one incredible piece of acting, extremely impressive!

The only person on that roof who deserves kudos is Austin Williams. Fath was not horrible but that is about has far as I can go. She laid on the screeching just a bit too much for my taste while JPL was insane with the mugging. He made so many stupid looking faces in those scenes that I was tempted to fastforward.

Appleridge---

I totally agree. I am tired of actors using their DISINTEREST/DISENCHANTMENT in whatever storyline they happen to have to justify their mediocre performances. Soap actors get paid FAR more than most actors do, especially many Broadway actors who have to do just as much work, if not more, for less pay, so there's NO excuse for not giving 100% EVERY TIME!! When you figure in the fact that most actors around the country pull in between $45,000 and $50,000 a year (on average,) it makes the whining of many of these "stars" sound even more ridiculous.

Farah Fath should be thankful that she HAS a job, because I can think of at least a DOZEN other younger actresses out there who could do a FAR better job than she's done!!! And when I think about all my beloved actors from GL and ATWT who are still unemployed, it really makes me want to bonk self-entitled actors like Fath upside the head with a rubber mallet!!

Okay, I have never posted a comment here but this shit has forced me to action. Unless I see Farah Fath give a performance worthy of even being called an actress, she should never receive accolades for her "work." She is God awful. Being less God awful in a few scenes does not warrant the props. She is terrible. She was terrible for a decade on DAYS and terrible here on OLTL. This bullying story has been shit until last week when it reached a boiling point with Shane's suicidal ideation. Austin Williams and Kassie DePaiva have nailed their scenes. It is shameful AW is not on contract when that lame-duck "portraying" NuJack is beyond bad.
Miry: your post was a KILLER!!! I nearly choked on my drink when I saw that DAYS clip!

Why, oh why? We as soap viewers should not have to lower our standards for what is considered good acting (hell, even acting at all.) Fath is bad, JPL is just as bad (and I liked him 5-6 years ago) and NuJack takes the cake in terrible acting. ANY OTHER ACTOR CURRENTLY ON OLTL WOULD HAVE MURDERED THOSE SCENES THEY WERE GIVEN. Those would have been Emmy reels for other actors, but only "not so bad" for these horrible actors.

Oh, and I should add that the actress portraying the doctor in the ER on today's OLTL acted circles around those fools with the exception of Austin Williams.

Welcome, Soapbaby!!!!

Thanks for jumping into the sandbox with the rest of us!!!

WAIT. If you are comparing Faith to the acting abilities of LW, or ES, RS, JJ, AG, SB...then of course she isn't 'all that'.

Lets just say she did the best job she's done in awhile.

I agree, there are more young women that would do a better job than Faith and she should be glad to have a job.

That said, is she leaving the show or not??

I am thrilled to see others have noticed Fath's improvement. I am loving her performance as Gigi lately. The actress is doing great work and I am thrilled to see her working more often now.

I thought they all did a good job. Don't forget they are playing parents who have completely messed up by missing signs that their kid was in trouble. I actually think that they conveyed what they should have. This problem really catches parents off guard in real life. Having a kid who usually tows the line sometimes takes parents off guard. They assume all is right even when it is not. I certainly had tears in my eyes everytime they went back to this particular story.

I am not sure how to take NuJack. He may settle in. I don't think the other Jack would have been able to pull it off. I only saw the other one once or twice. Wedding? I returned to show 3 1/2 yrs ago so a change does not mean anything to me. I do hope he becomes more comfortable in scenes. He is on contract so I think this story is going to go on for awhile.

I heard that one of the 6 OLTL actors rumored to be leaving soon is now not leaving...I assume it's FF because of this s/l.

I admit I did not see Wed or today's episode, but I did see Tuesday's and JPL did still have his goofy facials going on. I'll have to watch the past 2 days to see just how well Farah did, but I don't hold out much hope. She hasn't done a thing for me since coming to OLTL.

And alston and others are spot on...tough crap if, as an actor, you don't like the s/l you are in. Suck it up, act your azz off and go collect your paycheck. Either that or step aside and let a better actor take your place. She could do Emmy worthy work from now until doomsday and she will still not have the respect of some, myself included, for falling down on the job in her previous big storyline.

As someone who doesn't watch OLTL regularly I have to say those scenes on the rooftop with Gigi begging Shane had me CRYING!!!! Farah was great in those scenes causing me to feel emotionally invested in scenes with characters I have no connection to....so kudos to her....and the boy that plays Shane...

I just saw the 4/5/11 epi on youtube. Yes, JPL was mugging and no Farah wasn't Bette Davis. However, Farah and Austin moved me. I was ready to hunt Jack down myself. And while I don't agree with parents slapping kids, I can understand why Blair snapped. She just heard her son make light of the worst part of Todd, and she was worried he would be just like him. Kassie DePaiva killed it. She made those scenes work even with that albatross of an "actor" playing Jack.

Sunny-thank you. I knew there were 6 leaving. Are you sure the one who is staying isn't Bobby??
I am a little disapointed if Faith stays on. I haven't watched in 2 days, about to, but I am thinking she takes Shane and moves back to Texas.
Just a thought..........

I thought that story about the six leaving was just rumor/speculation.