The Gift

Internet message boards for GUIDING LIGHT were in full swing by late 2003, during the tenure of John Conboy as Executive producer and Ellen Weston as head writer, so I remember well the general discontent that the viewership felt over the work they did on the show. I wasn't terribly happy with them either (mainly because they took a lot of my favorites off contract), but my negative feelings never quite reached the level of outright hatred that I witnessed on the boards. I bring this up because a new trend that I'm seeing lately is threads about how much more preferable that era was to what David Kreizman is doing to the show now. Oh, the irony...

Today's entry lands us toward the end of that era. The Gift takes us through about three months in the lives of Jeffrey O'Neill and Marah Lewis, from late 2003 to early 2004, as she pursues and eventually beds the randy D.A./Richard-lookalike. The hallmarks of this time are all over the place: the "swiiiisshh" between scenes, Reva's psychic powers, the overt sexuality of the love scenes, Sandy as Marah's brother/crush (eewww!). What I think this clipset tells us is that this team wasn't all bad and the show had a lot to recommend it at that time.

I remember, right before this storyline started (I was living in New York at the time), CBS' THE EARLY SHOW had several GL couples on each morning of this one particular week and Friday's pair was Lindsey McKeon and Bradley Cole. I remember thinking "Why are they on together?"

Then the spoilers started coming and it didn't sound very good to me. Surprisingly, this couple really worked-- at least from where I sat. The storyline made sense and the chemistry between the actors was absolutely electric. Lindsey McKeon is luminous here and so wonderfully believable and sympathetic as a girl with a broken spirit, too young to be so battered by life. It's Jeffrey's recognition of Marah's state that brings out the best in Bradley Cole's portrayal of Jeffrey, which up to this point had been a hard (and loud) pill to swallow.

This clipset also reminds me that poor Scott Bailey never really did have a hold on the Sandy character. You get a cookie if you can get through clip 13 of this set without laughing.

The Gift

clip 1 , clip 2 , clip 3 , clip 4 , clip 5

clip 6 , clip 7 , clip 8 , clip 9 , clip 10

clip 11 , clip 12 , clip 13 , clip 14 , clip 15