Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 12:01 AM ET by Scotty Gore

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(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — “One Life to Live” takes a turn for the worse.

What a train wreck “One Life to Live” seems to be right now. On the one hand, you have solid drama, while on the other hand you have something that, at best, is reminiscent of a middle school drama production.

For example, the scenes involving Clint tricking Matthew into believing that his parents were cheating on one another, Matthew’s reaction to seeing Inez and a drunken Bo kissing on the couch, his being incapable of dealing with the situation, and of Nora’s fear and anger over what Eddie almost did to her, were powerful and truly soapy in nature. On the other hand, the boxing match between Eddie and Ford was idiotic to say the least.

It was horrible editing to go from Matthew’s rage and anger to James and Nate watching their abusive dad trading jabs with their older brother while the boys’ girlfriends watched in horror and disgust. Much like the storyline that it was ripped off from (where Cristian pursued a boxing career and the shifty Vincent Jones became his manager), this story brought down what would have otherwise been a solid episode. But that’s nothing new. “OLTL” tends to do this a lot these days. They try to balance out a good storyline involving talented actors with filler and fluff that would make “High School Musical” look like Shakespeare. And who in the hell even cares who really killed Eddie? That’s yet another bad habit “One Life” seems to have trouble breaking. They nearly always kill off insignificant or despised characters and then try lure viewers in by making many of the characters they actually care about into suspects with motives that contain more holes than a piece of Swiss Cheese.

All this storyline succeeds in doing is making me hate the Ford family even more and remind me how the show has completely ruined several characters, most notably Starr and Langston. And just who is writing this garbage anyway? For example, take the line where Langston told Ford that she would sleep with him if he wouldn’t fight his father. Yeah, that would be the same father that physically abused his younger brother James while they were growing up. But what the hey, having sex with your girlfriend will take care of all of that. Yeah, right. Langston has been totally ruined to make the Ford family looked good. I can still remember the days when she and Markko decided to wait to have sex because they were both so mature and focused on their future. But just look at her now. Oh, how far she has fallen. And don’t even get me started on “oh, woe is me” Starr. I just wonder how many more weeks will go by before she gets kidnapped for the 527th time? My guess not very long.

That’s about all I feel like saying about “One Life to Live” at this point. It has just turned back into a hot mess again. It never fails that, just when the show is starting to get good again, it takes a sudden nosedive and returns to a steaming pile of crap again. And that is starting to happen now. Until then, I’m outta here…

But before I go, perhaps I should just stop writing these columns all together since apparently certain people have nothing better to do than to set around and look for mistakes and publicly criticize someone anytime one is made. Well we all can’t be as perfect as some people pretend to be, and perhaps they have an endless amount of time to critique each and every paragraph for grammatical and spelling errors but I, much like most other people in the world, have a life away from my computer that tend to focus more of my time on more important things than what someone has written on an online message board. Get off the couch and enjoy your life for a change already. 

Anyway, moving on, no one correctly guessed I identity of last time’s celebrity guest which was former CNBC news anchor Ted David. He played both a debate moderator and reporter during the recent mayoral election storyline featuring Viki and Dorian.

In case you missed the clues, here they are: This former financial TV commentator appeared in Llanview in 2009 on two separate occasions during a storyline that involved two of the town’s leading citizens.

Now it’s time to play another round of “Llanview, Who Am I?,” a new feature where you have to use the clues to figure out the identity of some mystery celebrity guest stars from “OLTL’s” past. See if you can figure it out. Good luck!!!

In 1974, this famous actor, the son of an Austrian opera star, played the godfather of one of Llanview’s leading ladies, who just happened to be portrayed by his real-life daughter.

So who is this mystery celebrity from the past? I’ll have the answers in the December 30th edition of My View of Llanview. Bonus points if you can tell me the name of his daughter. And don’t forget to check out my Twitter page for all the latest “OLTL” news and information at SON.

Now, before I wrap up this column, I’m going to look into my crystal ball and give you a quick sneak peek at a few things coming up a few weeks down the road. These are for the week of January 3rd. A woman mourns for a lost love. Someone receives some bad news. A realization is made about a person who is up to no good. One woman gets bitch slapped. Alcohol is used to dull the pain of unrequited love. A mysterious package is exposed. And will someone finally reveal the secret they are holding over another?

Well that’s concludes yet another column. I hope everyone had a wonderful a very merry Christmas and an extremely happy New Year. Stay safe, warm, happy, and until next time remember, we only have “One Life to Live”…

“One Life to Live” airs Weekdays on ABC. Weeknights on SOAPnet. Anytime on ABC.com and SOAPnet.com. Check local listings.