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clone, baby, clone |
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tv guide (april 18-24, 2000) |
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Call us certifiable, but we actually like the cloning of Reva on Guiding Light. This puts us in the extreme minority: The controversial story—in which Kim Zimmer's supposedly dead character has been genetically duplicated by a crackpot scientist—has been thoroughly trashed by fans on the Internet and on the letters pages of the soap magazines (it was also panned in TV Guide's Cheer & Jeers). But as far as we're concerned, the pros of this intriguing plot far outweigh the cons and there is no reason for GL loyalists to panic: This is hardly the first time the show has gone wacky (Remember the Dreaming Death? Remember Reva as a ghost?), and it isn't a precursor of plots to come, any more than General Hospital's space-alien story of 1990 has any bearing on the gutsy realness of GH today. Granted, the clone's rapid growth is ridiculous, and the writers conveniently skip most details (Who diapered baby Reva? Who took teen Reva shopping for those slutty outfits?), but they do not sidestep the horror, disgust, confusion and potential calamity inherent in human replication. The characters, as they learn of the cloning, are as freaked as the fans, and that goes a long way toward making this story fly. The actors are all sublime, especially Robert Newman as Reva's hubby Josh, Joie Lenz as the Lolita-esque teen Reva (Dawson's Creek should hire this fabulous newcomer now!) and the 40ish Zimmer who, bad wig aside, is eerily convincing as a young-adult version of herself. What's more, GL is exploring political and moral issues—from the education and rights of a clone to Josh's Humbert Humbert lust for teen Reva—that are dizzying in their complexity. Yes, it's all extremely bizarre. But the best of bizarre fiction—from The Twilight Zone to The X-Files—holds up a mirror to humanity, giving us insight into the heart and mind and soul that we might not get otherwise. — Michael Logan |
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