Was I disappointed when I first read that they didn't actually show the consummation (as I expected)? Yeah. After reading more posts (specifically the posts of Tracee, Melissa and Tah), I have come to the conclusion (which of course may change after seeing the episode) that not only am I no longer disappointed, but that I am thrilled that TPTB went this route. And was this the most run-on sentence you have ever read in your life or what?

Why am I thrilled?

Well, how many times have we seen the cliched love scene? The music played (usually a newly popular love song) over slo-mo lovin'. The specifically arranged-to-show-more-than-they-actually-are camera shots. The tender removal of clothes. Soft kisses followed by steadily more passionate ones. Cut away and then back-to-shots followed by the montage of seemingly intimate moments (while the actors desperately attempt to keep those sheets in place!). Finally, the crescendo of music, the gripping of the sheets, a final sated passionate kiss and a fade to black. Again, how many times have we seen this scenario played out on our soaps?

Too many to count, right?

So in keeping with the untraditional route that this couple has taken, why not continue down that road. Instead of giving us what we expected -- as they have done so many times with this storyline -- they have gone with the unexpected. Giving us scenes that we never would anticipate, they went for the loving afterglow, saving (I sincerely hope) the heat and passion for their next lovemaking session.

So, Guiding Light took a different path with Danny and Michelle's first time. They went with one that dealt with the true love that these two share. We know that they are passionate and we know that they are passionate for each other. However, judging by their wedding and following what happened prior to the wedding -- she was abandoned basically by everyone she loves with the exception of Abby (where WAS Meta?) and Danny - the girl needed softness, sweetness and tender loving care -- love and not passion was the overriding theme here.

I think of Danny's original wedding vows - "you were a treasure to be cherished and revered ..." - and believe that for him that was what his first time with Michelle, the woman he loved, would be about. I think of the fact that this was Michelle's girlhood fantasy and that Danny strove to give her that exact wish.

As someone else mentioned, this was not Danny's fantasy (I can just see a really delicious fanfic coming from HIS fantasy - hehehe!! ). This was Michelle's fantasy and one from when she was much younger and the romantic fantasies of young girls do not include hot and wild sex with raw, unbridled passion.

This was about true love and that is what TPTB wanted to focus on. Period. If we had seen the obligatory love scene, yeah, we would have loved the touches and kisses and assumed interaction, but we would have walked away from the show reveling pretty much only in their physicality, their passion for one another.

By making the lovemaking a private thing between Danny and Michelle (off-screen), we were forced to concentrate on their reactions afterward, their conversation, their interactions with one another. And judging from comments, all of those things were steeped in "oh my God, I love this person so much and he/she is mine in every sense of the word."

Had we been allowed to witness the physical act of love, it would have been great but oh, so standard. The thing is that no matter how much Danny and Michelle love one another, due to their passion for one another (not to mention the incredible chemistry that PAS and JL share), that physical act would have come across as burning hot! hot! hot! and the love would have been left in the dust.

Their soft, sweet kisses and touches from Friday, the incredibly erotic tension built from just their dancing proves that to show these two actually engaged in any type of sexual activity just sends thoughts of anything other than "OH MY GOD" out the window. You gotta presume that he would have been thinking, "damn, I'm finally getting some!" and she would have been thinking "so, this is what it's supposed to be like!"

The overall impression would have been one of passion and the love would have been lost in the aftermath because of just how hot these two are together even doing simply romantic or merely mundane activities. Clearly, TPTB wanted the love of Danny and Michelle at the surface, not buried beneath hot and sweaty scenes of passion.

Of course, if we don't' get to see those hot and sweaty scenes of passion, I may revise my opinion and send a nasty letter to TPTB.

I really, really, really wanted to love "Manny Monday" as much as I loved "Freaky Friday." I even laid out a whole argument for why they denied us the actual love scene in my Pre-show time commentary. Alas, all of my projections for joyous Manny watching went, well, if not down the tubes, at least puddled in a decidedly un-whirlpool type of fashion.

My main bone of contention (and there many minor ones) with Monday's scenes was that as sweet as they were, they were not romantic. Period. I was not expecting passion so I could have lived with that, but I was expecting oodles and oodles of romance. I didn't get that. Naturally, I was bummed.

I wrote in my pre-commentary -- " ... we were forced to concentrate on their reactions afterward, their conversation, their interactions with one another. And judging from comments, all of those things were steeped in "oh my God, I love this person so much and he/she is mine in every sense of the word."

Unfortunately, I didn't get that at all from their scenes. Excuse my vulgarity here, but I kinda got a "hey, we f*cked, ain't life grand now?" attitude and that is not what I expected and definitely not what I wanted. Where was the romance and passion of the dance, of their kisses, of the way they gazed at one another on Friday and in just about every other lovey-dovey scene they've done? Where was the joy and awe (especially, MOST especially, the awe) of finally making love with someone you adore and have been waiting months to enjoy that pleasure with? Where, oh, where was the romance?

It sure as heck wasn't on screen.

I don't blame Paul Anthony Stewart or Joie Lenz, they worked with what they had. And the numerous Danny kisses across her throat, chest, shoulders, face and fingers were lovely, but merely sweet - not passionate or romantic. Hell, even the ear nibble wasn't all that. Watch the "I am a man" speech. He nibbles slightly on her ear at the end of the scene and that was a passionate nibble - that was want and lust and desire and damn near need all rolled into one. Today's ear nibble was ... well, nice. Seriously, com'on, GL, (to quote Dr. Evil) throw me a frickin' bone here, Danny and Michelle. Ear nibble. Nice!!??!! What is wrong with this picture?

Again, I don't blame the actors, I completely blame the directing and the writing. Whoever directed those scenes should be fired or at least given a course on "How Not to Suck All Romance and/or Passion out of a Scene."

And the writing, oy vey! Hello!?! So many intros of dialogue could and should have been the beginning of episode-long meaty conversations - 'make friends with Carmen,' "our children," "Rick won't always be like this," "we've come a long way" . . . especially, the "we've come a long way." Have they ever sat down and talked about the fact that shortly after they met he was supposed to kill her and now they're in love? Certainly not on screen and to have the topic brought up so casually and then dismissed just as casually was a slap in the face of Manny-acs who adore the complexity and originality of this storyline.

And I use the term "storyline" deliberately, because we have been drawn in by more than just a "pairing." It has been the character complexity, the plot twists, the unexpected nature of the way things happen, the dark undertones vs. the light (okay and how hot Paul Anthony Stewart is ...). And that "conversation" (read this with as much withering sarcasm as you can muster) was an insult to this storyline.

I'm all for lovey-dovey Danny and Michelle (read my post on the "Freaky Friday") but not at the expense of the characters and certainly not when the direction does its damnedest to dilute the incredible chemistry of these two actors.

Another thing, I understand that Joie Lenz just turned eighteen, but, if they were going to film scenes like this they should have made her feel more secure or just not filmed them at all. I was literally distracted at the constant attention both she and Stewart (although it was sweet of him) paid to keeping that sheet in place.

One more peeved comment, I normally do not complain at lack of Manny airtime. The last couple I adored was Lucy and Alan-Michael (also on GL) and anyone who followed their story from the beginning (September '93), you will understand this. I would be thanking the Soap Gods daily had LAM received even half the airtime that Manny are constantly given. However, not today. Today, I'd be bitchin' and moanin' as much as I ever did over the three second snippets worth of regurgitated dialogue-filled scenes that LAM had to deal with on a regular basis.

It was one thing that they didn't end them on Friday (when they most emphatically should have). It's one thing that we didn't get more kissage considering we wouldn't get any action. It's one thing that the scenes today were dang poor excuses for good dialogue and post-coital bliss. It's entirely another that they were barely on, damnit!!!

What is wrong with the TPTB? This couple is getting more attention than any other on daytime right now and has latched on quicker than most popular couples ever do. Danny and Michelle are getting more attention than every GL couple of the last ten years (excluding Matt and Vanessa) combined! And for their first lovemaking, we not only don't get any of the above already mentioned, but they barely get ten minutes worth of scenes!!!! Are they out of their friggin' minds!!??!!?? Brain dead??!!!?? What???!!!???

Okay, deep breath. In and out. In and out.

All right, I'm calmer now.

Big mistake, Guiding Light. BIG mistake. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

Onto happier things, now, I did like a few things. Let's rack my brains here (I only watched it once as opposed to the +50 times I've already watched "Freaky Friday.")

The finger kisses were fabulous. And although the sheet was wrapped in such a way to separate their bodies, it wasn't as blindingly obvious as in some cases --which drives me crazy. You know what I mean, when it actually looks like two separate sheets are keeping the actors apart, thus denying any suspension of disbelief in the idea that the characters actually made love. That's another plus for today's scenes. Although we didn't see it, and although I didn't get that sense of romance, I was quite easily able to suspend my disbelief that Danny and Michelle had in fact done the horizontal boogie bop.

I did like the carefree way they acted with one another. And I didn't sense any discomfort or awkwardness (other than keeping the damn sheet in place). The constant smiles and laughter were (here's that word again) sweet. And all the cuddling was cute.

Oh, damn, another bad. The kisses (I can't believe I am actually writing this about Manny) were unimpressive. Many a nose was smooshed and lips pursed. I could have lived without French kissing, but no open mouth kissing? What's up with that?

Oh, I did like their last kiss. I actually rewound that one five times. It (shock of shocks) hinted at passion. Yeah, the last five seconds of their (extremely limited) airtime finally hinted at romance and passion. And of course they're not continuing their scenes tomorrow. Arrgghh!!

Maybe when I watch it again, it'll do more for me. Who knows? All I know right now is that Guiding Light missed the boat big time. Big time. And it's not even funny, it's just sad.

Jennifer H.