I'm ready to consider this another failed return. The actor is ok but I don't get a Joey vibe from him and the character is being written very milquetoast. The worst thing that happened to Joey and Kevin was when Gary Tomlin dumped them in 2001, because ever since then they have each lost their footing. I really wouldn't be surprised if Joey winds up written back out again before the year is up. In the meantime Aubrey is so boring and non interesting that she could easily be a Ford cousin.

I never knew Joey, but the character isn't clicking with me though maybe if I actually watched the show, it would be different. I've been OLTL-free for about two weeks now and don't miss it. I'm not interested in the storylines they're showcasing right now, so after re-setting my DVR for most of a week, I finally paused the programming so I wouldn't wear out my DVR and CD erasing the show day after day. If things pick up with TnT or Marty/John/Natters are backburnered, maybe I'll start watching again, but for now, I'm taking a break.

The odd thing is that he is being written very Joey-ish: stubbornly naive, clinging to the girl like a schmuck, while resisting any bad word against her. It's vintage Joey, but the story just stinks.

Joey was abruptly brought back for the purpose of trying to give Kelly another try at a story. Since all of the others failed, they went in for the rehash of something from fifteen years ago. That by itself makes it sort of pathetic, then add the debris that is Aubrey and Cutter, not to mention Rex singing backup.

A new Joey (who the audience has to get used to) comes back shackled to a new character (who the viewers doesn't know or care about, and who turns out to be a gold-digger), for the sake of propping another character (Kelly) whose return has left many cold.

There's just too many negatives here.