Although General Hospital had Chase go so far as to fake paralysis to keep Willow from Michael, when the truth about all of their lies came out, the fireworks amounted to a damp sparkler. That’s Soap 101, people: Don’t build to a payoff and then deny viewers a payoff!
Despite striking gold in Sasha Calle, The Young and the Restless sped through Lola’s marriage to Kyle, then banished her to the kitchen, where apparently, Hollywood took note of the soap’s colossal mistake and decided to make her a movie star.
The Bold and the Beautiful turned the Logan sisters from casual hypocrites into full-time professional ones. One question about that: Why?!? Is this supposed to make us, dunno, like them or care about what happens to them? ’Cause it sure hasn’t done either of those things.
Oh, but you should’ve, Kristen. You should’ve. Because as much as we have found ourselves digging Days of Our Lives’ Xander with new love Gwen, there was kinda-sorta no sense whatsoever to the decision to bench Linsey Godfrey, thereby eliminating “Xarah,” one of the show’s most appealing new couples in ages.
Supportive as General Hospital fans have been of talented Wes Ramsey, we were all beyond ready for Peter’s story to end when he took that “fatal” tumble down the stairs. But as if to reaffirm that no one ever really dies on this show, he was up and at ’em again before we could say, “God, no! No, no, no!”
We’re going to need a diagram to explain to us why Young & Restless has kept Sharon in her lukewarm marriage to Rey when viewers are all hot for her and Adam — whether hot and bothered because they like the idea of real-life couple Sharon Case and Mark Grossman being paired on screen or hot under the collar because they think the formerly married characters are toxic for one another.
Sure, it was a kick that The Bold and the Beautiful reintroduced Sheila. She’s always good for a bit of cray-cray. But to make her return satisfying and not just a psycho sugar rush, the show would have had to make it make sense, and it didn’t. Why did Sheila wait until Finn married Steffy to reveal herself to him? When in Sheila’s timeline did she even hook up with Jack to conceive Finn? And on what planet would Sheila’s return address not be a padded cell somewhere?
… so Days of Our Lives should’ve thought twice — and then thought better of — its decision to try to recreate classic “Bope” moments with “Cin.” (We even wrote a whole column on the subject.) Both couples are awesome in their own right; the newer one doesn’t need to borrow from the older one to establish itself as super.
If there’s one soap trope we hoped General Hospital would never trot out again, it was mind control. Yet no sooner had Cameron Mathison been introduced as the new Drew than we were dragged kicking and screaming back to that well again.
The Young & Restless storyline in which Abby recruited Devon and Mariah to make her a baby failed on more levels than, honestly, we even knew existed. To the point that — and we hate having to call it like we see it, but — it was painful to watch. The soap then continued to bungle all things Abby by ruining her ex (more on that later) and revealing that Chance had been recast while still expecting us to give a [bleep] about her endless mourning.
… isn’t just a sentence that’s the fastest way to start a marital argument on The Bold and the Beautiful. It’s also an apt description of the show’s dialogue, which has become so repetitive, every day feels like Groundhog Day. It’s also an apt description of the show’s dialogue, which has become so repetitive, every day feels like Groundhog Day. It’s also an apt description of the show’s dialogue…
If Days of Our Lives couldn’t get Renee Jones to reprise her role of Lexie for James Reynolds’ 40th anniversary as Abe, what on earth was the point of getting a stand-in to play the back of her head?
General Hospital had set up a total knockout of a comeback for Sonny… then pulled its punch by not having Jason and Carly sleep together before his BFF and her husband revealed that he still had a pulse. As a result, what should’ve been high drama played like, at best, mild interest.
The Young and the Restless has in its ranks true soap royalty in Peter Bergman. Yet its only idea for Jack is… to make him suddenly, nonsensically yearn for ex-wife Phyllis anew? No. Just no. If you can’t figure out a love interest and a plot for Jack, that’s on you, Young & Restless, not Bergman or his beloved character.
When Bold & Beautiful viewers reacted with gasps to Eric’s decision to use Carter as a kind of sexual surrogate, the soap didn’t say, “Ah! At last, we’ve got their attention!” it backed away from the edgy and original storyline so fast, it left skid marks on the floor of the Forrester living room.
We were stoked that General Hospital returned Sean Blakemore’s Shawn to the canvas… until, that is, it began to look like there was no significant plan for the character.
Unfortunately, the “bang” was our heads exploding over the fact that Young & Restless let Gaines just slither out of town instead of killing Ashland’s blackmailer and launching the whodunit it had spent ages setting up.
Was it fun to see Eileen Davidson back in action as Kristen in Peacock’s limited series, Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem? Absolutely. Did she, as always, slay? Most definitely. But did the powers that be’s decision to have her temporarily step back into the role that’s been so brilliantly played by Stacy Haiduk since Davidson’s exit from Salem feel disrespectful to her replacement? Sorry to say, yeah. It did.
Alas, that book doesn’t say that the brilliant Roger Howarth’s new character is a hit. True, at first we applauded the daring that General Hospital showed in killing off Franco and were excited to meet the Emmy winner’s next incarnation. Months later, however, we’re, um… we’re not so excited anymore. Are we sure Franco isn’t just pulling a Peter and laying low for a minute?
No matter how long or loudly fans of The Young and the Restless have clamored for Doug Davidson to be reinstated as Paul, the Emmy winner has remained on the wrong side of the soap’s revolving door.
When The Bold and the Beautiful blew up Zoe’s life, it did so… without Zoe being present. Instead of at Quinn and Eric’s vow-renewal ceremony, the model found out about her fiancé’s affair with her insta-bestie from sis Paris, kinda shrugged and exited in a manner that was so undramatic, it made our list of daytime’s all-time worst goodbyes.
We can see the value in General Hospital having a voice of goodness, of righteousness, of justice. Where we stumble to the point of falling on our faces is the choice of Carly and the Corinthos clan to provide that voice. As they targeted Nina for revenge retribution, decrying her actions every step of the way, it was all we could do not to scream at the TV, “Y’all know you’re literal criminals, right? Mobsters? Hitmen? Molls?”
It may have been cancer that The Young and the Restless said was killing Ashland, but we’ll be damned if it wasn’t his never-ending secrets that nobody cared about that was killing us. We were all in on Ashtoria, guys; there was no point at all to the zillion obstacles that weren’t really obstacles and left us more irritated than intrigued.
Much as we were into “Quarter,” Bold & Beautiful lost us when it had the lovers act as if they’d all but been forced to sleep together because Eric had given the OK. They could’ve just kept their distance, with Carter moving on and Quinn taking “matters,” so to speak, into her own hands. (Our sister site StyleCaster could’ve really helped her out there.)
Days of Our Lives has in Philip what should be a complicated but appealing romantic lead — and one played once again by original portrayer Jay Kenneth Johnson. (Bonus!) So why is the character being written as borderline psycho? When we try to answer that question… Well, we wind up about as frustrated and confused as he looks here.
General Hospital seemed to think that Sasha being pregnant with Brando’s baby was a storyline. It was not.
No one was more excited than we were when we heard that The Young and the Restless was bringing back Sean Carrigan as Stitch. But after seeing what the show did to the character — for reasons too silly and mind-boggling to comprehend, he became a kidnapper — we kinda wished he hadn’t returned at all.
Bold & Beautiful teased a big murder mystery, then killed off Vinny in a head-scratcher of a storyline — he committed vehicular suicide to help out buddy Thomas? — that was neither a murder nor a mystery.
We love a good tease, but General Hospital brought up Hayden’s name so often — without bringing back Rebecca Budig — that it ended up feeling less like a tease than a taunt. “Nya nya, you can’t have her!”
After waiting years for The Young and the Restless to give Kyle and Summer a happily ever after, the show let walk Michael Mealor and Hunter King, then added insult to injury by bringing them back briefly — to let us all know that their characters had gotten married off screen! Gah!
Advertisement
