I expect the prior week’s ratings to be TOUGH for the BnB when they’re released on Thursday/Friday of this week.  DAYS  has just ended a year long arc with Sami Brady finding out that Nicole Walker stole her child (Sydney) and replaced her with a child who ended up dying only months later (Grace).  I fully expect DAYS to kick Bold’s fanny in the next set of ratings.  If it doesn’t, shame on the viewers for missing one of daytime’s truly great moments!  Sami put the smackdown on Nicole, literally and figuratively, after finding out that Nicole stole her child – and Nicole turned it around and made herself a sympathetic character, in the end.

4:35 into this clip (also posted below)  shows you what DAYS has going on that Bold can’t touch, right now… but the whole clip is worth the watch!  *Thanks MrBreaksoap for posting this vid… check out MrBreaksoap’s channel on Youtube

DAYS is amazing and Arianne Zuker is hitting it out the ballpark.   I don’t know who to credit for the success of this storyline.  Is it the writers who seemed to know how they wanted to tell this story from beginning to end?  There were no weak moments (other than the uninteresting teens – and even then the writers seemed to know not to give them too big a role in this storyline).  Does the credit go to Ari Z, whose every inflection, facial expression, and gesture seemed perfect?   Is it a strong  partnership between the two, one not working without the other?

The Bold and the Beautiful (only .2 of a ratings point ahead of DAYS)  hasn’t offered a storyline that comes even close to anything as exciting as the Sami and Nicole exchange.   While the BnB feels like the show you watch just before you go to sleep at night,  DAYS is the show you rush home to watch because missing a single day means you’ll miss something good!  If DAYS isn’t theEmmy winner for ‘Best Drama’ next year, I’ll be shocked.  The carefully choreographed dance between the writers at DAYS, and Ari Z is the perfect example of what writers can do with a show when writers write to the strength of their actors, instead of faulting good actors for bad storylines and awful direction (see: Kyle Lowder).

What the BnB lacks in terms of the  disciplined continuity shown by DAYS writers, it makes up for in sheer number of storylines directed at the audience.  Stephanie’s childhood abuse storyline ended as quickly as it began and then morphed into a storyline about her facilitating the rape of Brooke Logan.  Eric woke up out of his coma to find his wife in the arms of another man and all was forgiven mere weeks later.   Owen was a schemer (or appeared to be) when he first arrived on canvas – only to be transformed into a ‘hero’ just months later and transformed again as a toyboy-to-true love shortly after.  Brooke’s rape became a storyline about reclaiming the love of her life, only to have her nearly throw him away again with the birth of a child she never planned for (more on that later).   BnB storylines are  like the weather pattern in most places, wait ten minutes and they’ll change.  The Bold and The Beautiful needs a storyline arc that draws fans in and one that  lasts longer than a couple of months.  The ‘baby drama’ centered on Nick, Bridget, and Sandy/Agnes is the perfect opportunity for the writers to tell a cohesive storyline.  Right now the storyline is hit and run.  Pieces of it show up, when the writers aren’t busy shoving less interesting storylines (like Steffy going psycho stalker and creating an affair from a weak kiss – all in her head).

I think that BOLD’s Ashley Jones’ appeal is severely underestimated – mainly by the BOLD writers since prime time writers, directors, and casting agents ‘get it’, given Ms. Jones’ string of successes in prime time appearances.  Between Ashley Jones and Sarah Brown, the baby surrogacy storyline, added to the Logan/Forrester takeover,  has the potential to give fans a reason to become excited about the show.  SB’s Sandy  is clearly playing the Nicole Walker role, but are her intentions are as pure as Nicole’s?  It’s doubtful given Sandy’s fixation on the happy couple, the fact that they have everything, according to her, and that she has nothing.   Could she have been targeting Nick and Bridget all along?  Maybe it wasn’t her plan to become a surrogate, but that she’d planned to take advantage of Nick’s reputation as an unfaithful man.  The guy slept with Bridget’s mother and her dying aunt, after all.  How hard could it be to have him fall into bed with her?  That the happy couple needed a surrogate might have been a happy coincidence for her.  It would give her a chance to get closer to Nick, without Bridget needing to be around, and it set the stage for her making Bridget feel inadequate – or to at least try to.

Bridget has already suffered untold grief and misery and would be easily blindsided by someone like Sandy – but it shouldn’t take her long to see through Sandy and figure out what’s going on.  It would require a paradigm shift from the writers who would have to let go of bad habits.  By the time your husband humps your mother just months after your child dies, and jumps your dying aunt – being written as ‘naive’ only makes a character look stupid.   I’d rather not see that happen this time.  Why not have a cat and mouse storyline with the two women?  Why not add a new angle?  Sandy only THINKS she’s the cat.  It turns out that she’s the mouse and that Bridget relies on Sandy’s knowledge of ‘poor, pitiful, naive, betrayed, Bridget’ and plays to it… while working with her mother and mother-in-law, to make sure that Sandy doesn’t get her child – even if she takes her husband.   Maybe Bridget will prevail and win them both!  Is it even possible for the writers to have Nick keep his pants up when presented with the opportunity to cheat?  Let’s hope.

If you’re a BOLD viewer, I know what you’re most likely thinking?  The last BnB ‘baby drama’ story  (Brooke/Taylor surrogacy) didn’t work.  Fans were bored silly and the ratings dropped.  Why torture fans with another ‘baby drama’ storyline?  Why pick up with another ‘two mommies’ storyline?  The problem, in my opinion, wasn’t the type of storyline, but the players invovled!

The Brooke and taylor angle was wretched, because:

1 – taylor is a dud of a character and it would be easier cheering on a root canal than anything to do with her.  There are times when the writers need to realize that some characters really are damaged beyond repair, and cut bait.

2 – of fan fatigue with the rivalry.  It was tiresome watching Brooke dragged down into a storyline with taylor and Nick all over again.  Taylor has been at Brooke’s throat for over two decades, soap time.  They’ve battled over Ridge.  Both have loved Eric.  Both have bedded Thorne.  Each has referred to herself as the mother of the other’s children.  Both had bedded Nick and placed Bridget in the most uncomfortable of situations watching them move on with him while she still loved him.  By the time ‘Jack’ came along, the only fan response left was  ‘who cares?’

3 – the Brooke/nick link was DISGUSTING.  Given the death of Bridget’s child with Nick and the writers added insult to injury by having Bridget implant  Brooke’s fertilized egg into Taylor’s womb.   That’s a move that sounds good in the echo chamber of the writers’ room, but EGADS, wasn’t there a focus group to float that one by?  I can’t imagine anyone who wasn’t intimately connected with the show who loved it.

Moral of the story?  KISS!  (Keep it simple, silly!)  The DAYS baby swap/two mommies  storyline worked because it was interesting and  because it wasn’t clogged with too many agendas.  You didn’t get the feeling that the baby swap was just a prelude to something bigger, something worse – that the writers were committed to the storyline.  The BnB storyline, by comparison, was a fiasco.  The storyline appeared to be one more back door attempt to try to force fans to root for a Nick and Brooke pairing, a pairing that failed four times before.

In the appropriate writers’ hands, the Nicket storyline could help awaken this show.  Speaking for viewers like myself:  NO ONE gives a crap about taylor’s blind date. We’re SICK of Steffy’s desperation – and she is as equally damaged as Rick.  The Douglas “drama” puts me to sleep.   Give us more Nicket intrigue with Sandy and let us watch the Forresters fight their way back to the top, kicking Dollar Bill’s butt along the way! Let Ridge, Brooke, and Thorne take the lead on the big return.  Explain Felicia’s absence as having her tracing back  DB’s steps and digging up dirt on the guy.  After helping her family successfully reclaim the company, she and Dominic/Dino can visit Dante in Europe (until LK finishes her stint on ATWT).

When the Bold and the Beautiful is on, it’s ON.  When it’s not, it’s the most confusing show on daytime.  The inconsistency and character/plot shifting isn’t serving the show well.  I’m hoping there’s a time when the show will play to the strength of it’s  actors and rich history,  and do so consistently.  If DAYS does surpass the BnB in the ratings, who knows it will last?  DAYS has also had problems with past writing teams being inconsistent and confusing.  It’s hard to know who will ultimately prevail in this battle,  but given the richness of the BnB, it seems that the BnB has the edge. The writers just need to wake up and wake the rest of us up as well.

As an aside… DAYS writers?

When will you have Nicole wise up to the fact that the only real difference between EJ Dimera and Paul Walker  is that one is the devil with whom she shares DNA, and the other is the devil with whom she was willing to share her life?  Outside of that, the differences between the two men are minor.

As the World Turns:  The mess that is Molly Conlan!

The biggest mistake the BnB writers made is under-utilizing the skills of Lesli Kay.  It’s almost as if the writers had forgotten why they risked  squandering the show’s credibility to bring ‘Felicia Forrester’ back from the brink of death – after she’d been diagnosed with a metastasized form of late stage colon cancer.  The character was worth saving because of the new life Kay breathed into the character – literally and figuratively.   Not only had Felicia made the most miraculous recovery known in soap history, but she was then ushered to the backburner almost as quickly as she healed.  I’d count the Felicia-Dante-Bridget triangle as a frontburner storyline if it hadn’t ended so aruptly.  Most of Felicia’s time, following that,  had been reduced to a limited string of appearances at Forrester Creations, her family’s company, whining and crying about her father’s marriage to Donna Logan and wanting her parents to get back together for the sake of the family.  Not exactly an appealing storyline for a woman heading into midlife.

Along comes ATWT to the rescue!  The writers there had big plans for LK.  Reprising her role as Molly Conlan would bring a bit of new blood through a familiar face to the show, and allow Molly to serve as the linchpin for bringing Jack Snyder and Carly Tenney Snyder back together.  Jack would find Molly in an awful mess of her own making, and have to call Carly to help her.  Our Molly was involved with a shifty politician who promised to leave his wife and children to be with her.  She finds out that he lied (shocking, a lying politician, I know!).  Instead, he plans to run for Governor for the state of New York, relying on his ‘valued family’ to help him get elected.  Like any person scorned, Molly has to decide whether to let go or get even… and because her name is Molly Conlan, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she decided to get even.

Delicious, right?  It would have been except the writers took the cheap route with this storyline.  Molly whined, and cried (poor LK!) and then decided to throw away a successful career as an evening anchor by outting the guy as a liar an cheat while on air.  It felt petty, and cheap, and that Molly hadn’t taken any responsiblity for the fact that of her own free will,  she’d become involved with a man who was cheating on his wife, and demeaning his relationship with his children.  It’s not that I wanted Molly to suck down her humiliation and move on with her life, the guy was a jackass and deserved to have his ass handed to him.  It would have been sweet, however, to watch an intelligent, calculating  Molly take him down instead of a vengeful, childlike Molly getting even in the worst way possible.    Why couldn’t she have called ‘Mr. Big’ back to her office to show him the videotape footage she has of the two of them together?  She could have warned him that the video would become public if he ever decided to seek office, anywhere, at any time.  She could have packed her bags and taken off to Oakdale to start her life over, wanting to get away from the stinkin’ memories she had of her life there.

Instead, the writers gave us an image of an ‘unsuspecting wife’ and blameless children, followed by Molly making them all victims of  their affair – out of anger and impulse.  Even worse, we’re to believe that Molly is so clueless that she doesn’t understand why she was losing her job, spewing allegations of an affair that her bosses hadn’t had time to substantiate.  I think we were supposed to view that as evidence that poor Molly was just a helpless woman living in a man’s world; she was betrayed by her married lover and then fired by a station manager when she was only ‘reporting the news’.  I gotta’ tell you, whining and crying Molly has me already longing for the return of whining and crying Felicia.  LK may get more airtime on ATWT, but her character on BnB was at least a little more complex.

I’m willing to give the ATWT writers time to prove me wrong… PLEASE!  LK is a spitfire and we need another smart, tough woman on the show.  Let NY Molly leave the weak  behavior behind.

Days of our Lives:  Team Nicole Reporting

Who didn’t know this moment had to happen?  Even as part of Team Nicole, it was clear to me that this day was coming and that it was only right that Sami found out that Sydney was her baby.  The only mystery left was whether EJ would stand by Nicole or turn on her for her duplicity.  When it comes to Ej, Nicole is like: a moth to a flame?  A fly clinging to poo? (my vote is the latter) WHAT does Nicole see in the guy?  She made HIM a better person.  He did nothing for her but make her feel inferior, as if she was only the understudy in a marital play he was producing.  He was only waiting for his ‘lead star’ to return.  Still, much of this storyline will be about Nicole begging Ej’s forgiveness.  You know… Ej.. the man who ordered a hit on Phillip Kiriakis , one that nearly cost Stephanie (Brady) Johnson her life.  Yes, Nicole has to hope and beg, and pray that the man will forgive her and still love her.  She has to worry whether Ej, the man who raped Sami the first time he got her pregnant, and then lied to get her into bed the second time he got her pregnant, would forgive HER for trying to keep his child from being raised by strangers.

I’ve always tried to figure out the logic behind that storyline.  It’s not like Sami doesn’t ALREADY share a child with Ej, one who spends time with him.  Why would she give up a second child with the man?   Sydney-Grace would be the ’safe’ child, but their son would be the damaged one?  It’s ultimately this bizarre act that led Nicole to concoct the scheme to steal Sami’s (then unwanted child).  In the dark spaces that fill Nicole’s tragic mind, she believed that she could help Ej by making sure he got to raise a child he would otherwise have never known.  Nicole cried holding Ej’s baby, and vowed to love her as if she’d given birth to her, and she kept that promise.  She cried because she didn’t want EJ to know the heartbreak she’d felt by having him lose a second child.  Unfortunately for Nicole,  Sami later decided to keep ‘her’ child and the die was cast.  It was too late, she felt, to go back and admit what she’d done.  Grace’s death only made it even more impossible for Nicole to step up – when it should have in fact made it easier.

It’s at that point that Nicole’s behavior was no longer ambiguous.  It’s at that point that Nicole could have stopped worrying about Ej running off to try to be with  the woman he violated, and cared more about easing his pain over the thought of having lost a daughter he’d never had the chance to know.  it should have been the confession that would have freed her soul.  As twisted as Nicole’s actions were before, it was esaier to bleieve that she was protecting her husband and that her concers for saving her marriage was only secondary to her need to make Ej’s life easier, happier ,and filled with sunshine even as her own life crumbled.

In the end, losing Ej would be a blessing in disguse – I don’t think anyone expects Ej to stand by Nicole for long – if at all.  A complex character like Nicole Walker (soon to not be Dimera) makes you want to root for her in spite of yourself.   Losing Ej would mean that Nicole would be free to be with someone who would want to make HER life easier, happier, and filled with sunshine.   She could be with someone who would love her first, and not be willing to toss her aside for the fantasy of living a blissful married life with the object of his obsession.  I’m still part of team Nicole, and hope there’s a payoff for those of us who are tired of watching Nicole demean herself for men who were never worthy of her.

The Logan girls:  Valley Trash Inspiration?

Anyone watching The Bold and The Beautiful for longer than a week has heard Stephanie refer to the Logan women as ‘trash from the valley’, a phrase she less-than-creatively alternates with ’sluts from the valley’.  The Logan women were, according to Stephanie’s fantasies, poor, tasteless, money-hungry golddiggers who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the Forrester fortune… Except, Brooke chose the working son, not the established moneyed father.  Donna never went near the Forresters, she was attracted to other “poor trash from the valley”, like Rocco Carner), and Katie rarely ever dated.  Stephanie couldn’t forgive the Logan girls because her ‘trash from the hills’ husband chased ‘trash from the valley’ Beth Logan.  Eric then kicked her ‘trash from the east coast’ backside to the curb to rebuild happiness with Beth!

Why does any of this old business matter?  Because as the old adage says, ‘everything old is new again’.  Katie took Bill Spencer home this past week to show him the neighborhood she grew up in and whaddya’ know?    The Logan girls were middle class like much of the show’s viewing audience.  They grew up in a loving home.  They were close and cared for one another and were open and loving to all  – so much so that Caroline Spencer didn’t want to leave the loving Logan home while recovering from rape.  (Day One fans will realize that the new ‘old Logan home’ is significantly larger than the former ‘old Logan home’, but hey, that’s all about creative license).  What’s clear is that the writers have put Stephanie’s tiresome screed in perspective.

Stephanie’s lack of perspective, and lack of humanity, is what has driven the conflict with the Logan family.  There has been no ‘war’ between the Logans and the Forresters.  There never was.  There was Stephanie Douglas  and her handmaiden, Taylor Hayes, on one side;  the Logans and the Forresters  have been on the other side.  While I still couldn’t give a crap about Katie and Bill as a couple (and care even less for the idea of  Steffy ‘trash from the  Hills’  Forrester coming between them), the one benefit of this couple has been watching the writers use them to show the side of the Logan clan so many fans have always loved about them.

The rebuilding of the Logan clan has been slow going, but is paying off for the show!  Donna returned, but as a tool to sell the writers’ vision of Bridge love vs. brICK lust.  Donna began with focusing on the epic love between Brooke and Ridge and hoping to help Brooke realize that there was something wrong with her relationship with Nick.  In the end, Donna was right.  It was a marriage that lasted 10 weeks, but had done grave damage to Brooke’s relationship with Bridget in the process, and damage to the viewers’ relationship with Brooke, as well.  Before Brooke ended her disastrous relationship with nick, Donna decided to move in on Ridge (near-fatal mistake number 1).  RealDonna Logan gave up a man she loved for her sister, Katie, when they were younger.  She would never have become involved with her sister’s one true love).   When Ridge ended up dumping Donna, Nick then became Donna’s champion.  Donna believed that Nick was the ‘better man’ and tried to sell Brooke on her new philosophy (near-fatal mistake number 2).  Donna was willing to try to sell her sister on a man she (Brooke) didn’t love to soothe her own sense of rejection and betrayal.

It made Donna instantly unlikable to a significant portion of the viewing audience.   Her behavior was untrue to her Logan heritage. It was as untrue to the legacy of these women as Katie’s betrayal of Bridget, by sleeping with Nick (near fatal mistake number 3).  The Logan girls sacrificed for one another their entire lives.  They were willing to give up people they loved, rather than hurt one another.  Donna, the real Donna, would never have pushed Brooke in the direction of a man like Nick, one who’d betrayed Brooke (her sister) and Bridget (her niece).   Neither would Katie.   That’s all done now, and the Logan girls are back, their bond is stronger than ever, and Stephanie’s ridiculously hateful tirades have been put in perspective.  These girls from the valley aren’t ‘trash’, nor are they ’sluts’, or any other foul thing that Stephanie’s small mind can conjure to call them.  They are the Logan girls, the Logan women, and they always will be.

Speaking of the Logan Bond

Let’s hope that now that the pseudo-incest storylines are over and the Logan women are no longer fighting for the lust of the same men, now that all are happy and in love with the men they were meant to be with (for now, on Katie and Donna’s parts) that all three remember the younger member of their clan who’ll need their support.  Bridget has just embarked on a journey toward reclaiming motherhood that will be a rougher ride that even she imagined.  She’s going to need the support of her tough as nails mother and aunts.  Much like the insta-romance that takes place on this show, so goes the insta-surrogate storylines.

You’d think that given their past losses, that Bridget and Nick would want to take more time to get to know their chosen surrogate.  How about spending a month or tow observing her habits?  How about double and triple checking her references?  Hiring several PIs to investigate her past, hoping one would find information the others haven’t?  This woman will carry the most precious part of the both of them, a child they’ve wanted and into whom they will pour every bit of love they have – along with the love they’re pouring into Nick’s son Jack.  So what’s the rush!?!?!

Taking a little more time, they would have learned that Carly Corinthos’ Sandy Sommers’  has such a jones for snack foods that even when pregnant it’s her preferred form of  ‘nutrition’.  They might learn that Carly Sandy, is a bit of a schemer and feels that others have far too much of what she wants – that she deserves more.  They’d learn that her change in hair color is probably an indication of bad  things to come – that’s one hand I wouldn’t want rocking my child’s cradle!  They’d probably learn that the ‘minor deceits’ she’s capable of now are indications of ‘major deceits’ to come later.

It’s hard to believe that anyone who has a much money as the Logan/ Forrester-Marone clan is supposed to have would be a little more jaded.  Nick was suspicious of Owen, to the point of trying to destroy him, but almost completely trusts a woman he doesn’t know to carry his seed?  Doesn’t Sandy give off the scary ‘Deacon Sharpe’ vibe to anyone else?  She’s almost immediately ingratiated herself into Bridget’s life, befriending her and wanting her trust.  In return?  Nick and Bridget are giving her their child to carry.  Only one word can truly express my feelings about this storyline and that word is UGH!!!!!!!!!  (ok, no so much a ‘word’, but an expression!)  It’s hard to believe how quickly this storyline has moved.

The writers have done a great job showing us that Bridget and Nick live in their own world, that they aren’t tied to his past indiscretions, his slimeball move of sleeping with her mother and her aunt.  I get it.  I  just think that it’s now time to show that Bridget and Nick can live in the same world with Katie and Brooke, with no problem.  Let the Logan women pull together and figure out Sandy’s game plan… and then let them beat her at it.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea for Sandy to have an unexpected ally, someone who might be motivated to keep “Nicket” busy while she makes moves toward stealing back custody of Jack… TAYLOR!  Taylor and Sandy could form a destructive bond, much like the bond Taylor has with Steffy.

There’s something about the two women that suggests that they could be good friends and partners in hell-raising.    Taylor, who has lost Phoebe in this past year, watched Steffy become a scheming man-eater (after having been pulled into taylor’s earlier plans to scheme to get Ridge back), Tommy became a car bomber, and Ridge made it clear that Brooke is and always has been the love of his life.  Why wouldn’t she want Jack back?  Why wouldn’t she be fed up with watching everyone else be happy, and not her? Why wouldn’t she engage in the twisted logic she’s known for and think that it’s unfair that Bridget and  Nick would get to keep ‘her’ child and have their own?  Taylor could secretly help Sandy push Bridget over the edge, petition for and be granted custody of, Jack -  as Sandy makes a move on Nick.  Both would fail in the end, but it could be fun watching them try to ruin the lives of other and watch the Logans band together to stop them.

There will still be room left for Sandy after that!  There’s always Brooke’s golden boy, Rick.  Rick (like his niece Steffy) has a knack for becoming involved with the one person who’ll bring the most discord into his family’s life.  Sandy fits the bill pretty nicely.

With still a few tricks up their sleeves, OLTL writers are making the show as entertaining this month, as last month.  WELL DONE!

1.  Shaun finally catches his worthless brother and the ever lying Rachel in the act of kissing in public.  What heartbreak!  I’d hoped that OLTL would follow GH’s lead and offer an unconventional romantic pairing.  GH’s Spinelli and Maxie are clearly mismatched (she the glamazon, he the geek) but they work for whatever reason.  I’d hope that cuddly teddybear Shaun and Princess Rachel would work things out, but not so.  I’m just glad that the writers didn’t spend months keeping the poor guy in the dark while the audience grew increasingly saddened by the deception taking place around him.

I’m still hoping that Rachel realizes that Greg is a pompus windbag and goes back to Shaun (who won’t want her back at that point).  Rachel, however, won’t give up and earns her way back into Shaun’s life.

What about Greg?  Todd is going to end up dumping Blair soon enough.  Why not Greg and Blair?  She loves being involved with difficult and self-aggrandizing men.  Greg would be perfect for her.

2.  Clint and Kim.  YEEHAW!  This is such a replay of Asa and Blair.  Clint reminds me of Asa more and more each day.  The drinking, the insecurity masking as toughness, the desperation masking as other things.   So, who gets to play the NuMax?  Schulyer?  Will Kim realize that she wants poor but honest Schulyer after all (ok, so he’s not exactly ‘NuMax’)?   Will Nora or Viki end up being ‘Renee’ for Clint?  Poor Clint, alone and lonely, in love with his brother’s ex wife, foolish enough to believe that putting  a ring on her finger will make her love him back.  Dude… poor poor Dude.

3.  Daniella and Tea?  PRICELESS!  They have the mother-daughter spark that Blair and Starr lost long ago!  The writers took the teeth away from Starr when they foolishly shoved her into the teen pregnancy storyline.  Starr has been unrecognizable as Todd’s daughter.  She had to become soft and gooey, and a whole lot of foolish, to break out of the role that made Starr such a memorable character.   That doesn’t mean that Ive been waiting to see Starr take on Todd’s psychotic tendencies.  That would be a tragedy as well.   I just wanted her to be shrewd and calculating.  I wanted to see Starr protect herself and not take garbage from anyone.  Starr lost the edge that use to make her such an enjoyable character.  She became a weak and whiny thing, all in the name of  ‘luv’.

What I’m not looking forward to is competing mother-daughter tag teams.  While sibling rivalry makes sense with Todd’s daughters going to war, to have their mothers involved would seem too much like adult women using their daughters to obtain the objects of their affection.  Daniella is the ‘new kid’.  Starr has been able to reject her father and cause him to beg for her for her forgiveness  – even though he was initially right about Cole,  before the writers twisted both Cole and Todd into unrecognizable characters for the sake of ‘drama’.    Will she as easily walk away from her demented father now that she can be ‘replaced’?  Replaced?  Sick?  Yes, I know…  but that’s Todd.

By the way, the casting is brilliant for this storyline.  KA’s Starr has always looked like the child of Blair and Todd.  Kelly Missal’s Daniella, with the  to-die-for-hair,  makes her look like believable as the child of the Hair goddess, Tea.  Daniella’s temper definitely sells her as Manning’s kid.

4.  Talk about continuity!  Most shows have difficulty maintaining continuity on their own shows.  OLTL maintained continuity between two different shows.  Daniel Manache (Tom) was last seen as JJ on As the World Turns.  JJ was sent away to (art?) school by his parents – a boarding school.  Manache turns up as ‘Tom’, Matthew and Daniella’s friend from boarding school.  Sweet irony.

As for Matthew and Daniella the potential couple?  Can you imagine the nightmare it would cause Bo and Nora to have their son involved with Todd and Tea’s kid? To think, it would never have happened had Bo and Nora not forced Matthew out of the country.   Poor Destiny.  It seems that she will be the odd girl out, unless the writers are clever in how they write this budding teen romance which will probably loom large next summer.   While not everyone is a fan of the character of Destiny, I like her (and even like the actress portraying her – Shennell Edmonds).  Edmond’s acting is stiff, and she’s clearly a novice, but she’s improving – and anyone who can have such sweet scenes with Tuc Watkin’s David Vickers is winner in my book.

or at least rules the daytime and prime time airwaves!   But is there more in store for Mr.  Mathison?  Will he own the internet, too? Not only are they loving him over at ABC, but P&G (sponsor of CBS’s As the World Turns, and the now defunct Guiding Light) is using him as a pitch man for a new product!

Cheer(R) Launches New Soap Opera Campaign Featuring All My Children’s Cameron Mathison

Cheer’s New Interactive Campaign Offers Women the Chance to ‘Sparkle Like a Star’ Through Online Sweepstakes

CINCINNATI, Nov. 5, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) today launched Brighten Bay – a new Cheer soap campaign that will brighten laundry routines at an affordable price. The campaign was inspired by daytime dramas and includes a new ad featuring real-life soap star Cameron Mathison, of ABC’s All My Children. The brands’ first major campaign since the introduction of “The Laundress” in 2007, Brighten Bay is a fun and quirky vehicle which, like soap operas, brings to life all the excitement of the day-to-day happenings in a small community.

Read the rest HERE

ATWT/GL fan comments HERE

Get over it. or how about?

You know it’s not real, right? or

How can you take something that’s not real so seriously?

Those are the obnoxious comments non soap fans usually throw at soap fans when they show up on message boards to taunt us about our silly love for “dumb assed’ soaps… Then they run back to their favorite gamer/fan boi/fan gurl boards and battle over their fave fictional characters.  It’s also a charge some soap fans use on other soapers to prove that THEY are the ones who watch for enjoyment, while other soap fans are just cracked.

Well, I could have used one of those pseudo-superior pains in the ass yesterday.  I would have been too busy arguing with one of them to watch GH.  And then I wouldn’t have had to question my sanity.  Am I taking this all too seriously?  Is there anything enjoyable about GH’s  ‘Suckpranos’  any more?  If Claudia’s death scenes were supposed to create an atmosphere of  edge-of-your-seat drama?  They were an epic FAIL!  If they were supposed to make me despise Sonny, Carly, Jason, Sam and the rebirth of Michael “MyKill” Corinthos?  They were an epic SUCCESS!

I feel dirty having watched those scenes

I felt dirty watching Carly cuddle with sweet little Josslyn, while MyKill was staring at his hands, stained with Claudia’s blood.  The look he gave her while she did it chilled me.  Did he feel abandoned?  Was  he angry with her?  Did he feel he’d sold his soul for her and ‘Jax’s baby’?

I felt dirty watching everyone treat Jax as if he really was sacrificing Michael to protect his child.  Jax is ALONE.  Even Carly puts his child’s health at risk for the sake of her other children.  Jax isn’t sacrificing Michael, he’s protecting his child – Michael has a city full of mobsters and two highly enmeshed parents to protect him.

I felt dirty watching Jason and Sam talk about covering up Claudia’s death when Michael was clearly  trying to protect his mother against a violent woman and should not have to stand trail for that.  I would rather the writers had taken that route and let Michael deal with his own guilt at having taken a life.

I felt DIRTIEST watching psychotic Sonny tell Michael he ‘did a good thing’ (or words to that effect) by taking Claudia out.  I can’t say that it’s the exact quote, but close enough.  I’m a still a little woozy from scrubbing my brain every time I think of that scene.   A GOOD thing?  So Sonny is now the Martha Stewart of the mob set?  No, it wasn’t a GOOD THING, it’s what Michael felt he had to do to protect his mother from her abductor, and his sister from growing up a captive.  Nothing about it made it a ‘good thing’, since it was Sonny who brought Claudia into his children’s lives.

I felt dirty watching Sonny tell Jason to bury Claudia as close to hell as he could – considering the fact that everyone keeps talking about what a great man and great father he is ( most especially from the mouth of NuLois/Olivia Falconeri, who didn’t bother to let him help her raise her son.  It’s on coincidence that Dante/Dominic is the only one of Sonny’s adult/near-adult children who isn’t a wreck of a person).  His statement was also mind-blowing given the fact that Sonny spoke those words as if he and Jason wouldn’t soon see Claudia in hell.  Wait, I forgot, they’re the good mobsters.

I felt dirty, and angry, watching Max and Milo argue with Jason about whether it was smart to burn the cabin once they disposed of the body.  Milo and Max use to be the comic relief of the show and fans could imagine that they never really got their hands dirty.  Now we know they do, we’re seeing it, and they’re strategizing about which is the best way to dispose of a human being.

I felt dirty watching Carly hold that sweet child, and smile at Jax, as if nothing had happened, as if his newborn child wasn’t just involved in yet another of Sonny’s fiasco-filled escapades.  While I once loved Jax and Carly, I now know that I wouldn’t mind if he took custody of that child and kept Carly away.

I felt dirty remembering rooting against AJ, hoping he NEVER got his hands on Carly and Jason’s (and then Sonny’s) kid.  I remember the sweet cherub Michael had once been, and felt sick believing that the writers felt that there was no choice but to make Michael as screwed up as the people around him, the people who defended all of his actions and wanted others to apologize to the dark Prince Michael.  What was worse is that they’re right!  How many kids like Michael can escape the dark future ahead of them with parents who pave the way and keep the roads clear of stumbling blocks (you know, like morals, decency, integrity, a sense of right and wrong)?

If I’m spinning this into a positive, the writers have also proven that Alexis is right, FINALLY (even if unintentionally).   Kristina and Michael are siblings, but they’re very different people.  Kristina has a chance, if she stays away from her father.  She has a mother who doesn’t believe that sunshine shoots out of Sonny’s private parts.  Her mother doesn’t think the mob life is glamorous, despite the stupidity of having slept with Sonny in the past.  She wants better for her daughter.  I hope the writers allow her to remain consistent in giving her daughter a fighting chance.

If soaps are around in a decade (maybe less), I could imagine Kristina as Port Chuckle’s new D.A.  Having lived with her mother, and stepfather Mac Scorpio,  she’ll have a different view of crime.  She’ll love her brother Michael, but she’ll end up putting him in prison with their father, Sonny and Uncle Jason – as her brother Dominic did years earlier.

Having read that last paragraph, I’ll bet you’re questioning my sanity too, right?  Well, at least I now have company!  I know, I know… it’s just a soap.

The Young and the Restless:  Melody Thomas Scott

Melody Thomas Scott has found herself a  new gig!  She will start in a new online production, The Republic:

Melody plays Martha Alden, a working mother who evolves into a core-of-steel activist fighting against new laws imposed on her family. Singer plays her devoted husband Frank, a civil engineer who, blindsided by the new laws and losses, learns to adapt and thrive in this brave new world.

Good luck to MTS and the best of wishes for a successful run of this drama!

As The World Turns:  Cady McClain

If you had any doubt that Cady McClain was fabulous, before, this should clear things up!  She goes down in my book as one of my favorite celebs, EVER!  Read the full interview posted at Soap Central

It’s not that I don’t support daytime. Sometimes I just get frustrated when there are opportunities and people just don’t want to hear it. People don’t want to hear the truth. And the person who speaks what I see as my truth, certainly, often takes a hit for it.

Why is it that people like Ms. McClain  are never in charge of daytime? Seemingly, the only people  hired in executive roles are those who throw on the cheerleading outfits, the blinders, and who keep cheering on one crapload of bad storytelling after another. I have to wonder if people who are as critical as McClain and others could have turned this genre around while there was still time.  Fans have been speaking truth to daytime for a LONG time… and no one listens.  The ratings fall… and no one listens.  The actors speak out… and no one listens.  I’m gonna’ miss daytime when it goes!

A discussion began on a Bold and Beautiful board about Phoebe’s death, questioning why the writers decided to kill the character off.  Many of us have been asking the same question.  In the long run, there doesn’t seem to have been any real benefit to having the character destroyed.  There also doesn’t seem to be a formula for determining which characters are killed off in daytime and which live,  is there ever an objective assessment of what the long term impact is of killing off characters?

The ever stellar Lesli Kay’s Felicia was saved after ‘dying’ from stage 4 colon cancer.  Despite the improbable odds that Felicia could be saved and make a full recovery.  LK brought so much to the role of Felicia that her resurrection made sense.  It would have continued to make sense had  the writers then used the character or something other than window dressing for the rest of the  time she was onscreen.

Given the choice, I would have selected at least three or four other characters whose deaths would have better served the show than Phoebe’s death.  The only seeming long term effect of her death seems to have been the long term damage to a generation of  Logan-Forrester  legacy characters. The short term  fall out from the character’s death was marvelous!  Ridge tapped into emotions that even he didn’t know he had.   Brooke and Ridge were tested in a way that seemed to make it clear that they had whatever it took to survive any storm, even one as big as this – Rick is her son, but also Ridge’s his brother/nemeis and Phoebe is his daughter, Brooke’s beloved stepdaughter.  The writers then blew the BRidge relationship to soaphell (later recovering nicely).

The other short term event that played out nicely?  Rick had to face the fact that his hatred and spiteful behavior, contributed to Pheebs’ death. Even if he didn’t cause the accident he was responsible for the pain and anger she was feeling before she died.  It was tragic and poetic, but it went no where fast!  Rick became even more malevolent.  He became angrier and even more controlling and no one connected to feelings of guilt or anxiety linked to his role in Phoebe’s death.  Instead, Rick became a malignant narcissist and taunted his brother Ridge for his pain, he slept with Phoebe’s twin, informed Ridge that twin Steffy’s  ass was ‘his’, he stole from his family, and even told Ridge to say goodbye to his ‘other daughter’.  It would have been  a typical villain’ s act,  had the writers wanted us to view Rick as a villain.  BnB writers have a magnificent penchant for turning characters who would be villains in any other format into simply ‘misunderstood’ people (see Stephanie Forrester, who’s only counterpart is Hels Cassadine, GH).  Only, I consider it confusing and not so maginificent.

It would have been great for this to have been bratty Rick’s transformational moment and for him to have become a better person. I would have liked to have seen a complex, layered Rick struggle with wanting to support his mother, fight for HER happiness instead of her fighting for his – even with a man he couldn’t stand, and feeling troubled by the fact that supporting Brooke could hurt taylor and her brood. He could have been overwhelmed by the guilt of not wanting to cause them any more unhappiness. The guilt could have caused Rick psychological distress and he could have had some sort of genuine breakdown (a soapy approach to DID = multiple personality disorder? Depression and suicidal behavior? or A psychotic break?)

The storyline could have led to some sort of growth for taylor.  Instead of using Pheebs death to try to get back into Ridge’s bed, she could have had a crisis of faith. She could have become openly angry and vengeful and gas-lighted a psychologically frail Rick (rather than the passive manipulator she has always been). Who could blame her for hating him AND herself for letting Rick into their lives? It would make sense of her lie that Rick ‘took advantage’ of her. That lie would have become part of the game. She could have gone so dark that even satan’s handmaiden would have become afraid of her and the twist would have been watching Stephanie protecting Rick from taylor, for BOTH of their sakes.

Imagine, instead of Brooke and Ridge fighting over her protecting Rick, that they fought over Brooke trying to protect Rick from taylor!  Ridge would be too consumed with guilt to worry about whether taylor was actually setting Rick up to become even more divorced from reality and possibly setting Rick up to either hurt himself or at least institutionalized for the rest of his life. Even if he knew she was, his love for Broke would be in conflict for his desire to see revenge and he might let taylor continue on (not caring that she was being destroyed in the process). He wouldn’t help her, he just wouldn’t stop her.

A new woman would be cast for Rick to date many months after Pheebs died, but he would still have a hard time getting close to her because he would believe that he was undeserving of happiness. He’d end up seeing Pheebs dying every time he tried to get close to her. She’s the one would figure out hat taylor was setting Rick up and stop her. Rick would eventually recover, unable to hate taylor because of Pheebs

taylor would end up in the position she wanted to put Rick in and is institutionalized for the next 30 years – where soap time = real time!  Brilliant!

That’s what would have played out for me over the next year, instead of the pimping of Phoebe’s ghost for sex, the fighting between BRidge, Steph setting up her vulnerable son, Tommy boy bombing cars on public lots, Rick and Steffy having sex, and pretty much everything else that played out after she died.  Of the current generation of Logan-Forrester kids, only Bridget is left with the potential to be a heroine and likable.

I’m both excited by AJ’s Bridget being in an upcoming frontburner storyline with Sarah Joy Brown’s Sandy Sommers, and concerned.  The only BnB characters who can remain likable for long periods of time are often those the writers haven’t concentrated on.  With the spotlight on ‘Budge’, I’m going to have to count on Ashley Jones to navigate the character through disjointed dialogue, inconsistent plots, and the most improbable of situations.  Her Bridget is the last of her kind, the last likable character of her generation on Bold.

That I love the idea of:

… GH’s Patrick being a wanton sex god?  How unrealistic would it have been for Patrick’s ex-hookup’s good friend to not give him the eye?  His reputation precedes him!  I don’t mind that other women give him the eye, want to seduce him, or think he’s hot… as long as he remains Robin’s wanton sexgod, I’m all good! We had another of those rare moments in soaps, last week.  A reformed playboy let’s those around him know that he’s HAPPY with his life and wouldn’t trade being a father and husband in and any part of his past.   We need moments like that to wash the rest of it clean!  By the time he was getting the lusty eye from the new ADA, it just rolled off me.  No Scrubs Love fear that she would drive a wedge between them.  OH, and double bonus points for the writers having Robin use the phrase “Scorpio Drake family”.

… SB’s ‘Claudia’ end coming near.  The writers are making Claudia such  a despicable toon that she really does deserve to have something awful happen to her (I’m thinking prison, where both she AND Sonny belong – not murder).  I have to be honest.  I don’t want her to ‘get what’s coming’ because she’s despicable – that’s what also makes her FUN.  I can’t wait for her to go because SB then turns up as ‘Sandy Sommers’ on the BnB the following day and I’ve been aching in anticipation of seeing what gifts she brings to the show.

…Greg Vaughn being the “Lucky” to win Elizabeth’s heart before JJ’s episodes begin airing?  Won’t happen, I know, but it would have been the most decent thing TPTB could have done for GV’s fans.  It would send Vaughn’s Lucky out on a high note (if you can count winning cheating Elizabeth’s heart for a moment a ‘high’).  Vaughn has taken the character of Lucky to some pretty dramatic highs – through the character’s emotional lows following the drug addiction storyline.  I can’t imagine even the beloved JJ doing such a great job with the storyline.  Don’t get me wrong, I love JJ’s interpretation of Lucky – he originated the role a nd made the character one to root for, I just couldn’t see him pulling the story off as well as Vaughn did.

…Alexis finally being the person to catch the perfect daughter in the act of throwing herself away on some pinhead?  Sam, on one hand, is doing the responsible thing by making sure “K” is protected from her own bad choices, but at the same time, it’s bothersome that Alexis is completely cut out of her daughter’s life.  (Honestly, I’m shocked that no one has run to Sonny to have him break the kid’s kneecaps. He’s treated as more of a parent to Kristina than Alexis is).  The writers continue to lead Alexis out to the edge to try to  ‘make sense’ of the fact that she’s not the person her daughter trusts, even after she took the rap for Claudia’s accident.   Sorry writers, we know that Alexis is too clever to keep going after Michael and trying to drive a wedge between the siblings.   The brilliant woman she was before becoming a ‘Sonny’s Baby Mama’ would have made sure that Michael and ‘K’ spent most of their time at her home, so that should keep an eye on them.  THIS Alexis is ingracious and obnoxious… and I’m not buying it.

… Dominante taking the mob boys down?  UH!  I’m living for the day Sonny and Jason are in adjoining cells and wearing orange jumpsuits!  Dominante was sickened at how easily Sonny ordered another man’s death.  Will that change once he finds out that Sonny is his father?  I hope not.  I hope he continues to be repulsed by Sonny, and maybe by his mother for having loved a man like that.   I would rather see Sonny finally have to work to win someone else’s respect.   I don’t just want Sonny and Jason to have to do some time in prison and lose all of their assets.  I want this to be a new beginning for them.  I hope this means that the writers are closer than ever to bringing the mob to an end… dare to dream?  If the writers must keep them around, drop the dark drama that surrounds them!

… the new Cassadine wiping the floor with Nik?  Sorry folks, I’m not interested in his redemption.

Victoria, Rowell, the ex- Drucilla Winters. This image may be subject to copyright - all rights retained by the original owner

The SON commnunity has been having  a wonderful discussion about diversity stemming from Christel Khalil’s interview.   I thought I would post some ‘final thoughts’ (HA!) about the matter:

YnR writers aren’t writing ‘color blind’ storylines, in my opinion. I would love to believe that CK’s Lily is the perfect example of  ‘post racial’ storyline telling.  It would make sense if it were true of all storylines regarding all characters.  As it stands, only Lily is the ‘integrated character’… and for what reason?  To what end?  Not in the history of daytime has any non-minority character shared screen time almost exclusively with minority characters, to the exclusion of all other non-minority characters.  That’s not ‘integration’.  That’s not ‘color blind’ storytelling.  I think it’s a travesty and it sells the audience short to think we wouldn’t notice.

Bear with me as I do something I rarely do in this blog, at least, and that’s comment on my perceptions of an actor’s talent.   I find the writers pushing CK’s Lily to the exclusion of almost all other multicultural characters especially  troubling because, in my opinion, I find CK’s performances LIFELESS!  I honest to goodness don’t know how anyone avoids holding a mirror to her face to check for breathing whenever she’s not speaking.  Her inflections feel wrong in pretty much every scene and I think her acting choices leave A LOT to be desired.  I think CK’s Lily sucks the breath out of every scene she’s in.   Any male paired with her becomes the same walking sleeping pill she is.

Kristoff St. John probably whizzes away more talent after a stiff drink than CK will ever have – pardon the coarse expression. Victoria Rowell could sleepwalk and do a better job.  Yet, neither actor is around to do a darned thing, with the exception of KSJ’s far too infrequent appearances, because the writers seem to believe that their ‘diversity standard’ is set by Lily and that the diversity the Winters family once provided is no longer needed.

The Winters as a family was beloved and embraced by fans because they were authentic in representing the spectrum of life that most families have, including African-American family-  Bless Bill Bell for knowing that and giving us:

• Neil, straight-laced high achieving all around good guy.   He is sometimes a little too impressed with the sound of his own voice and his own magnificence, but he means well.
• Dru, reformed from her bad girl days, criminal record, rejected child acting out.  She was a screwed up child who became an extraordinary woman.  I could EASILY cut away three or more characters from YnR to have her back… EASILY.  She was worth every one of them PLUS!
• Olivia, another high achieving privileged first born.  Olivia was  a bit of a judgmental prig and the thought that Liv and Neil would have eventually gotten together was enough to make me shudder.  They would have been daytime’s first African-American stuporcouple.
• Malcolm, wild child, playboy/sexgod/work in progress and still a man with a good heart.  I never knew whether to root for him to be redeemed or for him to continue on in his naughty naughty ways!
• Mamie, loving and devoted aunt, not a lot of money or education, but she’s gives all the right things. She takes in the unwanted, unloved Dru and helps her turn her life around.  When the writers focused on her relationship with Dru and Liv, she was the middle class version of ‘Auntie Mame‘.
• Nate, a good guy who had a rough start in life but turned everything around.    Nate had ‘rootability’ from the beginning, in my book.  He had to be Dru’s hero, and I’m glad that he was.  Each of us probably knows a RL ‘Nate’, a man who took back his life and ‘made good’.
• I’m still wishing for ‘Little Nate’s’ return.  I wonder what he would make of his family, now.
• And now Devon rounds out the family (not sure if he was Bill Bell’s creation or not, but I’m glad he’s on board).   College student, survivor, a little screwed up, but he completes the family.

Nate Sr. has died, Malcolm is off in the world,  and I have no idea where Mamie is (forgot).  Devon and Neil are occasionally  seen.
Everyone else? Traded in and we’re left with  LILY.
What a slap!

Regarding MarkH’s insightful question of whether Dru’s presence made  Olivia’s introduction possible?  Was Olivia more acceptable because of Dru?

Dru wasn’t the ‘default standard’, for me. I loved the way the two sisters complemented one another. I wouldn’t have wanted EITHER woman, alone. Liv, the accomplished doctor, who was still a little too ’sorority girl’ (along with Ashley – they were so sappy sweet together, I developed cavities when they were on screen together). Then there was Dru, the street kid.

Dru was never ‘good enough’ for her mother.  Her mother never wanted to have another child after the perfect LIV and didn’t so much as notice that her daughter couldn’t read.   Liv was the heir, Dru was the spare. It’s such a classic ‘family’ story (not just “African-American” story) and it was wonderful to see these two sisters play off of one another, genuinely loving one another but being divided by the strife their mother created.

Minorities/underrepresented groups so rarely get to have the balanced portrayals that non-minority groups do that we’re caught struggling with our feelings about the few characters who are supposed to represent us.  Drucilla alone feels like a cruel joke – daytime writers once again indulging their fantasies about who black women are. Olivia alone feels somewhat like a different kind of repudiation of culture (much like Lily). Bill Bell was master enough to appreciate that and I think he really understood that in both simple and complex ways that the current YnR writers are ignorant of, or seem to be.

OLTL writers ” got it” and provided balance with the ‘good sib’ and the ‘troubled sib’. It’s how they wrote: Nate and RJ Gannon, and Cristian and Antonio (as well as Vicki and Todd, and Natalie and Jessica).