Young & the Restless / Bold & the Beautiful – Crazy Is…

The Young and the Restless: Crazy Like a Fox

Crazy is as crazy does, or so they say.  Here’s what I see.  Ian’s days are, for sure, numbered.  Will he end up  dead?  Who knows? If he lives, it is not clear to me that his days will be worth living.  He is one part cocky and two parts crazy!  Than never bodes well for a villainous soap character.

Nikki’s unequivocal F-U to Ian and her glaring declaration that she is not afraid of him is the best thing that could have happened for viewers!  Strength and courage, forget cowering and waiting for the big bad Newman men to save the day!  Oh sure, it was a HUGE thrill to have Dylan and Nick show up at the door at the end – Ian’s facial expression was priceless.  It was more of a thrill to know that Nikki didn’t need them.

Before their arrival, she charged into Ian’s office like she owned it.  She batted his lies like flies.  Someone should have warned Ian that Nikki has been married to Victor Newman, off and on, for more than 30 years soap time.  She has already survived one big bad controlling and scary man (a man who leaves me alternating between hating and loving to hate him).  Sir. Ian is a rank amateur by comparison — no matter how beautifully seamless Ray Wise’s Ian is as a villain.  Someone should tell Ian to stick to mind-blanking young and vulnerable people  who are “confused and searching” as he helps “put them on their paths”.

Someone should also tell him to avoid messing with the Newman clan. These people have killed before and they will kill again I’m sure.  There is always the option of leaving him imprisoned in a basement cell where no one will find him!  (What I wouldn’t give for Victor to build a cell for Ian!)  I fully expected this storyline to continue on and on with Nikki being afraid for herself, or Dylan.  Thank you writers, for letting Nikki be proactive in protecting Summer and the rest of her family.

Also, how good is it to see Paul, Lauren and Michael together?  I won’t lie.  There is a part of me that so fondly remembers Paul and Lauren as a couple (as well as Paul and Nikki) that having them find their way back to each other would feel like old home week for me. There are times when I, for a moment, wish for a Lauren and Paul reunion.  I never thought that I could grow to love Lauren after her treatment of Tracy Abbott, but Paul was the beginning of her redemption.  Lauren learned to become human, with Paul.  It helped that Lauren was fed back some of the crap she dealt out to Tracy, in the form of Mary Williams (the working woman version of BnB’s Stephanie Forrester).  Now when I see Lauren, I don’t see the mean spirited young adult who was filled with anger and ill will.  I see the woman who became a wife and mother, who apologized to Tracy for having victimized her for many years, and I love the growth that YnR characters have made Lauren in particular.  I have tried to avoid being dragged back into daytime, but the BnB and the YnR are making it tough for me to stay away.

The Bold and The Beautiful: The Douglas Problem

I’m not sure if it is intentional, but whatever the case, it is certainly interesting that there is a strong connective history when looking at the Douglas bloodline.  Stephanie Forrester’s father was a cruel and nasty S.O.D. who abused and humiliated his eldest daughter for reasons that are still not clear (realistically so.  Many survivors of abuse are left trying to make sense of their abusers’ cruelty – forced to try to give meaning to something so illogical and so vile).  John Douglas was clearly a man who refused to control his impulses – giving way to his anger at his daughter for daring to have her own opinions and  ideas.  It is a tragic behavior pattern that Stephanie followed in her own later life.  The revelation of Ally’s continued difficulties ties so neatly into the troubled Douglas history. Stephanie’s mother was as troubled as John and as troubled as Stephanie and Pam became over time.  Not only did Mother Ann refuse to protect Stephanie, she accepted a lonely Ann’s devotion and watched as Ann gave up all dreams of a family and children to care for her mother.

At the time of the confrontation between mother and daughter,  it seemed that Mother Douglas’ only goal was to protect herself and the memory of a perfect marriage and perfect family life.  I now have to wonder if the writers want us to rethink the entire Douglas lineage!   That Ally’s psychological issues are being addressed (and that Ally flips out in the presence of not just Wyatt, but the Stephanie Douglas Forrester jewelry collection was BRILLIANT!)  It makes sense  that a child who lost her mother at such a young age is so badly hurt by that loss and that the pain doesn’t simply dissipate.

Are Ally’s psychological problems the real reason she didn’t continue on to Law school and came home to join the family business?  Had she had a break just before coming home?  This kid has had so much to deal with in such a short life.  Ally’s pain was compounded by the fact that the first woman she allowed to become her new mother was a woman who deceived her, only to try to replace the mother she was still grieving. Ally must have surely felt betrayed by the ease with which her father forgave the woman who left her mother dying on the highway.

Is that why Ally clings to Hope?  An innocent Hope was the only person Ally could rely on and trust in, at that time. Everyone else behaved as if it was normal for your father to marry the woman who killed your mother.   Hope told Ally the truth no one else would tell.  Is Hope’s perfect life one Ally has imagined  having for herself  instead of the crap storm Taylor’s actions and her father’s thoughtlessness left her?  Is she living vicariously through Hope to the point of imagining a happy Hope and Liam living the life that would have made her happy, too?  From Vicious John Douglas, to Mother Ann Douglas to the psychotically violent Stephanie, the murderous Pam, and now the unhinged Ally Forrester. WOW!

I’d jokingly said before that if Ally starts wearing pantsuits and a brooch, I’m  going to cry, and then fear for Hope’s safety.  I now see that I will have to fear for Wyatt’s safety.  I’m not sure what Wyatt triggers in Ally ( his deceit = taylor’s deceit?).  Does watching Hope forgive Wyatt anger her because, as she lives vicariously through Hope, and it reminds her that she accepted Taylor’s lie?  Whatever is it, the writers will let us know soon enough, but I have to say that it is beginning to become deliciously uncomfortable.

I can say that prior to Ally’s explosive rage, it was fun to watch a little innocent romance with #HOTT.  They started strong and ended strong, today.  I can’t wait for the next episode to see where this is headed.  Something tells me to not expect an apology from Ms. Ally.  Who stands with Wyatt if (when) the -ish hits the fan and the Forresters rally around Ally to protect her?  How? Most likely by firing Wyatt to help Ally heal, if the question of whether Wyatt should be fired, posed in the twitterverse to fans,  is any indication.  The only supporter he has ever had prior to meeting Hope?  His mother.  She’s ride or die for her son so I’m sure she’ll stand with him, should it happen. Would Hope stand with him or would her loyalties be divided?  Will his donor father come to his aid?  Given Bill’s consistent trashing of Wyatt, I wouldn’t count on it.  If it happens, I’m sure surprising battle lines will be drawn.

Soap crazy Part 2?  Bill Spencer.  Seriously, after today, this guy goes on my FastForward filter.  He is such an loser that it’s hard to fathom where the writers feel this character fits in a genre that is about romance, a bit of cheesecake, and the occasional bit of insanity.  How many times in one lifetime will a man get to say, “We’re not family, you’re just the mother of my child”?  It’s a grotesque thing for him to say to a woman with whom he has had no serious conflict and who saved. loved, and nurtured a child he claims to now love, as well.  Even referring to her as a very distant relative would have been better. (and yes, ship docked in the nearby harbor would have still worked).

Bill Spencer is exhausting.  He is a combination low-rent comedic version of J.R. Ewing (original Dallas) and womanizing Don  Draper of Mad Men.  He’s anachronistic!  Everyone else seems to be operating in the 21st century.  Bill is almost 19th century in this thoughts and actions.  I’m sick of his male equivalent “Forever 21″wardrobe, the ridiculously compulsive (and unnatural) grooming, and the  tired juvenile dialogue – what grown ass man has to tell a woman that she’d better not show up in a couple of months pregnant with his child? (If you can’t control it?  CAP IT!)  People, I just can’t with this guy. I.can.NOT!   (My comments are not about Don Diamont, who is a true hottie.  His own  look is so natural and gorgeous.  Google him.)  Bill Spencer  is too much of a put on.  It throws me every time I look at him.

Bill’s comment that Quinn was not his family  was almost as repulsive as his line that Quinn didn’t give him a chance to be a father.  As I recall, she did.  He told her to abort their child.  No matter how good looking he is with his shirt off, he is a little bit of a sidewinder, otherwise, and for a man who is such a misogynist to be treated as either a hero, or a man at all, runs counter to what a romantic lead is in daytime.  Who the hell wants to spend their days battling the Bill Spencers of the world, only to watch them celebrated?  Difficult men? Ok, outright misogynistic pigs?  Keep ’em, you can have ’em.  I have to paraphrase my new fave quote (THANKS @MrJeromeTrammel for articulating my thoughts better than I could have):  “There Is No Shortage Of Good Men, It’s Just That The Ignorance Of No-Good Men Is Promoted So Well.”

Quinn’s dialogue, returning fire for fire, was about the only useful thing to happen in the conversation between the two. I do believe she is right. Bill has never met a woman who is his match. Katie tried to humanize him, but was shut down. Brooke only gave in and gave him what he wanted – physical contact – no attempt to humanize him at all. Quinn is too good for Bill.  I hope the guy either grows up or goes.

Sorry, folks, but as I said above, Bill has hit my FastForward Filter.  He is too much of a bad thing.  I can’t be bothered to watch this guy any more.

If anyone wondered why Ashlyn Pearce was cast in the role of Alexandria Forrester, I’m guessing that’s now officially answered!  SO, in the event that you get out of line with comments or in email?  Remember this face:

Don’t make me send Ally after you!

It happens in the best of (soap) families…

First the good stuff. I don’t know why it’s never dawned on me before, but why or WHY hasn’t DAYS – which  happens to be in striking distance of the BnB in the ratings, taken advantage of the colossal blunder  made by the BnB’s sister soap, the YnR?  Why hasn’t DAYS hired Victoria Rowell as a new character?  YnR’s  PLTB (Powerless That Be) are  determined to not bring Rowell back to daytime in a role she made iconic.  Why not hire Ms. Rowell for DAYS and tie her to honest Abe Carver.  His image has been a little ‘too clean’ for a soap character.  I don’t want him to become a bad guy, or learn that he was ever a ‘bad’ man.  It might be worthwhile to find out that Abe was once a conflicted man. He was in love with a woman with a shady past and did things he’d never expected to do.   Maybe Abe demands perfection in Lexie because he’s loved a woman who’s driven him down the wrong path before and is afraid to go there again.

TPTB won’t hire her because of money?  I know, I know… but I could name a number of characters – starting with the teens, the show could “clear house”  with in order to afford bringing Rowell on board.  It just  might surprise you to know that James Scott’s Ej Dimera is not on the list!  We’ll need him around for at least a while longer.

Imagine that Brandon returns and wants his father to meet a woman he’s fallen in love with – a woman he wants to marry.  It turns out that she’s

1.  a cougar and

2 – a woman from Abe’s past.

She knew Abe when he wasn’t so sainted- chasing down crooked cops and busting drug rings!  She’s someone who knows where Abe buried the bodies  (so to speak)  and is someone against whom Abe’s defenses are weak.  His attraction to her is chemical, undeniable, and a threat to his marriage and to his standing in the community.  Let’s not mention the fact that a relationship with this woman would be toxic to the relationship Abe shares with his son, Brandon.  It took a lot for Abe to get beyond Lexie’s affair with Brandon, could Abe make the mistake of falling into bed, again, with this woman?  The woman his son loves?  Lexie has spent most of their marriage cheating on Abe and awaiting his forgiveness – now she’ll have to worry about whether Abe will be the one to next break their marriage vows and if she would be able to forgive him.  Ultimately he would remain faithful, though we would find out that he has a lot more to  lose than his marriage by having this woman present.

Not being able to destroy the Carver marriage, being dumped by Brandon – who moves on with Arianna Hernandez, VR’s character would of course form an alliance with DAYS other uber-evil villain, EJ Dimera.  Both characters are matched as  equally deadly manipulators.  EJ relies on her expertise but always makes sure she knows that their partnership is predicated on her commitment to stay away from Abe, Lexie, and Theo… but can she do it?  EJ, torn between his friendship with, love for, and growing reliance on this woman and his love for his  family.  The town of Salem would never be the same again!

Speaking of  Soap Families

Parasites come in all shapes, sizes, and genders.   The three major categories of dysfunctional soap family members  include the non-criminal philanderer, the non criminal self-pitying liar, and the criminal take-by-force loser.

The Philanderer

Every (soap) family has that one philandering dolt who makes you feel dirty just by shaking his hand – which is a bad move since you never know where that hand has been.  You just know that it’s been a lot of places you’d never go.  On the BnB?  That would be Eric “naked on the ledge” Forrester.  Eric’s treatment of women is, and always has been, rather shabby.  He’s been cheered on as a romantic hero, but he’s neither romantic, nor a hero as far as I’m concerned.  I think fans are finally beginning to see Eric as the lowly worm he truly is.  Is he only more clearly viewed as  a Lothario because he has yet to change his behaviors?  A man his age, who still can’t be faithful to a faithful wife is far from appealing.   His actions include:

1.  Declaring his love for his son’s former fiancee moments after leaving his wife of decades.  Let’s face facts, lesser men would have left Stephanie about an hour after she gave birth – after finding out that the kid she gave birth to was healthy.  It would have been hard to blame him for wanting to be a single dad rather than chain himself to a hate-filled harpy like Stephanie.   She’s not exactly ‘lovable’, except in rare occasions and for Eric that has typically meant whenever someone younger and warmer was available.  The problem is that he DID chain himself to her.  So his inability to live  up to his commitment leaves you weary.  The man comes and goes like a rock star on tour – and Stephanie Douglas is his most fervent groupie.

2.  When Brooke dumped him for Ridge, Eric moved on to psychotic Sheila Carter, and after a while on to taylor – who was dumped by the same son who left Brooke earlier, and any other half-wit who would have him.  Each time Stephanie grabbed on to his coattails and begged for crumbs… and he gave them to her.

3.  He returned to Stephanie only to end up cheating on her just before their wedding. He cheated with a woman who was like a daughter to her, Lauren Fenmore.

4.  He tried returning to Brooke.  Later returning to Stephanie when that fell through.

5.   He later married Brooke’s sister, Donna Logan, but only after cheating on Stephanie (who was in hiding after facilitating Brooke’s sexual assault).  What lousy circumstances under which Eric took Donna Logan to bed.  It was mere weeks after finding that that Donna was sleeping with his youngest son in order to use him to tear the Forrester family apart.  A heart-broken Thorne dumped Donna at the altar – Eric slept with her.

6.  After all of the above, I never grew to like Donna and Eric, but it was clear that she really did love the artful dodger.  It was Donna who fought the Forresters to keep Eric on life support when they were ready to pull the plug.  It was  Stephanie who gave Eric a knee to the groin in front of their adult children.  It was  Donna who went along with a plan to regain the company for Eric even if it meant betraying the trust of baby sister Katie… It was Stephanie who was at fault for helping the Forresters lose the company in the first place.  Eric is returning to Stephanie… a woman who tried to destroy his life’s work and tried to turn his children against him.

Whatever unfortunate thing happens to him is all he deserves and more.  By the way, it’s pretty awful when clips for your show fits the theme song to a slapstick comedy.  BRAVO to the genius backstage who put this together!  (At least you have a sense of humor about the show you’re producing):

OLTL writers must look at the BnB’s Eric with a sense of awe.  The Power(less) That Be  must love the guy, because it’s the road I see John McBain taking for as long as the show is on the air.  Loving that man is a no-win proposition for any OLTL woman.  Johnny McBain loves no woman as much as he loves the idea of living in misery… the women he ‘loves’ just end up along for the ride.

Both men should make room for the YnR’s Victor, who treats women as useless if they’re not grabbing pom poms and cheering on his self-indulgent tendencies.  They may as well be packaged in tissues boxes.  Victor uses one, and tosses her aside as he grabs the next.

All three aregoing to find themselves  riding in a crowded car if they have to make room for GH’s loathsome Sonny Corinthos and Sonny’s enormous ego.  I hope that car has a big trunk!  It will have to carry the emotionally and spiritual dead bodies of the women Sonny has loved, maltreated, discarded, disrupted, and left as empty hollow shells.

The Self-Pitying Liar

The BnB leads the way again.  Two words: taylor hayes… ok, two more: Stephanie Forrester… WAIT, two more:  Steffy Forrester (Marone) – That’s three, right?  Steffy has proven herself as taylor’s daughter, Stephanie’s granddaughter.  I’ve never seen writers utterly destroy three female characters by writing them as utterly obsessed with another character – one Brooke Logan.  I could show you a million clips of these women plotting (taylor and stephanie before steffy came along) and if you watched the show’s factual history, you would be shocked to hear them constantly whining about the ‘pain’ Brooke has cost them.  Before Stephanie facilitated the rape of Brooke Logan, she tried to convince Brooke to take her life, and even gave her the gun to do it with… oh yes, that’s right… Brooke is the threat to the Forresters.  Does Steffy has any idea how awful her mother and grandmother are?  Does she care?  She’s lied more since she became daytime’s lead self-pitying liar than any other character has in a decade!

The Take-by-Force loser

Oh come on, DAYS FANS, you knew it was coming!  The scurge that is EJ so perfectly fits this category.  I love that Will has no use for the man who violated his mother.  Sami’s oldest child so clearly understands what kind of man EJ is and wants him GONE. Good boy, Will.  It would be a HUGE mistake, for a show that’s doing so well, to try to sell the audience on the notion that Will wants to eventually become buds with the man who raped his mother and produced one child – and manipulated and violated his mother to produce another.  I know that Sami feels ‘trapped’ in some way because she’s had two children with EJ , but she really needs to let them visit with him at his place.  EJ’s presence is a constant reminder of what he’s done to young Will’s mother and I can’t believe any caring parent would let that happen.

Sorry PLTB, YOU wrote the story.  YOU have to live with it.

Given Will’s obvious (and rightful) dislike of EJ, I wonder what role he will play in this storyline. If the man who raped your mother keeps trying to insinuate himself into her life and won’t stay away… what would you do?  Hopefully Will might have some role in exposing EJ’s lies. It would give him some feeling of being able to avenge his mother’s rape and keeping his siblings safe from their vile father.

TGVN: Eric Braeden Opens up

Just one  of several questions and answers from Michael Logan’s insightful interview:

You’ve stayed true to Y&R since the day you arrived. Unlike many other actors in daytime, you never quit to go pursue other roles.

I’ve never left and I’ve been on the show for nearly 30 years now. What the soap medium has given me is a chance to play a huge scale of emotions that one rarely has a chance to play in primetime or film, and I have appreciated that enormously. But, as it turns out, the contracts you sign are not worth the paper they’re written on thanks to this ridiculous clause where they have a right to change anything or let you go every 26 weeks. It’s a joke. Our union ought to be ashamed of itself for having [allowed] this. And for the show to actually invoke that clause after one has served loyally and lovingly for 30 years is unconscionably ungracious.

Many fans have stayed loyal, too, and we’re also getting the big kiss off when TPTB keep killing off and getting rid of beloved vets and giving us ‘substitutes’ instead.  Read the rest of this interview by clicking HERE.  The entire enterview is a ‘must read’ for any daytime fan, not just fans of the YnR, or TGVN, Himself!

You’re dead to me, Victor Newman!

Eh! Not really but I thought my liver would appreciate it if I only repeated the phrase every time he said it rather than take a drink. It boggles the mind that not only does the man say it to almost everyone he knows, but then the phrase replays as the ‘newly dead’ reflect back on the exact moment Victor pronounced them unworthy of life.

When will someone respond with, ‘screw off you bastard!!!’? Why are the women in his life too weak to call him out on his bullshit hypocrisy?

Oh writers, why won’t you allow anyone to remember the hatred Victor had for HIS mother because she ‘abandoned him’ when his father died? Why does no one remember how he cried about how hard he had to work and how he had to become a self made man (much like Adam)? Why does he not remember that he spit on the love his mother tried to show him to make up for not being a part of his young life (much like Adam)?

Yeah yeah Adam helped Jack Abbott frame him – big deal. Adam took a more cretive road to punishing a missing parent than Victor did (Victor, who was content to let his mother, at her advanced age, die without ever having his forgiveness). He tormented that aging woman when all she wanted was to love him.

Now Victor ‘the great man’ won’t forgive his equally angry son. He’s willing to send Adam to a prison system he most likely won’t survive. Victor use to be a tough but admirable guy. Now he’s just a prick.

He said what? The Brass Cojones Awards

If there was a Brass Cojones award for daytime males, I’d have to nominate the following four characters:

3 – The YnR’s Victor Newman. Victor recently referred to rival Jack Abbott as an arrogant S.O.B. As soon as I regained consciousness from laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe (hence the passing out), I realized that Victor has a brass pair so big that the man must wear TWO pairs of pants to contain them.

This is the man who told the love of his life, mother of most of his children, that she would still be a stripper in the dive bar he found her in if it weren’t for him (a bitterly cruel thing to say to a woman at midlife, dontcha’ think?). Apparently, he helped her grow a brain, get a little ambition, and become a person of virtue.   ::swoon::   Sure, if it weren’t for him, she’d still be sliding that pole, not a thought in her head, gigglin’ and jigglin’. Victor just wanted her to know that.  And they say romance is dead!  Victor should be happy that he married Nikki and not a woman who would have taken half of everything in a divorce, including half the brass.

2 – OLTL’s Jared Banks. Jared recently offered to help Clint Buchanan keep hot-stuff David Vickers from finding out that he was the rightful heir to Buchanan Enterprises. He wants to make sure the company stays in the hands of the ‘original family’.  Oh yeah, people, he used THOSE words.

In the process of agreeing to help Clint, Jared- the soulless recast his own attempt to defraud the Buchanans, by pretending to be the rightful heir to Asa’s fortune, as an act of ‘protection’.   He and Natalie were only ‘protecting’ the Buchanans from David’s evil greedy dirty deed doing self. The problem is that Jared stole David’s share of BE from the ‘original family’ before finding out who the real heir was. He did it out of greed – and revenge against Tess. It’s an act that cost the family its company and allowed Dorian Lord to take over.  It was also an act that resulted in Nash Brennan losing his life.

Will someone let me know when Jared is gone? For good, that is.

Tied for second is the dark shadow, prince of pain, the man who works at trying to make morose look hot:  Johnny Boy McBain.  Does it astound anyone else that John is self-righteous about Marty drinking and sexing her anger away?  Does it strike anyone else as odd that it’s how McBain was introduced, and how he’s lived as a character the entire time he’s been around?

Does McBain care because he wants what’s best for Marty?  Does he care because he’s jealous?  Is it just the case that it’s hard to look at the female version of himself (down to the black clothing)?

I keep waiting for someone to ask John why it’s ok for him to turn blue skies gray and grunt his way through relationships that end up leaving the women who love him shattered and feeling used.   I was hoping it would be Marty who took him on.

3 – ATWT’s Jack Snyder. It takes a lot of nerve for a man to bring second mortgage papers for his ex-wife to sign for the home she still lives in with their children. It takes even more nerve to ask her to let you take out a second mortgage to allow you to buy your new wife and her kid a home. You’d think that would be enough, right? You don’t know Jack, then.

Jack earns the ‘Brass Cojones’ award for telling his ex-wife, as the second mortgage papers are sitting on her desk, to not accept a loan from the town’s mustache twirling villain: Craig Montgomery(pictured right).  Craig, it appears, is so evil that  Carly’s utter devastation and loss of all of she has left, professionally, is better than accepting his money.  Sure… It’s much better that Carly be unemployed and in debt from a bad business venture.  It’s much better that she spend her days hoping Jack and Janet take a break from sniffing the fantasy laced room full of flowers and sunshine in the new home built from her children’s financial security long enough to pay back the second mortgage so that she doesn’t lose her home, too.

If you’re keeping count, Jack wears FOUR pairs of pants to hold his brass in and even then there’s a little spillage.  It’s not pretty.

Clearly, it’s the turkey talking…

I’m always giddy for about a week before the Thanksgiving holiday… mad with anticipation.  It happens every year and it’s the only thing I can think of that explains the fact that I loved daytime last week.  I can’t think of a thing I truly disliked.  I enjoyed most of what aired!  WOW!

The Young and the Restless – Poor deluded, insecure, Phyllis.  LOVED her reaction to Nick and Sharon’s closeness and that she made sure that everyone knew that she felt ‘thankful’ for a husband who made her feel “sexy”.  I LOVED that Sharon wasn’t at all affected by the possessive kiss Phyllis planted on Nick.  Loved  Nikki and Paul.   I get a little tingly watching them!  Daytime writers always receive huge kudos for remembering the show’s history and giving us a reason to cheer historic couple on.  Veteran viewers will remember the STD storyline  that ended the relationship between these characters when they were younger adults – opening the door to Victor and Nikki.  It’s an old storyline that still makes some cringe at the thought of the two of them getting together now.  I say, BIG DEAL.  Paul made mistakes when he was younger.  Look at the man he is now.  Victor never gave Nikki an STD, but he hasn’t given her much else, either.  Paul is so gentle, so sweet, and so caring.  It’s been a while since Nikki has had a man like Paul.  She’s so use to being treated like property that the tenderness she shares with Paul must be akin to a drowning woman being tossed a life raft.

Hey, it doesn’t hurt that Doug Davidson has grown sexier over time and brings a dignity and integrity to the character of Paul that makes me wonder what took writers so long to decide to make him a leading man, again. Better late than never, writers.  What a huge plus for veteran viewers like myself who aren’t as fond of new gang of unlikable leads – and you know who they are even if the writers don’t.  We get a character we’ve loved for a long time, in a surprising storyline that works.   Daytime writers are always patting themselves on the back for ‘taking chances’.  These are the sort of chances viewers want more of – playing with the show’s history and taking us somewhere we hadn’t expected to go.

One Life To Live – Erika Slezak has once again proven that she can take the very worst the writers throw at an audience and spin it into Emmy gold!  Breathing new life into Viki Lord Davidson, she almost, ALMOST, gave me a reason to feel sorry for Todd.  While that moment was fleeting, my complete and total awe of ES’s performance remains.  That Viki suggested that the only true escape from the Lord legacy was death made me gasp.  Viki’s expression of emotional and psychological exhaustion and devastation was probably the most amazing work anyone has done on this show in a while.  There are things best left forgotten, and there are those things too horrific to forget. The only option when you’re dealing with the latter is to do what you have to do to survive them.  To have the sexual assault of Viki revealed and brought to light again was painful for many viewers, I suspect.  As peeved as I still am at the writers for the Marty/Todd storyline, I have to admit that they’ve done a magnificent job laying out the case for viewing the Lord family in new perspective.  It doesn’t make me want to forgive Todd, but it does add a layer of tragedy to the storyline that I hadn’t considered before.

The Bold and The Beautiful: DELICIOUS!  I found myself wondering if the writers wanted us to view Eric as a man who is so pathetic that his children can’t help but play on his stupidity and his vanity.  It’s not just one son who is lying to and deceiving him, but TWO!  Rick has led him to believe that he was more seriously hurt than he actually was.  Thorne tricked him into believing that Donna was cheating on him.  I’m sure this storyline was supposed to be another ‘pity poor Donna’ attempt.  Sorry, writers, no dice.   That won’t happen.  Donna is irrelevant at this point.  So much of Eric’s life has been spent being pampered and catered to that his children knew exactly which buttons to push to make him dance to their tune.  How perfect is it that a man who has only been passingly acquainted with the term ‘fidelity’ demands and expects it from others?  My only real disappointment with this storyline is that Donna will probably end up crying on the ever willing Owen’s shoulder. Poor Budge will become Owen’s friend and confidante, when she should be the woman he falls in love with – but it would be too much to have the writers allow Bridget to be happy.

DAYS Of Our Lives – Nicole, Nicole, Nicole… Zuker was perfect, of course.  Just when you’re convinced that Nicole Walker is completely soulless, Zuker pulls out the most amazing performance and reminds you that Nicole’s rough and hard exterior only serves to protect her incredibly soft heart.  I just love this character.  I may not like what’s coming for our Nicole Walker Dimera, but Zuker makes me want to hang in there and watch just for the performances.  GO GET ‘EM, Nicole!

All My Children –  O… M… G!!!!  Annie?  YIKES!  I know it was Annie Lavery carrying that bloody knife and wedding bouquet, last week, but honest to goodness, I just kept seeing Richie’s face.  If only the residents of Pine Valley knew then what they know now.  I was sorry to see Annie sacrificed on the doomed altar of Ryan and the oft-fleeing Greenlee, but I’ll have to thank the writers for letting Annie go away with a bang, and not a whimper.  I had such a grand time watching Annie act out the last scenes of ‘Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” that I almost didn’t care whose blood was on the knife.

General Hospital. I’ve long since lost my stomach for General Hospital, but I have to say that  I didn’t mind the show last week.  Sonny’s descent into madness… correction:  Sonny’s CURRENT/LATEST descent into madness has been oddly entertaining.  Like so many times before, Sonny has been loathed to take the counsel of anyone else, save Jason, and he’s even lost that.  Now his actions may cost Jason the one person he cares about above anyone else, his son.  I’ve been uber disgusted with Elizabeth’s character.  I’ve never been a Jason and Elizabeth fan and can’t imagine that I ever will be.  In part because being with Jason is such a betrayal of everything Elizabeth has been about in the past (not to mention that her lie of a relationship with Jason cost poor Lucky so much).  Liz was always quick to point out what a bad mother Carly was, that Carly kept putting her sons in danger by being with Sonny. Now?  She sees firsthand what a life with a mobster is worth.  Will the writers pull the wool back from Elizabeth’s eyes?  Will she stop pretending that when Jason kills it’s ‘holy’ and ‘noble’?  Will she wonder why she traded in a man who lives on the RIGHT side of the law for the man who clings to the wrong side of it?  NAH!  It wouldn’t be General Hospital if that happened, right?

BTW, if I didn’t love the Robin-Patrick pairing, I would be seriously considering rooting on an Elizabeth-Patrick pairing… er, how HAWT were they?

As The World Turns. Brian/Lucinda/Luke… Oh dear.  Luke, in the driver’s seat.  Watching Luke make Brian uncomfortable?  PRICELESS.  “Grabby Grandpa Bad Touch” will learn to keep his hand to himself.   As much as I hate the idea of Brian deceiving Lucinda, I love the idea of Luke making Brian sweat a little.  Brian lost any appeal as a sympathetic character (at least in the short term) the moment he tried to make Luke believe he was both drunk and delusional, that he (Luke) misinterpreted the kiss.  I have to say that I wasn’t too keen to watch this storyline play out.  I’m sitting on the edge of my seat now.  I still think the writers are going with a sexual harassment storyline with this one.  Brian, so deep in the closet that even HE doesn’t know where he is, sexually harasses young men – those who are often the least powerful.  When they call him on it, he faults them, tells them they’re imagining things, that he was only being a friend.  Oh Brian, you picked the wrong man, this time.  Luke (and Noah) willl probably be the people who expose his past.  This should be good.  Take him down, boys, make him sorry for being the sleaze he is… until Lawrence Lau eats the dialogue the writers hand him, does that thing he does oh so well, and makes us all fall in love with Brian and actually feel sorry for him…

What did YOU love about your favorite shows this past couple of weeks?

Soul Mates…BnB/ATWT/AMC/YnR

Bold and Beautiful

From the current SOW:

Weekly: So is this Brooke and Ridge’s big reunion, forever and ever?

Bell: It appears as if this is the great reunion. There are always people who may want to get in their way. Stephanie is certainly one. Nick Marone may factor into it. But we’re getting incredibly close. We’re at a point where we just can’t imagine they’ve reached this level. They’ve been through so much. How can this not be forever?

Weekly: In your mind, are they each other’s soul mates?

Bell: So much of this series is about Brooke and Ridge, from early on until now. It’s amazing that we still have Ron and Kelly, that they look so beautiful, that their chemistry has not waned at all. This is an incredible climax to this whole saga.

Well now… from EARLY ON it’s been about Brooke and Ridge?  From EARLY ON!?!?!?  Ah… BINGO!  Anyone who’s watched this show from the day it aired has known that.  It was ‘the look’ that launched Bridge, and ‘the look’ between these characters that has kept so many fans hooked on this show.

The war on love between Brooke and Ridge has left behind a string of casualties, on and off the screen.  On screen we have Eric, Thorne, Grant, Taylor, Ashley, James, and a host of others who came close, but never really close enough to keeping Brooke and Ridge apart.  Off screen?  The fans – those who are still watching, those who gave up on the writers long ago, who are victims of the BRidge tease.   I still have my frustrations with the couple, namely Brooke – she drives me nuts and annoys the unholy hell out of me most of the time, and yet there’s a part of me that can’t get past what Brooke and Ridge are when they’re TOGETHER.

They have been the couple to ‘keep apart’ for over 21 years soap time.  Taylor has manipulated and elbowed her way between them, Stephanie practically sits outside their bedroom door waiting for the chance to run in and steal Ridge away, Nick just sits by – waiting for a moment of vulnerability in order to slime his way in, Eric is always desperate and hopeful and inappropriate in his feelings for Brooke… the list goes on.  In the end, they’ve only ever stood on the outside looking in and the writers have made it clear, far too many times, that the story was about BRidge love and the lengths all others would go to in order to keep them apart.

The big question is, are there enough fans still watching to trust that BRidge really can and will be happy this time?  It’s hard to trust the BnB writers.  Case in point?  The 20th anniversary show.  I’d recount what happened for those of you who missed it, but I don’t want to be responsible for making adults cry (a nod ando condolences to those of you who  did watch it).

ALL My Children

There’s a great deal of maturity in the AMC writing for Reese and Bianca.  I can remember Erica’s one time utter revulsion at the thought that her little Binks was a lesbian.  She was so sickened at the thought that another woman would touch her daughter that it pushed her to the brink of madness.  Now?  Reese, the love of Bianca’s life, is going to get the ‘Kane treatment’.  Oh yes, Reese, someone should have warned you about Erica’s rocky relationships with her childrens’ spouses.
The minute I heard Erica say that Bianca needed help and that she felt Reese was taking advantage of Bianca’s good nature, I knew there was trouble brewing.    At some point, there will be scenes of Zach and Reese sharing a beer, wondering what awful thing they did in their past lives that brought them to the point of finding love and ending up with Erica as a mother-in-law.  Maybe they’ll flip a coin to figure out which of them will get to be the hero(ine), taping Erica’s mouth shut and shoving her in a dark, locked room.

Oh! I do feel a little guilty for saying that.  Erica scored huge mommy points for bringing not one but TWO nannies to help take care of the kiddos.  Freakin’ awesome.  What mother DOESN’T dream about an on-call staff of nannies?

About the show’s other soul mates, I’m still hanging on for the Jesse/Angie arc.  I wish the writers would hurry up and end the Greenlee/Aidan/Annie/Ryan storyline to make more time for Jessie and Angie.  My only remorse about the end of the quad storyline is that there weren’t MORE shirtless Aidan scene.  Oh what a happy girl I would have been had that happened.

As The World Turns

Jack and Janet as soul mates?  Eh!  If by ‘soul mates’ that means that they’re both so vapid and empty that it takes the TWO of them to create something resembling one complete ‘soul’?  Oh, sure.

How about Dusty and nu-sorta-Jen-but-let’s-call-her-Josie-for-now?  Nah, not yet!  Give them time and they will be, I’m sure.

Luke and Noah?  BINGO!  I think that the student election storyline is probably one of the most insipid, yawn inducing storyline the writers could have imagined for these two.  The aftermath?  BRILLIANT.  Noah turns Luke in?  They fight over Noah’s cut-and-run behavior?  They make up and Luke realizes that he needs Noah and tells him so?  Begs him not to leave?  Is their relationships stagnant?  SURE.  It is, I don’t think anyone would deny that Luke and Noah are the show’s longest running “relationship virgins” – kissing cousins Parker and Liberty had sex faster than these two.

So what’s so brilliant about Nuke (Noah and Luke)?   Their scenes are so sweet and tender that they can sometimes make you forget that the couple hasn’t been intimate.  The actors deserve recognition for creating an intimacy that doesn’t require sexual contact between characters to be real.  The strength of the Nuke relationship, and the audience’s overwhelmingly positive reaction to the couple, rests squarely on the shoulders of the remarkable Van Hansis (Luke) and Jake Sillbermann (Noah).  It sure as hell ain’t the writing that keeps fans tuning in.  Van and Jake are able to transform writing best left to an elementary school play and turn it into broadway worthy material.  The writers owe these kids, BIG!  Now… give them more screen time, thank you very much.

The Young and the Restless

Victor and Ashley?  Folks, I’m a Vic-Ashley fan from Waaaaay back.  I hated Nikki for teaching Victoria to call Ashley the ‘wicked witch of the west’.  I despised her even more when she deceived Ashley, making Ash believe that she was dying, leading Ash to abort Victor’s child.  Ashley thought she was giving Nikki the will to live, or at least the opportunity to die in peace, with her family.  Am I happy to see Victor and Ash back together?  YES!  All is right in my YnR world.

Do I think it will last?  No.  Even I know that Victor and Nikki are the show’s star-crossed lovers no matter who else they love or how many children Victor keeps having with other women.  I know it will end, but I will enjoy Victor and Ashley for as long as they are around.

I don’t want to see Ash or Victor stick it to Nikki – it would mean their relationship isn’t real, it’s more about making HER miserable  than the two of them being together, and that would be far too sad for me.  Oh sure, Ashley deserves to have a little fun… but not too much.  I also don’t want to see Victor treat Ash the way he’s treated Nikki – he can be a cruel S.O.B.  I just want a little romance from SOMEONE on this show – a romance worth watching, that is.

I wonder how the mini-mustaches are going to take it when Victor returns with Ashley?  Nick won’t have the room to be too critical of Victor.  Adam would have no room to talk, at all.  Victoria?  After her speech of always feeling loved by her mother, but no so much by her father, I have a feeling that Ashley had better hang on to Victor with both hands.  If she’s written true to form, I have no doubt that Victoria will try to pry Ashley and her father apart.  Let the games begin!

Bad Day – Worse Day – Just Be Glad That…

Bad Day?  Your mother wants you to call her new boyfriend ‘uncle’ (Liberty Ciccone, As The World Turns).

Worse Day?  He really IS your uncle.

Just be glad that… he’s your father’s brother and not your mother’s brother!

Bad Day?  Your mother sleeps with the man you love.

Worse Day?  Your GRANDMOTHER sleeps with the man you love (Chelsea Brady, Days of Our Lives).  It sucks to have a hot grandmother, doesn’t it:?  Kate Roberts has never been the type to sit home and bake cookies.

Just be glad that… he didn’t sleep with your great-grandmother.  Dude, you just can’t live something like THAT down.

Bad Day?  Your favorite daytime soap goes dark.  A show that was once filled with love, romance, and laughter is now a show about death and destruction.  I’ve never forgiven General Hospital writers for killing Justice Ward and stuffing his body in the trunk of a car.. Justice FREAKIN’ WARD… a Quartermaine heir!  Fargin sons of bastiges!  ICEHOLES!

Worse Day?  Not only does your beloved show cling to the dark side, featuring an endless “murderous mobsters with hearts of gold” storyline, they begin casting actors who are renowned for playing mobsters in film and primetime.  Sopranos onscreen capo Vicent Pastore (Big P), welcome to the show.  Just know that we don’t fault YOU! 

Just be glad that…  the dipwads in charge didn’t cast Pee Wee Herman as the new mob boss.  GH’s lollipop mob already lacks credibility.  Danny Vermin was more believable as a mobster. They don’t deal drugs, they don’t push prostitution (any more), they don’t take protection money… Good luck, Vinnie P.  You may have just lost YOUR mob character cred!

Bad Day?  You find out your psychotic sister, Pam Douglas, hasn’t been taking her meds in more than three months (Stephanie Forrester, BnB).  She decides to ‘protect’ and help you by tying your rival to a chair, smearing her with honey, and enticing a bear to attack the ‘hot tamale’ now married to your husband…

Worse Day?  She fails.

Just be glad that… oh hell, there IS no silver lining here!  She FAILED!

Bad Day? AMC’s Erica Kane has a bit of a fit when she finds out that her protege has spent the night with a man she still deeply loves.  It prompts a battle between her inner angel and inner devil.  The inner devil wins.

Worse Day?  No one notices, Erica’s inner devil almost ALWAYS wins.

Just be glad that… Erica doesn’t have a twin!

Bad Day?  Your husband’s tragic and violent death triggers your alter personality to take over and cause you to turn into a raving lunatic who develops an evil plan for revenge (Tess/Jessica Nash, OLTL).

Worse Day?  No one notices the change in behavior.

Just be glad that… well, I was going to say ‘see Erica Kane’, but Jessica IS a twin.  Just be glad that she hasn’t been widely exposed, yet.  Tess is such a great bad girl and Jessica will be home, soon enough.

Bad Day?  You risk your own life to rescue an ex-husband who likes to periodically remind you that you were once a stripper.  He tops it by telling you you’d be nothing without him. (Nikki Newman, Young and the Restless).

Worse Day?  When you find him, he’s such a bastard, you forget why you wanted to rescue him in the first place.

Just be glad that… you’re not the recently deceased ‘Mrs. Great Man, herself’ he’s grieving for.  What’s that?  Oh, I know that the recently deceased ‘Mrs. Great Man, herself’ has a name, but she’s married to ‘The Great Man, himself’, so whatever HER name was just isn’t important.  Don’t beleive me?  Just ask Victor!

Bad Day?  Your sister-in-law poisons you and no one figures out it was poison until much later (BnB, Eric Forrester).

Worse Day?  She nearly took you out by adding an overdose of potassium to the lemon bars she bakes for you.

Just be glad that… your name is not Dixie Martin and that AMC writers aren’t penning this storyline.  Dixie was killed by posioned peanut butter pancakes! It’s rough out there in soap land, no wonder they’re all so skinny.  Daytime characters need food tasters.

Bad Day? You pay a man to ‘scare off’ a woman you hate.  You save her just as he’s about to sexually assault her – you save her because you’ve just found out that she’s your daughter. (Olivia Spencer, Guiding Light).  He later kills your friend’s daughter and eventually escapes prosecution.

Worse Day?    You offer to pay him to sleep with you because you’re lonely.  Oh yeah – they roll that way on Guiding Light, these days! 

Just be glad that… you’re not watching.  I’ve seen the ratings, you’re not!

The most pleasant surprises

There are soap events I never expected to like (or hadn’t even thought about) until they happened:

YnR –  I love the Victor/Nikki dynamic, when it’s not abusive on his end.  I love that Nikki feels something so deep for Victor that it hits her so unexpectedly that she has no idea what to do with it.  Victor’s boat washes ashore and Nikki begins drinking again thinkng the great man, himself, is dead. KUDOS to the writers.  Even though they somehow managed to forget about Victor’s vasectomy and had him get Sabrina pregnant, they made good use of Nikki’s earlier troubles with alcoholism.  I can’t wait for the promised fireworks when Mr. Mumbles and Nikki are reunited.  You know he’s going to break the magical spell MTS’ Nikki is casting and he’ll be total bastard to her.   More is the pity.

Nikki’s drunken rants to Katherine?  PRICELESS.  That’s when you know who your real friends are, and the friendship between these two women is legendary. Not many women in daytime are written as having long-term friendships. The writers deserve credit for realizing how perfect this one is.

General Hospital.  It’s been difficult for me to see Sonny as a leading romantic lead since the end of Sonny-Brenda, and then Sonny-Carly.  Every other woman he’s been with is just another putrid shade of ‘Agent Hannah Scott’ – Oh the horror.  I don’t know WHY it works, but Sonny and Kate work wonderfully well.  There’s an ‘almost’ respect Sonny has for Kate that he hasn’t had for any other woman.  He’s softer with her, more gentle.   She’s less obnoxious with him.  The relationship with Kate hasn’t changed my mind about Sonny or Kate, individually.  They both drive me batty, but together they have something new and different.

I also love the new dynamic between Carly and Jax.  She’s working hard to stop him from becoming a grumpy old man, and he’s working hard to help her grow up before her children do.  They feel like an old married couple,  with a lot of hot passion.

Guiding Light… <sigh>  I despise ‘G’.  Grady is a boil on the butt of daytime.  YET, I gotta admit to being mildly entertained by his call to the police to report Rafe.  If only the cheesy one-cop-with-a-bullhorn scene hadn’t followed.  The house was surrounded?  Really?  Next time?  Spring for a full police force.  Grady phoned in a call about hostage taker loaded to the nines.  There should have been a SWAT time surrounding the place.  I actually changed the channel after watching that scene, and almost forgot to tune back in.  Glad I finally remembered that GL was on,  because I enjoyed watching Grady snicker while he held Daisy – pretending not to know about Rafe being arrested. 

Ah… if only he hadn’t been such a lowlife when he was first introduced.  Attempted rape, and then murder is something very few characters have been able to come back from.  I don’t see Grady as being one of those who will make a come back.  Too much has happened and the writing for him is too weak.   I have a feeling the conflict between Cyrus and Grady is setting the stage for his departure.  Cyrus is finally opening his eyes to what sort of person his brother is.  At some point, Cyrus will have to set aside his guilt over not being around for Grady’s childhood, and he’s going to have to turn on him.  Oddly enough, I’m looking forward to that day (assuming the writers eventually get it, that it has to happen in order to save Cyrus).  I’m not looking forward to it JUST to get rid of Grady, but because any conflct scenes between these two brothers has to be explosive!

As The World Turns.  Seeing Lucy Walsh onscreen more than once a week?  I never expected to see it happen again in my life time.  Thank you writers.  Watching La Walsh fall for yet another sleazy guy in the workplace?  No thank you, writers.  I’m hoping Lucy picks up on Brian’s act and nails him before… he nails her… ah!  You knew that was coming.  Kudos to those who viewers who’ve suggested that Brian COULD be Craig, with reconstructive surgery.  I don’t know how to feel about that (since Scott Bryce and Hunt Block are the only actors I’ve been able to love in the role).  I’d love to have Scott Bryce back if Craig resurfaces. 

I <gulp> liked Holden and Carly’s date.  I liked that it was so awkward.  I liked the fact that Holden tracked Carly down when she ran out on him, to prove to her that what they have is real.  It’s the first decent thing Holden has done since this wacked out relationship began.  I’m starting to believe that Holden’s feelings for Carly are real and that it’s not just about sexual gratification for him.  Having him show up at Carly’s and refuse to give up on their relationship, for just a moment, reminded me of ‘Holden the stable boy’… hot, smoldering, and irrestible… 

ATWT fans are clamoring for a Katie-Brad baby.  When would they find the time? Katie and Brad have been pretty busy raising Liberty and protecting her in way that her mother can’t, or won’t.  They’ve proven themselves to be the great parents (much like Tom and Margo or Kim and Bob).  I get it, Katie/Brad fans, I get it.  I’m with you.  I’d love to see these two focus on their family and have children.  There’s something special in the relationship between these two characters.  I’d love to see MORE Katie and Brad, LESS Jack and Janet and LESS Liberty and Parker.

One Life to Live – Two pathological people.  Double the mayhem?  Double the trouble?  No, double the fun!  Todd and Tess, the uncle niece from hell.  There’s an obvious connection that Tess and Todd have that Jessica and Todd could never have.  If only they weren’t working hard to cover up the fact that Todd is hiding Marty – that’s just creepy on both ends.  Tess felt she was ‘held captive’ when Jess resurfaced – not a twinge of sympathy for Marty?  Oh well.  Hey, writers, why not have Tess and Todd running ‘The Sun’?  Why not have them team up in business?  Despite the fact that they’re both a brick shy of a load, having them work together somehow makes each of them seem less psychotic.

All My Children – Annie!  Annie, Annie, Annie… the writers wait until the very end to make her interesting?  WTH?   Too bad, this show needs a character like Annie.  Dealing with a dillweed like Ryan would push almost any woman over the edge, at least Annie’s insanity is entertaining.  I want Annie to stick around, and make the rest of Pine Valley miserable, at least until her plots are foiled she moves on to the next one. Can you imagine and Annie-Adam pairing?  Krystal, who?

Men without balls – The YnR Edition

Victor and Nikki

If I compiled even a short list of men without balls in daytime,  it would far exceed that of the manwhore list I compiled earlier.  What’s happened on The Young and The Restless?  Victor was once a tough competitor in business and a man who trampled anyone who got in his way.  He became the stuff of legend.  Men who would rather be roasted on an open spit ALIVE- before admitting to watching soaps, acknowledged loving Victor.  He made you want to hate him and cheer him on at the same time.

Now?  He’s a real jerk.  What is it about this man that makes him think it’s ok to keep going eyeball-to-eyeball with Nikki and attack her?  She said what she needed to say to him, and took his abuse in return.  She walked away.  Was there a reason the writers had him watch her move around the room and then approach her yet again to demean her?  Have the writers forgotten that MOST of the viewing audience is female?  Do they really think women find it appealing to have to put up with a man who ruminates on the last angry thing he said, and then tracks you down to take another angry swipe?  It’s makes Victor look petty, and mean… and dangerous.

He’s no longer a heroic “anti-hero”.  He’s just a bad game of quarters or some other drinking game.

1.  Take a drink every time Victor tells his wife what a loser she is.

2.  Take a drink every time Victor tells Nikki that she’d be nothing without him.  Drink twice if he reminds her she was just a stripper riding a pole before he met her.

3.  Take a drink every time Victor says ‘no one disrespects Victor Newman and gets away with it.

4.  Take a drink every time Victor refers to himself in third person.

For some daytime couples, there’s an angry banter that shows a passion shared between them that far exceeds any feeling they have for any other person (GL’s Josh and Reva, BnB’s Brooke and Ridge, GH’s Sonny and Carly).  The ‘banter’ between Victor and Nikki isn’t exactly banter.  It’s verbal abuse.  Rarely does Nikki get to step up and defend herself.  Victor demeans her, Nikki takes it.  The writers allow her to remain pretty much speechless and embarrassed.

Just once I’d love to see Nikki give Victor a good right cross, maybe a round house kick, or if we HAVE to be socially appropriate – maybe she could remind Victor that given the number of wives he’s driven away, it’s about time he realized that the problem isn’t the women who’ve come and gone, but the bastard they left behind.

I’m now sorry that Sabrina will be killed off, and not because I give a damn about the character, I don’t.  I’d have never written the character in, she never served any real point.  I’m sorry to see her go because it’s just one more opportunity for Victor to play the martryr and for him to remind everyone of how they ‘disrespected him by disrespecting the woman he loves’ (oh, and take a drink).

David, David, and David…

Riddle me this, whacked writers, if David Chow was a hit man running from his past, why the hell would he have chosen such a public profession?   This turn of storyline rates right up there with the thinking anyone cares about the snooze inducing Cane and Lily – who are such a sorry couple they have me rooting for Chloe.  The Chow storyline rates up there with the daily balladeering of that 13 year old kid (adorable, but I can’t take another tune), the completely uninteresting death of Ji Min, and Victor impregnating a woman after TWO vasectomies.  Yeah, yeah, I brought it up before, but it’s always worth it to stick it to the writers who can’t seem to remember even the major plot lines 

This show may as well be renamed ‘Fantasy Island’.