Clearly, becoming a Quartermaine has made Michael SMARTER! He has seen through Lord Larry in record time, dumped his duplicitous parents, and stopped accepting excuses from everyone who keeps claiming they want to love and protect him – while plotting to keep him in the dark about the “fundamental truth of his life”. Sonny killed his father and was aided and abetted by his mother. Taking a life is such an inhuman act, even on soaps. To have it treated as a minor altercation was mind blowing, so I’m glad that the writers have finally stopped treating the violence on the show as commonplace and trivial. Watching Michael turn his back on his parents was a thing of beauty (and I say this as someone who LONG ago supported Sonny and Carly protecting Michael from AJ). Sonny and Carly were never innocents, and AJ was never all bad, but there was a point at which they were able to be parents and deserved to love Michael without the constant threat of losing him… then came the kidnappings, and presumed deaths, and the violence that was so outrageous it lead to Michael falling into a coma after a bullet meant for Sonny landed in his brain. That was followed up by Michael’s enforcer dreams, Michael taking a life, a prison sentence, and sexual violation. It became impossible for me to see how they could ever be considered anything other than an unmitigated disaster in that kid’s life.
If we were having this conversation out loud, you might be tempted to tell me that: Franco was responsible for Michael’s rape (or more like Franco’s associate). Faith Rosco kidnapped Michael. Claudia was responsible for Michael’s coma and for the fact that he ended up taking her life. Yeah, got all of that… and yet all of it is tied to the fact that these were people gunning for his father, aimed at hurting his father and mother, and Michael became “collateral damage” along the way. At no point was Sonny ever allowed by the writers to show growth and put his family before lifestyle… yes, he tried to break free and couldn’t because of the power vacuum it created and the additional risk to his children… got it… the writers could have had Sonny leave his family and watch over them from a distance. They didn’t. In Sonny Corinthos they created a character who is loathsome, selfish, vain, and hateful despite his dimples (shame on Lucy and F
elicia). By the time he got around to daily threatening to kill a pregnant Ava once her child was born, he was done, in my book.
It felt good to watch AJ ‘s son walk away from the dark, unsalvageable, things his parents became. Carly faulted Franco for Michael’s rape… and then fell in love with him… and then threw the rape of her son in his face when he exposed her as a cheat and liar. Was Michael’s pain never in her mind before that? Every time that man touched her did she not feel sick thinking of what happened to her son? Was Michael’s rape a weapon she was waiting to use any time they had a disagreement? Franco becomes angry that she didn’t do the dishes so she tells him she’s still mad he was responsible for her son’s rape? I’m guessing it would have also been a useful argument in getting him to mow the lawn, take down the Christmas tree, do laundry, etc.
Michael’s emotional upset at watching her get close to Franco was never the tipping point? Carly’s “love” for Franco, and willingness to marry him, was more about protecting Sonny than making sure Michael did not have to re-live one of the worst times in his short life – and there have been so many awful times for that child. She even allowed her son to be the best man at their failed wedding. What kind of mother does that? She continues to say that Franco blew her family apart, not Sonny’s depraved act of killing AJ. It was Franco, not the fact that she lied and put herself between her son and the truth for Sonny’s sake. Nope. It’s all Franco. Useless. Carly’s lack of insight into the damage she’s caused to others is frightening. It was entertaining when she was young. It’s migraine inducing as she ages. Ages is supposed to bring wisdom. Instead, it only seems to bring gag inducing helpings of stupidity and cruelty for Carly. She becomes more selfish in time, not less.
In a soap-to-soap mashup? I would expect a “worst mother/daughter/sister” of the year face off between GH’s Carly, BnB’s Brooke Logan, and DAYS’ Sami Brady. I think the title would be a fight to the finish between Brooke and Carly, or at least a tie.
Oddly enough, only Sonny seems to be experiencing any true remorse. Carly is still raging at the world and trying to force her son to love her and respect her again (a right I think she’s given up by protecting Sonny when even she should have been disgusted with him). Sonny is willing to suffer the consequences of his betrayal of AJ’s son, the child he made a promise to love and protect, long ago, finally realizing that he allowed his hatred for AJ, disguised as love for Connie, mattered more than every day he ever spent raising and nurturing Michael. At least the writers have allowed Sonny to show some insight into his behavior. I don’t think they will ever allow Carly to grow up and learn that her actions have consequences. I no longer care if they do. I will simply cherish the moments of seeing handcuffs slapped on Carly and having her spend some time behind bars. While I see zero hope for Carly, I do see hope for Sonny (if the constantly swirling rumors of Maurice Benard’s leaving aren’t true). I don’t want Sonny in Michael’s life again, but I would love for the writers to take this opportunity to reinvent Sonny. Let him be someone completely different from the man he has been all these years. Benard is such a gifted actor with so many more stories he could help tell, I hope that happens, for the sake of the show and its fans.
What I love most?
There is one more Quartermaine in the world of Port Chuckles, and after losing Alan, Lila, Edward, and Tracy, I am happy to see Michael back in the fold. What’s that? Tracy hasn’t passed away? She may as well be gone, given her repeated betrayal of her family and her willingness to put them all at risk for the sake of “love” for a man she clearly doesn’t know well enough to realize that something is wrong and that the man she married couldn’t stand her touch. Even Liz and Sam are picking up the “NuJase is OldJase” vibes. Eh, I’ll save all of that for another blog, another time. Maybe I’ll be able to soon blog about the return of Jason Quartermaine, one day soon!
While EJ sat home, basking in the glow of being complimented for being a ‘great dad’, Anna was being slapped around, manhandled by Stefano’s goons, and had to plead for her life, as Stefano promised her that she would not be alive much longer. DAYS has done a lot of things right, but this was dead wrong and made it clear how parasitic the Dimera men’s relationships with women are. EJ professes love, two children later, to the woman he raped at gunpoint, and while he sat with her trying to convince her he was a new man, Anna faced violence and certain death.
3. One Life to Live. Schuyler Joplin has been just about as perfect a man as one can be in daytime. He’s thoughtful, loving, kind, and patient… which means that when he had to be torn down to prop the show’s resident snooze producing couple – the writers took the lowest possible route to try to make him unlikable to fans. His soap day started with him being a loving father who only wanted the best for his child. He finds out the child he’s been loving isn’t his and just a few hours later he’s holding Gigi Morasco hostage at gunpoint, trying to force her to undress so they can have sex and he could prove to her that they still have a special relationship. He doesn’t want to be alone.
As usual, the storyline hasn’t been about this poor teenage girl who is being harmed, it’s about the adults around her – her mother who took the time to run down her attacker with her car while on the way to the hospital to get help for Kristina, her angry mob boss father, Ethan -the wrongfully accused… but very little about the survivor.
It’s not often that I actually praise a soap in its entirety. OLTL is good, and I enjoy more of the show than I dislike of it… but it’s not GREAT. Which soap is, in my opinion? Hands down, Days of Our Lives has to be the best overall soap in daytime! It’s such a great soap that the things I hate about it are the things you’re SUPPOSED to hate about a soap or about the show’s characters. What makes DAYS such a great soap? Two words: consistency and BALANCE!
While DAYS held on far too long to the ‘Sydnapping’ storyline, overall, the fact that the show has been consistent and balanced allowed fans, like myself, who were tired of the storyline to focus on something else. Knowing, last month, that the storyline would continue a while longer, I began tuning it out and focusing on other big onscreen news. I don’t know what it is about ‘Daniel’ and ‘Melanie’, but I think it’s sheer genius to pair them together as father and daughter (and yes, I’ve been reminded that she once flirted with him when neither knew they were related). Something about his presence in her life finishes Mel’s character profile out nicely. She’s been two characters in one during her tenure at DAYS. There is the manipulating and selfish Mel, and then there is the vulnerable and melancholy Mel. In some ways he softens Mel, but she does the same for him. Shawn Christian (as Daniel) hit his stride perfectly in the hospital visitation scenes, after finding out that Melanie was his child. His eyes were soft and a bit weepy, his tone of voice was relaxed, and it was easy to believe that he was in awe of the young woman in front of him, one he’d only recently found carried his genes in her DNA. That he was the doctor who operated on her and saved her life made the scene all the more meaningful. Melanie looked vulnerable and frail and in need of someone to protect her. He looked ready for the job. Priceless.
I’m partial to the third option. I’d love to see Stefano strip Ej of his money and power. DAYS’ writers have been relatively creative in their storytelling. What could they do with a powerless EJ, who no longer has the ability to manipulate and/or offend the women of Salem? The writers could continue to move EJ on to the next storyline but in the end what good would it do if Ej isn’t completely deconstructed and rebuilt? He’s currently an (evil) freakshow! What would life look like from the other side, a man without resources at the mercy of the power brokers? Nothing could give him greater insight into what his negative influence has been over others than having him fend for himself against the next ‘Ej Dimera’. His deconstruction could also lead him to find real love for the first time, a woman he doesn’t have to force to have sex with him.
With Hope defending Bo and asserting that he is (professionally) an ethical man, will Bo begin to realize that he may be professionally ethical but that he’s lacking personally? For most of their adult lives, Hope has been defending their marriage against each of Bo’s new ‘great loves’ and any children that are born or resurface as a result. He has yet to have to do the same because she has centered her life around him. Is there some point in his life when he realizes that he’s taken more from his marriage than he’s ever given to Hope?
General Hospital
Days of Our Lives
One Life to Live
Coffee At Cafe Russe 