What’s intriguing about characters you love to hate? Check out what Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey has to say about what’s happening across the daytime dial.
Why write for front-burner characters we love to hate? So we can watch them fail and/or get killed in a juicy murder mystery. That’s it.
I hope that’s the direction Y&R is going with Tucker McCall. During his first go-round, he married Ashley and Sharon, slept with Jill and Diane, committed fraud and bribery, and got hit by Abby’s car. None of that has been played this time except for his “love” for Ashley, which reads more like empty smarminess since he’s been sleeping with Audra the whole time.
Let the failure begin.
Victoria: “I don’t know what I’m looking forward to more: Owning Tucker’s company or the look on his face when he realizes he’s been bested.”
Victor: “It’s a fitting slap in the man’s face after all the damage he’s done to the people I care about.”
Add how much he’s hurt his son, Devon. The only way for this jerk to go is down and out.
Tucker’s former bed partner Diane is another one trying to rewrite history, although she could evolve into someone we love to hate if they acknowledge she stole Jack’s sperm to “make” Kyle. Diane’s efforts to be “part of the family” while trying to convince Kyle to give her Phyllis’s old job at Marchetti was Machiavellian at best, sinister at worst.
Diane: “I love seeing how closely all the Abbotts work together and I want to belong to that.”
Kyle: “There are other ways to be part of the family without running an entire division of a company.”
Diane: “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve been surrounded by a loving family your whole life.”
Kyle: “Not always. There was a time when I didn’t have a mother.”
Thank you.
Ashley also has Diane’s number, but unfortunately Jack isn’t picking up.
Jack: “How much is it going to cost to get you out of this house?”
Ashley: “That’s gonna happen when hell freezes over.”
Now you’re talking! Open warfare in the Abbott mansion … Team Ashley.
As much as it shocks me to say this, I am also Team Deacon. He’s the only B&B character who seems to care about psycho Sheila, and after hiding her from the cops, he seemed genuinely hurt when she dumped him for Bill.
Sheila: “Bill is rich and powerful.”
Deacon: “It doesn’t make him a good person.”
Sheila: “He’s sexy and he’s mine. All mine.”
If trying to murder half the town isn’t reason enough, dialogue like that oughta do it. When Deacon said he still had feelings for her, Sheila’s response was pure evil.
Sheila: “You are a loser.”
Every show needs a villain but this one is all over the map. What does Sheila want? Who does she love? She needs a purpose besides lurking outside Steffy’s house and showing up in Forrester offices to randomly threaten the workers.
More believable was Douglas deciding he didn’t want to live with either Hope or Thomas, choosing instead the happy home of his Aunt Steffy.
Hope: “What does this say about us as parents?”
That he’s tired of all your fighting! Meanwhile, B&B really has no faith in our ability to work out the family relationships on a show with 12 main characters.
Thomas: “Steffy is his aunt. She’s my sister. I’m her brother.”
Liam’s eyeroll was all of us.
If ever a character deserved to take a header, it was GH’s Nikolas after cheating on Ava, kidnapping Esme and mistreating Spencer. Yes, he can be redeemed when they inevitably bring him back, but even Laura — who didn’t know the half of it — knew her messed-up son needed a break.
Laura (after rehashing Nik’s failings): “How will it end?”
Ava’s eyes trailed to the blood on the carpet where she had clocked him….
A bonus of losing a hated front-burner character is that it makes room for others we like. Who’d have thought Nikolas’s “death” would result in a new couple? Ava and Austin give me all the AS THE WORLD TURNS feels (Carly Tenney and Paul Ryan, duh) as they navigate Nikolas’s “death”. He was mighty impressed watching Ava handle Laura, Liz and Spencer’s questions about where Nikolas might be (hint: wrapped in a tarp).
Austin: “You’re really good at this.”
Ava: “No time for compliments. We’ve got a body to move.”
DAYS’s Leo has the potential to morph into someone we love to hate (like Sami, Vivian and Kristen, when she’s not acting like a cartoon) but Gwen is too far gone.
Blackmailing Jack into giving her The Spectator so she could be “editor-in-chief” was the last straw.
Xander: “Do you give us The Spectator…”
Gwen: “… or does your wife spend the foreseeable future as a guest of the state?”
Neither, if logic had been applied. Let’s review: Gwen is mad at bio dad Jack because he didn’t raise her, even though he didn’t know she existed until 2021. Jack also forgave Gwen for lying that his daughter, Abigail, threw Gwen down a flight of stairs. That’s at least comparable to a drugged-up Jennifer hitting Gwen with her car, for which there is no proof.
Jen’s response to the money-grubbing Xander and Gwen was perfect.
Jennifer: “Since neither of you has ever produced anything worthwhile in your life, you can’t comprehend the amount of work this man — your friend and your father — put into this paper. Go ahead. Call the cops.”
Unfortunately, by the end of the episode, Jack caved and Gwen took “what was mine”.
No. Gwen is the female Tucker McCall: An empty evildoer hurting the family she claims to love. Excellent dialogue like Jennifer telling Xander that going from Sarah to Gwen “wasn’t exactly trading up” helps, but a character as irredeemable as Gwen has clearly earned a juicy murder mystery.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
