If relationships are tested, the story better back it up.Check out what Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey has to say about what’s happening across the daytime dial.
When a character makes a fool of the person they claim to love, there’d better be a payoff.
Right, Nate? Y&R’s disappointing doc went from prestigious Head of Surgery at the hospital to backstabbing his cousins at Hamilton-Winters to Victoria’s office boy toy. His choice to repeatedly lie to live-in love Elena while frolicking on the desk with his boss showed how far he’d strayed from that “First, do no harm” oath he took as a doctor — especially after Vicky’s brother was onto them.
Nick (re: her upcoming trip to LA): “You going alone?”
Victoria: “Leave it alone.”
That’s a no.
Audra told Elena that Nate and Victoria hit the West Coast together, which should have prompted a juicy breakup along with everyone at Newman learning all the gory details. Instead we got Audra urging Elena to retaliate by bringing Victoria’s ex J.T. to Genoa City so Victoria would “keep her hands off Nate.” Huh?
Even more head-scratching was Audra’s holier-than-thou take on Nate and Victoria’s affair considering she spent the bulk of last year sleeping with her boss Tucker.
Elena: “I’m an idiot.”
Not for long, I hope!
Phyllis made suckers of her loved ones by framing Diane for her “murder”, which made for good drama but little sense. Faking her death meant she couldn’t see her kids again, so she backtracked, killed Stark, and reappeared.
Phyllis (to Summer): “I needed to let you know I was okay.”
In a public park in broad daylight? Not too bright, Red.
Surely there’s a better way to shake up couples like Jack/Diane, Summer/Kyle and Michael/Lauren than pulling the wool over all of their eyes.
The Newmans have been doing it for years! Victor bought McCall to try and get Adam and Nick to work together (and get Sally out of the picture) but they were all onto him.
Victoria: “Leave it to our father to buy an entire conglomerate so he can manipulate the people around him.”
See? Smart.
It was smart of B&B’s Ridge and Bill to team up to bring Sheila down, but there’s a cost to playing your loved ones. They were forgiven, but what Dollar Bill doesn’t get is that cheating on Katie with her sister hurt her much more than him bedding the local murderer.
Bill: “Can we leave Brooke out of it?”
Katie: “I wish we could have.”
Meanwhile, Sheila lured Jack to the prison for a discussion about their mutual loneliness. What was she aiming for, a conjugal visit? He lost everything by cheating on Li with Sheila and not revealing he was really Finn’s bio-dad. Any chance he’s got to regain his family after hoodwinking them for years would not be helped by a prison romp with that maniac.
Speaking of maniacs, some stranger named Talia on DAYS is kissing Chanel as part of a revenge plot with some other stranger named Colin after poisoning the biscuits at Sweet Bits which caused half the town to hallucinate and “love” the wrong person, and here’s me: What?
Wendy: “It sounds so crazy it must be true.”
I don’t get why DAYS is 1) creating so many new characters and 2) having them screw over the ones we like. Gwen ruined our beloved Deveraux family, so I will never like her no matter how “bloody” funny she may be with Leo. Alex bedding so many girls he barely knew (including a two-on-one) knocked him out of romantic lead contention for years. Jada aborted Eric’s baby without telling him, then blamed her choice on a conversation with his ex, Nicole. Talia and Colin are two more newbies playing Salem for fools, which does not create rooting value.
While I root for a more satisfying reunion between Bo and Hope than him yelling “Fancy Face!” between his amnesia and his coma, give me Kate resurfacing on a fishing boat in a clever callback to 1996 — complete with flashbacks.
Kate (talking to herself): “Here I am back in maritime hell. What a karmic kick in the ass. I’m not such a bad person am I? Never mind.”
Indeed, Kate’s done her share of tricking her loved ones (bigamy, blackmail, adultery, fraud) but she’s paid for it by “dying” and getting stranded out in the ocean … twice! You know you’ve done something right with a character when we’re entertained by watching her talk to a fish.
There are two main characters on GH deceiving their loved ones and they are going to pay. What is Michael’s end game? He hired Dex to bust Sonny for gun running which will alienate his entire family, and when he confessed the plot to Willow on their wedding night, she fainted to her death bed.
Nina was mad at Carly for keeping the secret that Willow was her daughter so she turned Carly and Drew into the SEC for insider trading which would have wrecked Drew’s plan to find Obrecht (whose bone marrow was needed to save Willow) if Sonny hadn’t stepped in.
Ava: “You turned in the mother of Sonny’s children to the authorities?”
Good luck with Sonny when that comes out.
Nina (to Martin): “There were some things I hadn’t fully considered.”
Ya think? Lying to their families didn’t work out well for Portia (who walked down the aisle with Curtis knowing the secret of Trina’s paternity was about to blow) or Liz (who helped Nikolas kidnap Esme) but paying for their mistakes has helped redeem them.
The payoff in both those stories will hopefully be that when Michael and Nina are busted it will bring angry exes Sonny and Carly back into each other’s orbits.
Carly (to Willow): “I’m no fan of Sonny’s.”
Says the woman who married him four times…
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
