Why would soaps benefit from using their own history? Check out what Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey has to say about what’s happening across the daytime dial.
Soaps have decades of rich, amazing history. Why don’t they use it more?
All of a sudden, one day B&B’s Ridge walked into the office and told his dad he should go play pickleball with Donna and enjoy his life. Not cool, Ridge.
Eric: “I’m not some old dinosaur! I may not pick up a pencil and sketch as much as I did but that does not mean I have lost my touch. I am the soul of this company.”
A massive fight ensued.
Ridge: “You want me to step down? Who’s going to run this place, Steffy?”
Eric: “Me. Everything you know you learned from me. I built this business. I built you.”
Not biologically. We learned in a 2001 rewrite that billionaire shipping magnate Massimo Marone fathered Ridge. Imagine if B&B delved into that uncomfortable truth instead of pegging the father/son fallout on Eric being mad that Ridge threw out a stapler in an office they have shared for years.
While I applaud any story that features A-listers Eric and Ridge, a better idea would be to bring one of Eric’s MIA kids back (Thorne, Kristen, Felicia, Rick, Bridget) to launch a battle for Forrester Creations à la Y&R’s Newmans. Kristen makes the most sense since her son, Zende, already works there — isn’t he sick of the infighting?
Zende: “Mom, come home and stake your claim on your family company.”
Like that. And I know I’m beating a dead horse, but everyone lecturing Hope about how she has to go back to Liam to preserve her family is missing the much more logical reason she and Thomas shouldn’t be together: They’re stepsiblings!
Historical thing that bugs me: Steffy naming her baby Hayes to “honor” her mother, Taylor, when Hayes was actually the surname of Taylor’s abusive first husband, Blake Hayes. Taylor’s maiden name was Hamilton. Wouldn’t Steffy have known that?
I realize soaps can’t bring up every relationship during every encounter, but when Y&R’s Victoria and Ashley are having a deliciously scratchy encounter at a bar it would up the ante for Ashley to remind Victoria she was her stepmother.
Ashley: “I have to let go of Jabot.”
Victoria: “Your laissez-faire attitude doesn’t ring true to me.”
Ditto when Sharon and her ex-husband Nick are battling his brother/her ex-husband Adam over SNA merging with Newman Media.
Adam: “I’m giving you a vision for success.”
Nick: “With you in charge, and me and Sharon answering to you!”
Sharon: “This is about more than your hurt feelings.”
Those three have been members of the same messy family for years. Play it!
Historical thing that bugs me: Since Mariah hit town, no one mentions poor dead Cassie. No photo on the mantel, no more coffee in Cassie’s
Corner, nothing. I get that Nick and Sharon finding the long-lost twin of Sharon’s late daughter is a miracle but a look-alike kid could never replace the cherished one they lost.
You can never go wrong mentioning lost characters — it rewards our years-long investment in them and adds layers to the current action. So I was happily surprised when GH’s Finn asked Tracy about her “late” husband, Luke.
Tracy: “The fact that he’s no longer around to drive me crazy I find impossible to wrap my head around. So I focus on a business project I’m involved in.”
Stealing Deception. See what I mean? Tracy is channeling her past sadness into current badness, which helps explain why she blackmailed Brook Lynn into stealing proprietary info from Deception to try and take over Lucy’s company.
Tracy: “Remember CoeCoe Cosmetics? It was basically a Ponzi scheme.”
Lucy: “What do you want?”
Tracy: “Seventy-five percent of Deception.”
Ouch.
GH is also using the “late” Nikolas to explain Spencer’s complicated feelings about Ace.
Spencer: “I don’t want Ace to feel abandoned by his father like I did.”
Trina: “You’re not his father.”
Spencer: “It’s up to me to fill that void. I was the kid stuck alone in a big house by myself.”
We watched that scrappy kid in that big house, so you go Spencer.
I’m less sold on the re-created history of Cody being the child of Mac and Dominique (whose infertility was such a story point that Lucy was her surrogate for Serena) but it helps when rooted in a kernel of truth.
Mac (to Cody): “I’m here to help you. It’s what Dominique would have wanted.”
Mac did love Dominique so I’ll allow it.
Historical thing that bugs me: Why does Cody call Olivia “Mama Q”? If Cody and Dante were childhood friends then Cody would have called her “Mama F” for Falconeri. Olivia didn’t become a Q until 2017.
DAYS bringing all Victor’s loved ones home for his funeral was obviously Job One, but exposition was needed when his presumed-dead son Philip showed up on Chloe’s doorstep after he framed Brady for his murder.
Philip: “I’m alive and I’ve come back to you.”
Chloe fainted.
Chloe: “We mourned you! Brady was arrested! Victor let his grandson go to jail!”
Philip: “He made sure Brady was released.”
Oh, okay then … Cue the “Phloe” memory lane.
Philip: “I want you to know the Philip that got to know a goth girl and discovered she was the coolest person he ever met is back.”
Too late — she’s engaged to your cousin Xander. I wish Philip would hang around because a “Broe”, “Phloe”, “Xloe” romp would be fun.
Historical thing that bugs me: I still get confused by all the actors playing two different characters on this show — Chris Kositchek/Roman, Adrienne/Bonnie, Marlena/Hattie, Stefan/Jake, Ben/Alex, Brady/Rex — and I’m a trained professional. It messes with history so let’s stop that.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
