It’s Only My Opinion: Characters Are Making Questionable Choices on GH, Y&R, B&B, BTG, and DAYS
Characters are making questionable choices on General Hospital, The Young and the Restless, Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful and Beyond the Gates — and Carolyn Hinsey’s got something to say about it!
The Kids Aren’t All Right
We used to have a fun column in Soap Opera Digest magazine called “Things That Make Us Go Hmmm” and I am resurrecting it here to address some questionable storylines like Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) influencing international law on GH, Phyllis’s (Michelle Stafford) ill-conceived kidnapping of Matt (Roger Howarth) on Y&R, Hope (Annika Noelle) having a hard time making what should be an easy decision on B&B, violence erupting on BTG and Jack’s (Matthew Ashford) surprisingly forgiving heart on DAYS.
I’m a big fan of stories involving the next generation, and GH does it best. So I’m here for Danny Morgan, Charlotte Cassadine and Rocco Falconeri teaming up to do pretty much anything… except the dumb stuff they’ve been doing lately.
There were Danny and Charlotte breaking into Wyndemere to take photos of illegal goings-on so they could give the pics to Dante who is the police commissioner. They literally stood in the living room for a whole scene discussing how dangerous it was that they broke into Wyndemere and then rounded the corner to be instantly caught by WSB Director Cullum.
Cullum: “I know you.”
Charlotte: “Are you sure?”
Yes. The Scooby Kids were saved by the entrance of current Wyndemere owner Sidwell with Ava who called Alexis to come get her errant grandson. Charlotte’s mother Lulu was MIA because she was too busy securing bogus passports for her and Rocco in case they had to go on the run now that word was getting out that Rocco shot Cullum. Joke’s on her: Rocco found the passport and chose to go on the run with Britt instead, which was actually very Luke-ish of him. Those Spencers don’t like being told what to do.
Keeping Willow
Over in local government, new congresswoman Willow Tate got the charges against Anna Devane dropped. In France.
Willow: “My contact at the state department has been in touch with the French authorities. I called in a few favors and Anna is going to be sent back to the private clinic. I also pushed for a full dismissal of all the charges. It’s done.”
Felicia: “I don’t believe it!”
Me neither. Willow has been a congresswoman for five minutes (okay, three months). She’s proven very adept at drugging Drew and covering it up, but her ability to pull international strings and have criminal charges dropped against a lawbreaking American agent strains credulity.
The trick to selling a far-fetched story is to ground it in some form of reality. GH has long established that the WSB can do outlandish things (impersonate people, stop deadly pathogens, save the world), so I would buy Valentin, Brennan, even Joss being part of Anna’s rescue over Willow. But this is a soap, and GH is clearly trying to pull Willow back from the brink with something redeeming after she’s broken every law. Helping Anna makes storyline sense for Willow, but it still makes me go Hmmm.
Law and Disorder
What do you do when you’ve mangled a character so badly he can’t stick around even in the forgiving world of soaps? Give him amnesia.
That’s what Y&R did to Matt Clark, who soon ran into the scheming Phyllis. She said she would “help” the amnesiac murderer while offering him to Nick in exchange for the Newmans dropping the charges against her. So Nick asked Christine to stop prosecuting Phyllis in exchange for catching Matt. Christine agreed to consider his request, which is not how the law works. A smart person would have assigned a cop to follow Phyllis, which would have led them to Matt in two seconds because he was in a room at the GCAC under all of their noses. But, no.
Nick: “Christine seems willing to negotiate but she needs proof that you have Matt.”
Phyllis: “Check your phone.”
Up popped a photo of Matt lying bound and gagged on what is clearly the carpeting in every single GCAC hotel room! Again, a smart person would go to the front desk and find out which room Phyllis had rented and voila! Matt is captured. But Patty helped him escape and Phyllis was back to square one, unable to “swap Matt for her freedom,” which is not a thing. Hmmm…
The silver lining of this nuttiness is that it looks like the loooong, confusing tale of Phyllis, Victor, Cane, Billy, etc. using a dodgy AI program to steal each other’s companies may be coming to an end — and the fallout looks juicy. Victor/Nikki, Jack/Diane and Phyllis/her kids are in tatters, and Michael Baldwin looks like the winner. He gave solid legal advice to all the players and should be rewarded for that. It’s not his fault they didn’t listen to him!
Office Space
Come on, Hope. You didn’t really think Ridge would demote Steffy in favor of making your mom co-CEO of Forrester, did you?
Bill: “The spineless dressmaker folded like a deck of cards. Again.”
Exactly. I appreciate the way B&B is dragging out Hope’s inability to jump ship from Forrester to Logan because it’s soapy, but we’re at the point where she needs to quit or get off the pot.
Katie (to Hope): “It’s time for you to get out. Come to Logan where you will be wanted and respected.”
Hope asked to hire her brother Deke; Katie told her no problem. Okay, responded Hope, let me go back to Forrester for the 900th time to ask whether Steffy wants to resurrect my fashion line.
Steffy: “Hope for the Future hasn’t been strong for a while.”
Hope: “That’s because we haven’t had resources.”
Steffy: “We need to focus on Couture now.”
Do not play the drinking game to Steffy and Ridge saying they have to “focus on couture,” or you might hit Darla with your car (if you know you know)!
And don’t count on Donna to have your back unless you’re Brooke Logan. She stuck her nose into the Brooke v. Katie fashion wars (Team Katie!) and told her sister not to hire their clearly unhappy niece.
Donna: “You are going to ruin our family.”
Katie: “We are Hope’s family, too!”
Is Donna, who worked as a receptionist before marrying millionaire Eric Forrester, really arguing that the thirty-something Hope — who has two kids and is currently on her sixth marriage — can’t choose where she goes to work?
Katie (to Hope): “Come home to Logan.”
Donna: “Don’t sign those papers.”
Miss me with that.
Beyond The Pale… Or Should We Say ‘Impaler’
The shenanigans surrounding the black market plasma ring on BTG thankfully came to a close (for now) with a shootout that resulted in hospital chief Lia in handcuffs and heroic Derek taking a bullet for good cop Jacob.
Derek (to Ashley): “Don’t be scared. I love you.”
Sadly, he didn’t make it. The show gave us lots of soapy goodness juxtaposing the shootout with the gorgeous black-tie cotillion where the platinum deb was crowned (a Dupree, natch), but violence feels out of place on this show. Stick to romantic drama, backstabbing and politics.
Daughter of Darkness
I have never liked Gwen because DAYS brought her on to destroy the Deveraux family. She came on as Jack’s retcon offspring to get revenge on Jack for not raising her (?) by hurting his daughter, Abigail. She drugged Abby, got Chad drunk and seduced him, got pregnant, lost the baby, and lied that Abby had pushed her down the stairs. This caused huge upheaval for Jack and Jennifer, made worse when Abigail got murdered by Clyde Weston. Speaking of murder, it is very likely that Gwen also murdered Jennifer’s mother Laura Horton.
And then one day last week…
Jack (at Gwen’s door): “I probably should have called. I’m guessing you’re surprised to see me.”
That’s a good guess considering Jack lives in Boston and hates her. Jack launched into a speech about how Gwen is his daughter and he would like to have a relationship with her as the fourth anniversary of Abigail’s death approaches.
Gwen: “You’ve been keeping your distance because Jennifer despises me. Us being close? She would bloody hate it.”
Sidebar: Whoever inserts the word “bloody” into so many of Gwen’s scenes, stop it.
Jack: “You are wanted and you are loved. Say it.”
Gwen: “I am wanted and I am loved.”
Cue the hug. That kumbaya happened in one episode after six years of violence and pain. I don’t buy it.
But you know what I do buy? Patch and Kayla reminiscing about their lives together with excellent flashbacks so DAYS could honor 40 years of Mary Beth Evans playing Kayla. That’s why we watch soaps: Because we love (or love to hate) these characters and we never want the story to end.
Patch: “You ready for another adventure?”
Kayla: “Always. Lucky us.”
And us!
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Soap Opera Digest does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.