It’s Only My Opinion: Dialogue Matters on General Hospital, Young and Restless, B&B, BTG and DAYS
Carolyn Hinsey explores why dialogue can make or break a storyline on General Hospital, Young and Restless, Days of Our Lives, Beyond the Gates and Bold and Beautiful.
Talk The Talk
Sharp dialogue can save a so-so story, but the best arc in the world will fall flat if the words don’t make sense. Winning tales combine both good storytelling and clever conversation.
I’m perplexed by what DAYS has been scripting lately. Example: Leo and Javi got married in a very sweet ceremony officiated by Marlena in January. Leo’s ex Dimitri turned up, Javi took off, and now Leo’s scenes feel like a bad romance novel translated into English.
Dimitri: “I take it you haven’t heard from Javi since he fled to Meen-a-so-tah?”
Leo: “Texas.”
Dimitri: “Since Javi skipped town so you could take care of your feelings for me, call me crazy but dodging me at every turn doesn’t seem like the best way to move forward in that regard. You don’t trust yourself alone with me.”
Leo (scoffing): “Please.”
Dimitri: “Prove it. Take me to your room.”
Leo: “Okay. I’ll prove I’m not afraid to be alone with you. Let’s go.”
No. If we are meant to care about Leo at all, he should be sad. His marriage to a man he claimed to love just fell apart, so he would steer clear of Dimitri while trying to convince Javi to return or, at the very least, be too smart for Dimitri’s clumsy come-ons. Instead, Leo showed his ex around the hotel room where he lives (don’t get me started) and Dimitri suggested ordering mimosas to lower their inhibitions.
Leo: “Who do you think you are, a Hemsworth brother?”
Dimitri (taking off his clothes and jumping on the bed): “Is it hot in here or is it me? Why don’t we make some memories on this memory foam?”
Plinky-plunky goofy music cannot make up for the absence of genuine feelings between players, or the fact that 40-something men would never behave like that in real life.
More promising is that DAYS is finally addressing Stefan’s 2024 disappearance at Vivian’s hand. (We last saw him in the trunk of a car.) There were Rafe and Eli being smart cops questioning Vivian in Alamainia about the DiMera kidnapping when they stumbled on a witness who had seen Stefan alive. She later revealed he had been held captive by his own mother.
Rafe (realizing the truth): “Stefan didn’t want to leave Salem — or Gabi.”
Stefan returning home to find his (quasi) brother Philip dating his wife would be a very promising story.
Also showing promise has been the lead up to B&B’s forbidden duo of Taylor and Deacon but the discourse needs work to rise above foreign romance novel.
Deacon: “I want you, Taylor. With every cell in my body, I want you. I love you. I need you. It feels right just staring into your eyes. I think about you every minute of every day. I get lost when I look in those beautiful brown eyes. No one else has made me feel seen like you do. You are all I think about, like a fire inside me consuming me. I dream about you. My feelings for you… it’s a desire, a connection, a love I never knew existed.”
I call BS. Anyone who saw Deacon’s forbidden red-hot romance with his mother-in-law Brooke (which conceived Hope) knows that he has absolutely had “a desire, a connection, a love” hotter than whatever this chaste thing is he’s doing with Taylor. Deacon has a history of hooking up with the wrong women (Y&R’s Nikki and Diane, B&B’s Quinn) which makes him dangerous on his own, never mind that he’s married to psycho Sheila Carter. Playing his backstory could only strengthen this story. Do it!
Sheila’s words are also a head-scratcher. She recently started announcing how great her life is to anyone who will listen, and it’s beyond weird.
Sheila (to Deacon): “We have such a wonderful life!”
Sheila (to Hope): “I know he adores me.”
Sheila (to Hope and Deke): “Your dad is my husband. We are partners. Everything we do, we do together. What we have is so special. Our commitment to each other is stronger than ever.”
Deacon’s kids rolled their eyes to Cleveland and then huddled.
Hope: “I thought she’d never leave.”
See, that’s how people talk. There’s realistic writing elsewhere, too — like in the story of Katie secretly hiring Eric for her new fashion house.
Brooke (speculating who Logan’s designer might be): “Maybe Katie’s embarrassed because it’s someone we’ve never heard of.”
Ridge: “Whoever it is, it’s not going to have the elegance or sophistication of Forrester.”
Cut to Eric — who created the elegance and sophistication of Forrester — being spotted in Bill’s office by Liam, who then had to lie to his wife and her mother.
Brooke: “Who is Katie’s mystery designer?”
Liam (hedging): “It’s going to be really fun to find out.”
You got that right!
I’ve written ad infinitum about Y&R telling too many boring business stories but at least this latest twist has partners Cane and Phyllis at each other’s throats. She wants revenge, he just wants to run Newman as a successful company. The fact that they’re having sex is incidental.
Phyllis: “I want the name ‘Ashby-Summers International’ to represent what we’re doing, plus I want notoriety for all the hard work I’m putting in. It’s my way to say ‘screw you’ to all the people who didn’t believe in me.”
Cane: “The people who matter are going to know you are the woman behind the curtain. We have the power now.”
Victor (entering): “I wouldn’t count on it.”
The Mustache seems to have convinced Lily to pretend he kidnapped her so he could blackmail Cane into giving him his company back. That’s logical motivation for committing a crime and/or risking his marriage, and the Jack/Nikki dynamic there is interesting. It works.
Unlike the senseless Mariah mess where a ghost told Mariah to kidnap a child so she did. Zero logic and even less entertainment as we watch Mariah perform tearful monologues about being Dom’s “mommy” while his real mother Abby clutches stuffed animals and sobs. Imagine how watchable this story might have been if Y&R hadn’t killed Dom’s father Chance, also known as the only police officer in Genoa City. (Dom technically has two moms and two dads, which is ripe for drama.) Enter Detective Burrow, who faked being a dirty cop in Los Angeles during the Matt Clark debacle and got suddenly hired in Wisconsin to work a child kidnapping case.
Abby: “Dominic’s other dad was on the GCPD too!”
Like I said… a mess.
The laziest way to recap is when people talk to themselves. Soaps have wisely advanced (for the most part…) to characters sending text messages which keeps us up to date in a more modern way. I especially enjoyed BTG’s Nicole and Vanessa texting each other while on dates.
Vanessa (in a text): “Hey girlfriend. Hope you’re having as much fun as I am.”
She was. From a dialogue standpoint, BTG rocks it. I could fill this column with amazing exchanges, but this captures it:
Anita (to her granddaughter): “You’re moving to Copenhagen?”
Chelsea: “Madison got accepted into a fellowship. Kat accused me of being selfish but…”
Anita: “No. I don’t want you or anyone else in this family to put their lives on pause because I am battling cancer. I want to be the reason you live more fully. But I do agree with Kat on one point: Love shouldn’t require change. Real love — lasting love — should meet you where you are.”
Obviously it’s easier to craft stories with characters we’ve only known for a year (no decades of pesky back story to deal with!) but BTG does a really good job of defining who we’re watching via their conversations.
Like BTG, GH rocks the dialogue — even the smallest scene can entertain. Take this bonus exchange as Diane counseled Michael to only give yes/no answers during his police interrogation re: Drew’s shooting.
Diane: “You know how I hate surprises.”
Michael: “Unless it’s in a Tiffany bag.”
Diane: “The smaller the bag, the better.”
While we don’t feel sorry for the paralyzed Drew, it’s hard to watch Willow pull the wool over literally everyone’s eyes now that we know she 1) shot Drew and 2) is drugging him. Chase’s puppy-dog insistence on defending murderer Willow will likely bring an end to his marriage to Brook Lynn, as well as his so-called career as a detective. Get a clue, dude.
Chase (to paralyzed Drew): “I hope you make a swift recovery — I know Willow is taking great care of you.”
Clever dialogue and a great story? Win/win.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
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