It’s Only My Opinion: General Hospital, Y&R, DAYS, B&B and BTG Need Humor to Sell the Crazy
The more outlandish a story is, the more characters have to talk like real people to sell it — and humor goes a long way. Thankfully, there are folks on General Hospital, Young and Restless, Days of Our Lives, Beyond the Gates and Bold and Beautiful who can do just that.
You Gotta Laugh
Ask GH’s Alexis. Her teenaged grandson, Danny, watched his hitman dad get carted away by the WSB, so he decided to join the mob. Sonny tasked Ric with telling her, and she immediately collapsed on the couch and started hyperventilating.
Ric: “It’s a shame you don’t drink anymore.”
Alexis: “Do you really think that’s appropriate? That’s not even the worst thing you’ve ever said to me!”
Ric got his ex to understand Danny means business (pun intended) and it drew them closer, which is a giant win for fans because Ric and Alexis are comedy gold. Who else could lock her ex in the basement for a month and have him come out thanking her?
Tracy’s no-nonsense approach can sell anything, including the implausibility of her granddaughter fostering a baby that magically appeared at their house soon after Brook Lynn and Chase decided to adopt.
Brook Lynn: “Thank you all for being here.”
Tracy (sarcastic): “We live here.”
Brook Lynn: “For being in this room, at this time.”
Tracy: “You’re welcome.”
Willow’s confession to Nina that she did indeed shoot Drew could have used some of that humor. Her excuse for the crime strained credulity even for a homicidal maniac.
Willow: “In my mind, it was him or my children.”
Crazy Talk
I have long struggled with the demented character of Kristen DiMera on DAYS, and her latest foray to the dark side is not helping. (At least in years past, she entertained us with secret rooms and stolen embryos.) Her current crime spree isn’t fun, and roping the mentally ill Sophia into her plan to kill Johnny — her own nephew — is diabolical.
Kristen: “You want Johnny out of Trey’s life, don’t you? This is the only path.”
Sophia: “What if I get caught?”
Kristen: “Stick with me. You’ll get away with murder.”
Said the woman who’s been to jail and “died” multiple times. Her daughter’s in a sanitarium, which Kristen blames on EJ because she claims his behavior provoked the little devil into shooting him. She also faults Salem’s most upstanding shrink for not lying to the judge about Rachel’s mental health.
Marlena: “You’re upset because your daughter is back at Bayview.”
Kristen: “You did this to her!”
Marlena: “You’re the one who pulled Rachel out of Bayview and forced me to testify. Did you think I was going to lie?”
Real talk helps sell lunacy like this. More Marlena!
Oh, Baby
Speaking of lunacy, BTG is still telling the convoluted tale of an undercover cop trying to infiltrate a plasma harvesting ring led by “The Impaler,” which mostly features strange people plotting in stairwells. Naomi is sad, Jacob is in danger, and there isn’t a joke or a smile within ten miles of the DMV.
Luckily, we have exes Dani and Bill yanking each other’s chains, especially where their new spouses are concerned. Bill is not as happy with wife #2 as he thought he’d be (wait till he finds out she’s trying to kill him), and he recently slipped and called Dani “baby.”
Bill: “When you called about Anita’s progress, I was thrilled for your whole family.”
Dani: “So thrilled that you called me baby?”
Bill: “I’d advise you not to overthink it.”
Ha! Dani correctly predicted that Hayley would throw Bill’s “verbal fumble” in his face and Bill countered that Andre ordered him to stop using Dani’s pet name. It’s a toss-up whose ex is more jealous, despite the fact we know Hayley is faking it.
Reality Check
For an out-there tale involving jealousy, check out chapter 900 in Y&R’s Newman v. Abbott saga. Jack disappeared (thanks to Victor) and turned up on a yacht with psychopath Patty Williams, who drugged him with a “libido enhancer” that made Jack have sex with her — and then his wife walked in. Diane, who’s done her share of lying and cheating without being drugged, flipped out and left him. Enter Traci, who’s always had Diane’s number.
Traci: “I’m going to say something you’re not going to want to hear: This was out of Jack’s control. You’ve made mistakes of your own. You convinced Jack and your son you were dead for years, and then you showed back up and fought to explain yourself because you wanted us to believe you changed — and you succeeded. So maybe give Jack a little grace here.”
Thank you! Scripting Diane like a jilted teenager crying at the GCAC bar over her “cheating” husband is not believable for a grandmother who has a rap sheet a mile long. However, if this cockamamie tale gives us a Jack and Nikki reunion, I am all for it. The exes met up at the GCAC — where Nikki is also staying after leaving Victor — and discussed teaching their partners a lesson.
Jack: “We say, ’In the devastation of the loss of our marriages, we ended up finding solace in each other’s company.’”
Nikki: “If it were a romance novel, it could work. But in real life, with our spouses?”
Jack: “More like a horror movie.”
They decided against it, but Nikki thanked Jack for making her laugh, which she hasn’t done in a long time. Humor goes a long way to sell a story like this.
Hardly Working
Sheila approaching Taylor with a giant knife on B&B was humorous because it was such a classic homage to the movie Psycho. And you’d think the convicted murderer holding a pizza cutter over her estranged husband’s lover would be the most out-there story on this show, but no. It’s bested by the tale of a giant fashion house being undone by the immature longings of entry-level workers Will Spencer and Electra Forrester.
Steffy (to Ridge and Brooke during a high level meeting): “Dylan moved out of Will’s — that’s the gossip.”
Brooke: “I wonder what that’s going to mean for Will and Electra?”
As the Forrester CEOs discussed how the homeless Dylan moving out of Will’s house would affect the young lovers, they were interrupted.
Will (busting in): “I’ve got something to say! I love Electra. I want her back and I’m going to make sure that happens.”
That called for a group eye roll or a joke from Ridge, but nothing. (At least Ridge admonished them that Forrester Creations is a business and they had work to do.) Cut to R.J. and Will coming to blows and ordering each other to stay away from Electra, while Ivy proved for the 900th time she is so obsessed with her niece’s love life that she’s crossed into stalker territory.
Ivy: “What Will did wasn’t prop-ah. Not prop-ah at all.”
In what universe does Ivy freak out over Will giving Dylan a place to live but not him impregnating the psychotic Luna? Talk about outlandish…
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