Opinion: From GH to Y&R, Unlikely Soap Couples Are Taking Over — And It’s (Mostly) Working!
Victoria and Kyle are shockingly great on The Young and the Restless. Ditto General Hospital‘s Carly/Valentin and the promise of Bill and Dani 2.0 on Beyond the Gates. But Days of our Lives‘s Marlena/Stefano is a tired retread and The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Will and Dylan are a snooze.
Restless Style
Everything we know about Y&R‘s Victoria Newman and the much younger Kyle Abbott tells us they shouldn’t work, yet they’re the hottest couple on daytime. They even have a song about “Slow Burning Love” to accompany their sex romps. What gives?!
Forbidden love is Soaps 101, so start with that — he was recently engaged to her daughter. They have pushed the envelope from the jump. Blindfolds and ice cubes at 1:00 in the afternoon at a seedy motel? “Pan to the fireplace,” advised Bob Woods (Bo, One Life to Live) about love scenes, but these two do more than just hit the sheets. They talk about real issues re: business and their complicated families, and are making a genuine effort to get to know each other.
Kyle: “Let’s play ‘Have you ever?’ Every time we answer ‘yes,’ a piece of clothing comes off.”
Victoria: “That definitely ups the ante.”
So does Kyle renting them a love nest where they can now meet in secret. In between removing articles of clothing, he mentioned he got her a remote for the garage so she never has to wait for him. That’s love.
Victoria: “This is our safe space.”
Kyle: “I like to think of it as our danger zone.”
Soap secrets never stay buried for long, so what will undo them? Claire finding out Kyle is much hotter in bed with her mom? Billy discovering his ex-wife is zooming his nephew? Or Victor learning his daughter is acting out scenes from Body Heat with the son of his sworn enemy, Jack Abbott? Whatever it is, I’m here for it.
Come to think of it, September was “older woman, younger man” month on Y&R. Stephanie and Nate are harder to buy because she is best friends with his mom, Olivia, and we don’t know them very well. But what the duo lacks in chemistry, they make up for in classic lines.
Stephanie (re: her son Holden): “I don’t want to weigh things down with how I tell my grown-ass son about my booty call.”
Memo to Claire and Holden: It doesn’t bode well for your “romance” that your moms are getting more action than you are.
Mob Land
GH’s Carly and Valentin are another couple that shouldn’t work (he shares a daughter with her cousin Lulu and was married to her enemy Nina), but the danger of loving a former WSB agent falls away when you were married four times to a mobster. Their slow burn while he hid out in her attic was a surprise, and they took the time to grow it before anyone found out. The pair now shares a very un-soapy dynamic of total honesty, which adds to their appeal.
Carly: “Can I tell you something, even though it’s going to make you mad?”
Valentin: “Why stop now?”
Carly: “You dismissed Lulu’s concerns about Charlotte, and you were wrong. Own it. Join forces with Lulu. Tell her the whole truth, even if it makes her right.”
Our favorite wrecking ball, Carly Spencer, has evolved! Valentin took her advice, teamed up with Lulu, and sent Charlotte to boarding school where she’ll need 24-hour surveillance to stay out of trouble. Valentin also confided his parental troubles to Anna, but even his love for her doesn’t threaten his romance with Carly. They’re the most welcome twosome GH has had in years.
Carly’s ex Sonny is also pursuing an unlikely partner in Assistant DA Justine Turner, with less effect. They’ve shared a love nest for months and had endless conversations about how “no one can find out about us!” because it risks her career. Justine’s hesitant “yes, no, maybe” approach to the former mobster diminishes the urgency a love affair needs to catch fire, and the chemistry just isn’t there. Kudos to Jordan for busting her bestie.
Justine: “It’s complicated.”
Jordan: “Is it, though? You made out with Sonny in the parking lot. Are you willing to sacrifice your career for him?”
Justine: “This conversation has been a real wake-up call.”
Cut to her in bed with Sonny. Sigh.
A Bold Attempt
B&B‘s Will and Dylan don’t have it because they aren’t being played with Electra. And despite yeoman work trying to make Katie an obstacle, no one buys that she’s suddenly a big buttinsky mother telling Will who he can date when she spent so many years being pushed around by her own family.
Will: “You want to compare Dylan and Brooke? I’m going to compare you to Stephanie Forrester, the way she used to mistreat Brooke and all the Logans.”
Katie: “I’ll take that. Brooke stole her husband! Stephanie fiercely protected her son from Brooke, and I will fiercely protect you from Melissa Dylan.”
Better to showcase conflict between Bill and Katie re: her sudden judgment about their son, or Dylan’s mother making a play for Deacon since he and Taylor are nowhere. Triangles always make a meh match better.
Pawn Stars
What can we say about Marlena finding out she delivered a baby fathered by Stefano DiMera? It’s DAYS’s go-to story when they hit a storyline wall. Stefano has three kids he never knew about (Chad, Stefan and Jake), while Marlena unwittingly gave birth to two (Cassie and Rex). It’s not a shocker, it’s standard fare.
Steve: “Bo and Hope made it to San Cristobal.”
Brady: “I know that island is where Stefano forced Marlena to be the surrogate for Cassie and Rex.”
Steve: “Because of his sick game, she is forced to relive those memories.”
Indeed, Marlena was having blurry dreams of Roman’s voice saying the name Dominic. Steve later delivered the bad news that Bo and Hope located Dominic Marino’s birth certificate, which listed Stefano as his father and…
Marlena (reading): “Mother’s name: Marlena Evans?”
Yup. Steve vowed to run a DNA test and do everything John would have done to get Marlena answers, which is sweet. But another tale centered on a dead villain is not the way forward.
Kate: “Stefano lost his quest for immortality, but his game of chess continues.”
Chad: “We’re all just pieces on the board.”
Gate Keeping
A week ago, ex-marrieds Bill and Dani wouldn’t have fit in this category, but yowza, did that BTG story take off like a rocket! After Bill collapsed on Dani’s couch, she put the pieces together at the hospital.
Dani: “I don’t understand. What could have happened once Hayley got you home to make you feel like crap again?”
Lightbulb! Dani figured out Bill’s new wife was poisoning him and broke into their house to find evidence. Hayley pulled a gun, Naomi and Jacob burst in, and they all trooped down to the police station where Hayley got busted trying to destroy the vial of poison while Leslie hilariously chomped on donuts watching her “bestie” get fingerprinted.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Bill was having a come-to-Jesus moment with his daughter.
Bill: “You know what the worst part is? Your mother loved me. Even when I was a broke public servant, she gave up everything for me. I was so careless with your mother’s heart.”
Chelsea: “Please don’t give Hayley the grace you never gave Mom.”
Not to worry. Dani reported to her ex that she located the $10 million life insurance policy in the safe (“You’ve been using the same code since Obama,” she scolded) and broke the news that his bride never loved him.
Bill: “Every moment of my marriage was fake. I always thought I was the smartest guy in the room.”
Hayley’s arrest was the most satisfying moment of this entire show, and I refuse to believe Bill will take her current blackmail efforts lying down (pun intended, since he’s in the hospital). With Andre lying to Dani about Heather, serial cheater Bill Hamilton will now try to win back the wife and family he so carelessly tossed aside — and I’m going to root for him. Talk about unlikely!
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
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