Monday, May 14, 2012

DAYTIME DIATRIBE: The Best and The Worst of Monday's Y&R, B&B, DAYS & GH

Monday's daytime soap operas were hit and miss in terms of quality and pretty representative of the current state of each series. Below are my observations and grades for the day.

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
Another day of Daisy. She finds Daniel kissing Eden and reveals that they are married. Eden is ticked off, Phyllis thumps Daniel in the head and Abby sympathizes with Eden. Daisy did have a semi-funny moment when she was leaving and did some kind of weird wave to Eden. Later, Eden gets upset with Abby's judgment about her sex life and says "back off, bitch" which was neither impactful or funny. Neither was her throwing peanuts at Abby as she was leaving. Back home, there was a nod to history with Phyllis telling Daisy she also once tried to trap a man into a marriage that was never going to work.

There is one character more boring than Daisy on Y&R: Tucker. He shows up at Ashley's door telling her he loves her. All I can think is, "Ashley, you can do so much better." Followed by, "Eileen Davidson (Ashley) is leaving the show so why am I supposed to care about this?" Tucker managed to show more emotion than usual, so I will give him that.

Billy walks into the physical therapy room just as Jack is experiencing feeling in one of his toes. For some reason I pictured it being a false alarm and the "it's all in your head" speech we've seen in every story ever told on daytime soaps about someone who gets paralyzed. That's exactly how it played out. Billy did his best to give Jack a pep talk but this is exactly the type of scene that John would have been great in (if only they hadn't killed him off).

A three second glimpse of Jeanne Cooper in the preview for tomorrow was better than anything on Monday's episode.

Grade for the Day: D+

THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

This may be hard to believe but today was all about Hope, Liam and Steffy. Shocking, right? Like this triangle of not, seeing the show's two leading ladies Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke) and Susan Flannery (Stephanie) doing nothing but talk about these three is such a waste.

As for the threesome, Liam is perplexed by Hope and Steffy's reaction to each other. Both ladies think they are in the inevitable woman for Liam. Hope is extra giddy about her upcoming wedding with Liam in Italy to get Steffy's goad. Later, when Brooke overhears Steffy and Stephanie talking about Liam tearing up the annulment papers she goes to confront Liam.

Elsewhere, Amber continues her scheme of manipulating Caroline, kissing Rick with bright red lipstick on and having Caroline seeing Rick with the lipstick and thinking he was wearing it on his own. I can't decide if this story is offensive or just stupid.

Mostly, it was a boring day.

Grade for the Day: C+

DAYS OF OUR LIVES

Stefano finally tells EJ the truth about not being his biological father and it is underwhelming.  They have been dancing around this subject for what seems like forever.  EJ still plans on taking control of the DiMera empire.  I love hearing Alice Horton's name but never expected it to be in a storyline like this.

Hope finds a mark on Stefano's half of the coin that belongs to an Italian jeweler. Hope recognizes it from her time as Princess Gina, saying it as if thinking you are a princess is something we all experience. Bo and Hope tell Shane they want to go to Italy to get more information. Maybe they can attend Hope and Liam's wedding on B&B.  Later, Agent Harmon walks into the ISA office where Bo and Hope are hiding.

Chris Kositchek Roman brings Austin to the safe house almost busting Carrie and Rafe during a kiss. Roman tells Rafe to keep his distance from Carrie. Carrie tries but fails to tell Austin she wants a divorce.

Cameron bonds with Theo and he and Celeste come up with the idea of Lexie making videos that Theo can watch as he grows older.  Renee Jones continues to shine.

Grade for the Day: B-

GENERAL HOSPITAL
In the opening segment we see Anna, Luke, Heather, John, Sam, Jason, Liz, Patrick, Todd, Alexis, Tea, Carly... day to day GH features leading and interesting characters in a way Y&R can't seem to do these days, whether it be a creative decision or one dictated by the budget.

I think I'm in the minority in liking Jason with Liz and with Sam, and Sam with both Jason and John McBain. And I didn't even like John on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, but somehow, and mostly due to his scenes with Anna and Sam, I really enjoy him now. Liz and Jason talk about Emma and Jake, while Sam tries to find out more about John's interest in Sonny. The most annoying part of this is Jason's jealousy of John, which is unfounded, and is only driving a wedge between him and Sam. Liz was looking at Jason today like he was dinner. John and Sam have more of a sibling chemistry to me, but we'll see where it goes.

Todd overhears Kate telling Alexis she thinks Connie is responsible for the deaths of Cole and Hope. Guards catch Todd listening outside the door and drag him away.

Tea tries to check into the Metro Court and has an interesting conversation with Carly telling her she doesn't know Todd at all. Todd arrives and Tea storms out. Carly tells him of his two ex-wives she likes Blair better. Todd says, "Me too." Tea goes to see John and she and Sam admire each other's baby bellies.

Epiphany tries to get Patrick motivated to come back to work. She later ran into Liz and told her the truth about Patrick's whereabouts. Liz shows up at Patrick's to confront him about his lie and she asks him to operate on Ewen.

Luke fills Anna in on Heather's interest in him, while Heather chats with Olivia about Steve. As Anna is laughing about Heather, Luke gets a sparkle in his eye and told her, "There's something about you. I like it." I like it, too. I could watch Anna every day and really enjoying her with Luke.

Grade for the Day: B+

Those are my random thoughts on the day. What did you think? Favorite moments from Monday? Least favorite?

RELATED:
- THE COMPLETE LIST: 25 Biggest Blunders In Daytime Soap Opera History (September 2011)
- VOTE: Indie Soap Best of the Week Poll (May 6-12, 2012)
- VOTE: Primetime Soap of the Week Poll (May 6-12, 2012) - TELENOVELA WATCH: EMPERATRIZ Coming To Azteca America May 14; Plus, Short Takes!

9 comments:

  1. You know, I never thought of Luke & Anna as a couple. But with Tony Geary and Finola Hughes playing the characters as wiser, but still fun, I am warming to the idea! They light up the screen when they have a scene together.

    Another moment I loved was Liz agreeing to let Luke watch Aiden, with some help from Anna. Very nice forward movement!

    And I wish we could just hold this episode up to those who said, way back when and forever, that no one wants to watch "old people" (people over 40) in anything - HAH! Look at Luke, Anna and Heather. And, tho not shown today, Tracy and Anthony, Mac and Felicia, even Monica when they give her airtime. All wonderful and captivating to watch.

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  2. Great points, Joe. I don't like shoot 'em out scenes and one day last week everyone on GH was toting a gun but I still enjoyed it most of the daytime soaps. It really hit me today when watching Y&R and GH back to back just how often Y&R uses their minor league actors which can make for very boring days.

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  3. Y&R din't have any good points today Philyis telling crazy Daisy she got played was dumb To much Philyis whining she brought Daisy back and lied to get what she wanted but turned on her own family because Dad lied and cheated but family means everything. she is selfish lies cheats but we should feel sorry for her PLEASE if this story line wasn't so bad I would feel sorry for Daisy

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  4. YES, too much Daisy, I did like the scenes with Jack & Billy, Ashley & Abby, and enjoyed Abby & Eden scenes especially when Eden threw those mints at Abby, of course that isn't mentioned anywhere. There mob mentality on CBS on every site against Y&R & B&B because of their standing in ratings, like or not they are the only soaps still profiting in ratings and yes Daisy is YUCKfest, it brings down the character of MS or anyone in a scene with her and same as Ricky, they do need to go but I disagree about B&B BIG TIME, I thought it was pretty good, the humor of Caroline thinking Rick is a cross-dresser and JY in that lipstick being serious had me LOL! I loving B&B right now, but everybody wants bitch a blue streak on B&B and it's not "horrible" as being stated but everyone wants to spring to their feet getting all giddy over a violent, gun toting show, that's not good soap to me and will not join this group, simply because I'm not follower. PUKE! The love over Cartini, which Ron is so over-rated as the next great writer of soaps. Please he writes nothing but camp! Very well but not good emotional character driven stories, no new writers today can write emotional story-lines, except maybe Brad Bell. DOOL is a big mess over the AVON egg mystery...laugh out loud silliness it's like watching a episode of "Get Smart"! I'm waiting for Shane to pull off his shoe to call Kimberly! There is a bandwagon to do nothing but BASH CBS's soaps, some is well deserved on Y&R, nothing not one will look at what is good either. At least CBS's soaps are still based in "realistic" style story telling as CBS always have been compared to the other two soaps being ridiculous. There is a jealous out there about CBS's soaps still pulling good ratings, the proof is there week after week.

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  5. YES, too much Daisy, I did like the scenes with Jack & Billy, Ashley & Abby, and enjoyed Abby & Eden scenes especially when Eden threw those mints at Abby, of course that isn't mentioned anywhere. There mob mentality on CBS on every site against Y&R & B&B because of their standing in ratings, like or not they are the only soaps still profiting in ratings and yes Daisy is YUCKfest, it brings down the character of MS or anyone in a scene with her and same as Ricky, they do need to go but I disagree about B&B BIG TIME, I thought it was pretty good, the humor of Caroline thinking Rick is a cross-dresser and JY in that lipstick being serious had me LOL! I loving B&B right now, but everybody wants bitch a blue streak on B&B and it's not "horrible" as being stated but everyone wants to spring to their feet getting all giddy over a violent, gun toting show, that's not good soap to me and will not join this group, simply because I'm not follower. PUKE! The love over Cartini, which Ron is so over-rated as the next great writer of soaps. Please he writes nothing but camp! Very well but not good emotional character driven stories, no new writers today can write emotional story-lines, except maybe Brad Bell. DOOL is a big mess over the AVON egg mystery...laugh out loud silliness it's like watching a episode of "Get Smart"! I'm waiting for Shane to pull off his shoe to call Kimberly! There is a bandwagon to do nothing but BASH CBS's soaps, some is well deserved on Y&R, nothing not one will look at what is good either. At least CBS's soaps are still based in "realistic" style story telling as CBS always have been compared to the other two soaps being ridiculous. There is a jealous out there about CBS's soaps still pulling good ratings, the proof is there week after week.

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  6. It doesn't make sense to me that Caroline, who crew up in Manhattan and who has TWO MOM's, would get so freaked out by Rick's "cross dressing." Even if it was real, she shouldn't be so shocked. It doesn't ring true.

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  7. Um Roger, you referred to Liam on B&B as Rick when talking about the torn up annulment papers. Just thought I'd let you know that!

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  8. Woodstockdad:

    I completely agree, given the fact that Caroline has two Mother's, not a Mom and a Dad. So, this entire storyline is stupid and ridiculous. Although, watching Amber put Rick in "precarious" situations that make him look like he's a cross dresser is hysterical in and of itself. You have to applaud Jacob Young (Rick) for being so comfortable with himself in doing this silly little storyline arc. But I agree, this just isn't ringing true with Caroline's character when we already know that she has two women as her mother's. So, I really think Brad Bell missed the boat on this one.

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  9. I am not liking Caroline at all. It just doesn't make sense that she'd be so judgey of Rick being a cross dresser but I have to admit that I'm enjoying seeing Rick in these crazy situations.

    How did Amber put lipstick on Rick's lips and take it back? Boy does that guy know how to wear a pair of heels. I stay away from them since I don't want to fall on my face. I would expect Caroline to be more open minded about what she thinks about Rick since she has two moms and lived in New York.

    I understand being surprised but she's freaked out which makes no sense at all. Instead of talking to him she just runs off. The poor guy is totally in the dark about this.

    I won't even get started on Days. I am sick of the Days Of Our Scumeras. I'm waiting for Tom's journal to be found now and reveal some freaky secret about him. Maybe he's the father of Enormo. The wrong sibling was killed. It makes no sense to get rid of Renee while they continue to force James Scott on us every damn day.

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