Five of the eight daytime soaps are currently telling or have told same sex storylines in 2009. Although none have been perfect, there has been a lot of good to go along with some bad. Which soap do you feel has done the best job of portraying gay characters and same sex relationships? DAYS OF OUR LIVES, GENERAL HOSPITAL and (inexplicably) THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL do not qualify. At least next year when the GLAAD nominations come out, they will have options in the Daytime category versus going with one or two shows by default.
The nominees:
ALL MY CHILDREN: Featured the heavily promoted first same sex wedding between Bianca and Reese. It was a beautiful ceremony but marred by Reese's relationship with Zach. The couple finally received a happy ending before leaving town together a few months later.
AS THE WORLD TURNS: Luke and Noah finally had sex in January, Brian came out of the closet and left town, and Zac pretended to be gay to try and steal the Grimaldi fortune. Luke and Noah have remained together as a couple throughout the year while dealing with a murder story, evil twins, Noah's father and Holden's death.
GUIDING LIGHT: The slow burning developing of the Olivia and Natalia love story lead to a hugely dramatic and emotional week as Natalia rejected Frank on their wedding day. Doris was revealed to be a lesbian and became a friend to Olivia while struggling to keep her sexuality from her daughter. Later, Natalia turned up pregnant by Frank but was determined to win Olivia back.
ONE LIFE TO LIVE: Kyle and Fish were lovers in college but Officer Fish is now deeply in denial in the closet. While Kyle yearned for Fish, Fish began dating Layla. Eventually Kyle met Nick and the two of them are now dating much to Fish's chagrin.
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS: Rafe was revealed to be gay and it was treated like no big deal for a change. Feeling the heat as he was about to be busted, supposedly straight Adam began a sexual relationship with Rafe to keep him quiet. Meanwhile, Phillip Chancellor III returned from the dead after 20 years revealing he faked his death because he was gay and couldn't deal with his life.
Love Olivia and Natalia as a couple
ReplyDeletego Otalia !!!!!!!!!
I think by the year's end, if OLTL is able to keep up their level of storytelling, they'll win the award, but it's too early to tell.
ReplyDeleteRight now, it's still Otalia (despite the ways that they've tried to screw that up).
Guiding Light is (was) responsible for a beautiful couple that was not contrived or sensational. Their struggles were our struggles. We related to the hesitation, frustration, and confusion and relived our own self-acceptance through them. I think Otalia made us all a little prouder.
ReplyDeleteOTALIA for the win!!!
ReplyDeleteI am so torn on this because Olivia and Natalia are the best couple, but what GL, Telenext and CBS has done to them on their journey has been either incompetent, blatantly homophobic or both. OLTL may turn out to have done it the best, but there is so little to go on and they still have the same capacity of every other show to screw it up.
ReplyDeleteVoted for OLTL though it won't do any good, the mass overtake is already occurring. It's sad that I already know GL is going to get rewarded again for not telling any sort of real storyline.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that I think that Otalia right now is leaps and bounds better than Kish, I believe that given time Kish will be a great storyline but right now they just got started and honestly I feel its a little contrived but thats not saying I don't enjoy them. I like Otalia because they used someone who had a history on the canvas but thats just me. I believe they've told a wonderful storyline about how two people can fall in love no matter if their the same sex or not.
ReplyDeleteI was excited for the P3 storyline on Y&R, but it really ended up falling flat for me. Regarding AMC...Bianca is my favorite soap opera character, and I was really looking forward to her return, especially after I found out T.B. was playing her love interest. As beautiful as the actual wedding ceremony was, the writing/plot/story really dissapointed me. I really enjoyed Luke's initial coming out storyline, as well as the beginning of his romance with Noah, but all of the ATWT plot crap this past year made me stop caring. I have to say that I'm really enjoying all of OLTL these days, including the Kyle/Fish/Layla/Chris storyline, but I feel it's a bit too early to give them my vote. Even though this summer has been full of crazyness for the Nat/Liv story, for me, it doesn't take away from how captivating it has been for this soap junkie this past year and a half. I pinched myself for months, not fully even believing that this beautiful soapy love story was being playing out on my screen. The 5 day non-wedding week was one of best weeks of soap opera that I've ever watched, period.
ReplyDeleteKish for me. Although I love Olivia/Nat, I have to go for the chemistry of Fish & Kyle.
ReplyDelete