By Marlena De Lacroix For the first hour of the Hallmark Channel's Christmas movie The Note, I felt kind of bored and uncomfortable as Genie Francis played a frumpy (though definitely thinner) middle-aged newspaper columnist who seems to be in need of a stylish makeover or at least a spiked eggnog. Did I really want to watch a slow-paced … [Read more...]
One Life To Live: Don’t Anoint It Best Yet, Part 2
December 7, 2007 by 22 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix As I said in Part 1, an earlier post, the bravura scripts of One Life To Live's new head writer Ron Carlivati have made OLTL the soap to watch for thinking soap fans who enjoy sophisticated writing. Whether it's because so many of other soaps are abysmal right now, or because we're all so desperate for a soap to love, some … [Read more...]
As The World Turns Returnee Scott Bryce: Why is ATWT Wasting This Multifaceted Talent?
December 5, 2007 by 8 Comments
By Patrick Erwin My soap habit was initially formed, as many of our habits were, through hand-me-downs. My mother diligently watched Days of Our Lives, Search for Tomorrow and Another World. My sisters loved Young and the Restless and were part of General Hospital's Luke and Laura craze. Even my Guiding Light habit came from a neighbor who … [Read more...]
One Life to Live: Don’t Anoint It Best Yet! (Part 1)
December 3, 2007 by 14 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix I have to admit I was very suspicious. Not more than two weeks after its new head writer Ron Carlivati's debut, a soap reporter from the northern climes proclaimed One Life to Live the best soap of the year. As a veteran soap critic, I've always felt you had to watch a soap a couple of months at least before you declare … [Read more...]
General Hospital’s Black and White Ball, Part 2: How Good Work Elevated Haunted House Hooey
November 30, 2007 by 13 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix In my last column, I blasted the plotting of General Hospital's Black and White Ball as schlocky and superficial. The overall main story was presumably done by the head writer. That doesn't mean all of the scriptwriting for the month was awful; it takes a lot of different associate writers to write the scripts for a whole … [Read more...]
Sadly, Guiding Light is Operating at Diminished Capacity
November 29, 2007 by 11 Comments
Mes chers, today Marlena would like you to meet Patrick Erwin, a newspaper reporter and thinking soap fan who will be posting his reviews here once a week. Patrick is particularly interested in the Procter and Gamble shows. First up, his look at Guiding Light, a show we have all loved at one time or another. How and why has the oldest show in … [Read more...]
Bonjour, Mes Amis!
November 27, 2007 by 31 Comments
Welcome to my new website! Many of you already know me from my 11 years of weekly critical columns in Soap Opera Weekly and more recently from my "Savoring Soaps" blog on Jack Myers MediaVillage (http://www.jackmyers.com/). Now that I have my own fabulouso internet space (plus a whole new wardrobe!) my posts will run several times a week, … [Read more...]
One Life to Live Loses Marston Again
November 19, 2007 by Leave a Comment
By Marlena De Lacroix One Life to Live has been showered with a lot of good critical notice lately since the more literate and lighthearted scripts of its new headwriter Ron Carlivati started to air last month. There's much hope that show's momentum won't be ruined with the onset of scab scripts to air in a few weeks. These scripts are the mark … [Read more...]
Soap Operas in Peril During WGA Strike!
November 8, 2007 by Leave a Comment
By Marlena De Lacroix The strike by the Writers Guild of America is only four days old, yet its ultimate and unknown dénouement is creating more buzz than the conclusion of any storyline in soap history. Can the very low-rated nine network soaps survive the strike, or will the strike deal the entire 55-year-old television genre a fatal … [Read more...]
One Life To Live: Viki Is Back Where She Belongs
November 2, 2007 by Leave a Comment
By Marlena De Lacroix As I write this, it is only the third day of sweeps and automatically I can give my approval to one storyline, a new one on One Life to Live. Widow and career newspaper publisher Viki Davidson is newly depicted working as a waitress in a diner in Paris, Texas. Hooray! Doesn't Viki, the very portrait of a lady, deserve a … [Read more...]
