By Patrick Erwin Days of Our Lives can be called many things, but "boring" is seldom one of them. The show's twists, turns, and red herrings sometimes make The daVinci Code look like Dr. Seuss in comparison! … [Read more...]
Marlena Vs. The Scabs: Solidarity Forever!
December 13, 2007 by 14 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix I am 100% behind the Writers Guild and their strike. I come from a union family -- my late grand-aunts spent just about every Sunday of the 1930s-60s freezing their tushs off in Union Square participating in rallies and demonstrations supporting organized labor, honoring the working man. Solidarity forever! … [Read more...]
The Bold and the Beautiful: Brilliant and Baffling
December 11, 2007 by 8 Comments
By Patrick Erwin On paper, The Bold and the Beautiful should be the most solid show on daytime. The show was created by daytime legend Bill Bell and taken over by his son Bradley when he retired. In an era in which shows seem to change creative teams with the change of seasons, Bradley Bell has been head writer and producer for well over a … [Read more...]
Genie Francis Shows’em in The Note
December 9, 2007 by 10 Comments
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...]
