I’ve purposely put off a review of “Beyond the Gates” until the show’s six-month mark. Why? So many viewers really like this show, but I have some serious reservations about it. Before I get to them, I’d like to recognize that“The Gates,” which premiered in February, has changed and probably saved a medium we all said was dying. It has attracted … [Read more...]

I was watching “Beyond the Gates” yesterday and I am horrified by what I saw. Sparkplug Leslie Thomas (Tricia Mann-Grant) came to visit the otherwise elegant Anita Dupree (Tamara Tunie) and the two got into a bitch-slap fight. Oh no! Bitch-slap fights, and the catfights they frequently degenerate into, have long been a feature of daytime soaps. … [Read more...]

I never thought after 40 years reviewing soap operas that there would come a time when I grew almost fed up with them.  Over the last few weeks there has been murder after murder on General Hospital where once crimes of the heart were daily fare. Even otherwise reliably classy Young and the Restless has stooped to staging a tacky kidnapping … [Read more...]