By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman With only four daytime soaps left, it seems fruitless to name a Best Soap. It’s all a matter of personal preference anyway. If you like your soaps slow and full of character, you like The Young and the Restless. If you like your plots fast and full of surprises, General Hospital is … [Read more...]
General Hospital: This Storyline Should End
September 8, 2013 by 7 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalaqua Hayman When has a storyline go on too long? This is a question normally leftonly to headwriters who must figure out if an audience is still interested in the outcome of a story. Right now on General Hospital, one storyline that has gone on too long is the secret biological parentage of Maxie’s baby … [Read more...]
The Bold and the Beautiful: Three Into Two Won’t Go
June 23, 2013 by 5 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman The Bold and the Beautiful is just past its 25th birthday and carries on doing what it does best: love triangles. The show’s theme might as well be, Three Into Two Won’t Go, which was the title of an English movie I remember from 1969. Apart from the nifty title, it was a fairly … [Read more...]
A Negative Vote on This Year’s Daytime Emmys
June 17, 2013 by 15 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Last year I praised HLN’s first production of the Daytime Emmys because it was straightforward and lean. This year’s show was exactly the opposite -- overlong (almost three hours) and full of things that just shouldn’t have been included. Boring! How about that couch? I’m talking … [Read more...]
The 40th Annual Daytime Emmy Nominations: Some Killer Choices!
May 5, 2013 by 12 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman What do you think of the 40th Annual Daytime Emmy nominees? The list is long and illustrative given the fact that there are only four soaps. Several categories are full of names that are most deserving. It would be very hard to cast a decisive vote should one have the … [Read more...]
General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless: 15 Questions
February 9, 2013 by 12 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman 1. Wasn’t Caleb tasting the dead correction officer’s blood at the end of General Hospital’s Friday episode one of the grossest soap moments ever? So that's Caleb? What’s the big deal, anyway? 2. Am I the only one who thinks that Steve Burton has done fine so far on The Young … [Read more...]
A “Bah Humbug” Christmas … Plus, The Borg is Back!
December 29, 2012 by 6 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Oh how I miss soap Christmases the way they used to be. Today, all soaps have been scrubbed of religion. This year only two of the four soaps -- Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful -- continued with at least some of the traditions that made the holiday a really special time to … [Read more...]
Marlena’s Best of the Best, 2012
December 15, 2012 by 9 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix, a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman It’s the end of 2012, time for best and worst lists. Because soaps are in such danger and I’ve already recorded most of the worsts in the weekly column I’m choosing only to do the bests here. And Marlena being Marlena sometimes I have multiple choices in each category. Best Actress: … [Read more...]
Sunday Reflections 20: General Hospital’s Farewell to Edward Quartermaine … The Pleasures and Pains of Soap Reruns
November 24, 2012 by 11 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman General Hospital: Wasn’t the death of Edward Quartermaine nicely handled? As visiting grandson Ned said in a toast: “There will never be another Edward Quartermaine.” This was also a tribute to the late John Ingle, the great actor who long played the role (originated by David Lewis.) … [Read more...]
