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...]
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...]
Would You Die For Love?: General Hospital’s Alarming Sweeps Slogan
October 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment
By Marlena De Lacroix "Would you die for love?" That's ABC Daytime/SoapNet's slogan for November sweeps on General Hospital. It bridges four major storylines, including one in which the major young heroine will die on the show, mistakenly murdered by her own pre-poisoned ex-husband/current boyfriend during a gala ball. How can ABC be so … [Read more...]
Can Guiding Light and As The World Turns Survive The Big Change?
October 18, 2007 by Leave a Comment
By Marlena De Lacroix There's nothing soap fans hate more than change. Whether a show's longtime leading teen is recast with a skinnier actress or the show suddenly changes dramatic style with the entrance of a new headwriter, viewers freak out because what they have always prized about daytime drama is its continuity and constancy. Now, in … [Read more...]
General Hospital Night Shift: Good Night and Good Riddance
October 11, 2007 by Leave a Comment
By Marlena De Lacroix General Hospital: Night Shift broadcast its final episode last week and I fear because its first episode was so highly rated the entire show will go down in soap history as a hit instead of the incoherently written and produced mess that it was. Same sets, same writers as daytime GH. ABC Daytime should have learned its … [Read more...]
