By Marlena Delacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman For any soap opera, a “love to hate” character is money in the bank. Fascinated by their endless power to manipulate other characters and instigate interesting plots, these diabolical characters are adored by audiences who avidly follow all that they do. “Love to hate” characters … [Read more...]
The Young and the Restless and General Hospital: Unanswered Questions
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Soaps are often very logical, with storyline happenings and conclusions ironed out well in advance. Even so, for many veteran soap watchers it’s hard not to second guess the logic of soap writers. For example, we can see exactly why The Young and the Restless recently decided to make … [Read more...]
The 2014 Daytime Emmys: A Pleasant Evening Online
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman This year’s Daytime Emmys – for the first time, streamed live online but not televised -- they turned out to be relatively painless. Without commercials, the show flowed nicely, and was capably produced. Hostess Kathy Griffin was funny and full of salt and vinegar as always. The … [Read more...]
Should Children and Babies Be Killed off on Soap Operas?
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Back in the day … way back, actually … it was unheard of to kill off children, especially babies, on soaps. The traditional audience was, after all, stay at home moms who watched or listened to their soaps while rolling out pie crust or ironing the family laundry. Today, the taboo has … [Read more...]
Exciting GH or Humdrum Y&R: Which is Your Choice?
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman This week General Hospital was very exciting as it was revealed that the “Luke” walking around as a criminal in Port Charles is a fake, with the fake visiting the real Luke who is drugged and out of it in the Miscavage asylum. Also, Ava announced she was pregnant with Sonny’s baby when he … [Read more...]
Soaps: Where Intelligent Women Still Rule
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Women are still the core of soap opera. They are what the plots are about and they make the stories go. An overwhelming number of women on soap operas are very intelligent, assertive and masters of their own fates. Here’s a round-up of the most intelligent and sometimes devious women … [Read more...]
Daytime Emmy Nominations – Marlena Still Cares
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman The Daytime Emmy nominations for 2014 have been announced. Do you care? After all these years, Marlena still does. So let’s discuss: Best Actor: Aside from Jason Thompson (Patrick, General Hospital) the other four nominees all come from The Young and the Restless: Peter Bergman … [Read more...]
Disgraceful, Delightful and Disgusting: This Week’s Soap Events
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman From The Young and the Restless: This week Nick found out that a doppelganger for his dead daughter Cassie has been in town for months disgracefully spooking Sharon into getting shock treatments. The look-alike (who doesn’t even have a name) admitted the sham and said that Victor had … [Read more...]
Are You Buying These Fanciful Plot Twists?
Bt Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman In their drive to create more and more entertaining soap opera, writers sometimes devise situations that are fanciful and, to put it bluntly, hard to believe. After all, soap viewers will buy anything, right? Wrong. Recently, three soaps have come up with situations which Marlena … [Read more...]
Y&R: Nikki Newman’s Great Strength
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman One of the great things about daytime soap opera is how strong the women characters generally are. They have to be that way to survive the problems continually thrown at them in their everyday lives. At the same time, they must be vulnerable to the vagaries of romance. The head may know … [Read more...]
