Bt Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanIn 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
March 1, 2014 by 2 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanOne 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...]
Y&R Tries Some Suspense for Sweeps
February 22, 2014 by 3 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanWe’ve written several times that the biggest challenge to changing The Young and the Restless is it’s static writing template, which has been in effect back to the days of co- creator/headwriter Bill Bell. The show is all about slow storytelling, dragging the storylines out and instead … [Read more...]
The Ho-Hum, Overly Violent Carly Kidnapping Denouement
February 15, 2014 by 4 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanWe’ve already said that General Hospital’s Heather-kidnapping-Carly plot was a big ho-hum. Heather tried to blame it on Franco, her son, who had previously tried to kill Heather, his mother. No surprise, the accusation went nowhere and the outcome was predictable: Carly, a central GH … [Read more...]
General Hospital: Robin’s Reason to Leave Is Unbelievable
February 9, 2014 by 13 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanOne of the bad things about General Hospital is that it grows so unbelievable at times. For example, how many would-be killer psychos can one town have at a time? Right now, we have four: Heather, Dr. Obrecht, Franco and Ava.But unbelievably, the unbelievability gets worse: there … [Read more...]
All Hail Friday Cliffhangers!
February 1, 2014 by 5 Comments
By Marlena Delacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanOne of the most important and unique of all daytime soap opera conventions is the Friday cliffhanger. On Friday, at the end of a week’s worth of episodes, either a secret is exposed or something significant happens which creates big suspense, compelling the audience to want to tune in to … [Read more...]
Young and Restless Is Obsessed With Secrets
January 19, 2014 by 6 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman Watching The Young and the Restless this month is one big wait for the other shoe to drop. Most of the big storylines on the show revolve around a big secret that if disclosed could have dire consequences for the characters involved. Was the confluence of so many secrets held at … [Read more...]
The Young and the Restless: Still the One
January 5, 2014 by 6 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanFor the last month or so, The Young and the Restless has been carrying promotional spots celebrating the soap’s 25th anniversary as number one in the ratings. It is quite an achievement. How did Y&R do it? By being consistently different from other soaps, particularly in its very … [Read more...]
Happy New Year: Looking Ahead to 2014
December 29, 2013 by 7 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanThe new year starts Wednesday, and I have many questions about what’s going to happen on our favorite shows next year. See if you might speculate on the answers, or pose some questions of your own:1. How is The Young and the Restless going to fill the terrible holes left by the … [Read more...]
Merry Christmas, Thinking Fans!
December 22, 2013 by 10 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua HaymanThere I was this week watching The Bold and the Beautiful and scratching my head. How many interrupted weddings can Hope and Liam have? After all, Steffy broke up the first wedding with news she was pregnant, and here she was back with the news for Liam that after her miscarriage, she … [Read more...]
