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...]
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...]
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...]
Barely on the Fringe of Believability
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman On soaps, romance comes in many permutations, some exhilarating and some, shall we say, less so. Far out on the latter end of the spectrum is the romance that seems to be on the horizon on The Bold and Beautiful. I’d place it solidly in the category of “Ew!” We got our first clue this … [Read more...]
The Young and the Restless’ Big Baby Reveal: Well Worth Waiting For
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman The Young and the Restless may be the best soap when it comes to dragging out its storylines. Because this week, it was more than worth than nine month wait when it was explosively revealed to Dylan MacAvoy that Chelsea’s newborn baby Connor isn't really his, but the child of Chelsea’s … [Read more...]
On the Bridge: A Most Confusing General Hospital Dream Sequence
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman It’s a soap’s absolute responsibility to be clear about what’s going on. Last week General Hospital presented a mess of a dream sequence about two possible Francos that was so confusing, I couldn’t figure out what supposed to be real and what was not. I’ve rarely been so bewildered in many … [Read more...]
The Young and the Restless: Time and Patience Needed
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman I’m on school vacation and have plenty of time on my hands. So I’ve been watching a lot of The Young and the Restless. It’s pretty good soap, if time and patience are your strengths as a soap viewer. Y&R, as is its custom, is much slower than other soaps. A storyline -- take Jack … [Read more...]
Port Charles is Frustration City
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman As noted last week and confirmed by the passionate reaction in the letters section, there seems to be massive dissatisfaction with General Hospital right now. And it’s not only the appearance of three new characters with too-familiar faces (played by Kristin Alderson, Michael Easton and … [Read more...]
The Young and the Restless: Three Goods and a Brilliant
By Marlena De Lacroix a.k.a. Connie Passalacqua Hayman The last time I wrote about The Young and the Restless (Y&R’s Missing Links, January 14) I confessed I wasn’t terribly excited about watching the show, save for one storyline which held my interest: Jack’s pill addiction Over the last two months, the show has been playing several … [Read more...]