Soaps By Remote

Come on Days, pull a Y&R

 So, Crystal Chappell is returning to Days as Dr Carly Katerina Von Leuschner Manning.

My first response is, of course, a big yay! for Days bringing back one of the best actresses in daytime.  And a character I liked.  And breaking their no one over 40 rule.  

My second response is déjà vu, going back to this post.  Not that you need to be bothered reading that post, because essentially what is was about was a few questions on Y&R bringing back Tricia Cast as Nina.  I was concerned that Nina was no longer – at the time her return was announced – much tied to the canvas due to the rampant retconning that had taken place during her absence, and therefore what was the point of her return unless they were about to undo some or all of those retcons?

The answer, fabulously, was “all”.  Jill is once again not Katherine’s daughter, Cane is not Jill’s son, and Nina and Phillip Chancellor IV are suddenly tied right back to the canvas.  All without the need to bring back Cricket.

With Days bringing back Carly I have some similar questions.  Of all the people she was involved with, the only one really still around is Bo.  Now, sure, that’s the most important one, and Carly was involved with both Peter Reckell’s and Robert Kelker-Kelly’s versions of Bo, so there’s not a complete detachment there.  But what about everyone else?  There’s no best friend Jennifer, there’s no brother Frankie, there’s no Shawn-Douglas, there are no Alamains whatsoever, not even not-quite-sorta Alamain John.  

So, does Days just bring Carly back with some lame/non-existent/a la Adrienne off screen explanation for where Lawrence and Nicholas are and throw her straight into an, admittedly potentially fabulous, triangle with Bo and Hope?  Or do they take a leaf out of Y&R’s book and use her return to do some fabulous things with the people she was involved with back in the day?  Like, we could only hope, Louise Sorel’s Vivian Alamain.  Or bringing on someone as Nicky who can mix it with the younger set who, after all, he’s connected with but not at all related to.

And one assumes that Crystal Chappell’s real life hubby Michael “Lawrence Alamain” Sabatino is coming back to LA with her. Of course, it’s just a pity that Steve isn’t around anymore, given that Lawrence is the one who was actually responsible for faking his death…  But that’s the stuff of about five other posts.

So, Days, great casting coup, but now let’s really see if you can step up to the plate and create something that will make me tune back in.

On a semi-related, small soap world note, I’m also thrilled to see that Lynn “Lucy Coe” Herring has joined the As the World Turns cast.  Obviously, it’s not a show I watch, but anything getting her back on the air, not to mention in some way reunited with Jon “Kevin Collins” Lindstrom, is a great thing.  And related to this post as little Nicky Alamain was of course responsible for off-ing Lynn Herring’s Days character, Lizette Whatsherface, when Herring took a brief early 90s break from GH.  Which she thankfully rapidly went back too.  Otherwise we would never have had Sigmund the Duck, which would have been a huge shame.  Oh dear, now that’s got me remembering the days when GH had several pets as featured characters.  That were far more entertaining than many of the characters they have now. Sigh.

I take responsibility for my own opinions

I do not like Sharon Newman Abbott.

I have stated this before, but feel it needs to be put out there again.  I just don’t like her, and find myself utterly incapable of rooting for her (to use the American venacular) in any circumstances.

At first I was just ambivalent towards her.  But then it grew to actual dislike.  And now it’s at dislike and annoyance.

In the past I haven’t necessarily been able to grasp exactly why.  Was it because I preferred Nick with Phyllis?  And Jack with Phyllis?  And everyone with Phyllis?  Was it because I didn’t like her hair?  Why am I so concerned with why I do or do not like a fictional character?

I never thought that (hair aside) it had anything to do with Sharon Case.  She’s fine, not spectacular, not annoying.  But her character is one that I find myself barracking against, rather than for, in every single instance.

Thursday and Friday got me closer to figuring why.  Mainly because in those episodes, especially Friday, she had me actively annoyed as opposed to just passively meh.

It’s that she’s just so goddamned needy.  With a edge of the martyr.  And a healthy dose of unjustified self-pity.  And she always seems to play the little girl instead of a grown woman owning her decisions.

Like most soap characters – with a few exceptions – Sharon is rather promiscuous.  This is not a problem.  I’m a fan of the unapologetic soap slut, and occasionally even the apologetic ones.  Unfortunately Sharon is more a woe-is-me soap slut.  Both in the way she gets into these things and the way she acts once she’s in them.

Using sex as a coping mechanism – particularly for something like grief – is an interesting and fairly real kind of character trait.  But the way Sharon tends to repeat the pattern, not learn from her mistakes and still come off as kind of put upon throughout is unendearing.  Cassie dies, she becomes emotionally estranged from her husband, flirts with, strings along and ultimately sleeps with Brad.  She and Jack break up, she tries for some ‘me’ time, then sleeps with Nick.  Brad dies, she flails around, gets drunk and sleeps with Billy. And Nick. And Jack.

And winds up, predictably, pregnant.  This is a soap after all.  

Which brings us to Thursday/Friday. She (wo)mans up and tells Jack what he already knows, that any one of three guys, including his brother, could be the father of her unborn child.  And he, for better or for worse, reiterates the fact that no matter what he wants to be with her and take care of her and the baby.  (Parenthetical diversion into things that go without saying: Peter Bergman rocks.)  What is Sharon’s reaction?

Sniffle, sniffle, no one loves me, I don’t deserve to be loved, I’m scared of Phyllis, I don’t want to hurt anyone, Jack I will tell you what you’re thinking instead of taking you at your word because it makes me more alone, blah, blah.

And I became moved to write this post.  

She’s a grown woman, the mother of two teenagers (dead and alive) who, feeling guilty for dumping her non-boyfriend (boy was her non-relationship with Brad a hot mess of mutual immaturity and stringing along) right before he died saving her son, went and slept with both her ex-husbands and her ex-brother-in-law.  And got pregnant. 

Own it Sharon.  You slept with three hot guys.  If you're going to sniffle, sniffle in your own corner.  Do not sniffle in front of any of these guys.  Do not be all woe-is-me in public.  Suck it up.  Quit acting like a girl and take genuine, not sympathy-seeking, responsibility for the whole giant mess.  And if one or more of the potential Daddies is offering to step up and take responsibility – as they all damn well should because you didn’t get into this alone - then be honest with him about whether you want him to or not.  You’re allowed to say “I’m not sure, I want to wait and see what the paternity test says”.  That’s fine.  What bugs me is the “you’re not really feeling this and anyway I don’t deserve to be cared about” attitude which just comes across to me as (a) self-pitying; and (b) fishing for the “but you do deserve it, I love you” that she got from Jack.

I actually liked Sharon and Jack’s early relationship.  Sure, it came out of almost nowhere, largely a reaction to their respective exes hooking up and having a kid, but it seemed to me to be an adult relationship for her.  The only time I’ve seen it.  And while I truly hope that Jack is the father of this child – he deserves for one of these to turn out his way, I prefer Nick with Phyllis and would like Billy out of this mess ASAP – even in her relationship with him she’s now reverted back to little girl in a mess Sharon.  She may have reached a pact with Jack at the end of Friday, but I just can’t see her sticking with it medium to long term because (a) she’s Sharon; and (b) this is a soap.  Also, if she does stick with it the kid will turn out not to be his and I won’t be happy.

The other main reason that her playing all little woe-is-me girl bugs the hell out of me is that it comes across as an attempt to differentiate her from big, mean, crazy, independent Phyllis.  Even when the proverbial shoe is on the other foot and she's in the pregnant, doesn't know who the father is, homewrecker role, Sharon's positioning remains that of the victim as against Phyllis. She's scared of Phyllis and her reaction, etc, etc.  When really, they're both just as bad and almost as crazy as each other.  And I think they both know it, it's just that Phyllis is strong about it and Sharon is not.

And just to confirm, I still think this story is unnecessary, and aging Summer and having the characters point out the whole shoe being on the footedness of it doesn't make me like it any more no matter how good the performances.  I would have preferred that they kept having Sharon go down a path of self-destruction and then get herself out of it rather than have her get pregnant.  Chances are that then I may have come to like the character a bit more, as well as the story.

All of that said, I really did like the parallel conversations between Sharon and Jack, and Phyllis and Nick on Friday.  Lovely structuring and performances.

So, there we go.  I am purged.  I do not like Sharon Newman Abbott, and I own and take responsibility for my dislike.

I now open the doors up to the cyber throwing of things in my direction and general defence of Sharon.

Let Them Wear Cake

I associate The Young and the Restless with many positive things, but ‘fun’ isn’t generally the first word that comes to mind.  Except for this past week.  This past week was the very definition of great soapy fun.

With everything associated with Billy and Chloe’s wedding and the culmination (finally) of the Katherine/Marge identity story, I had a smile on my face.  I mean, come on, there was a cake fight!

They built up this great combination of elements.  A highly reluctant and even more charming groom.  A deluded but snarky bride.  The mother of the groom getting along with absolutely no one else, and vice versa.  The groom’s bratty niece/friend and smiling assassin of a brother/best man hanging about.  And the culmination of a lengthy DNA quest to undo months and years worth of story, but in a good way.

First there was the rehearsal dinner with zingers back and forth all over the place and the possibility of a food and/or fist fight breaking out at any moment if not for the room-silencing ability of the only comparatively sane person in the bunch, Ashley.  Of course, even she isn’t that sane given she’s pregnant by the Moustache.  But at least she actually stayed for the wedding.

Then we have the groom getting schtonkered and sleeping with the unwillingly lassoed, rapidly unravelling bridesmaid the night before the wedding, said bridesmaid being so hung over she looked like she was about to vomit on the bride and had to run out the of wedding, and Nikki showing up in a Pepto Bismol suit in the middle of the ceremony waving DNA results around.

With more than half the guests more interested in the DNA results than the wedding, the priest twisting the commitment knife as far as he possibly could, and the groom trying his best not to run away mid-ceremony, it was all kind of hilarious in the best soapy way.  And that was before this happened:

Kay throwing cake in now non-daughter Jill’s face and getting it right back was definitely fun.  And I’m pleased that they undid making them mother and daughter because I never fully understood why they made them mother and daughter in the first place.  Having the other key family and “family" members caught up in the fight, so it wasn’t just one on one, was also a positive.  I’m going to be interested to see how Jill copes have now isolated herself from almost everyone.

And then, of course, it’s all topped off with the return of the groom’s wife-cousin-non-wife-non-cousin, who really should have been granted substantially better lighting for her return so that she didn’t inadvertently look closer to Jill’s age than Billy’s.  Actually, I mainly think it’s Mac’s hair cut, which is quite aging.

Speaking of hair, it was a wedding, so we have to take a moment out for the outfits.  Esther got stuck with a giant floral tribute on her chest – which wasn’t as bad as it could be – Chloe’s otherwise cute outfit was ruined by that headband.  Her hair looked so much nicer when she was getting ready and didn’t have that thing in it.  And it should be noted that Colleen’s dress was no longer than the bottom of that photo.

But the real fashion focus for the event comes in Chloe’s apparent instinct for other things.  She may not know Sharon is sleeping with Billy, but she’s clearly got a sixth sense about something, because why else would she provide Sharon with a bridesmaid’s dress straight from the wardrobe of Carly Corinthos Jacks?

I’m long on the record with not liking Sharon, but even she does not deserve that monstrosity.  (Further proof that Ashley’s not all that sane: she called that dress elegant.  Ah, no.)

Can’t wait for this week.

I'm getting dizzy again

So, Soap Digest is reporting the following turns of the casting roundabout:

GH:  Rick Hearst and Megan Ward to recurring

Y&R:  Nia Peeples out, Jess Walton staying

OLTL:  Kathy Brier and Michael Stack going

Add to that the news that Tricia Cast is returning “full time” to Y&R, and all the rumours swirling about the other potential cast drops at GH, not to mention the previous mass exodus of over 40s at Days, and I’m finding it hard to keep up.

Let’s start at Y&R.  It would appear from all the leaks and gossip floating around in the last few days that Jess Walton and the powers that be reached an impasse in negotiations which led to a walk-out and a casting call for the role.  Obviously someone eventually blinked.  I do a lot of these negotiations from the producer’s side of things in my day (and night, and weekend) job, and in my experience there’s usually a little blinking on each side and things wind up in the middle.  Regardless of what happened, I’m very pleased to see Walton continuing on as Jill.

The departure of Nia Peeples is hardly a surprise.  When I returned to watching the show recently I registered exactly the following in relation to her character: “Huh, it’s that girl from Fame”, “Neil got married again?”, “Snore”. 

As for the return of Tricia Cast, that can only be a good thing, but does have me scratching my head a little.  I was watching when Nina first joined the show, and I already knew Tricia Cast as the girl who had accused Ted Capwell of rape on

Santa Barbara. As I recall Nina was one of those fabulously evolving characters who went from trouble-making little bitch to heroine over time.  My concern is where she’ll fit into the canvas now.  Her original peer group no longer exists on the show and there’s been no real replacement of them age-wise, so it’s really just Victoria with whom she has peer group history, and her family ties to Jill and Katherine have been severed by a retcon and a deSORASing.  Which is not to say that she doesn’t still have great emotional ties, and with that whole family being thrown up in the air and tossed around again, there’s no doubt room for story.  But aside from the potential for some great talky scenes, actual story to drive those scenes isn’t immediately suggesting itself to me.  But perhaps I spent too long away from the show.   

Moving on to OLTL, I’m a little torn on this.  I really like Marcie – and Kathy Brier – but I can see they’re not doing a lot with her other than waiting for the baby-switch to play out.  I also gather that this departure may not have been a one-way decision.  And if she goes then obviously there’s no necessity for Michael Stack to stay around as the bland but inoffensive Michael, notwithstanding all the bad news he’s been delivering lately.  Also, the cast at OLTL is huge at the moment, and getting bigger this week, so some further culling is obviously in order.  So this isn’t exactly a massive shock, though I’ll be even more interested to see how the resolution of the baby-switch plays out now.

Then there’s GH.  Which continues to be absolutely incomprehensible to me on virtually every single front.  I certainly can’t watch it at the moment.  To harp on a point I have harped on many times around here; GH for me has been for years the land of missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.  On the small stuff and on the big stuff.  And the decisions about Rick Hearst and Megan Ward (and any other similar decisions that have been mooted in recent weeks) are perfect examples of GH’s ability pile missed opportunities on unfulfilled potential and then multiply them exponentially. 

Let’s start with Megan Ward.  Obviously this has been coming for some time, since they gutted her character easily a year ago.  Kate started out, like so many things at GH, with so much promise.  And for a period there she delivered.  Sure, she was a movie rip-off, but she was a different kind of character for the show and in the early days she made Sonny interesting, and challenged him, as opposed to every other woman in his life this decade.  She also had great chemistry with Jax and could have had with any number of other people.  But sure enough, she was left in Sonny’s orbit slightly to long and became a Sonny-apologising wet blanket, and boring as hell.  And then Sarah Brown showed up, and it was only a matter of time as to when Kate would cease to have any relevance whatsoever.  The final two nails in her coffin being the complete and utter fouling up of whatever the hell they had ‘planned’ for Dante – the extent of which was obviously just Guza yelling into the writers’ room “hey, Sonny needs another kid!” - and the reuniting of Carly and Jax.  So GH takes an interesting, strong, female (gee, is that just a coincidence?) character played by a really good actress with a solid prime time career behind her, and in less than two years renders her so useless and boring that I couldn’t really care that she’s been moved to recurring.  Except, of course, for all those missed opportunities and all that wasted potential.

Last but definitely not least, we have Rick Hearst (ha, accidently typed his name as “Heart” on the first attempt).  Who, by all reports, just signed a new contract and is now bumped.  This is a multi-Emmy winning (and deservedly so, which can’t be said of everyone) actor, who has managed to roll with every single personality transplant they have given his character over the years and still make it work, and who has absolutely smoking chemistry with one of the powers that be’s designated leading ladies, and they’re bumping him to recurring?  Who can do drama and comedy and be a villain and a romantic lead, often all at once?  Who has links all over the canvas no matter how badly his character his been treated (by the writers)?  Who looks really hot in a sweater?  Recurring?  Really?

Times are tough, budgets are tight?  That's when you ditch the chaff and write for this guy, not when you bump him to recurring.

On the upside, of course, is that Hearst is a big soap name and I think could walk into, or walk back into, any other show and steal it away in a heartbeat.  Which I hope he does. 

Run, Rick.  Don’t walk, run.

“Prize” Fight

There were many pretenders to the title, but when it came down to it, was there ever any doubt that these two would wind up duking it out in the final?  

So, without further ado, let’s ring the bell on the gold medal round and see who finally comes out with the much sort after Title:  Soap’s Most Fertile (with the bonus title Least Capable of Using Birth Control thrown in).

In the red corner, hailing from Bensonhurst via Port Charles New York, Mr Michael “Sonny Boy” Corinthos Jnr.!

And in the blue corner, long time resident of Genoa City Wisconsin, but prone to wandering, the one and only Victor “The Moustache” Newman!

Now men, let’s keep it clean and below the belt.

Ding, ding, ding: Round One!

The combatants dance around each other for a while, Newman seems at home in the ring, while Sonny Boy appears a bit at sea without his weapon of choice – a glass – in hand.  

Eventually The Moustache throws the first punch:

- four adult(ish) children causing trouble in Genoa City right now!

Corinthos hits back:

- four children of my own, three of them ripe for SORASing!

Newman lands a blow that sends Corinthos staggering:

- yeah but one’s adopted AND comatose, and you don’t even know about the oldest one!

Round One to The Moustache.

Ding, ding, ding: Round Two!

Newman: a miscarriage, an abortion, and a pregnant wife killed in a car accident!

Corinthos: ha! A miscarriage, a still birth and a pregnant wife blown up in a car bomb meant for me!

Round Two to Corinthos.

Ding, ding, ding: Round Three!

Newman: I’ve impregnated two women since my most recent vasectomy, and all the others since my first!

Corinthos: A truly virile man would never have a vasectomy, let alone two!

Newman: My daughter was born because her mother stole my sperm and got herself inseminated (and another woman tried)!

Corinthos: Man, no woman wants the turkey baster when she could have me!

Round Three to Newman, just.

Ding, ding, ding: Round Four!

Newman: I didn’t know one of my kids was mine for years, and another was deliberately raised without me.

Corinthos: are you kidding me?  Two of my kids were hidden from me for their own safety, I lost custody of the other two and I still don’t know the oldest one even exists!

Newman: I’ve won all but one Who’s the Daddy? I’ve been involved with!

Corinthos:  I knocked up a mother and daughter, when the mother is smart enough to know better, and I won a Who’s the Daddy? in knocking up the daughter!

Round Four to Corinthos.

Ding, ding, ding: Round Five!

Corinthos: I just slept with my marriage of convenience wife, so you know what’s happening next…

Newman: I just knocked up my 50-something girlfriend!

Round Five to Newman.

And that brings us to the end of a hard fought battle, with neither contestant giving an inch.  Just when it looked that one was ready to stagger and fall, he’d fight back, and no knock-out blow was landed.  And so we go to the judge’s for a points decision, and the Winner is…

Victor Newman!

It was the knocking up the same woman over three different decades that put him over the top, but he should keep one eye over his shoulder, after all, he’s got a few years on Corinthos who’ll no doubt be working hard to best Newman when the championship battle next comes around.

Go ahead, look smug Mr Newman:

Tradition!

I am an unashamed contrarian.

I am equally happy to bag use of unimaginative soap cliché and indulge in love of soapy tradition.

So while I am over the Who’s the Daddy? story in 90% of cases and have previously advocated a soap writer moratorium on that story, I’m kind of a sucker for the soap tradition of having the real Daddy deliver the baby whether we know he’s the real Daddy or not at that point.  At which point we instantly know he’s the real Daddy*.

I come to make this point because I have been cheating slightly – sign of good soap – and watching Billy deliver Chloe’s baby on Y&R on the Canadian day-ahead via You Tube.  

Now, sure, quite a bit of it was contrived to end up with Billy delivering his daughter, but less than if they’d had only Billy and Chloe in one place rather than all four of the quad.  But I liked it nevertheless.  Perhaps because I am a complete sucker for Billy Miller and Elizabeth Henrickson and for this quad in general.  Regardless it was the right amount of bonding without any real degree of sap (Cane aside).  Anyway, I liked it.

And I like the tradition of having the father be there for the delivery of the kid, even if they’re trying to pretend it’s not his.  I don’t know why really, given I’m generally anti-sap, but I can’t help it.

*With one caveat.  Summer Newman should break the rule and not be Jack Abbott’s kid.  I know that many, many people – Jack/Phyllis fans, Nick/Sharon fans, fans of soap tradition – would prefer her to be Jack’s daughter, and not just because he delivered her in a lift, in a blackout, in a blizzard.  I disagree, despite appreciating the tradition.  

This is not because I object to Jack and Phyllis having a child, because that would be cool, but because the way they set up that story means that Nick would have to be lying for incomprehensible reasons – given he was the one with access to the DNA tests – to make it work, and because it felt like the old LML regime was unreasonably hedging its bets in that regard and couldn’t even do it properly.

I still like the tradition though, which makes me wonder just how many people are going to be in the room when AMC’s Amanda Dillon delivers.

Y&R Spoilers = Consternation

I'm still quite enjoying my return to Y&R but some lurking spoilers/rumours are causing me concern. 

Rampant speculation after the jump for anyone who doesn't mind being spoiled.

Returning to Y&R

So, Y&R.  I’ve been hearing lots of good stuff about the last few months, so figured it was time to give it a try again.

My history with Y&R is patchy.  I certainly go back as far as Brad being the pool boy in those shorts, and Phil Morris passing himself off as white, but it was never my show.  I watched quite a bit during the 80s because it was on after Days here and Days was my show.  When I see references to the history of the show during that period I realise I watched a whole lot more than I thought I had, and if I recall correctly it moved like molasses back then.  But I also completely missed large chunks of the 90s and early 00s when I wasn’t watching Days any more.

I picked it back up again a few years back, sucked in by the initial hotness of Nick and Phyllis, and watched pretty consistently for a while there.  But I, like many others, got done in by the overall Latham malaise (and a lack of time etc).  I’m trying to remember when exactly I last quit watching – like everything else it was a fade out more that anything else.  Some time after the Phyllis-Sheila swap, but not that long after?

I’m aware that quite a bit has changed since then.  New (or recast) younger characters, Victor and Nikki are divorced again and both have been through subsequent and disasterous marriages, Ashley’s back, Brad is leaving, something about a magazine, Gloria finally, finally paying for that skin care poisoning that they’d forgotten about, Jeanne Cooper having a story, suddenly the place is overrun with ex-patriot Home and Away actors etc, etc.  Back when I was last watching Daniel and Lily were married, Jana hadn’t been around long, Amber had barely arrived in town, Colleen was played by a different actress and Phillip Chancellor III was still dead (and older).  

So, starting last Friday (the 9th) I’m back watching the show.

Soaped Up

Today I find myself in a unusual situation.  It’s mid-weekend and I am completely caught up on my soap watching.  

For months now, I have been continually behind.  Well, I had felt as if I were continually behind mainly because I just couldn’t summon up the energy to watch the stacks of episodes of General Hospital and Days – and even One Life to Live briefly while Tess was running rampage on a daily basis – I had sitting around.  However, late last year I came to realise that while my life – work, travel, life – did provide some hold ups, especially with OLTL pre-New Year, really it was the shows that were to blame.  

If they don’t compel me to sit up late at night to catch up then they’re not doing their job.

Things have now changed. 

I have dumped Days.  I keep in touch with what’s going on in general terms to see if there’s something I want to watch, and so far, there’s nothing (aside from catching the odd sex scene on You Tube for amusement value).

I have entered into a more casual relationship with GH, where I’m only tuning in for things that interest me, meaning I’m only tuning in very periodically and generally only for things Scorpio-Drake with a side of Scorpio-Jones.  And yes, I’ll give The Latest Stunt a look because (a) they do often do these things well just to spite us; (b) if it’s no good at least it will be good for a laugh; and (c) they’ll probably kill off a Quartermaine, so I should pay attention to that at least so I can rant accordingly.

Both of those I regard as positive-negative moves.  Positive for me, because the shows are so negative.

On the positive-positive side of things, having started out watching less than a year ago as an experiment, I now find myself coming home on a daily basis wanting to watch OLTL right away. 

And, with my time a little better balanced I now also have the opportunity to act on all the good word I’ve been hearing for the last few months and start watching The Young and the Restless again.  I am not fully settled back in yet – and a lot has changed since I last quit watching, but more on that in a dedicated post momentarily – but so far what I have seen is pretty damn good.  And with that I also want to see what happens next and as soon as possible.

So it turns out that it’s far easier than I had been making it out to keep up with the soaps; break-up with the crap and hook-up with the good stuff.

Farewell 2008

It’s been rather difficult approaching 2008’s Best and Worst post.  

Mainly because there’s a lot that I haven’t watched this past year.  It’s a bit of a challenge categorising things I haven’t actually watched.  

So, I’m not doing a Best and Worst, I’m just doing a quick fire summary of the shows, and then moving on to catching up on the last month’s worth of OLTL and starting in on Y&R.

I saw 2008 in soaps as follows:

Days: BORING and completely unwatchable in the second half of the year.

GH: Boring, but scattered with some great, funny, lovely, occasionally sexy moments.  Making it even more frustrating than Days, because you can’t completely ignore it.

OLTL: Uneven, but never boring, and at times quite brilliant.

Y&R: Apparently so on the upsurge that I must absolutely make time to watch in the new year.

AMC: 90% appalling, but still capable of delivering a lovely tribute episode to a much loved actress/character in Eileen Herlie/Myrtle, a fantastic reunion of much loved characters in Angie and Jesse and someone who looks hot even with a beard and a crappy storyline in Thorsten Kaye.

B&B: I gather there were bears.  Now a prime time show with quite reasonable ratings in my home country.

ATWT:  Still have never watched it.

GL:  On location and in the ratings basement.

Passions: Gone to soap heaven, or perhaps pergatory.

Night Shift:  Some parts were so fabulous that it made the whole show fabulous even though in reality it was a little uneven.  True soap winner of the year.

And because I can't completely ignore Bests and Worsts:

- the Annual Jane Eliot Ageing Gracefully Yet Spectacularly Award this year is a tie between Days' Renee Jones and AMC's Debbi Morgan, both of whom look gorgeous and years younger than their actual years; and

- the Worst Wardrobe Award goes to Days' Kate Roberts, this year finally nudging out Carly Corinthos-Multiple-Names.