Paula's Soapbox

In case I neglected to mention it, "Days of Our Lives" has gotten a lot better in recent months, despite the baby switch storyline debacle in which EJ made Sami think Sydney was dead. I still think that crossed a line. Aside from that though, DOOL's storylines have been reminding me of the way soaps used to be when all the stories were character-driven. That's not to say that other soaps don't still produce character-driven storylines, in fact I am sure all of them do to a certain degree, but there seems to be much less emphasis on producing those types of storylines these days. Instead, many storylines seem to be created simply for the drama they can provide, so it is refreshing when soaps tell stories in ways that are both entertaining and plausible, at least within the framework of that soap. I am especially enjoying what is going on with Phillip, Melanie, Nathan, Chloe, and Daniel. I left Stephanie out on purpose because I can never tell when she is being sinc...

There seems to be an unsettling trend present on General Hospital at the moment, not that it hasn't always existed in some form or another but lately it has gotten out of control. I am referring to the show's tendency to transform all villains into victims and vice versa. When Sonny shot Dante, the lovable cop with honor and values, I knew that he would not remain a villain for long. This is, after all, a soap opera. I just don't understand why GH seems to be tarnishing the essence of the Dante character in order to make Sonny seem more sympathetic by comparison. Dante's questionable acts do not cancel out Sonny's bad behavior. It's quite simple, two wrongs do not make a right. I also don't understand why GH keeps coming up with ways to get viewers to notice the similarities between Sonny and Dante. Dante doesn't have to embody all of Sonny's traits for him to be recognizable as his son. It is possible that Sonny could have produced an offspring that...

Several weeks ago I announced that I would be unveiling some new features on "Paula's Soapbox" in honor of the one year anniversary which is on May 28th. A few nights ago I announced that one of those features would be a new look for the blog, something that I hope will be both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. That is still in the works, but may take some time to fully implement. However, I am very excited to report that I will be unveiling another new feature that takes effect this week. On Friday night at 11:00 PM central time, "Paula's Soapbox" is going live, on the air, through blog talk radio. I will still be submitting blog posts, the live show will just be an extension of that. On the show I plan to give weekly recaps of both General Hospital and Days of Our Lives to get you caught up before each show airs the following week. I have scheduled a short podcast this Friday so there probably will not be time for me to take callers for that partic...

When General Hospital began telling a story about teenage domestic violence I was hopeful that it would have the capacity to educate and warn teenagers about the nature of abusive relationships. I had hoped this storyline would encourage them to respect themselves and empower them to seek help should they ever find themselves the victim of abuse. My hopes were high because I genuinely believed GH wanted to shine a light on a subject that is so rarely talked about. The PSA's that aired after every episode where Kristina was abused only seemed to confirm this belief. However a few weeks ago it became clear that this was not a story of education and empowerment, despite evidence to the contrary. In the beginning this storyline showed so much promise that is difficult to fathom how it could go so horribly wrong in such a short amount of time. I'm not quite sure what happened but once Ethan became a factor everything just sort of unraveled. And somewhere along the way I think the s...