Paula's Soapbox

AMC and Y&R Alum Elizabeth Hendrickson has created a new comedic web series called "30 Days Max" and she needs your help! The actress has launched a kickstarter campaign to help fund the show's first season. Over $1,000 has been pledged toward the $10,000 goal, which needs to be met by May 26th! And of course there are great perks for donating! For more details go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/784125068/30-days-max?ref=nav_search  

Warning: This post is dripping with sarcasm. Apparently the Bradys have invented a new game, the object of which is to list everything bad that happens in Salem and somehow trace it back to Carly. They are not really saying how they are able to link Carly to everyone's misfortune, but they seem to be having fun trying. Clearly their animosity toward her stems from the fact that she "stole" Bo away from Hope because they have yet to provide any other plausible reasons for hating her. Kayla and Caroline both claim that it was Carly's fault that Nathan left Stephanie and that Caroline is in trouble for changing the paternity test. Okay, so let's see if I can decipher the reason they think Carly is the cause of all of this. Caroline changed the paternity test after overhearing Stephanie's worries that Nathan and Melanie would reunite if it turned out that Philip was the father of Chloe's baby. This must mean that if Carly had never forced C...

With the Parker paternity storyline now coming to a close, DOOL seems to be giving GH a run for their money in how to bungle the endings of perfectly good storylines. I, like many viewers, assumed that once it was discovered that Philip cheated on Melanie and fathered Chloe's child, and that Stephanie was keeping this from Nathan, there would be a Melanie and Nathan reunion. However, two very important things happened last week that will undoubtedly make that impossible. First, it was announced that Mark Hapka had been fired. Then DOOL released a promo which shows Melanie finding out she is pregnant, presumably with Philip's baby (unless of course they find a way to write in that she slept with someone else). DOOL has been teasing its viewers for months about a Nathan and Melanie reunion and to suddenly drop that as a possibility seems like such a waste. Where is the return on the viewers' investment in watching this show? Of course there is always a chance that th...

After months of waiting and wondering how and when it would happen, finally the truth is out about Chloe's fling and Parker's paternity! Now Nathan is the only one still left in the dark. As far as big soapy reveals go, yesterday's shocker was just okay. Maybe my expectations were too high after so many false alarms where it seemed that the truth was going to come out but it didn't. This is my main complaint with Days, they tease their audience too much so that by the time the event that they have been teasing us with finally happens it's anti-climactic. I think this particular reveal should have happened shortly after Melanie and Nathan left quarantine because I never really understood how they could come so close to death, say their "I love you's" then go back to their respective mates as if nothing ever happened. Typically the "near death" storylines are put in place to bring a couple together, not bring them almost together then have them...

Even though Chloe appears to be losing her mind, I'm glad Days didn't go overboard by making her snap and send Carly to her death. I did love the fact that a rigged elevator was involved in all of this though. That was textbook soap opera 101, and I love soaps that aren't afraid to look, feel, and sound like soaps. In fact I think many soaps, in their efforts to attract a broader audience, have lost the essence of the genre. Scenes that may seem cheesy or contrived in other genres sometimes work well in soaps. As long as these scenes don't compromise the integrity of the characters or the show itself, soaps shouldn't feel the need to completely shy away from them. The whole idea is for them to be entertaining while pushing the storylines forward. If they can accomplish those two things and still maintain plausibility within the show's context they have served a valuable purpose indeed. [no copyright infringement intended] Okay so Chloe didn't literally fall...

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...

One of the most important rules of good soap opera writing is that you cannot re-write recent history, not if you want viewers to invest in the storylines. For years Y&R has set the standard for quality soap writing but lately it is as if they have forgotten the basics. It was one thing for the show to introduce us to Cane as the real Phillip Chancellor. Most viewers can suspend the reality of disbelief with a revelation like that because enough time has passed since the supposed baby switch happened that most people cannot say with absolute certainty that it did not happen. Soaps cannot, however, expect viewers to believe this type of story then completely change everything we know about it in a way that makes other stories seem less credible. This is what happened when Y&R decided that the real Phillip was actually alive and Cane was an imposter. This might have made sense if Cane had not recently taken that paternity test that did not exclude him as the father of Chloe's...