Paula's Soapbox

In the past few weeks Days of Our Lives brought back much of their beloved cast to pay tribute to the late Frances Reid and Alice Horton, the character she portrayed for over 40 years. Almost every episode featured clips of the actress as various characters remembered special moments with Alice. Friday's episode was especially touching when everyone gathered for a final goodbye at Alice's funeral. Kristian Alfonso's (Hope) performance literally made me cry. Her grief seemed genuine, which isn't surprising considering that she and Reid shared the screen for many years. That's not to take anything away from Alfonso's abilities as an actress, but she achieved such a high level of sincerity during her performance it would be difficult to describe it as anything other than authentic. If I have one complaint about the way Days handled the memorialization of Reid and her character it would be the way Mike missed his chance to say goodbye. Obviously this sort of thing h...

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...