Most Promising Teen

Worst Behind The Scenes

Mom of the Year

Worst Character Twist

Most Inexplicably Ignored Character

Most Satisfying Exit

Ickiest Triangle

Undersung Gem

The Bold AndThe Beautiful

Lows: Finn was told that Thomas killed Emma, then Steffy was basically like we’ve been through so much can’t you just let it go that a black girl was murdered and so the show did just let it go (of course I’m paraphrasing, Steffy would never say black girl because acknowledging race is not something B&B does). – Wyatt left town, I guess because he had a personality and B&B doesn’t really want that in their men. - “That baby Beth debacle.” That’s how Brooke referred to her granddaughter being stolen/everyone believing she was dead. – Sheila chained up for months without food or water, yet still alive. – Carter and Hope, two wealthy executives whining about how undervalued they are, how they aren’t “heard.” We hear them and they’re nauseating. – I could totally buy Ronn Moss’s Ridge calling Hope a bitch and a slut but Thorsten’s grown Ridge? Nope. - Katie and Brooke declare Electra can’t be sweet or innocent due to photos in her underwear and they fire her for it! Reminder, their sister posed nude as a teenager and Brooke is a lingerie model. – Having Brooke publically declare her post as CEO without warning Ridge all so the writers could give him an excuse to cheat on her with Taylor since they couldn’t use undeniable chemistry as the excuse (love Rebecca Budig but she was wrongly cast here).

Wishes: A new designhouse emerges, a threat to take customers away from Forrester, but they’re cash poor, scraping by to keep their business afloat. The public face of the company (Brandon Barash), is a working class guy, constantly hustling for publicity, networking, etc., this sees him cross paths with Steffy at various fashion/society functions. He’s rough around the edges charming and there’s chemistry with Steffy, but she’s married to a dullard (our new guy isn’t shy in pointing that out) plus she’s actively trying to reclaim the helm of rival Forrester Creations so there’s a slow burn to their attraction, meanwhile viewers learn Rick Forrester (Jacob Young) is the designer of this upstart label, knowing he’ll never rise above Ridge at Forrester, rather than be a whiny baby like Hope, he wants to build his own empire (minus the Forrester name or money), he’s designing incognito, but how long can these two guys keep his identity secret, especially from his own family? – Wyatt returns, despondent over how his love life never works out, he seeks professional help from Taylor and falls in love with his doctor. Taylor’s not immune to his flirtation in their sessions (their chemistry builds over months not B&B’s usual five minutes) but dating a patient would risk her medical license, there’s also his history with Steffy, and her history of shooting his father, plus her toxic attachment to Ridge, so plenty of conflict for them to overcome – Katie goes back to college, she’s classmates with her son Will, which only gets more awkward when a professor (Roger Howarth allowed to improv all he pleases) takes a shine to Katie and the attraction’s mutual, however, Katie tries to resist, she doesn’t want to embarrass Will, plus, her only career achievements are tied to Bill and Brooke handing her employment, she wants a degree entirely on her own merit and a relationship with a professor would bring that into question.

Days Of Our Lives

Lows: Alex treating Justin like dirt, including doubting his ability to be Tate’s lawyer. – Watching the Horton house burn on my birthday. - Constantine making Maggie look naive. – Nicole throwing a christening for Sloane and Eric’s baby. - “I’ve been taking care of Holly for almost a year,” Nicole said in April, four months after Holly’s January overdose and just so many other little inconsistencies like that, like Sofia mentioning freshman year with Tate when Tate didn’t live there freshman year, etc. – Kristen wanted her young daughter to find her in bed with Alex all to make Brady jealous, what a likable mom/character – using a fake Victor in Constantine’s flashback. No. – “In many ways you were closer to Victor than his own sons,” Maggie to Xander describing some bizarro version of Salem viewers never watched – Connie, each and every moment of Connie. - the reveal of Eric as Jude’s dad felt muted and rushed. – Gabi having revenge sex with a guy who put her back in prison, a place that has scarred her physically and emotionally. – The actress who plays Sofia has potential but another teenage girl desperate for a boy, another Jan, does not have potential. – Referring to Chili as the pretty one in TLC when T-Boz acted on your show (and is in fact beautiful, too, as was Left-eye). – Other than Bonnie, who was suspicious of the cupcakes, all the ladies refused their cupcakes due to weight concerns, none of the men of course had these concerns. - Why couldn’t Body and Soul have been a celebration of this genre instead of doing the same thing movies/primetime/talk shows have always done to soap operas which is make these hardworking, talented people look amateurish and ridiculous? I can’t believe how heartily this show disrespected itself or that the “mastermind” behind it immediately gained employment at another soap.

Wishes: Melinda uses a sperm bank to have a baby, they show every beat of her pregrnancy, funny stuff and poignant (what she sacrificed/lost with her first child), then when maternity leave ends Melinda hires Lucas (the surprising best applicant for the job) as the nanny (a career move Kate hates) and as time goes by Lucas and Melinda, slowly, slowly fall in love while cooing over the baby but inevitably they mess it up, all seems lost for them as a couple, until the baby falls ill, bringing Lucas back to Melinda and the baby’s side and they learn that he’s the perfect donor match for the sick baby (turns out years earlier in need of quick cash to fund Sami’s kidnapping, he donated his sperm, so he and Melinda have a baby together). – Julie and Maggie get a fun story together, like Only Murders In The Building amateur sleuthing or a bake-off, Maggie’s lemon bars vs. Alice’s donuts, or matchmaking or My Fair Lady-ing someone, just anything that is light and humorous and lets these women do something other than mourn and be duped because of their grief. – Kayla gets very attached to a patient who is gravely ill, the kid is in the foster system which also strikes a chord with Steve, but the moment this child settles into a new life with Steve and Kayla, a long lost very dangerous relvative kidnaps the kid, sending Steve and Kayla off on one of their old school adventures to rescue the child and bring them home.

General Hospital

Lows: Brick’s flirtation with Jordan – The Davis Girls once a favorite, now Sam is dead (and what a senseless death it was) and every Molly/Kristina scene devolves into intolerable screechfests of women being horrible to one another while Alexis flails around with seemingly no clue how to parent multiple people – Kristina’s absurd fall out the window, no way was there enough force coming at that window for it to break, it was the summer, why not just have the window be open? Falling through a screen would have been much easier to buy. – Kristina wailing and dropping to the ground at the cemetary, I usually consider Kate Mansi a great actress, not so much right there – Lucky’s re-entry adventure when all we wanted were scenes with Laura and Elizabeth. – Perennial victim Sasha shares Robert and Holly’s DNA and trying to position her as a leading lady when she isn’t one – Jason and Anna kiss - recasting Jagger with someone who does not share Antonio Sabato Jr.’s Mediterranean heritage came off like white-washing (and wasted a good actor who could have succeeded in another role) -Natalia suggested sexual harrassment like Blaze experienced leads to lesbianism, and declared queer people flighty, among other horribly offensive things, yet Natalia was a “victim” for having her homophobia put on blast by Ava, because she’s played by a star she’s given scene after scene to explain/justify her hate, she’s dating the leading man/father of a queer person she denigrated, and somehow AIDS fundraiser Lucy had no issue employing a known homophobe. – sketchy stance on accents, too (not of course, against any posh British/Aussie accents). Sure, it could be argued that the show suddenly decided they don’t like actors faking accents anymore (awfully late in the game for Lois and Martin), but it came across like GH was saying the viewers in those regions (Brooklyn and the south) should be ashamed for sounding the way they do and “fix” themselves. Accents are part of what made Lois and Martin the unique vibrant characters they are (I’m glad hers came back, wish his would).

Wishes: Emma finds Spencer (Nicholas Bechtel) unconscious on the docks, no one knows how he got there from Paris, he has amnesia of sorts, his mind reverted back to when he was ten years old and in love with Emma, he’s back to scheming to be her boyfriend, but Trina is just as persistant in trying to jog his memories of her. – Drew, Sasha, and Willow go for a walk off a short pier, making way in the Q mansion for Monica’s daughter Dawn (Arianne Zucker) who didn’t die, she’s been in witness protection (and it’s turned her into a bit of a grifter, living fast and loose with the truth). Monica (off-screen, if she can’t be on) happily welcomes Dawn back, basically telling Dawn she has the run of the mansion much to the chagrin of Tracy, Olivia, and Dawn’s ex, Ned, reigniting the Quartermaine squabbles of old, meanwhile an attraction brews between Dawn and fellow recovering grifter, Cody. – With her magazine experience, Maxie’s named the newspaper’s new editor which leads to fun adventures with reporter, Lulu. Maxie also hires Dillon (Scott Clifton) as a reporter. Sparks fly between Maxie and Dillon, despite Spinelli, and despite Dillon’s past with Georgie and Lulu, and despite his mom, Tracy’s vehement opinion that he should do better career-wise and romantically.

The Young And The Restless

Lows: Still more pointless dream episodes, one for Sharon and one for Claire – Phyllis coming on psychotically strong with Danny -Daniel cheated on Lily with Heather. – Jordan escaped prison and a hospital and prison again, and wore ridiculous disguises and teamed up with Ian Ward so yeah, Y&R still hasn’t figured out that Colleen Zenk is worthier of better. – Heather whining that she and Daniel had to keep their relationship quiet for awhile, well that’s what happens when you actively pursue someone else’s person. – Built a bedroom set for Harrison to accommodate a couple scenes meanwhile adult cast members keep sharing the same athletic club rooms. – Alan and his twin brother fell off a balcony, then Alan walked back into the apartment but did he? Tucker, Traci, Ashley, they all just waited indoors, no one went out there to make sure the evil twin didn’t swap clothes with his brother, leaving me unable to invest in Traci’s romance as I’m not convinced Alan is the one romancing her. – If it isn’t a business story, it’s a mental health story, there’s a whole wide world of plots out there, you don’t have continually dip into the same well, especially when you don’t seem all that adept at telling those two types of stories.

Wishes: Summer is so put off by the handling of Heather’s case that she decides to ditch fashion and go into law enforcement. Her family and Kyle all object, her only ally is a fellow recruit at the police academy who initially doubts her but his respect for her grows as does their attraction and ultimately both get assigned to work under Chance who is not thrilled with their burgeoning romance or with Summer’s life being on the line so showing that he does share some of grandma Jill’s DNA and Nina’s from her bad girl phase, Chance begins subtly sabotaging Summer’s love life and her new career. – Abby decides to play the long game with her father, asking to be Victor’s right hand woman, claiming she wants to learn everything about business from the master when really she’s planning on using the skills he teaches her to deliver Chancellor back to Devon and Lily, but will guilt prevent her from getting a win over her father? – A woman (Lindsay Hartley) pretends to be an aspiring author and Traci’s biggest fan, in truth she’s fresh out of prison, never written anything or read Traci’s work, but she finagles her way into being Traci’s assistant and into Traci’s heart, she becomes like a second daughter to Traci, all part of the plan to swindle Traci’s money out of her so this woman can go grab her daughter from foster care and take off to parts unknown, but Traci’s really likeable and this woman has never had a mom and guilt and longing to stay in Traci’s life conflicts with her need to get her daughter not to mention all the lies she’s told to get to Traci, lies Billy is suspicious about (although he’s also attracted to her).

Beyond The Gates

For every soap

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