It’s Only My Opinion
Follow Carolyn on Twitter @carolynhinsey
It takes a village ... to cause trouble!
Daytime’s most outspoken columnist!
■ Good soap stories are built around family (duh) and the best ones rope in extended relatives.
■ DAYS surprised us by bringing Sami’s pregnant daughter back with a shocking request for her former stepdad.
Allie: “Even though you’re not my real dad you’ve always been a great dad .... Do you want to adopt my baby?”
That makes perfect sense when you compare steady cop Rafe with Allie’s nutty parents, Sami and Lucas. Too often, soaps drop stepchildren from the equation when the parents get divorced, and that makes no sense. If you want to torture your ex, staying close with their kids is a good start.
Grandparents and great uncles/aunts also add weight to family strife, like Allie’s brother Will and his longtime love Sonny wanting to adopt her baby, too.
Victor: “Bow out now before you make a terrible mistake.”
Having Victor interact with his great-nephew Sonny, and Kate and Marlena with their granddaughter Allie, provides valuable layers to the debate — and you know Sami will have something to say about it.
Most stories of older people telling family what to do are found money, as was the case before Justin’s (non) wedding to Kayla when he mused to his uncle Victor about his desire to move forward after the death of his sweet Adrienne.
Victor (toasting): “Break out the ouzo. To paraphrase Socrates, ‘Indeed, marry. If you get a good wife you get a good life. If you get a bad one you become a philosopher.’ You deserve this happiness.”
Justin didn’t get it, of course. He stopped his own wedding after finding out Patch wanted Kayla back — which was foretold when Kayla’s shoe broke and Jennifer told Jack to “stall” the ceremony. Jack decided to recite a poem rather than tell the truth, which made about as much sense as Patch not stopping the wedding himself (read: none).
Sonny: “This is Dad and Kayla’s favorite poem?”
Victor: “He’s finally lost his mind.”
Like I said, found money. ■ B&B served up a generational doozy with the 2002 reruns where Bridget threw her mom a baby shower and then found out the baby’s father was her own husband.
Bridget: “I’ve grown up, and so have you. You are the one sure thing in my life. I can’t tell you how happy you’ve made me.”
Brooke: Gulp!
Stephanie’s face: Barf!
Later, Deacon entered the nursery to have a heartto-heart with Brooke about “their” baby and his love for her. Bridget caught the whole thing on the baby monitor and confronted her unfaithful mother.
Bridget: “Choices have consequences. You threw me
away!”
For a roll in the hay with Deacon .... Those scenes remind us of the missed opportunity in abandoning Bridget (and Brooke’s other kids Rick and R.J.) for THE HOPE SHOW. Yes, the role was recast, but there was no need to soften Bridget to the point where she popped in for Ridge and Brooke’s engagement party this spring and said nothing when it came out that Brooke had cheated on Ridge — with her sister’s husband this time. Bridget’s disgust should have led the horrified response: “OMG, Mom, not again!” There’s a ton of stuff to mine there, starting with golden child Hope finding out her older sister once suggested their mom terminate her.
Bridget: “Why didn’t you get an abortion?”
Brooke: “I love this child.”
Bridget: “You mean you love its father.”
Brooke also stole Bridget’s husband Nick (and even married him!) so I think Bridget needs to come back and make a run at her stepdad, Ridge. Turnabout’s fair play, as Grandma Stephanie proved over and over with the cheating Brooke.
■ Speaking of cheating, those Liz/jason episodes remind us again that GH should play them more with their son, Jake. And watching Jax try to help Michael after he went to jail for killing Claudia begs the question, where’s that stepfather/son relationship?
Michael (denied bail because of his rich father Sonny and stepfather Jax): “Sucks being a flight risk.”
But the shows with Sonny’s kids reinforce what a good job GH does with the Corinthos clan — each kid has a personality and a relationship with Sonny. Picture a gathering with all four of his baby mamas — Olivia, Carly, Alexis and Ava — in the same room!
When it comes to mouthy great aunts, no one beats Tracy.
Tracy (to Carly): “You stole Michael from the Quartermaines and gave him to Sonny. You have no one but yourself to blame for all this misery.”
Tracy also called P.C.’S great-grandmother from hell on her BS, too.
Helena: “Poor Spencer. He’s the son of a stripper and the nephew of a professional criminal. He’s hardly Cassadine material.”
Tracy: “Yet he was good enough to kidnap.”
■ There are many relationships to be mined on Y&R, like Nick’s with former stepdad Jack. The conflict with Victor writes itself, but it would also highlight how caring Jack is with his kids (well, except for Keemo) vs. Victor’s “my way or the highway” approach to child rearing.
Gloria’s raucous 2005 shindig showcased the haves (her new family the Abbotts) mingling with the have-nots (her sons Michael and Kevin) at John Abbott’s pool party. Gloria gushed about how wonderful it was to be able to toast Michael’s engagement to Lauren with “family”, and Jack and Ashley eye-rolled so hard I think they pulled something. There’s always a dramatic payoff when you combine people who hate each other but have to make nice.
Kevin: “I can’t believe how well this day is going.” Michael (sarcastic): “Yeah, no one has asked us to leave yet.”
That’s some excellent bad blood Y&R should still be playing today between former A-list stepsiblings Jack/ Ashley and Michael/kevin.
It takes a village ... to cause trouble!
■ Hey. It’s opinion. only my