It’s Only My Opinion
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■ There have been some really good, classic soap scenes lately, many of them curiously involving transplants.
■ All hail DAYS’S Doug and Julie, the hearts of Salem since the early years. They were even more poignant together when she faced death.
Doug (dancing with her in her wheelchair): “I remember the first time I ever saw your beautiful face. You knocked my socks off.”
Julie: “Today I don’t think I could make your socks droop.”
Cue the dreamy flash- backs, until word came that Stefan’s heart might be a match and hope surged. (Pun intended — Julie’s stepdaughter Hope also surged.) There’s nothing soapier than beloved vets gathered at the hospital waiting for word of a loved one on her deathbed.
Well, unless it’s the wealthy scion mistakenly impregnating the psychopath.
Brady: “Kristen Dimera is pregnant with my child.” Victor (laughing): “You almost had me.”
Brady: “It’s not a joke.” Victor: “You idiot.”
Every soap needs a longtime character like Victor who does not suffer fools. Half the fun of the Kiriakis family shenanigans is watching Victor’s response to them, like asking Brady if he got tough with Kristen in his “big boy voice”. Kudos to DAYS for balancing Stefan’s painful death and Julie’s trials with Victor’s entertaining tough love.
■ It was transplant week on B&B, too, where they not only remembered Katie’s heart transplant, they used it in current story.
Bill (to doctor): “I have money! We’re going to get that kidney. There has to be someone out there who can save her.”
Cut to baby snatcher Flo learning her kidney was a match in another classic soap redemption tale. It won’t be so easy for Flo’s mother.
Brooke: “As my late motherin-law would say, you’re just a slut from the desert.” Shauna: “You’re calling me a slut?”
Brooke: “A woman who can’t figure out who fathered her child without medical confirmation? Yes, I am.”
Shauna: “Look at you, Miss Hypocrite — the woman who slept with every male mem
There have been some really good, classic soap scenes lately.
ber of the Forrester family. If anyone in this room earned the title of being slut ...” Brooke: (Slap!)
Shauna: “No wonder Ridge drinks.”
It’s about time someone stood up to Brooke and her tsk-tsk-y disapproval. Shauna revels in being exactly who she is: A trashy gold digger who will do anything to claw her way up the ladder. I’d pay cash money to see Shauna move in with Ridge and redecorate the Forrester
mansion in hot pink furniture and gold disco balls. Here’s hoping they rope in Quinn’s affair with Ridge to give the drama layers and continuity and humor.
■ Y&R could learn a lot about continuity from B&B right now. How is Victor suffering 900 health crises and none of them involve his heart transplant? How does Jack never bring up that his niece Colleen’s heart saved Victor’s life and beats in his chest? The Newman/abbott feud is central to the fabric of Y&R and should be mined for every emotional drop.
That said, they are mining the character of Summer effectively as Victor’s granddaughter and Jack’s former stepdaughter, although I could use more acknowledgement of her being the organ donor for her ex’s wife. Summer (to Lola): “How’s my kidney?”
Like that. Summer’s realistic reaction to Victor coming back from the dead was so refreshing because soaps usually ignore it. Summer (to Victor): “I felt deep, intense pain when I thought you died, and finding out it was a lie was worse. I don’t want to feel like that again, so the only solution is to trust you less and love you less. That way, the next time you betray me it’s not going to hurt this bad.”
Jack (after Summer stormed out): “Wow, you bumbled that.”
Victor: “Spare me your judgment.”
Please don’t! Use it to feed that feud in a real front-burner tale, like Victor’s transplanted heart failing and Jack stepping over his body. Again.
■ Valentin’s comeuppance on GH was a loooooong time coming, and how perfect that the bombshell interrupted his wedding to Nina.
Obrecht (at the church):
“Last time I was here, my sister lay dead in her coffin. May today be equally joyous.”
It was. Lulu blabbed that Sasha wasn’t Nina’s daughter, Valentin climbed on his huffy bike to deny it, then Sasha confirmed it. Bye,
said Nina, conveniently running into the only single, age-appropriate man in PC who also happens to be her wealthy boss.
Jax (handing her premium scotch): “I save this for when life knocks the wind out of you.”
Ooof!
My favorite psycho Nelle is back, too, blackmailing
Brad into helping her get parole.
Brad: “Martin Gray took your case? He’s practically a celebrity!”
Nelle: “I need you to sign an affidavit; talk about all the hormonal changes I was experiencing when everything went down with Michael.”
Brad: “When you tried to kill him?”
Nelle: “He’s not dead, is he?”
That’s Martin Gray, played by longtime ALL MY CHILDREN star Michael E. Knight (ex-tad), who is also representing mind-mapping victim Franco, er, Drew. Nothing beats a beloved actor from a canceled show popping up to remind us why we were right to invest in them all those years ago and are right to still miss them today.
(Tad) Martin: “Plotting to murder your baby’s father with an ex-boyfriend — a cop, no less — and they’ve got the whole thing on tape.”
Nelle: “My hormones were making those decisions for me. My childhood was terrible. I had a kidney taken from me!”
Ah, the organ Grand Slam, brought to us during “Transplant Week” on our favorite soaps. Whatever, I’ll take it.
Martin: “I’ll represent you.”
While also representing AMC on GH, giving us a much-missed taste of our Pine Valley home. Now, that’s classic.
■ Hey. It’s only my opinion.