My It’s Only Opinion
Follow Carolyn on Twitter @carolynhinsey
Daytime’s most outspoken columnist!
■ What’s the difference between plot-driven and character-driven stories? Plots don’t mean anything, but characters mean everything.
■ Take Y&R’S insemination/ baby story (please!). Abby’s husband Chance went missing, so naturally she picked that time to urgently combine her egg with Devon’s sperm and ask Mariah to carry the child. Mariah got kidnapped by Abby’s crazy ex Stitch who hadn’t been mentioned in years, Christine told themchance “died,” and then ole Norma Rae Newman actually found a number in a phone book that helped her locate him and bring him home. Plot, plot, plot, plot, plottttttt.
However, that mess evolved into an interesting story. Devon sees little Dom as “his” and wants to spend more time with him because family means everything (sniff, Neil). Abby is in denial that Chance is struggling. Chance has PTSD and sudden recast syndrome and he’s not connecting with the baby
— so why not let Devon into his life?
Devon: “I’m your friend.”
Abby: “Really? This hurts.”
Abby is trying to will a happy family into existence but anxiety and mental illness don’t work like that.
Chance: “I’m having a hard time. Nightmares.”
Abby: “I know. I hear you screaming.”
Sensitive! It’s completely in character for Abby to dis- miss other people’s feelings and focus on what she wants (The Naked Heiress anyone?), but Chance prevailed. Abby: “Dominic has a father. It’s you!”
Chance: “I’m broken.”
But not broke. They called in the lawyers, which added a layer of reality to this suddenly meaningful story. Christine: “Gestational surrogacy is new. There isn’t much legislation in place to regulate the process.”
In the end it didn’t matter
— Abby gave in to Devon, Christine was never reprimanded for falsely declaring Chance dead, and Stitch was never pursued for Mariah’s kidnapping and hasn’t been mentioned since. Plot, plot, plot. But at least we got a fact-based story for a minute with three believable points of view. I’ll take it.
■ Brooke’s screw-ups on B&B are usually characterbased, so they work. She’s an alcoholic who can never be without a man, which meant Sheila spiking Brooke’s champagne sent her down a bad path where she kept drinking after Ridge didn’t come home and then smooched Deacon.
Hope: “Douglas saw you kissing a man in a red and white hat.”
Brooke: “Oh, my God.”
Brooke’s insistence on keeping this fairly innocent indiscretion from Ridge so he won’t “leave her” is what
Plots don’t mean anything, but characters mean everything.
will sink her, not the act itself. They’ll inevitably split, but Ridge and Brooke have said, “I do” to each other eight times, so it’s a familiar cycle — and it’s completely in character.
Conversely, they completely botched Carter’s story after having him fall genuinely in love for what looked like the first time. Carter burned for Quinn, then she inexplicably disappeared off the canvas. So now he burns for Paris? That’s not how love works.
Carter: “To get involved with another woman who’s involved with a Forrester man ...”
Paris: “Don’t you want to be with me as much as I want to be with you?”
Perhaps, but this “love the one you’re with” plot hasn’t shown us that. What does Carter see in Paris? Everyone is always telling her how great she is but all I see is a woman who goes after men in relationships with — or on the rebound from — other women (Zende, Finn, Carter) who goofs off all day at Forrester. ■ I definitely get what people see in Paulina — she’s one of the only characters currently on DAYS that makes sense. She’s got normal problems (for a soap) with her paramour Abe, her ex TR and her daughters Lani and Chanel.
Paulina (to Chanel): “I hope Johnny Dimera is ready to be starched and pressed because we are taking him to the cleaners.”
Ha! A good old-fashioned divorce war! Wait — never mind. They went instead for a left-field plot twist of the spurned wife going after the groom’s twin sister which went against all of their stated desires (Chanel loved Johnny, Allie loved Tripp). And for the record, Devil Johnny is gross. Taking off your shirt and assaulting women is not a good story. Allie (to Johnny): “You’re a soulless creep.”
Between the devil and the mask nonsense it’s hard to tell who has genuine feelings. Abigail thought the person impersonating Sarah was Kristen, then Gwen, but it turned out to be Ava.
Abigail: “What reason do you have for impersonating Sarah?”
My point exactly. Gwen knocked Abigail out so she could keep the Sarah secret and hold onto her man (Xander). Hello, 1950? Call for you on line one.
The other character making sense is DA Trask. Her interrogation of “Elvis Dimera” on the witness stand was a thing of beauty.
Trask: “You said you’d never chloroform your wife or separate her from her children.”
EJ: “Yes.”
Trask: “You’ve already done both of those things.”
Boom! Let’s have more of that.
■ Peter’s story on GH has been 100 percent plot (kidnapped Drew, poisoned Chance, presumed dead in an ice chest, etc.) but that cartoon will hopefully be over soon. On the bright side, Maxie’s response to Peter has been completely in character. Felicia and Anna knew something was up when she didn’t search for her baby so they insisted on recreating the birth in Pautuck where the nurse “stole” little Louise.
Maxie: “Austin’s not going to remember anything.”
Felicia: “This might be a breakthrough!”
Austin: “There were two voices ...”
We know the baby is safe so it’s fun to watch this turn into a detective story while Anna keeps Valentin from exacting revenge on Brook Lynn for lying.
Anna: “That’s not who we are anymore.”
Showing us how a character evolved? That’s everything.
■ Hey. It’s only my opinion.