Critic’s Review Hits and Misses: The Week of September 9-13
Soap Hub looks at the Hits and Misses for the week of September 9-13 in the worlds of Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful, and The Young and the Restless.
Hits and Misses
What we think worked and didn’t work.
Bold and the Beautiful
HIT: Li’s softening stance towards Poppy. As hardcore angry as Li (Naomi Matsuda) has been towards Poppy (Romy Park), we’re so happy that the doctor has chosen to help her sister heal. She’s not holding her feet to the fire for her parental choices. Instead, she sees that Poppy’s hurting. In essence, she’s lost her kid, who will most probably spend the rest of her life in prison. And what does Li do? She uses her understanding voice. She lets Poppy come live with her. We’re proud of Li because Poppy is currently in a world of grief, guilt, and regrets.
HIT: Romy Park’s performance. Romy Park shined this week as she let herself feel the feelings from what she just experienced. She was constantly near tears, but not the over-the-top tears some actors use when their characters are dealt a blow. Having said that, we felt for her, and we felt what she was feeling. Her conversation with Katie went (mostly) better than expected. Park was the MVP of B&B this week.
READ THIS: Check out CBS Daytime’s Fall Lineup here.
MISS: Hope admits that she wasn’t sorry she kissed Finn. Hope’s (Annika Noelle) logic is clearly off. Is that why she’s having all of those headaches? Who gives someone a one-sided kiss that doesn’t register? And then admit she wasn’t sorry she kissed him? Because ever since that kiss, she’s had to face humiliating lecture after humiliating lecture. Her life can’t be fun right now.
MISS: Taylor and Finn are part of the Forrester meeting about Hope for the Future. Yes, Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) is the boss and can do whatever she wants. But keeping Finn (Tanner Novlan) and Taylor (Rebecca Budig) around to observe is kind of cruel. Nope, they should have been told to go.
The Young and the Restless
MISS: Too much business talk. There are a ton of business stories happening in Genoa City. We’re continually bombarded with dialogue involving the town titans in the business industry, including Newman, Jabot, Abbott-Chancellor, Winters, Glissade, and Cassidy First. But on Thursday, September 12, the episode began with a string of scenes almost solely focused on conflicts within these companies. All we’re asking is for the show to break up the business talk. Spread them out so they’re not so overwhelming. The same goes for mental health-related scenes. They’re exhausting and, at times, triggering.
HIT: Faith telling Lucy they can’t be friends. We didn’t know how much we needed this to happen. Lucy (Lily Brooks O’Briant) has been more than clingy, especially with Sharon’s (Sharon Case) daughter. In fact, Lucy needs to know how to take social cues. She also needs to learn a lesson about adhering to boundaries. She either doesn’t get that people have boundaries or doesn’t care. Faith (Reylynn Caster), sitting her down and telling Lucy they can’t be friends and that she needs to find one her own age, was the mature thing to do. Kudos to Faith.
HIT: Kudos to Lily Brooks O’Briant. Having said all that about Lucy and her inability to read the room, the actress playing her is simply crushing her scenes. O’Briant has that teenage ‘tude down, and as cringe as Lucy got when she threw Cassie in Sharon’s face, she did a great job. Speaking of throwing Cassie in Sharon’s face…
READ THIS: Refresh your memories on last week’s HIT and MISSES.
MISS: Is there no other coffee place in town? Daniel (Michael Graziadei) and Lucy could go ANYWHERE else — there has to be a Starbucks or Peet’s somewhere in Genoa City. Lucy and her family clearly need to steer clear of Crimson Lights on a permanent basis. And while we’re talking about what Lucy needs, she could definitely use therapy asap. People have brought it up, but they need to figure out how to make it happen.
MISS: The Lily-Victor alliance. As great as it is to see Lily (Christel Khalil) mix things up with different characters, namely the Newmans, we’re also very wary of what will happen. Sure, Victor (Eric Braeden), the super schemer, made a deal with her, giving her the CEO job should he acquire Abbott-Chancellor with her help. Something tells us that this alliance will result in disaster, and the person who will pay the most is Lily.
Days of Our Lives
HIT: Brady’s mea culpa. Ultimately, Brady (Eric Martsolf) will be redeemed because we all know he didn’t actually drive drunk, hit Sarah (Linsey Godfrey), or leave her behind. However, his willingness to take accountability is understandable. It’s a scenario that could have happened because he fell off the wagon. Showing up at the Kiriakis mansion might have been stupid. But when he expressed his deep regrets for changing Sarah’s life forever, we felt it. Brady’s words impacted almost everyone, and Eric Martsolf excelled at showing Brady’s angst and sorrow.
HIT: Eric and Holly’s falling out. We admit it. We were skeptical about this retcon of Holly not knowing that Eric was the drunk driver who killed her father. And it’s still not our favorite choice. However, the scenes between Greg Vaughan and Ashley Puzemis were heartbreaking. The Eric-Holly connection was one of our favorite on DAYS. And now we’re looking for them to reestablish a father/daughter dynamic.
READ THIS: Discover what’s in store this Fall on DAYS.
MISS: Holly and EJ bonding. On the flip side, Holly and EJ (Daniel Feuerriegel) bonding didn’t have the same effect. After all, EJ wasn’t very attentive and present with Holly during his marriage to Nicole (Arianne Zucker). When she was in a coma, he moved heaven and earth to get her checked into the same Italian facility where he had been a patient. We’ll give him that. When she wasn’t in a coma, he was more controlling than anything. There was a reason they never bonded back then. This feels like a DiMera type of win, meaning he can use this bond to stick it to Eric the next time they have a run-in.
MISS: Fabigail living at the DiMera mansion. It’s clear that Fabby (AnnaLynne McCord) doesn’t want to stay with Chad (Billy Flynn) and the kids at the Horton house, but why is she staying at the DiMeras? It’s a bit of a stretch considering they have told her the history the real Abby has with EJ and Stefan (Brandon Barash). (Find out what supercouple is returning to DAYS)
General Hospital
HIT: Molly has the best line of the week on any soap. We didn’t have Molly (Kristen Vaganos) saying to Kristina (Kate Mansi) and Michael (Chad Duell), “Oh, and you can panic now” on our bingo card. She had just unleashed holy hell on her sister, and punctuating it with that amazing line of dialogue was a rewind and rewatch moment for sure.
HIT: Giving us more Jordan and Liz. These are two characters we’ve been waiting to see more of, and the show is finally giving it to us. As Head Nurse, Liz (Rebecca Herbst) is finally in the mix more, and this #SaveLulu story should involve her, considering Lucky (Jonathan Jackson) is her ex and her baby daddy. Plus, Ric (Rick Hearst) is back, and we know about their history. As for Jordan (Tanisha Harper), we’ve been asking for almost a year now to please give her something to do. Digging into Isaiah’s (Sawandi Wilson) identity made the interminable wait that much better. We hope GH will continue to showcase Harper and Herbst.
MISS: Carly in the middle of the #SaveLulu story. We get that Carly (Laura Wright) was once close to her cousin, but that was years and years ago. Frankly, we had to refresh our memory of that point. But now she’s the one standing by Lulu’s (now Alexa Havins) bed, using her connection with Brennan (Charles Mesure) to find Lucky and ordering Jason (Steve Burton) to Africa to extricate him from his hostage experience. What is happening? Where’s Dante (Dominic Zamprogna)?
MISS: Lois and this Eliza Doolittle-esque story. We know trolls can be hard to deal with, even for Lois (Rena Sofer). She’s new to this spokesperson business, and being on TV can be daunting. Social media can be even more unforgiving. However, it feels like this version of Lois is insecure, and it’s something we’re struggling to come to terms with. Not to mention, we didn’t think she’d keep up the new and not-so-improved voice when she wasn’t on Home & Heart. Bring back our Lois, please.
READ THIS: Find out what happens on GH this Fall.
HIT: GH being realistic about Lucky’s absentee parenting. Liz talked to Willow (Katelynn MacMullen) about Lucky and brought up Lucky’s lack of presence in Aiden’s (Tristan Riggs) life. And how afraid she is that once he comes back, he’ll save Lulu and then exit stage left all over again. We do know he’s stayed in contact with his son, but that’s not the same as being in town in person. That means there will be good stuff to discuss when he returns to Port Charles.
HIT and MISS: Trina talks about Spencer. Trina (Tabyana Ali) always has great conversations with Ava (Maura West). We’re beyond glad the characters are still friends, and we’re happy that Trina can talk to her about Spencer (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) despite the toxic dynamic he had with Ava. Love that the show is finally letting Trina feel the impact of her loss. What we don’t love is that Spencer hasn’t been recast yet.
What are your soap opera hits and misses for the last week? Let us know in the comments!
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