Young characters are the lifeblood of a soap. The vast majority of the soap characters you’ve loved on a soap didn’t start out middle-aged or elderly. They were young and messy. So, for this column, I’m going to grade how each soap opera treats this important group. For the purpose of having a clear cutoff between young characters and old characters, only characters under 40 years old will be considered young.
Beyond The Gates
The Flop That Sticks Around
I do not understand why Tomas is still on this show. He is the most unpopular character on Beyond The Gates and Alex Alegria is the weakest actor. The only thing that makes sense is that they really like Alex on a personal level, so they decided to keep him despite Tomas being a dud. I understand personality hires in a regular office job, but it doesn’t really work for a job that involves a few million people watching a bad actor play a bad character.
It also doesn’t help that Tomas is albatross around Kat’s neck. She is a pretty popular character, but she is hindered by being in an unpopular pairing. She should be in a pairing that gets TikTok edits. Not one that makes fans go “Oh, brother. Why can’t they let this shit go?!”
Worth the Wait
On a more positive note, I loved the introduction of Deanna. Her laying into her mother Vanessa was the energy this show needs and Angela Fairley is great in the role. My only problem is that we needed more of Deanna. She should be a regular character. I’d much rather watch Deanna than Ashley.
While we are on the subject of Vanessa’s family, I must say I really like Donnell. His recent scenes with Kat made me wish he could be paired with her. Alex Cheeks is another actor that I think should be on contract.
Change of Heart
When Beyond the Gates started, I wanted Smitty to cheat on Martin with every top in the DMV area. Now they have gotten to a point where I don’t actively root for infidelity and divorce and now mostly like them as a couple. Of course, I think Martin behaved poorly enough that Smitty gets one freebie when it comes to cheating in the future.
When it comes to Martin and Smitty’s children Tyrell and Samantha, I want to care about them, but I don’t. They could go up to the attic for skis and never return like Bobby Martin on All My Children and I would be fine with that.
Final Grade: C+
It needs improvement and removal of a few flop characters. If Tomas were gone, I would have been willing to give a B-, but it is hard to take the show seriously when they insist on keeping him.
The Bold and the Beautiful
Cinderella Isn’t Proper
This is the most effort B&B has put into the young characters in years. Is it groundbreaking television to make Dylan into Cinderella with Electra as Drizella and Ivy being Lady Tremaine? No, but I don’t need B&B to reinvent the wheel. I need it to be entertaining and make me root for at least a few characters. And I am rooting for Dylan and Will to be together as she uses her vagina to get herself out of poverty like so many soap characters before her. It also helps that Sydney Bullock is a promising young actress.
The Sexless Gay Character
B&B made such a big deal about bringing Deke back and having him be gay. What is the point of having a gay character if he isn’t going to do gay stuff like kiss dudes? All Deke does is work at Pasta Hut and encourage his father to cheat. If you want the kudos for finally having a contract gay character after almost 40 years, you need to give him a boyfriend. Either bring Remy back or create a new character.
The Inevitable Firing
I don’t hate Brayan Nicoletti as R.J., but whenever I see him, I think “He is getting fired in 2027.” There’s just a vibe with actors that Brad Bell is going to fire in a year or less. I hope Brayan is saving his money because it would be a miracle if he lasts his full contract.
Final Grade: B-
B&B gets graded on a curve when it is watchable. It is like I’m a parent potty training a toddler. Good potty! Yay!
Days of Our Lives
Talent Retention Problem
Young actors leave soaps. That isn’t anything new. Though most soaps are able to retain a few for longer than one contract. The problem is Days has been having real problems retaining young actors. Jamie Martin Mann was great as Tate, but he fled to college. Al Calderon decided he’d take a risk and leave for the second season of Brilliant Minds which is going to burn the rest of those episodes off in the summer. Marissa Reyes has left so we’re getting a new Arianna.
It also doesn’t help when the show fires multiple young actors like they just did with Raven Bowens, Carson Boatman, Leo Howard and Ashley Puzemis. Even if a young actor were inclined to stick around, seeing the show get rid of most of the young people when they hit a budget crunch would certainly give them pause. If Days is going to continue, it needs popular young characters and a lower cast turnover rate.
Low Energy
Days is overall boring lately and the young characters aren’t immune from that. A thirtysomething heroine like Stephanie having a stalker should have been exciting. Was it? Nope. It doesn’t help that they keep trying to make her pairing with Alex happen when fans don’t like them. I know I’ve given Frank Valentini a lot of flak for being stubborn as executive producer on GH, but Ken Corday and Days is giving him a run for his money. I think even Frank would have pulled the plug on this pairing by now.
Bright Spots
I do like that they brought Theo back and revisited J.J. shooting him. The narrative when that story first happened was too focused on J.J. and his pain. Revisiting it allowed Theo to express his experience while also giving J.J. story with his reluctance to pull the trigger lately.
Final Grade: D
Shore up the young characters, try to make some popular pairings and give this show a boost of energy. Please!
General Hospital
Hubris
I think the people at GH saw the positive fan reception lately and got a little too cocky which is why the kissing cousins story happened. I think that they forgot that the only really popular incest story in soap opera history was Jonathan and Tammy on Guiding Light. Those two worked because the characters didn’t grow up together and they were sexy. Danny and Charlotte have grown up together and they are real life 17-year-olds, so they don’t evoke that feeling in fans. It is gross and lazy.
The thing that annoys me the most about this is that it was obvious this story was going to be poorly received. Even the late Slyvia Browne could have predicted it right after she told you to your face that your father drowned. They are just lucky it hasn’t been on enough to send ratings off a cliff like the debacle with Heather’s hip in 2024. Now we just have to hope they aren’t going to be stubborn and spiteful about fans hating it.
Cute, But No Story
Gio and Emma are so cute and I love that when they first had sex, they emphasized consent. The issue is they are underutilized and when they are used, it is more about their older family members. I wish they had some big obstacles to overcome as a couple. Braedyn Bruner and Giovanni Mazza’s contracts are going to be up next year so maybe think about giving them the material an actor would want to see to stick around.
Just Hanging Around and Banging
Rory Gibson is one of the most popular recasts I’ve seen in soap history. He is also so friendly with the cast and crew that if he moved tomorrow, I think he could get at least half of them to help out. Yet Michael has kind of just been hanging around lately. This is the average Michael scene lately:
Jacinda: “Jeepers, Michael, you are such a great guy! I like potatoes.”
Michael: “I am a great guy. And potatoes are neat. Let’s have sex, Stopgap Girlfriend Who Is My Only Option For Sex.”
Olivia: “Not on my watch! Get off the hooker, Michael!”
Michael: “I don’t want to and nothing better has come along yet! Kristina, what are you doing here?”
Kristina: “I’m just here until it is my turn to have sex with Jacinda.”
Michael: “Fair enough.”
I’m glad the show has stopped Michael from having endless conversations about Willow never seeing the kids again, but if they want Michael to be a lead, they need to give him more substance in his scenes. A lot of his material lately has felt like scenes they’d give Chad Duell’s Michael and that isn’t a good thing.
Truth and Hypocrisy
I loved the scenes where Josslyn got to go off on Carly about Sonny. Eden McCoy and Laura Wright did a great job. I’ve been waiting years for Carly and Josslyn to have real conflict. This show has been playing the two like they are the Gilmore Girls for years so it was refreshing. I also get giddy when the show allows a character to say true things about Sonny and it isn’t played like they are a villain.
It did hurt Josslyn’s case for Sonny being the ultimate evil that must be stopped when she was trying to get Britt to kill Cullum. It would play better if she was like “Sonny is evil and dangerous, so I’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of him even if it is bad.” I know Carly and her children don’t aspire to self-awareness, but a little would help.
Let’s Hear It for The Boy
Rocco is a moron. His parents should never let him be alone for more than five minutes. He could choke to death on a gummy bear or get into a stranger’s white van because he said he has a puppy. That said, Finn Carr is a terrific young actor who absolutely delivered last week when Rocco shot Cullum. He could be one of those young soap stars that plays the role into adulthood. Hopefully Rocco’s I.Q. would get a boost by then. I don’t want to be thinking that Rocco could try to clean the toaster in the bathtub with it plugged in when he’s 25 years old.
Final Grade: C+
While I do think GH cares about young characters a bit more than the other soaps, there’s work to be done and the incest dragged that grade down. Other soaps do incest adjacent stuff, but GH had the hubris to do true blue incest and I can’t let that slide.
The Young and the Restless
Big Fat F
I’m not going to beat around the bush. Y&R deserves an F. All the juiciest stories are for elderly and middle-aged characters. You have an almost 90-year-old man kidnapping people. A man in his 70’s was raped by his ex. A man in his 50’s is popping pills. What do the young characters get? Even worse stuff. Mariah got a poorly written mental breakdown and her wife banging a man. Noah is with a woman old enough to be his mother and there’s no chemistry. They are teasing a Claire and Kyle reunion that no one wants. They don’t even try on this show.
Final Grade: F
Exactly what they deserve.
Dispatches From Soap Land
*I am so happy Jason’s exit on GH wasn’t a presumed death. He’s still a horrible father though and fans who want him to get Britt pregnant are ridiculous. A woman who has a kid with Jason Morgan is going to be a single mother. The only kid that man ever raised was Michael.
*Anita’s cancer storyline on Beyond the Gates is tough to watch because of how sad it is, but it is the best thing on the show right now. Way better than the impaler story.
*I can tolerate Brooke and Ridge on B&B way more when they are being assholes. They are unwatchable when they are being romantic.
