I continue to not watch any soaps and watch even less television than ever before. The Young and the Restless did, however, appear briefly on a client's television in April of 2014, so there was that moment or two of a soap that I saw. It was not sufficient to make any decisions, though, so my guesses are based solely on what I have read in recaps and Two Scoops columns, if I even remember that much.
Days of our Lives: Marlena's thirst for revenge against Kristen came at the cost of her son, which she did not predict, so the two episodes tied together over a long period of time, doing damage that is still having an impact now.
While the dead child storyline on The Young and the Restless was very dramatic, I am not a huge fan of killing children and babies for the sake of drama (even if Billy was part of the story). The shock of having nice guy Jeffrey as a bad guy on One Life to Live was definitely dramatic, but its run was too short-lived, and the reveal would have meant more if the story had played out (I put everything in context). The love triangles on The Bold and the Beautiful have grown old for me as a reader (but ratings are high, so perhaps less so to viewers).
Billy Miller, just because he's on the list. I always pick him because I like the character (even though I have never actually seen him play the character) and have since his most recent return (as I read more of the way his character was in the past, I realize it was definitely the most recent version that I enjoyed). But the relationships he has with others on the show and the way he is written make him work for me. I choose this even though it's part of a dead child storyline. I keep hoping that the writers won't go there again when I start to read about a child in imminent danger. But apparently viewers enjoy dead children and babies, so writers take it there. Honestly, if people in the real world had as many dead children as the people in soaps do (a rate that seems to be over 50%), I suspect fewer people would have children.
Arianne Zucker, because she has to have fun playing a character who really just wants to be loved, but who also makes so very many bad choices and doesn't know how to trust nature, fate, or life (call it what you will) to take its course. She consistently seems to fail at her efforts to manipulate things to have the outcome she desires, yet her behavior doesn't change. Even though I shake my head in disbelief at her choices, she's always fun to read about.
Eric Martsolf, because Brady Black is so immature and emotional. He seems to have kneejerk reactions to things, and his substance use really does seem to stem from something that went very, very wrong in his life that he has not dealt with. Underneath all the anger and substance use, it seems like there is some serious pain. Plus, he has really bad luck in love.
Jane Elliot, because the story submitted does not involve dead babies and because she has a fun role. While she seems clueless sometimes and like she just wants to be loved at others, she is feisty and, from what I've read, should have submitted and won for the scenes from when her on-screen father died (the natural progression, where children bury their parents). I like that a woman who is slightly older is still a vital character, too, because in my experience, people don't cease to exist or become just background comic relief or babysitters when they're a little older. She reflects that women can remain vibrant at an age when many real-world women are finally recognizing and claiming their power.
Chandler Massey, because I like so much of the storyline, and the scenes chosen deal with the reasons Will makes the mistakes he does so often. We are the products of our upbringing, and the best we can do as grownups in the world is take what we were handed and try to do a little better (and admittedly, he has a lot more parental damage to overcome than I do). His love story is one of the most mature on any of the soaps. It's amazing what a little communication and forgiveness can do.
Hunter Haley King, because the other options are not on my top character lists. Hope is just part of the never-ending love triangle thing (and the love triangles aren't just triangles, they're incestuous geometry, because somewhere someone is related in every one of the triangles. Their family trees look more like wreaths on The Bold and the Beautiful, I think). Caroline's conniving annoyed me to read about, more so because it worked and she's never been held accountable for that. Starr's story involved a dead baby (the theme has to end), and Danielle's overdose tied in to the creepy pedophile whose girlfriend died story, so it just felt wrong. Summer Newman had a rough year, and I think it gave Ms. King lots to work with. I don't recall reading anything about her being a bad actress, so I'm going to guess she did it well.
Days of our Lives, because I have enjoyed it more this year than I have any other soap (as a reader). General Hospital wasn't a contender, and it would be my other choice. DAYS was the soap where more just seemed to be happening all the time, and there were several storylines going on each day (and again, GH did that, too). Sometimes The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful felt like they were lost on the shampoo, rinse, and repeat cycle. Or like the needle was stuck in the groove on that part of the song that maybe used to be a favorite but when scratchily repeated ad nauseum ceased to be so.
I'm going with One Life to Live because I do admire that someone realized how much fans loved the show and tried to bring it back in a creative format. Even though there were flaws in the plan and it wasn't ultimately successful (for now, anyway), it was good to keep a long-time story going. I'd like to see it back on the air someday because reality television has no appeal to me. (Even though I don't watch, I'd pick scripted drama over semi-scripted but lower budget overdramatized "reality" any day -- I have seen snippets of some reality shows when in other people's homes, and nothing about it seems real. It's as if they did statistical work, found the biggest outlier, and called it normal.) Anyway, lots of stuff happened in a short time on OLTL, and they pulled it all together and made it dramatic, so they should get some recognition for that.
PICKS AT A CLICK (Check an overview of all our panelists' picks)
JENNY SMITH (Soap Central recapper)
editor/Non-soap viewer) --->
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