Soap Hub Performer of the Week for B&B: Kimberlin Brown

 

We not only figured Sheila Carter would cheat death on The Bold and the Beautiful but that she’d also return in spectacular fashion. Her portrayer, Kimberlin Brown, didn’t disappoint with Sheila’ re-entrance onto the landscape. Sheila’s pulled another fast one and Brown has once again earned Performer of the Week for B&B honors from Soap Hub.

Kimberlin Brown – Performer of the Week

Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) didn’t have a romp with just any stranger. He ended up having sex with an incognito Sheila, who had returned to the scene in disguise so she could remain undetected by authorities. Viewers could see tell it was Sheila by looking into her eyes but Deacon couldn’t see past Sheila’s red wig and glasses and figure out the trigger-happy nurse was back in his life. However, he definitely noticed something was amiss with his new lady friend when he looked at her feet and asked, ‘What happened to your toe?’

Coyly, Sheila took off her glasses and her wig, and mask to reveal her identity. Deacon wasn’t totally surprised as he recalled Brooke Logan Forrester (Katherine Kelly Lang) sharing the news of Sheila’s toe being discovered. “Momma’s back,” Sheila proclaimed to Deacon, who was stunned to discover not only was Sheila alive but that she was the woman with whom he’d just had sex.

Brown brought out Sheila’s trademark wicked, wicked laugh as she realized that she’d successfully fooled Deacon. “You’re supposed to be dead,” Deacon incredulously told Sheila, reminding her that she’d been attacked by a bear according to the police. “The only thing that attacked me — was you,” a satisfied Sheila responded.

When Deacon noted that everyone thinks Sheila is dead, she smirked, “That was the plan.” Deacon told Sheila she was insane. “Insanely good between the sheets,” Sheila replied. Anyone else who’d purposely had a toe removed from their body and was on the run from the law (or will be once it’s revealed that they’re alive), Sheila, in Brown’s capable hands, opts for a different path. She knows she’s got the upper hand right now and she’s reveling in this realization. Sheila knows that the world’s her oyster right now. She can do anything right now because, as Deacon noted, everyone thinks that she’s dead.

“When it comes to faking my own death, I take it very seriously,” Sheila grimly informed Deacon. She calmly told her lover that she cut off her own toe in order to make everyone think she was Yogi Bear’s most recent dinner. Deacon was more horrified than Sheila was at this prospect and it’s not even his toe that was sacrificed!

Sheila was amused at Deacon’s incredulous reaction to learning just how far she’d go. Brown’s also adept at making Sheila believe everything she believes. It’s never, ever her fault. It’s everyone around Sheila who’s to blame. Sheila may only have nine toes but she’s always going to have ‘nine lives.’ Kudos to Kimberlin Brown for yet another terrific performance as daytime TV’s most enduring villainess.

Soap Hub Performer of the Week for GH: Rebecca Herbst

 

As the plot thickens with whatever is going on with General Hospital’s Elizabeth Webber, her portrayer, Rebecca Herbst, continues to bring new levels to her character. For her compelling performance in this ongoing storyline, Soap Hub bestows Performer of the Week for GH honors upon Herbst.

Rebecca Herbst – Performer of the Week

A stint at Spring Ridge didn’t help Elizabeth as much as she — or we — had hoped but now that the good nurse is back at General Hospital, she’s been having flashbacks to something that occurred in her past likely involving her father, Dr. Jeff Webber.

At one point, Elizabeth zoned out and, while her mind drifted, she grasped a test tube so tightly that it shattered in her hands. (Kudos to GH’s makeup team for the realistic-looking mess Liz made of her hand.) Dr. TJ Ashford (Tajh Bellow) insisted on tending to his colleague’s wound despite her efforts to downplay. Herbst infuses her character with a need to keep it all together even when those around her can see she clearly needs some help.

At the nurses’ station, Liz wandered over to the stairs and went into the stairwell closing the door behind her. Director Gary Tomlin shot her cross at an angle giving the move an almost Hitchcockian vibe. A dazed Liz looked down at the stairs and then fainted. The camera cut back to reality — Liz was still by the nurses station and had never gone into the stairwell. She lied to a concerned TJ that she was just fine.

Finn dropped by the hospital to check on Liz, trying to hide how deeply concerned he is. Instead of lying a second time, as she had to TJ about how the vial broke causing injury to her hand, Liz decided to tell Finn that he deserved to know the truth.

Back in the examination room, Finn (the always solid Michael Easton), gently pressed Liz to tell him what’s going on with the woman he loves. “You’re right, it wasn’t just an accident,” Liz admitted to Finn with her back turned to him. We saw Herbst make the choice of ‘How much can I tell Finn that will sound like the truth so he leaves me alone?’

“Well, I was thinking about all the time you’ve wasted worrying about me, time we’ll never get back and I just got so angry I crushed the tube without realizing it,” Liz maintained. Her statement sounded both like a lie and the truth simultaneously. Finn continued to probe, prompting Liz to charmingly reply, “Stick to the infectious diseases, doctor. Leave the psychology to Kevin [Collins; Jon Lindstrom].”

However, the more Elizabeth tries to appear light and casual about her condition, the more Finn grows concerned. Rebecca Herbst is playing Elizabeth Webber Baldwin as a woman on a ledge. We’re looking forward to this story developing and watching how the actress tackles the challenging material.

Soap Hub Performer Of The Week For DAYS: Greg Rikaart

 

Love him or hate him – and there are a ton of fans who outright hate him – Leo Stark always brings the funny, and DAYS is all the better for having a boffo and game for anything thespian like Greg Rikaart in their back pocket. He’s earned this Performer of the Week award.

Greg Rikaart – Performer of the Week

Leo loves to put on a show – the more theatrical the better. So, when he felt seen but not heard, disrespected, and railroaded, he launched into a diatribe-cum-defense that Atticus Finch would applaud.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I, Leo Chalamet Stark, stand before you today, an innocent man wrongfully accused of this heinous crime. There are people in this town, vicious, vindictive people, who want to see me take the fall for something that I did not do. But I am not guilty. I am not wicked. And they will never, EVER, bring me down!”

The speech itself was dynamite. The supplementary back and forth between Rikaart and co-star Brandon Beemer – which included, amongst other things, Beemer’s deadpan ponderance, “Your middle name is Chalamet?” – a hilarious bonus.

Finally spent, Leo demanded a lawyer…and he got one in the guise of lanky and lithe Sloan Peterson (Jessica Serfaty). While his legal counsel went to work making mincemeat out of the case against his alter-ego, Rikaart pimped and peacocked behind her; a delightful sight to behold.

When it appeared that the walls were closing in on Leo – and that an arrest was imminent – Rikaart tabled the shtick and got serious, but only for the amount of time it took Leo to announce he could identify Abigail Deveraux DiMera’s (Marci Miller) true killer.

Afterwards, Rikaart went right back to firing out snappy retorts – “Ooh! It is getting hot in here is it not? All this cross-talk, I feel just like Rosalind Russell.” – and purposefully misconstruing perfectly innocents demands, like how he stood up and readied to *ahem* present himself when Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) told him to, “Out with it.”

In the aftermath of throwing his supposed bestie under the bus, Leo worried that she’d do away with him just as she’d done with Abby. Here’s hoping that that’s an unfounded concern, and that Leo, and by extension his portrayer, Greg Rikaart, will be around for some time yet.

Soap Hub Performer of the Week for Y&R: Melissa Claire Egan

 

The Young and the Restless viewers know that Chelsea Lawson will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. This week, she tried a different tactic than usual, and it felt believable that perhaps she’s a changed woman. For her performance, Soap Hub Performer of the Week honors for Y&R is presented to Chelsea’s portrayer, Melissa Claire Egan.

Melissa Claire Egan — Y&R Performer of the Week

Chelsea has told everyone who asks lately that she’s better than she’s been in a long time. While it’s hard to believe after everything Chelsea has pulled in the past, Egan is really selling it with Chelsea’s calm demeanor, her genuine facial expressions, and her believable tone of voice.

Also, Melissa Claire Egan is doing a wonderful job portraying how her on-screen alter ego is slowly falling for Billy Abbott (Jason Thompson). They had some great flirting scenes this week, and Egan really pushed the envelope with Chelsea’s messy popcorn eating, even throwing some at her colleague.

Perhaps the best part of Egan’s performance this week was when she walked into Victoria Newman’s (Amelia Heinle) office to ask her to tell Johnny Abbott (Paxton Mishkind) that she’s his biological mom and Connor Newman (Judah Mackey) is his biological brother. Egan did a wonderful job showing Chelsea’s non-threatening demeanor through the use of body language, tone of voice, and slow, careful movements. She truly didn’t want to anger or upset Victoria, but it remained clear that the whole situation was very important to her, which is why she approached it so carefully.

Bravo on an excellent performance Melissa Claire Egan. We look forward to many more.

A Critic’s Review Of General Hospital: Hot Garbage & Villain Busting

 

When it comes to General Hospital, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For five days, we sat and watched the good, the bad, and everything in between, and now we offer you a handy review, and a cheeky critique, of the GH week that was.

General Hospital: A Critic’s Week In Review

Is it just me, or does Elizabeth Webber’s (Rebecca Herbst) storyline – if you can call this make-it-up-as-you-go-along travesty a storyline – smack of the same hot garbage that Genie Francis was handed when she exited General Hospital in 2002?

I don’t even know where to begin discussing everything that is wrong with what’s clearly being put on offer – but I guess starting with why Peter’s accidental tumble down a flight of stairs is suddenly stirring up this long-suppressed (read: retconned) memory is as good a place as any.

Clearly, Dan and Chris/Chris and Dan, whose job it is to know General Hospital history inside and out, has no idea that a pregnant Elizabeth was once thrown down a staircase by Faith Roscoe, or that a tussle between Elizabeth and Siobhan McKenna Spencer resulted in the latter falling down set of steps, or that Elizabeth was witness to Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright) and Claudia Zacchara both going down that two-story monstrosity at the hospital.

If none of those incidents triggered recall, why would Peter’s?

And what does young Elizabeth’s command to a fellow femme – “stay away from my father!” – bode for Jeff Webber? Like Rick before him, Jeff did have some trouble keeping it in his pants when he was with the one he was with, but are the writers really expecting us to buy Jeff perving on a girl the same (or similar) age to his own daughter?

The biggest issue, or, real issues that I have with the story is a) General Hospital doesn’t exactly seem that invested in telling it, otherwise, it would be played in far more than drips and drabs, here and there, one week on, one week off, b) I don’t have any faith that Chris and Dan/Dan and Christ actually have a resolution to this tale in mind, and c) there will be no true payoff unless Jeff is finally returned to the canvas.

If you’re going to disrespect a beloved character from the days of old (read: when General Hospital was worth a watch), the least you can do is have them present to account for their heretofore unknown crime(s).

Further GH Musings

* Here’s a Q: Given the obvious reasonable doubt and given that Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy) and Cameron Webber (William Lipton) were unwilling to cooperate with the courts, why did Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) okay Trina Robinson’s (Tabyana Ali) prosecution in the first place?

And another: Given how triggered Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell) is by lies and subterfuge, why is Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen) choosing to keep him in the dark regarding her leukemia?

* Lucy Coe (Lynn Herring) and Anna Devane (Finola Hughes) partners in villain busting? Yea, I can get behind that!

* Re: Dex Heller’s (Evan Hofer) confession to Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). Legitimate or little more than an attempt to prey on Sonny’s aversion to abusive fathers? The jury is still out.

* Um…there will be some fall out from Portia Robinson’s (Brook Kerr) blatant malpractice, right? Right?!

A Critic’s Review Of The Bold and the Beautiful: Tired Stories & Shaming

 

When it comes to The Bold and the Beautiful, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For five days, we sat and watched the good, the bad, and everything in between, and now we offer you a handy review, and a cheeky critique, of B&B’s week that was.

The Bold and the Beautiful: A Critic’s Week In Review

You know what direction I wish The Bold and the Beautiful would have gone in when it comes to the issue of Douglas Forrester’s (Django Ferri) custody? I wish that Brooke Logan Forrester (Katherine Kelly Lang) would champion Thomas Forrester’s (Matthew Atkinson) cause and that Taylor “World Renowned Psychologist” Hayes (Krista Allen) would have preached caution and the benefits of keeping the lad where he was.

But instead, Bold and Beautiful went with the tried and true (read: tired) us vs them, Forresters vs Logan’s approach. Then again, what do I know? I still think that Christopher should have been the schemer and John Ross the heroic underdog on Dallas 2.0.

Further B&B Musings

* Dear Steffy Forrester Finnegan, please grow up and stay out of your parents’ business. That is all.

Actually, that’s not all. Let me make sure to voice my disapproval over the scene in which Steffy and Taylor had the gall to slut shame Brooke. Granted, she earned the title ‘Slut From The Valley’ but Steffy and Taylor have no room to talk.

* I may be in the minority here, but the more Bill Spencer (Don Diamont) and Li Finnegan (Naomi Matsuda) chat with one another, the more convinced I am that pairing the two romantically would be a mistake. Bill is a serial cheater, liar, and attempted murderer, and he readily confessed that helping Li in her hour of need wasn’t exactly characteristic. Is that really the type of man Li would/should pursue?

* On The Bold and the Beautiful, the concept of sexual consent is obviously not paramount to the scriptwriters. After all, this is the soap opera whose leading man bedded two women while they were in no fit state to okay the act and one of them thought that he was a completely different person.

Still, I cannot help but be sickened by the decision to have Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) bed Deacon Sharpe (Sean Kanan) under the guise of a stranger.

Deacon made it clear, abundantly clear, painfully clear that he had no interest in sleeping with Sheila. In point of fact, she threw herself at him so often – only to be rebuffed – that I wrote in a previous column it had gone from “cute” to full on sexual harassment.

Do I believe that Deacon would have turned Sheila down for the hundredth time if she had come to him as her true self? Yes, I do. Do I think that The Bold and the Beautiful did Deacon a disservice? You bet. Would I call it sexual assault? Definitely!

A Critic’s Review Of Days of our Lives: Sleuthing, Captivity & Comic Relief

 

When it comes to Days of our Lives, every fan has their own opinion – and Soap Hub is no different. For five days we sat and watched the good, the bad, and everything in between, and now we offer you a handy review, and a cheeky critique, of the Days of our Lives week that was.

Days of our Lives: A Critic’s Week In Review

What follows is a sort of stream-of-consciousness writing as I reflect on Days of our Lives’s most recent offerings. Here I, you, we go…

* When in doubt over what to do with a character, play them opposite Suzanne Rogers’s Maggie Kiriakis. It worked with Xander Cook (Paul Telfer), it kinda sorta worked with Melanie and Daniel Jonas – I personally still hate them – and it’s definitely working with Alexander Neil Kiriakis (Robert Scott Wilson).

* Leann Hunley’s Anna DiMera taking in Jake DiMera’s former abode and reacting as if she’d stepped into another dimension is the very definition of laugh-out-loud funny. Also, I think that Salem should just disband their police services and simply allow Anna, Xander, and Sarah Horton (Linsey Godfrey) to bust the evildoers. The latter two would do the legwork – and be all kinds of sexy and cute – and 

* Remington Hoffman, AKA Li Shin, looks mighty sinister in that black turtleneck. Give him a white cat to stroke and you’ve got yourself a Blofeld [James Bond character].

* I can’t quite decide if Kayla Brady Johnson (Mary Beth Evans) is under-reacting, or if Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) is overreacting to Orpheus’s (George DelHoyo) offering.

* What is with Sonny Kiriakis’s (Zach Tinker) antiquated attitude when it comes to sex in general and a woman’s own attitude on the same subject in particular?

* Can this Sloan Peterson (Jessica Serfaty) person be any more of a bad houseguest? Also, wasn’t Peterson the surname that Chad (Billy Flynn) lived with for the first half of his life? Coincidence? Yea, probably. This is Days of our Lives after all.

* Please, please, please tell me that Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford) is not, once again, team Gwen Rizczech (Emily O’Brien).

* Awww…I was really, really hoping that we’d get to see Sarah and Xander back in sleuthing mode – but I guess Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) hauling Gwen downtown while the duo watched is satisfying enough.

* After seeing that running to Gabi Hernandez DiMera (Camila Banus) with the news of Kristen DiMera’s (Stacy Haiduk) attempt to slice and dice her accomplished nothing, why doesn’t Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin) just tattle to HR? Turnabout is fair play after all.

* When in doubt over how to appease Dr. Wilhelm Rolf (Richard Wharton), always stroke that massive ego of his. Li knows how it’s done!

Further DAYS Musings

* Days of Our Lives’s Finest Dialogue:

Jada: What is this room used for?
Chad: Storing wine mostly…and some other stuff. Like, holding people against their will.
Jada: Ever consider just sealing it off?
Chad: Where would we store our wine?

And…

Shawn: The [DiMera] tunnels. My mother-in-law and my sister-in-law were both held captive there. More than once.
Jada: What is with everyone in this town acting like that’s completely normal?