Why are Umbrella Stories so important to plot development? Check out what Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey has to say about what’s happening across the daytime dial.
Umbrella stories make soaps better by tying random people together and can also help cut the cast when it gets too unwieldy.
Right, GH? A baddie with a metal hook is offing newer characters, which is a clever metaphor since they are literally getting the hook. The Hook is also putting faves in jeopardy, like Ava, who blamed her cheating husband for stabbing her. Nikolas insisted he lied to protect the memory-challenged Elizabeth.
Nikolas: “You believe me, don’t you?”
Ava: “I believe you concocted an alibi.”
Nik: “There is no way in hell I would ever try to kill the woman I love.”
Ava: “That wouldn’t stop you from hiring someone else to do the job, just like you did with Hayden Barnes.”
Shout-out to history!
Enter Sonny to share that Brando got speared while Nik was with Ava, giving him an actual alibi. Any tale that shows people rallying around Ava works for me. As for the first casualty, Brando had a good run but we can easily chop off that limb of the Corbin family tree with Mike gone.
Who has a beef with Ava and Brando? Alexis is hot on the trail in The Invader, adding another spoke to the umbrella and giving her a reason to navel-gaze with Gregory on ethics in journalism. Smoltz isn’t invited.
You know what needs the hook on Y&R? Jack and Diane talking endlessly about Harrison and his sandbox and his naps and his bunny book and ha, ha, ha, isn’t he the cutest grandchild ever? No. Soaps haven’t had an interesting kid since GH’s Robin Scorpio and this one isn’t even on screen.
Better to focus on the drama at Newman and Jabot, which runs like a reliable engine. Jack hired Victor’s son Adam, Victor’s grandson Noah is dating Jack’s granddaughter Allie, Nikki is trying to get Diane ousted from Jack’s company, like that. Nikki even traveled to L.A. (and B&B) to grill lowlife Deacon about how he helped Diane fake her death and frame Nikki (cue the flashbacks!).
Deacon: “You look good.”
Nikki: Blech.
You don’t get a better narrative than a top diva on two soaps.
Elsewhere, kudos to Nick for muddying the waters at Newman by sleeping with his brother’s ex.
Victoria: “How are things with Sally?”
Nick: “In what sense?”
Victoria: “Don’t tell me you accepted her apology.”
If having sex with her counts as accepting her apology, then yes. Messy!
Chancellor-Winters is comin’ in hot with Devon treating Nate like something he scraped off his shoe and Nate retaliating by offering to spill C-W secrets to NE.
Victoria: “Why would you help Newman gain control of Chancellor-Winters?”
Nate: “I am driven to make a mark in the business world.”
Says the guy who spent over a decade becoming a doctor….
B&B had a Newman-style tale there for the taking with Eric going back to work at Forrester Creations with his new lover, Donna, estranged wife Quinn and her paramour, Carter, who all work there. Awkward run-ins, Quinn holding out for more money in the divorce, Eric threatening Carter’s job if Quinn didn’t capitulate, Donna pouring honey on herself to get Eric’s attention … it wrote itself! But Quinn is gone and she took that potential drama with her.
You could make an argument that the fight for Douglas effectively ropes in the Logans, Forresters and Spencers, except that it always comes back to the tired Ridge/Brooke/Taylor triangle.
Thomas: “Steffy and I want our father to be with our mother. Hope thinks my dad should be with Brooke.”
You mean her husband? Ridge, who coos at Taylor at every Forrester function, is mad that Brooke was hugging her brother-in-law Bill after Bill asked for advice re: her sister Katie. (Not sure why you’d ask a woman who’s been married 15 times for marital advice, but whatever.)
Carter: “Sounds like another epic struggle between Forrester vs. Logan.” Again: Stop trying to make fetch happen. The “We hate Brooke” tale worked when Brooke was donning red lingerie to grab headlines at the Forrester fashion show and get Ridge away from Taylor. But these people are all grandparents now and it doesn’t make sense that they’re fighting the same fight 30 years later. It actually demeans them.
And I know I’m repeating myself but since B&B keeps repeating the same story I will, too: It’s deranged for Steffy to be so focused on reuniting her parents when Ridge has been with Brooke far longer than Steffy’s parents were married.
Steffy (to Taylor): “You’re a saint compared to Brooke.”
Yes, remember when Brooke killed Darla and shot Bill? No, because that was Taylor.
DAYS is treating us to proven tales like the corporate battle at DiMera, currently upended by widows with stock votes and the undead.
EJ: “Good news, Chad! Our brother Stefan is alive.”
And nothing says “umbrella” like an infectious disease spreading through town. Three of DAYS’s leading ladies have Covid … wait, no, sorry … it’s an unnamed disease that involves coughing and sneezing.
Kayla (finding flowers at the door): “Orpheus is not giving up.”
Patch: “Your husband sent you flowers.”
Paranoid, much? Cut to a pandemic trifecta.
Marlena: “It can’t be a coincidence that Kayla and I both fainted.”
Kayla: “It’s Orpheus!”
This time she was right.
Orpheus (to John, Patch and Roman): “The ladies are going to get a lot sicker.”
Not if “the men” have anything to say about it. Luckily, this story ties random A-listers together (Marlena and Kate?!) without being designed to cut the cast — and we know John will save Doc in the end.
John: “I deal in facts.”
That’s a fact!
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
